USRoadTripper

I got scared for a second that that was my friend Kenny! He did the same thing with Mission:Space and Test Track, and I'm pretty sure he has done Everest over 500 times too! I was with him for his 500th ride on Mission:Space, and the cast members gave him a certificate and did a little ceremony for him! -Julie

Wow, the Kim Possible challenge thingy looks really fun! I'm sure a bunch of us will end up doing that in December. Thanks for taking the time to share! -Julie

Joe, completely agreed about the Mayfield milk! Mayfield chocolate milk is the best I've ever drank...mmm.... And lucky you on those gas prices. It's dropping here, but it's not that low yet. GA is always cheaper than TN for whatever reason. -Julie

I was sitting in my first class of the day in college...an editing class. This girl, who was notorious for being late, came into class at maybe 8:45 or so, and immediately interrupted the professor. She asked if any of us had heard that a plane had hit one of the towers, and the reaction was sort of a "Yeah, that's just media being sensational. Someone probably clipped a cell phone antennae and they're making it out like it's a big deal!" But after a few more minutes, the professor let the class go, saying that he wanted to find out more about what had happened. Having a few minutes to spare, I tried to pull up CNN.com, but wasn't able to, but eventually I managed to get it to load a photo of both towers burning. I went on to my next class, with it not really sinking in yet about how bad it was. Well, my next professor was truly freaking out...saying that none of us would be alive that time next week, etc. So needless to say, she didn't hold class that day. I wandered to the student union where the TV lounge was packed with as many people as it could hold, everyone just dead silent watching the news and reading about the local evacuations. I still wasn't too freaked out about it until I read that the skyscraper my uncle worked in in downtown Nashville was evacuated "just in case." So I went to my car and sat and listened to the radio for probably another 3 hours or more. I was an hour outside of Nashville at the time, and was quite scared to go back into the city since my house was so close to downtown. And I remember that it was a beautiful day. Perfect temperature and not a cloud in the sky, and I felt so, so guilty for enjoying it that day. I had that same professor for my last semester in college, and in a conversation with him before I graduated, he said that soon I'd forget all about him. And I told him no, I was in your class when I learned about 9/11...I'll never forget you. Flashbulb memory is strange like that. -Julie

I do pretty much the same thing...funnel all my extra money into trips. I had a friend my age tell me "Wow, how can you afford to take a trip to Spain?!" And when I started saying "Well, I don't eat in restaurants very much, I shop in thrift stores, I don't shop recreationally..." it completely blew her mind that someone would be like that! She said that she buys a whole new wardrobe every year because she just can't stand to wear the same stuff she wore last year...that she buys new cars every few years because she gets tired of the current one...and then she went and spent $1200 on a new coffee table! Yet she still wonders why she has no money to spend on trips! -Julie

I can totally vouch for these hoodies! I got one last year, and it is almost the warmest thing I own! There were plenty of times last year that I wore it instead of a heavier coat because it was just *that* warm. Well worth the $30 I think. -Julie

