USRoadTripper

Back in April, I was riding Dahlonega Mine Train at SFoG with Anthony, and when we entered one of the helixes, the lady in front of us says loudly "Here comes the corkscrew!" We both got a chuckle out of it. -Julie

I buy frozen pierogies, and have always just bioled them like ravioli and covered them in parmesan cheese. But today I pan fried some with butter, and I didn't like it as much! The outsides got all hard, and it tasted like popcorn! Weird! I thought they were *much* better just boiled. -Julie

Sweet! Loving the TR so far. Quit being lazy and post more! -Julie

Disneyland! Definitely! Worst in my opinion was Dollywood's. Ugh. Boring. -Julie

I would bet money that there have been no more deaths this year than any other year. It's just that we are hearing about them all this year since the media goes crazy over stuff that preys on human fears. People are intictively scared of coasters or amusement rides, so they feel the need to sensationalize them. Maybe next year the media will choose to sensationalize lightning, and we will hear every time someone gets killed by lightning. Or every time someone drowns in a back yard swimming pool. Or every time someone dies of an allergic reaction to a bee sting. It sucks that people are dying, but people die every year after incidents like this, and I am not convinced in the slightest that this year is some abnormality. -Julie

^ Eh, I guess this guy was more of a "professional amateur"...he would play in competitions, but never enough to wholey support himself that way! I only wish I could say he was awesome! "Sorry Julie, I can't go out with you on Sunday. I play group Dungeons and Dragons all day on Sundays."

I used to date a professional dart player. Let the harassment commence! It didn't last very long, but he did manage to win me anything I wanted from theme park dart games! -Julie

The last of the photos Here I am...exhausted but very happy that I got bumped from my flight and got a free round trip plane ticket! I guess good things really do come to those who wait! Thinking of you, Wes. Gary Sinise made a brief appearance on my flight home! Here is my meal from the flight home. Chicken, noodles and veggies in an alfredo type sauce, a croissant, some fruit, some chocolate mousse, some crackers and cheese and a mini Toblerone bar. Out of 10, I give this meal a 9.5! *sigh* Kevin bidding me a sad farewell as I board the bus for the airport. This picture makes me so sad when I look at it The Placa de Catalunya. You'd never guess that just 10 hours before, this area was packed shoulder to shoulder with flare weilding futbol fans! The next morning, the city seemed back to it's normal grind. The only evidence of the party the night before was some graffiti (ok, quite a bit of graffiti!) There was even more coverage of this party than in Sevilla! Luckily our hotel was away from the action, so we could sleep. I'm not sure how late the party lasted. People were surfing on shopping carts...it was just nuts...go watch the video!!! People were dancing around in their day-glo underwear... Even death showed up to join the party!! I wish the photos did this craziness justice. There were hundreds of thousands of people, and they just kept coming and coming! And everyone was cheering and singing. After the win, Kevin's beer magically refilled ittself, and we ran out into the streets to join the celebration! The big ball of flame there is in the Placa de Catalunya...probably a good half mile from where I was standing!! But then...Barcelona won the championship! And holy cow, the people in the streets went ABSOLUTELY NUTS!!! Kevin ordered a liter of beer during our fabulous dinner. We knew that the European futbol championship was going on that night, and the town was stoked! People were crowded around TVs in the streets like people used to do in the 50s! And finally, just for clarity's sake, here is a map of the Philadelphia airport with my arrival and departure gates labled. Thanks for reading!

