USRoadTripper

OMG...someone please tell me I am not having tunnel vision! This looks just like Opryland's log flume! And as far as I know, no one knows what happened to that ride! I'm sure lots of others look like it, but the Opryland one was unaccounted for after the park closed...could that be it??? -Julie A log photo from Opryland! (www.thrillhunter.com) A log photo from the link above

Happy birthday Don!! To let you know, I have decided that any time you and Monica are together, you will now be referred to as "Donica", in the grand tradition of other celebrity couples such as "Bennifer" and "Brangelina." I expect a "special thanks" at the end of your next DVD because of this. -Julie

I was there too, and this is what I was wearing, so everyone keep an eye out for me!! -Julie

To sound like a complete fangirl, this one has got to be my favorite! -Julie Dueling Dragons!

Glad you are enjoying everything Bill! What says Nashville more than Goo Goos and Jack Daniels? Maybe a Bible and a crazy woman to thump it? hahaha It took me weeks, literally, to find the Moon Pie. It was gonna be a whole box, but when I found the singles, I decided to go with one single and a bunch of other stuff. I still have not found entire boxes of Moon Pies! And it wasn't a cup of glitter! Please, a whole cup of glitter would have been messy! It was a couple of tablespoons at best! -Julie (who thinks the best thing is that box is the Fast Break bar)

Great American Scream Machine and Mindbender are definitely not to be missed. Monster Plantation is also very unique but can have very long lines due to low capacity. If the line isn't crazy long, make sure to ride it too! -Julie

I'd have to say Geauga Lake is my favorite, followed by Cedar Point. -Julie Cedar Point Geauga Lake

Here are a few more random ones from my collection. And by the way, all these photos are *so* making me want to go back to Kennywood! Damn you all! -Julie The Volcano at night The Whip Exterminator sign Garfield's Nightmare The mural at the entrance/exit of the entry tunnell

These were all taken on July 13, 2005 by yours truly. You can use any/all of them, and if you want me to email you the full size ones so you can maybe make them better quality, I can send those along. -Julie

I was there in mid-July and the Tilt-a-Whirl wasn't operating, but it was swarming with maintenance men working on it. I must have just missed it's opening. They Flyers were operating then though. And I liked the Blue Streak...wasn't nearly as rough as I thought it might be for a park so finanically strapped. It must be one of the few things they consistantly spend money on to maintain (too bad it's not the bathrooms!). -Julie

I'd pick Canada hands down, more specifically Toronto...pretty country, good health care, same basic freedoms as the US, some nice parks, a fantastic selection of candy bars, Swiss Chalet, and very few cultural differences (except for milk coming bags!). -Julie

We got some snow today...about 1-2 inches. Was funny going to bed with it raining heavily, only to wake up to find everything covered in snow! -Julie The cold weather afforded me some great photo ops though.

First, I hate hate hate drop towers of any kind, so I was very worried that I'd hate Sheikra, but I absolutely loved it! The dropping sensation is not anything like the sensation on a drop tower. To me, Sheikra felt much more powerful than most coasters I've ridden...it felt like it was truly hauling ass down that drop, unlike most coasters. I could have ridden it all day, because it was thrilling and crazy, but very comfortable. In my opinion, a Dive Machine would be the perfect addition to Cedar Point!

I've never really caught any flack for my love of coasters and theme parks. I got it a lot more when most of my vacations were to Disney! "You're going back to Disney *again*???" Seems like everyone has something...I like coasters, and maybe you like skiing, sky diving, golf, car racing (none of which I would ever be interested in doing!) so no one gives me a hard time. What people *have* given me a hard time about is following the construction of coasters not anywhere near me, like Tatsu and EE. -Julie

Eunuch, I worked at Wonders of Life, so as they tore the building down, insulation would blow everywhere. The chunk of the building I got when they had just started tearing it down and had not fenced off the area yet. The film, I got from the projectionist that worked at Energy, Wonders of Life and Horizons. -Julie

I agree with what a bunch of people said, except that I was never a huge fan of Alien Encounter. It was ok, and if there was no line I might see it, but it wasn't never something I liked or recommended. But that being said, I liked it a ton better than Stitch's Great Escape! It's the perfect mix of "not scary enough for the older people" and "too scary for the younger people" which results in the attraction having no target audience! The AAs are impressive, but that's all. Mostly, it is just gross...not funny, not scary, not cute...not anything I really care to see again! And I agree with Maliboomer that the new HISTA preshow sucks bigtime. They took something beautiful and moving and turns it into crap. At least they redid Journey into *Your* Imagination...that attraction was truly a monstrous failure if there ever was one! -Julie

I've got quite a few things from when I worked for Disney that I love, and would never part with! And of course I collect random Opryland stuff. And here is a sampling of my Opryland collection. I have tons more where this came from. Another really random thing I collect are these letters from the Adventurer's Club. Sometimes the butler will come out and hand deliver one, and other times you can find them hidden in the furniture and displays inside the club. Here, I have a piece of the Horizons building, and a baggie full of the Horizons insulation. The last piece of film I have is from one of the projectors in Body Wars. This is near the end when the doctors are being beamed out of the body. And this is from a projector in the space scene of a roating space colony. The audio in the ride is talking about how wonderful it would be to live in these space colonies. This is from a projector in the Future from the 50s scene, and is a woman attached to electrodes and stuff. The first thing I have is some film from Horizons. This piece of from a projector in the underwater segment, and is of two divers swimming to their home.