Saturday, Sept 2nd I woke up around 8:00am, and Kevin was already awake and watching TV. Having a had much better night's sleep that night, he said he felt much better that the previous day. I showered and got dressed, and as we finished packing up our things, we watched some show on MTV about rich brats throwing $200,000 Sweet 16 parties. Lovely. We headed for breakfast again, which was nice as always. They had hard bolied eggs that morning, and after Kevin made a comment about how no one was eating them, I had to eat a couple of them just to prove him wrong Finally, we packed up the car and headed south towards Santa Monica. There was pretty much no traffic, and we found where we needed to be quite easily thanks to my directions and Kevin's GPS. We parked the car in the first lot we found, which happened to be directly behind the Hot Dog on a Stick, which was one of our planned stops! The first order of business was for Kevin to do a bit of geocaching since there were three caches in the immediate Santa Monica Pier area. I'd never done anything like that before, but it was really quite fun! The first one was up some stairs at the end of the pier, and hidden under a plaque about sewage or drainage or something. Kevin took a little glass heart out of the box, and left a pink flamingo "travel bug" that was trying to get home to Colorado, and a coin with an octopus on it. The next one we found was a webcam cache at the main entrance to the pier. We had to stand on a street corner facing some random dentist's office, and hold our arms straight out! We must have looked truly strange, but hey, one of Kevin's friends got on the web and was able to save the picture of us! With that done, we headed onto the pier. I'd never been to anything like that area before, so I really thought it was a lot of fun! It was such a beautiful day, and we had a lot of fun just wandering around checking out the beach, the people and the birds. Soon we were at Pacific Park, which was the site of another "virtual cache" where you had to look around and answer a few questions. We both bought enough tickets to ride the Santa Monica West Coaster and the Pacific Wheel, then promptly got in line for the coaster. Everything was just so cute and picturesque that we had a great time taking pictures and video in the area. We ended up riding in the front seat of the West Coaster, and this was a much better ride than I thought it would be! It looked pretty tame, but there were actually some pretty decent pops of airtime on the return leg, and the helix was much more forceful than I imagined! Kevin really ended up liking it as well, later saying that it was his favorite coaster of the whole weekend! Next we rode the Pacific Wheel, which was really great, and had such an awesome view! The time on our parking space was running out (we'd only paid for one hour) so we headed back to the car. Since Kevin wanted to get a hot dog, and I wanted to explore a little more, we put another dollar in the meter. When I found Kevin again, he'd purchased a Hot Dog on a Stick and a lemonade, both of which he said were great. I'm not too big on corn dogs (who am I kidding...I hate them) and am allergic to lemons, so I couldn't get anything They did have cheese on a stick, but it was covered in that horrible corn dog batter...yuck! We wandered down the beach a bit and discovered that Muscle Beach was just a ways down, so we took a moment to people watch. My mom called to ask a question about my cats, so I talked to her for just a bit, and she thought it was really cool that I was at Muscle Beach for whatever reason! Must be a much cooler thing to southerners than to Californians I guess! There was also some random middle aged dude in short shorts doing a hand stand...awesome. When our second hour was up, we left and headed for a nearby Ralph's grocery store to pick up some tickets to Knotts Berry Farm later in the weekend. On the way, we passed the corner of Lincoln and Olympic, but WTF! No video store! Just a U-Haul and a Chevron! I was expecting to find an adult bookstore! Turns out that the Ralph's was out of Knotts tickets, but they called another one in the area and they said that they had some. Kevin bought a pound of Concord grapes, then we set out to find Ralph's #2. We found it pretty easily, but all they had were Soak City tickets! Gah! And the lady there gave us the most insincere apology for making us go out of our way that I have ever heard. So we left empty handed and headed south again towards Anaheim. -Julie Finally, this was the first stop on a multi-Ralphs tour of Santa Monica, all in a vain attempt at saving $6 each off of Knotts admission. Stupid Ralphs, not knowing the difference between a Knotts ticket and a Soak City ticket! Later, while heading for the Ralphs grocery store, we pass the corner of Lincoln and Olympic! WTF??? No video store! Just a U-haul and a Chevron! OMG! This dude was easily 50! Impressive, but the short shorts are quite disturbing! A short walk from Hot Dog Stick is Muscle Beach. Kevin loves his corn dogs. Leaving the pier, we stopped for a bite at Hot Dog on a Stick, or as the building says...Hot Dog Stick. The wheel offered awesome views of the beach and surrounding area, as well as a few nice shots of the West Coaster! Kevin enjoyed both of the rides very much, despite not being a big Ferris wheel fan! Next, we took a ride on the Pacific Wheel. Not a very big coaster, but packs a surprising amount of fun! The Santa Monica West Coaster! Underneath this sign was the third geocache, and just beyond the sign was a sleeper hit of the trip! Next, we headed down to the pier for a couple of rides. This is the photo of us that was saved when we found the webcam geocache. We're standing at the bottom of the lamp post in the center of the picture. Whowoo! Santa Monica Pier = way more fun than I thought it would be! Here's what was inside. Some keychains, some change, a glass heart, a free day at a Golds Gym certificate...Kevin took the glass heart and added in two travel bugs (the box was so full it almost didn't close!) "Aha! Here it is! Hidden in plain sight!" Kevin hunts for his first geocache in the Santa Monica area... "My GPS says it's right around here somewhere..."