This is the last set of photos for my trip to Spain. Thanks to everyone for looking, and if you have any questions or comments, I'd like to hear them! Wednesday, May 17th Wednesday was the last full day of the trip. We'd taken the overnight train from Granada to just shy of Barcelona, which didn't cause me to get a very restful night of sleep. The train rocked quite a bit more than I thought it would, but at least I got more sleep than if I was sitting up in a regular seat. Once we arrived in Tarragona, we had to wait a while, but soon we'd caught a train to Port Aventura, and spent about 6 hours there. To read my PortAventura TR, click here! When we left the park, we hopped on the next train that arrived and stayed on all the way into the main train and subway hub in Barcelona. When we left, my plan was to find the hotel and shower since I hadn't gotten to take a shower on the train. But knowing that I only had a few hours in Barcelona, I decided to just forgo the shower and see as much of the area as I could before I left. We walked down the Ramblas, stopping to ascend the Christopher Columbus monument, then headed into Mare Magnum, the mall that Rick Steves describes as "soulless." We wandered, then stopped at Starbucks for another frappuccino de crema. We sat for quite a while just enjoying the view of the harbor, and as sun started to set, we ventured back towards the Ramblas. We walked all the way from the harbor to the Placa de Catalunya, and while there, made our last stop in an El Corte Ingles. It was right about that time that it started to hit me that I was gonna have to go home in a few hours, but I tried not to think about it. We stopped for dinner at Genove 1911, where we both had excellent meals! Kevin also ordered a liter of beer! We knew that the European Futbol championships were going on during dinner since we'd seen so many people watching TVs on the streets, and we could hear people cheering when they made goals. But about halfway through dinner, the streets absolutely erupted, and we knew that Barcelona had won!!! From that point on, the city was a free-for-all...there were hundreds of thousands of people singing, chanting, playing drums, running with flares...it was the party in Sevilla times ten!! After Kevin's beer magically refilled ittself after their win, he downed as much as he could, then we let ourselves get swept into the crowd headed towards the plaza. We made it about halfway before deciding that there were just too many people to go any further! I posted a small video clip of the evening on YouTube, so have a look! The video describes the night *way* better than words or pictures ever could! Once we got back to the hotel, Kevin hit the bed, while I stayed up, showered, and sadly went to bed for the last sleep of the trip. Thursday, May 18th May 18th was the day I'd been dreading since we'd started planning the trip. We both woke up, I got all my stuff packed up, and we headed out to get me to the Barcelona airport. We stopped for breakfast at the McDonald's on Placa de Catalunya, where I had a Big Mac for breakfast. Kevin walked me over to the bus stop at the edge of the plaza, and I said a teary goodbye as he saw me off. I made it through the airport just fine, with just enough time to spare to get a fountain drink (the self serve kind, so I filled the glass with ice!) The flight back home was *much* more comfortable than the first flight. Primarily, no one was in the seat beside me, so I could spread out a bit, and cross my legs comfortably. It was also cool enough that I needed a blanket for my legs, and the meal was great! I didn't sleep any on the way home since, honestly, I was too upset to do much of anything. I did manage to take in Big Momma's House 2, Fun with Dick and Jane, a Tom Hanks biography, a House Hunters episode as well as a couple of other things they showed. When I arrived in Philadelphia, the plane was late, which left me with 30 minutes to get to my connecting flight. [RANT] WHY WHY WHY do people wait until the second that the plane is unloading to shuffle around things in their bags?!?! This man in the front of the plane sat on that damn plane for NINE HOURS, yet decided to wait until everyone behind him needed out of the plane to start shuffling around papers in his carry on!!! It took us FOREVER to get off the plane because of that ignorant, selfish moron!!![/RANT] So I finally make it off the plane, retrieve my luggage, make my way through the maze that is the international arrivals terminal in Philly, only to be stopped at another security checkpoint. By this time, my plane was taking off in 10 minutes, so I knew I was pretty much screwed and was just hoping for the best. Then, glory be to God, another moron decided to duck under a rope and cut in front of most of the security line. You guessed it. Security breach. Alarms go off, people have to back up, and everyone who just went through had to back up and be searched again. The overall delay was actually pretty minimal, but when you are already late, it seemed like forever. And of course, no one took their shoes of before getting up to the x-ray machine, which caused us to wait even more. I finally get out of the security line, and am hoping against hope that my flight might be delayed, so I start booking it. It was only then that I realized that my arrival and departure gates were on exact opposite ends of the airport! There could not have been two gates that were further apart in the entire airport! Lucky me! At that point, I pretty much gave up, and decided to just take my time in getting there since my plane was already supposed to be airborne. Once I arrived at my gate, I saw that my flight had been delayed!!! My plane wasn't even there yet! Yay! So the first thing I did was run for the bathroom, then grab a sandwich at a nearby counter. While the meal on the plane had been great, it didn't stay with me very long, so I was very glad to have time to get another meal. After a little while, they announced that the flight was oversold by one, and that they needed someone to volunteer to be bumped to the next flight two hours later, and they would receive a free round trip ticket anywhere US Air flies. Without even thinking, I shoved my boarding pass into the hostess' hand and said that I wanted to be first on the list! And I was! Another half hour or so goes by, and once everyone is boarded, they concluded that they did want to bump me! The lady who was taking my seat was extatic to be getting to leave right then, and she kept saying "Thank you so much for being willing to wait!" I just told her "No, thank *you*! Now I don't have to pay for my trip to California this summer!!!" Seeing that the next flight to Nashville was only two hours away, I thought I got the greatest deal ever! Sleep in the terminal for two hours and we'll give you a free flight. Ok! I felt like a living stereotype of the benefits of travelling light with just a carry on. Had I had to worry about my luggage, I wouldn't have considered volunteering to be bumped. But I had everything I was travelling with right there with me, so I didn't have to worry! I seriously doubt if I will ever travel with checked luggage again! The next flight was in the next terminal over, so I walked over there, then promptly sat on the floor, propped by back against my backpack and fell asleep. The flight from Philadelphia to Nashville was pretty grueling since I was so tired, but couldn't get comfortable. Plus, I was on the left side of the plane, which I really dislike. I prefer the right side of the plane for whatever reason. I just wanted to be home at that point. When I arrived back in Nashville, I called my parents and they picked me up. We stopped at a Taco Bell on the way home, where I ordered the best meal I'd had in the last 10 days! hahaha I gave my parents their gifts from my trip, then I transferred all my pics from my camera to my computer. I was too tired to look through them all, so I just crashed. These scarves, or bufandas, were everywhere! Everyone seemed to have one to support their favorite futbol club. I ended up with a Sevilla one, and Kevin got a Barcelona one. El Corte Ingles credit #3 of the trip! Hostal Opera, the last hotel of the trip. A hotel on the Ramblas Some of the street performers, like this tree woman, were really awesome! (She merited a much bigger tip than the Michael Jackson dude!) A building and lamp post at dusk A building in Barcelona with the Columbus monument in the background. This one's for all the Mac lovers out there! Ahhhh! The mirrors on the ceiling of the mall are trying to steal our souls!!! Kevin visits the "soulless mall" MareMagnum. I thought the lions were really cool. A lion at the base of the Christopher Columbus monument at the harbor. Here is a Michael Jackson impersonator we encountered on the Ramblas. Must be a 1980s MJ impersonator since this guy is actually black! Las Ramblas in Barcelona, the location of the crazy final night of my trip!