I think the Universal AP is by far the better deal at the moment since the Disney ones are close to $400 (or maybe more?). Disney APs really only pay for themselves if you are local and can go numerous times a year. The Universal one will pay for itsself much quicker than Disney, especially since Disney offers the non-expiring multi-day passes now. Plus Universal's pass gives you food and mercahdise discounts everywhere, where Disney's only gives you certain discounts at certain places at certain times (hence, a pain in the butt to take advantage of). -Julie

Aww Jahan you were adorable at 2 1/2! I posted my pics from my first trip to Disneyland a few months ago, but I wasn't nearly as cute as you since I was 21 at the time! Thanks for posting, I enjoyed it! And Soren, where is the retro TR of you as a kid, huh? -Julie

Yes, they put in a mall It's a relatively nice mall, but I've never heard anyone say that they like the mall better than they did Opryland. The kick in the pants was that Gaylord sold the mall, what, maybe two years after it was built? And it took the mall years to make as much money as Opryland made in it's last operating year! I wish I could find the link for the article I'm thinking of, but when you looked at the revenue behind it all, it was a stupid, stupid move on Gaylord's part.

More Opryland pics, and cute pics of me as a kid! hehe I really wish I had more pics of Opryland from when I was a teenager, but I didn't really get into photography until after the park closed. And I never took a camera when I was younger because I thought that meant that I couldn't ride the water rides. I found a great website that tells about the history of Opryland...it can be found at http://timelines.home.insightbb.com/ol_years.htm -Julie And last but not least, the Train. Opryland had three tains...Elizabeth, Beatrice and Rachel. Elizabeth was sent to Astro World when Opryland closed...anyone know where she is now? Thanks for reading! Me and Amy in the ball pit. Does anyone let adults into these things? It'd be great to bell flop into one of them as an adult hehe Me and Amy on the Antique Carousel. I can't find any info on when exactly this carousel closed, but this was probably the last season for it. It was replaced with a bird show, and suppsoedly Gaylord still owns the carousel. Me and Amy in the jumping bags. I am quite fond of this picture, considering how we are both adults now. Me and Amy in the kiddie car ride. They have almost this exact same ride at Cedar Point! Just ask Kevin how much I freaked out when I saw it there last July Me and Amy being goofy. See, my being goofy in theme parks isn't a new thing! I actually still have that "I *heart* Opryland" shirt that I am wearing. I couldn't bear to get ride of it, so now it's on a giant stuffed elephant I have. Here are Amy and I again on the little boats that you "drive" in circles. And another shot of me and Amy on the Surrey. This is during the 1987 season. I am 7 years old and that is my 3 year old cousin Amy with me (who is 22 years old now!) We're on the Surrey, which was little buggies that were pulled by horses.

Joe, I completely thought about posting the exact same thing, but thought "Nah, people will think I'm a wimp!" hahaha It's been snowing here for three days and is just now beginning to accumulate. -Julie

I finally decided to get my mom's old Opryland pics and scan them today. Enjoy! And here I am driving one of the boats in the kiddie play area. Scroll down for more photos! Here I am in front of the main fountain in the park. My head looks funky because my party hat is blending into the water! I remember dipping my arms into this fountain plenty of times to cool off. The jumping bags! Ahh, the jumping bags were always my very favorite thing there (well, ok, until I discovered coasters...then it was Chaos!) And another shot of Sprained Ankle Mountain. Here I am on top of "Sprained Ankle Mountain." I'm sure this sort of thing is now classified as "never in America" because I know I was injured quite a few times on it! Here I am once again, only this time I'm the Trix rabbit! And here is me behind the fiddle cutout. The kiddie observation tower was always one of my favorite kiddie rides in the park. Here I am with a clown on a unicycle in front of the Theater by the Lake. And OMG I have a fruity drink in my hand! I loved those! They were fruit drinks in bottles the same shape as the drink flavor. Does anyone still sell these? As another part of the celebration, they had clowns roving around making balloon animals. Here I am with a balloon turtle on my nose. The Barnstormer. This was before the Old Mill Scream was installed because the rafts are still floating around, and just out of view is the monkey island. For the opening day, they gave everyone birthday hats. Ain't I cute at six years old? 1986 was Opryland's 15th birthday. This little are with the cake would sometimes have bluegrass or jazz performers playing there. Fast forward a few years to opening day of the 1986 season. Here I am at 6 years old in the parking lot, proclaiming that I had been wanting to ride the parking tram "for years!" Me with my mom and grandma at Opryland. My grandma on the left, and my mom on the right, behind character cutouts of a fiddle and a dulcimer. Aww! What an adorable baby! Though this one is kinda random just to show off how cute I was at 3 months old, it *was* taken at Opryland Here is the Barnstormer. That's my mom (25 at the time) peeking over the red plane. Me and my mom riding the carousel. This was taken late in the 1979 season (I am 3 months old!) on the antique carousel. This is supposedly a picture of the first time I ever rode an amusement ride!

I'm going with memphis, ParkTrips and Twister II for 1, 2 and 3. All the chat guys did really great ones hehe I almost voted for s2pids2, but you couldn't read the first one, and the second one had no background. But they were both very good! -Julie

My first job was at a Schlotzskys! Loved it then, love it now! I have only eaten at Quizno's once, and was not impressed at all with it, so I never went back. And Subway is good when I don't want to spend the money on Schlotzskys. -Julie