No, I never did a Carowinds TR because I just went with my mom, so there were really no people pictures. It was mainly just coaster shot after coaster shot, so I didn't feel like it would be interesting enough to post! I might post it eventually...I dunno. Thanks for all the nice comments on this TR so far! -Julie

More pics And finally...wow, does Mike ever look pissed in his Six Flags ID! Comments welcome! Yay for Lance Bass themed burger restaurants! Y'know, I think Kevin is getting more and more used to this whole California lifestyle. Kevin was too tired from holding up the world to ride Superman with us. You can take the Mike out of Long Beach, but you can't take the Long Beach out of Mike, obviously. So who do you think would win if we pitted Kevin against Jack Sparrow? Kevin passes the site of the incident, still cursing and shaking his fist at Revolution. "Curse you Revolution! I spent $20 on that lunch! Curse you Magic Mountain for not having a 'you'll digest it or it's free' policy!" Kevin thinks "This place is so hidden that I could throw up in here and it wouldn't be discovered for days!" Who's the coolest kid in Bugs Bunny World? Yep...5 year old Abby from Pasadena. Who's the second coolest? You guessed it...Mike! Hooray for Kevin feeling better, and double hooray for Goliath being really great! Not as great as it's brother in Georgia, but great nonetheless. After 3 hours to nap, do laundry and change clothes, we were back in the park. Here's the "Hey, everyone else has pictures with these bears, so I need one too" pic.