Nummy...Woodchuck hard cider! So are ciders like the powered coasters of the beer world? Kinda like beer, but not really. -Julie

Quick! Someone make a Jeff Johnson joke!! There has never been a more perfect setup!! -Julie

Kevin taught me last year that the joy of conventions like this is so you can look at everyone around you and say "Wow...at least I'm not as big a loser as *that* guy!!!" -Julie

Happy birthday chica! Hope you enjoy the cake I baked you!! -Julie What?!?! It's a mushroom!!

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=anagram Yeah, someone didn't read a single post in the thread, much less the first one huh? hahaha IWantRevenge= Avenge winter Waving entree Even twangier Wavering teen Tween vinegar Renting weave That one had a lot of good ones!! -Julie

I've been to SFOG, SFGAm, SFKK, SFDL, SFNE and SFFT (SFFT was before I rode coasters). So my list would be... 1. SFGAm - best coaster collection of any park I've been to IMO, plus it's pretty 2. SFOG - another fantastic coaster collection in a pretty park 3. SFNE - well, it's better than SFKK and SFDL! Plus it has S:RoS. I'm really looking forward to getting back to SFFT someday and see it from an enthusiast point of view. -Julie

How did the Flyer Comet look? Looks pretty good from the pics, but do you think it is salvageable, if anyone wanted it, or they wanted to reopen it? -Julie

Praise Jesus! I'm not sure if I have ever wanted a rumor to be true more than this one! I really hate Back to the Future, and only ride it when I am forced (like by my mom last year). It's just overly rough, lacks a compelling story for 2006, and something about the seats always pulls chunks of my hair out. Plus it is possibly the worst, most drawn out, horribly done, and just plain BORING preshow I've ever seen. It feels like I am making a time commitment longer than the triolgy itsself to ride it! I think a Simpsons land is way past due for a theme park somewhere in the country, and I would LOVE to see it go in at Universal Orlando. I'd love to see an entire land, like Suess Landing, or the Curious George area, not just a ride. But just a ride would be ok, so long as they ditch those horrible Delorean simulators. Please oh please oh please let this rumor be true!! -Julie

Regular thunderstorms, no. Tornadoes, or any kind of storm that appears to be leading to tornadoes, I'm terrified. Been terrified of them my whole life. I pray that I never see one in person because I'd probably be so scared that I wouldn't survive! -Julie

Just giving this a bump so all the newbies can anagram their names or screen names! -Julie (a dour stripper!)

A good cookies and cream will usually win out, with mint chocolate chip coming in a close second, and cookie dough coming in third. Once my mom made some homemade vanilla ice cream, then added in some pulverized Oreos. We thought it would just be swirly, but it actually turned all the ice cream black! It looked like tar, but was the best ice cream I've ever had! -Julie

OK, that was awesome, and truly like something I would have written in high school. Make sure to go back and proofread really well, and watch your punctuation...and how could you *not* get the extra points?! Once, in senior English, a group of about a dozen of us decided to work the same strange line into our papers and see if the teacher would notice. The line we chose was "...lest his testicles explode." hahaha The teacher somehow lost my paper, and when I turned in a second copy to him, his first question was "Does it have the exploding testicle line?" hahaha I also had a friend who wrote a paper for that same teacher titled "The disappearance of the sound 'th' from the English language." Yeah, he LOVED us! -Julie (who wrote every paper during her last semester of college on Rocky Horror)

Today was the first day that Nashville hit 100. -Julie

I was always under the impression that it was Buffalo. So neither of you have been to Nashville, huh? -Julie

I'd go back to 1997, and go into Opryland's last operating season knowing that it was closing. I'd ride everything, see every show, and take pictures of every last thing in the park. -Julie (who will always miss Opryland )

1) Bicoastal Kid #1 2) Homer #2 3) Tinhead #1 -Julie