Friday, September 1 I'm not sure exactly what time I got up on Friday morning, but Kevin was already up and out when I got up. I jumped in the shower, and when I got out, I noticed a note from Kevin that said he'd meet me in the breakfast room whenever I got up. So I headed off that way, and found him easily. He said he couldn't sleep, so he'd gotten up and soaked in the tub a while, then gone to get a bite. We both grabbed some breakfast, which for the next four days was gonna be the same...cinnamon rolls, cereal, yogurt, english muffins, bagels, juice and other stuff like that. It was good, and I think it's awesome that it comes included in the hotel price. After we finished up breakfast, we went to pick up Mike at his house, made an unsuccessful attempt at buying a hair tie at a gas station, then arrived at Magic Mountain. Jahan, Guy and Alana were supposed to be meeting us at 9:30, but they all ended up being slightly delayed. Just as well since Kevin was having an issue with his ticket...seems that when Mike requested the free ticket for him, he didn't specify which park he wanted the ticket for! I guess Magic Mountain isn't the default park you get tickets to?? Anyway, Guy and Alana arrived just before opening, and soon people were pouring into the park. Really there weren't that many people, so there was no mad dash for any of the coasters. Kevin and I stopped in the first gift shop we saw so I could purchase a hair tie and he a hat, while everyone else went to get Flash passes. Of course there were no regular hair ties, only obnoxious Tinkerbell looking ones that cost $4! I needed it, so I forked it over, choosing the lime green one (I figured that if it already looked that obnoxious, might as well choose the most obnoxiously colored one too!) When I met back up with everyone, Jahan was there, so again it was nice to finally meet someone I've been friends with for so long! Our first ride of the day was Tatsu, and there was no need for the Flash passes just yet. There was a small line, but not too much, and we all got on the same train. Kevin seemed to feel the same way that I did about it...good coaster, but a little too intense in places. As we all headed to the back of the park, we noticed that Deja Vu was running! Kevin, Mike and Alana chose to sit it out, but Jahan, Guy and I opted for the single rider line. No one was in front of us, and as luck would have it, we all ended up in the very first train. Some girl ended up not wanting to ride, so she and her dad left the line, which enabled Guy and Jahan to ride together, and I had an empty seat near me. Strange but awesome. When we came out so quickly, everyone was like "What? You guys already rode??" Next we all rode Psyclone, which Kevin also didn't think was that bad. The SoCal folks who think this is bad should head to Darien Lake and ride Predator, then tell me what they think! Continuing on, we all stopped for a ride on Gold Rusher. Jahan and Guy also did a "tribute to the banned kid" during the ride, which was hilarious! So glad I got it on tape! We stopped at Jahan's former home next, Riddler's Revenge. I thought this was a really solid ride, and while probably not my favorite stand up, it was definitely the smoothest and most rerideable stand up I've ridden. As we passed Freefall, Mike took a moment to throw at penny at it, then we all moved over to Batman. Another solid ride, and still very forceful for its age. Kevin was needing a break from the coastering at that point, so we all decided to rest for a moment. Guy and Alana decided to go ahead and part ways with us since that day was Alana's birthday and undoubtably Guy had something cool up his sleeve for that night. The rest of us hung out for another half hour or so, just joking and chatting. At 1:00, both Mike and Jahan went their ways for various reasons, with the promise of meeting up again later in the evening. We were both getting a bit hungry, but we decided to go ahead and ride Colossus and Scream before having lunch so we wouldn't have to backtrack. Colossus came first, and we both really, really enjoyed the ride! It felt like a good woodie should, and gave some decent pops of airtime. Scream was next, and we both found it to be a good ride also, though it does suffer from quite a bit more rattling than most B&Ms do. The fact that it is so blatantly over a parking lot did detract quit a bit from the ride, much to my surprise. I didn't figure it would matter, but I kept finding myself noticing all the white lines we were zooming past! It's a shame since I did think it was a really good ride otherwise. Famished, we headed off to Mooseburger Lodge for lunch. I didn't particularly like the looks of the mystery foods on the buffet, so I got the half pound burger while Kevin opted for the buffet. My burger was really good, though very big! I finished it all, but just barely, and I barely made a dent in the fries! Kevin seemed to enjoy the buffet well enough, routinely saying that he was eating meat that he couldn't identify! After lunch, Kevin wanted to know what ride wouldn't shake him up too badly since he'd be riding on a full stomach, so I suggested Revolution, since I'd had a great ride on it the night before. Of course, the ride we got was terrible, and that coupled with the heat, the full stomach and Kevin's lack of sleep the night before spelled disaster! By the time we got to the landing on the exit stairs, his entire lunch was on it's way back out. After a few minutes he was ok, but I insisted that he wait in the shade while I got him some water to rehydrate himself. We chilled for a little bit, but once we started walking again, Kevin said he still didn't feel good and wanted to go back to the hotel for a rest. We made our way out of the park and back to the hotel, where Kevin laid down for a rest, and I occupied myself with reviewing my pictures and doing a load of laundry. Three hours later, I called Mike again and he was ready to head back to the park, so we went and picked him up. The only credit I had left was Goliath, so that was where we went first. We still had some Flash passes from that morning, so we used those to bypass what little line there was and ended up only waiting about 15 or 20 minutes. Kevin was on the train in front of us, then Mike and I rode. Goliath definitely ended up being my favorite coaster in the park, and Kevin's too! The only credits Kevin had left were Canyon Blaster, Ninja and Viper, so we stopped at Canyon Blaster first. We only had about an hour or less left in the park, so we pretty much just ran in, got him his credit and left. We did manage to pop our heads into the Bugs Bunny Burrow, which was just one random chair inside a tree stump hahaha. I also found an abandonned leopard print pimp hat! Score! We hiked it back over to Tatsu, passing the site of Kevin's upheaval, if you will. We then climbed up the stairs to Ninja and Superman, neither of which had lines. We had fun playing with the pimp hat, and Kevin said he enjoyed his ride on Ninja also. When we got in line for Superman, Kevin decided to pass on riding, though he did wait with us. The car before ours ended up all the way in the maintenance bay since the brakes failed somehow and it was caught by the emergency brakes, which caused a breakdown. With only 8 minutes left until park closing, we assumed that it wouldn't reopen, but we were wrong! It reopened pretty much right at 8:00, though there were only two trains full of people waiting. The second train wasn't even full, so Mike and I rode twice in a row, for the last two rides of the night. They could have easily not bothered with bringing it back up, but they did, and I thought that was pretty cool. With the park closed, we headed for the car so we could meet up with Jahan again at In-N-Out Burger. Of course it took longer to get there than we'd anticipated, but he was still waiting there patiently when we finally arrived. We all had burgers and fries, which is pretty much all that was on the menu! We'd meant to eat at an In-N-Out back in 2001 but were never able to find one near us. Eventhough the burger was pretty average, I was glad to say I'd been there! When we got back out to the car, Kevin ended up being sick again, which now gives Mike the ability to joke that not only did Revolution make him sick, but my driving did as well!! I was gonna head off for a few more moments with Mike and Jahan, so I dropped off Kevin at the hotel and we all reconveened at a nearby Cold Stone Creamery. I had the cheesecake ice cream with a peanut butter cup mixed in...yummy!! Between the good ice cream and the good company, I had a blast. After a while, I bid my boys farewell, with a promise that I'd get the TR online as soon as I could Kevin was asleep when I got back to the hotel...so soundly asleep that I had to check and make sure he was breathing! hahaha I was pretty pooped too, so I hit the bed almost as soon as I got in as well. So after lunch, we rode Revolution, which made Kevin toss his Mooseburger's lunch into the foliage at the exit. I am told that it looked exactly like this! Yep, everyone knew this photo was coming! We had lunch at Mooseburger's, which could only mean one thing...fun with antler shaped crazy straws! I'm sure our waiter was happy to see us go! So yeah, I took this picture with my left hand while video taping with the right hand, and not even looking at my camera's LCD. I think it turned out really well, all things considered! It's Jahan! Ladies, isn't he adorable, even with the really bad case of coaster hair? Screw this whole "through the trees" bit...it's all about Batman through Jahan's hair! After a while, Guy and Alana split to finish celebrating her birthday. You guys rock! Can't wait to see you again! Mike pauses for a moment and throws a penny at Freefall. Later we moved on to Psyclone, where I totally rocked my side ponytail through the whole ride! After the ride, Mike does his best Joe impression. Yummy Tatsu. The Sky Tower was closed all day both days. Such a bummer Mike and Kevin sort out the miscommunication regarding Kevin's ticket. Aww, I really love this picture! I's such a lucky girl! Mike and Kevin feel thuper thpecial as they arrive at the mountain, ready for a g-force filled day.

Haikus are awesome This TR just made my day Best one a while! -Julie

In 2000, some friends and I rode the TTA at the Magic Kingdom 50 times in a row one day, each taking only one one-lap bathroom break. I ended up with over half an hour of video from that day, and we were pretty giddy by the end of the day! If I had video editing know how, it would make a great video clip. -Julie

My plan for a trip to California came last year when Hong Kong Disneyland opened. My last and only trip to California was in June of 2001, and I'd been meaning to get back there ever since. I had missed the opening of Main Street Electrical Parade in DCA by about a week, and had been very upset about that for a number of reasons. It has always been my favorite parade, and pretty much my favorite *anything* Disney has ever done. So once Hong Kong Disneyland opened, I got scared that they would send the parade over there and I wouldn't get it see it again! Then last fall, I started getting to know some of the TPR folks who live in California, and decided that I really wanted to get out there and meet them, and also grab a bunch of coaster credits along the way. So I decided to head out to SoCal in May. Then Kevin convinced me to go to Spain with him, but that trip was already planned for May. So I pushed my trip back to the end of August, much to the chagrin of a few friends in SoCal Thursday, August 31st My morning started at 4:00am when I woke up and finished up a little bit of last minute packing. I changed the litter box, then fixed some breakfast. Dad arrived at 4:30...a half hour early...so he had to sit there and watch me eat my breakfast. We left my house at 5:00am, and arrived at the airport at about 5:10am, with my flight leaving at 7:00am. I was through security quickly, and was sitting at my gate within 20 minutes. My first flight went from Nashville to Atlanta and was uneventful. Once in Atlanta, I found my gate easily, and was happy to find a food court nearby. I grabbed an egg and cheese bagel from McDonalds (that was completely soaked with butter!) and was on my way to LA shortly thereafter. The second leg of the flight was uneventful also, and I kept my little monitor on the flight tracking map the whole time. Once at LAX, I waited a half hour for my checked bag with my liquids and gels in it to be delivered, then I caught a Thrifty car rental shuttle. Once at Thrifty, I was directed to a row of vehicles that I could pick from, but there were only minivans in that row! No way did I want a minivan since I knew I'd be doing a significant amount of driving! Eventually I got them to give me a regular car, which was what I had reserved in the first place. It was a red Chrysler Sebring, and it was quite nice! I knew I'd probably be getting a call from my friend Mike as soon as I got to LA, so I kept my phone out. Of course, almost as soon as I started the drive, my phone fell under my seat where I couldn't reach it! I was staying at the Holiday Inn Express at the Magic Mountain exit, so I just headed there, then found my phone and called Mike. After unpacking a few things, I picked him up and headed for some lunch. I'd been wanting to try a Del Taco for years, and lucky for me, there was one within a couple of miles! I got a crispy chicken taco, a macho taco and a chicken taco, and it was pretty good, though it's no Taco Bell! I think I will also always associate the taste of cilantro with Del Taco! After lunch, we headed for the Mountain. I said that I wanted the first stop to be Psyclone since everyone seems to talk about how horrible it is, so that was where we headed. My first impression of the park was that it was quite a bit nicer than I thought it might be. Everything seemed to have relatively nice landscaping, lots of places were themed, and generally, I couldn't quite see what everyone was complaining about! Once at Psyclone, I really braced for the worst. But luckily, I didn't think the ride was that bad! Yeah, it wasn't smooth, but I've ridden much, much worse woodies! Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised! We meandered across the back of the park for a bit, then rode Goldrusher since it was along the way. I thought it was a nice little terrain coaster, though it did have a couple of rough spots! Next, we decided to go ahead and hike up to Superman and ride that since it was running. The hike was quite a bit more strenuous than I'd imagined, but I made it! Superman was running the left side, and had pretty much no line. I'd really been anticipating this ride since I love both launches and shot towers...I figured that the ride had to be good. And of course, I was right! I thought the ride was really awesome! As soon as we were done, I said I wanted to ride again, so Mike obliged.Since we were in the area, we rode Ninja also. This is definitely my favorite of the suspended coasters I've ridden since it swoops low to the ground and water, and is quite forceful. It does have a really lame ending though! Second only to Adventure Express! When the ride was over, I found a soda machine that had a dollar's worth of credit on it, so I decided to buy a soda. It still cost me $2.50, but hey, at least I got a dollar discount! We wandered back down the mountain, then in the direction of Bugs Bunny World for my Canyon Blaster credit. On the way, I saw Sierra Twist, the bayern curve, and decided to hop on for a ride since I'd never ridden one before. It was kinda fun, but it felt like it was gonna dump me out the whole time! I'm glad we both survived! Mike put it best when he described it as the Matterhorn meets Space Mountain meets a Six Flags budget. Afterwards, we explored Bugs Bunny World for a while. We tried to ride both Gloiath Jr. and the Tweety bird cages, but were denied both rides. After watching Mike chat with some ride op friends, and being introduced as his chick, we rode Canyon Blaster. Leaving Bugs Bunny World, I said I wanted to go take a look at Flashback, so we headed over there. I can see why this coaster never had a lot of attention...it's off in a little corner where nothing else is there except some bathrooms, so no doubt people didn't know it was there. We crossed back across the front of the park and decided to take in Revolution while we were in the area. I found the OTSRs on this ride to be completely unneccesary, and very poorly designed. When I pulled the restraint down over my head, only the very top of my head would touch the sides of the restraint! I could turn my head and peek through the restraint, and Mike could see my whole face! The ride was quite comfortable since my head was almost completely not touching the restraint. Next, it was time for my #200 credit! I'd decided a long time ago that I wanted it to be X, but X had been down for a while by that point, with no sign of it's reopening any time soon. So I decided that Tatsu would be #200. There was very little wait, so we decided to wait the extra and ride in the front row. It was still only about 6 trains worth of wait or so. I thought the ride was great, though it did knock the wind out of me pretty well! The pretzel loop seemed too big to me, and when the ride was over, I had to take a few minutes to get my bearings back. We tried to get Vault Icees, but the mix wasn't frozen yet, so we sat in the shade and chatted for a bit. Once my head quit spinning, we went to ride Viper for the last ride of the night. I don't have a good track record of getting good rides on old Arrow mega-loopers, and this was no exception. The ride beat me up pretty well all the way through, especially near the end just before the element that looks like the butterfly on Tennessee Tornado. This one was definitely my least favorite coaster in the park, and the only one that really seemed to hurt me.There was just a little bit of time left before the park closed, so we decided to ride Log Jammer before it closed. It was a nice ride up until the very end when the final splash soaked us both! I got pretty wet, but Mike was basically soaked! By the time we were done, the park was closed, so we headed back for the car. I gave a call to Guy on the way out and finalized plans for the next morning, then dropped Mike off at his house. From there, I had to go pick up Kevin at LAX, since his flight was arriving at around 10:30. He'd texted me earlier to say that he was gonna be later than planned, which was fine with me since it meant more time in the park that night. I had a few minutes before I had to leave, so I found a nearby Pavilions supermarket and got some water and Snapple, then loaded up the hotel fridge before heading out for the airport. There was no traffic (nor was there any traffic going from LAX to Valencia earlier) but I got seriously turned around when I was trying to pick him up! I have no idea what I did, but I somehow ended up inside a parking garage right across from where I needed to be. Luckily I didn't get charged for just driving in then out again, and when I made a second pass around the area, I found him waiting there for me. We were both pretty hungry by the time we got back to Valencia at midnight, so we grabbed a bite in the Dennys in our hotel parking lot. I had a buffalo chicken sandwich, and it was very good but very messy! I had buffalo sauce running all down my hands, but boy was it tasty! After eating, we got settled in for the night and were in bed by 1:00am. And to end out the night, we took a very wet ride on Log Jammer! More TR will be posted later, but comments are welcome! Here it is...the NEVER BEFORE SEEN shot of the SFMM entry plaza! Be still my heart! As seen here, Magic Mountain had a decent amount of very nice looking theming. "I wish my rubber cement was tall enough to ride Goliath." In a moment nine months in the making, Julie finally gives Mikey some rubber cement. It's a very long story. Don't ask "Naw, it's all Boof!" Mike's shirt reminds us both of our favorite New Zealander! Julie of Steel! I completely loved the Superman ride...every park should have one! Here, Mike models the empty queue building for Gold Rusher. The lines were almost non-existant this night, which was great! Yay! I'm at Magic Mountain! And this is Mike, who is doing his best teenage Asian girl impression in this photo. Del Taco...mmm...nothing helps start off a trip like good, healthy California food! Shout out to Crispy and all the other Albuquerque peeps on TPR! Chris, did you see me waving at you when my plane flew by? Yay! Time to get out of Nashville for a while!

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Fox in Sox. That one is great too! -Julie

I really love Horton Hatches the Egg...I can recite almost all of it! But my favorite might be Hop on Pop...I called my grandpa Pop, and when I was a kid, he'd read that story to me all the time. Any time I'd jump in his lap, he'd tell me not to hop on Pop or something. I even got him a ceramic Hallmark sculpture of the two little kids hopping on Pop's belly for Christmas one year. He passed away last year, but I'm quite fond of that story because of him. Stories like The Lorax, The Butter Battle Book and the Star-bellied Sneetches teach about very real issues in a fantastic way. I've never read the Dr. Seuss story I haven't loved! Truly one of the greatest authors to ever live, in my opinion. -Julie

^ My connection is thought Atlanta, thus probaby quadrupling my chances of being late! Also, anyone know the operating hours for Randy's Donuts? -Julie

Ok, my SoCal trip is less than a week away, and I just need to tie up a few loose ends in my plans... 1. Does anyone know what the rides in Pacific Park cost? I've not been able to find a list of prices (specifically for the coaster and Ferris wheel) 2. I arrive at 12:11pm. I am meeting someone at 2:30 in Valencia. Is that doable? Getting out of the airport, getting my rental and driving to Valencia in a little over two hours? 3. What's the best discount for Knotts? Anyone able to hook me up with a comp ticket or two? -Julie

Well, I work for a very large international hotel chain, so I get awesome employee discounts when I travel. Cutting the cost of hotels by 60% or more is an extremely useful perk. I also have some friends who work in theme parks (mainly WDW) who can sometimes get me free/discounted admission. -Julie

^ Agreed. Some of my TRs, I will post all at once. But the TRs from multiple days of a trip, usually I will wait a day or two in between sets of photos. In that case, I like having each day on a separate page...makes loading the TRs that much easier on those of us still living in the stone age with dialup. I think it's a great idea to add some sort of request to not reply until it's all posted, especially for ones that are being posted all in one sitting. -Julie

Great American Scream Machine in SFoG is the Nicole Kidman of roller coasters. -Julie

I feel the same way about people posting in the middle of your TRs. Some people seem to respond just because they know that they are posting in the middle of your TR! My most recent one was Julie's Alabama Credit Whoring Adventure with a subtitle of "A PHOTO TR IN THREE PARTS." Meaning clearly that there were gonna be three segments to the TR, and wouldn't you know that I had responses in between the three segments, eventhough I posted them within minutes of each other. Just wanted to voice my opinion that I find it really annoying also! -Julie

^ The last time I noticed, the fountain in front of Epcot was marked with a Give Kids the World plaque. I believe that that's where most, if not all, of the money collected from fountains and other places goes. Makes sense that they would support their own charity. -Julie

It may or may not help, but this is a relaxation technique I learned when I was younger. You basically put your body to sleep one body part at a time. You lay in whatever position is the most comfortable. Then you start at your toes, and think "Goodnight toes" and take two deep breaths. Then "Goodnight ankles" and two more deep breaths. Keep doing that until you've said goodnight to every body part. And once you put a body part "to sleep" you pretend like it's asleep, so you don't move it. If I'm having trouble falling asleep, I'll do this and almost never make it all the way to my head! It sounds pretty silly, but I've never found a relaxation technique that works this well! -Julie

British Knights sneakers! Yeah! You're like a commercial on Nickelodeon in the mid 80s! Thanks for taking the time to post! The pics are awesome. -Julie

This movie to me looks like a blatant attempt at making a cult movie. The cheesy title, the way it was hyped months before the release, the fact that it's funny in a situation that wouldn't be funny if it were real...it reeks of cult classic to me! I wanna see it just for that reason! -Julie