USRoadTripper

I have seen the ride running with a character (non-living) appearing to drive one of the cars around the track. To at least salvage something from the ride, they could put these type vehicles on it and run it as theming. I've only seen one at a time, and have only seen that a handful of times. 10 cars or so, all with different Dr. Seuss characters riding around would be cute I think. -Julie

Oh please, if I heard that our local water park was filling the lazy river with cheese, or course I'd be there! I'd be there just for the spectacle of it, and to be able to go to work the next day and be like "Guess what I did yesterday. I swam in 500,000 gallons of cheese." -Julie

I think it would be awfully arrogant of us to think that we are the only intelligent life forms in the infinite expanse of outer space. But I don't think we will make contact with anything else in my lifetime, or my grandchildrens lifetime, so why even speculate about it? -Julie

I found one more of my pics with something funny. This was supposed to be a nice photo of my friend Richie watching tigers at the zoo until nature called...

Well, I will be the voice of dissention here. When I was at Cedar Point in July, I looked at the log flume, said "I don't want to get wet" and walked right on by it. *I* would much rather have a shiny new coaster than a water ride. So they can go ahead and rip it out...I don't care so long as it's replaced with something. -Julie

Interesting that there are even two fan sites in the top ten...and even more interesting that you beat my buddy Deb's site! I generally only use her site for reference though, where I use this one for fun. Congrats! We'll all do our part to keep you there! -Julie

I saw a large group of Buddhist monks at Epcot in line for Body Wars once. Was almost as funny as the large group of nuns wearing "Y107 the best in new rock" stickers at a balloon festival when I was a kid. -Julie

1. Gwazi Tiger - the only coaster to actually injure me! - BGT 2. Georgia Cyclone - SFoG Everything else after those two just becomes a blur because they were all horrible, including: Mean Streak - Cedar Point Mind Eraser - Darien Lake Predator - Darien Lake Ninja - SFoG Thunderhawk - Geuaga Lake T2 - SFKK Mighty Canadian Minebuster - PCW Top Gun - PCW Vortex - PKI Any Boomerang (never ridden a Boomerang I'd ride again) -Julie

The oldest ones I rememebr playing were Number Magic and Early Learning Fun for the TI-99/4A. I also remember writing my own horse race program in BASIC when I was probably 5 or 6 years old on that system. -Julie

Ok fess up...everyone even remotely close to my age had one of these, and you all played them in class, didn't you? -Julie Super Mario Brothers video game watch! Copyright 1989 baby, yeah.

Want to hear a really horrible, mean story from when I was a CM? No? Ok, here it goes... One time a group of about a dozen of my co-workers had gone out to Epcot for the evening and decided to watch IllumiNations. But they devised a story first about a guy named Charlie. So they arrive at where they were going to stand, and they find this family next to them. They start chatting and eventually found out that they had never seen the show before. So they start telling them that their friend Charlie was a pyrotechnician and had just gotten a promotion. They said that it was his first night on the center barge, and that he was *very* nervous that he was gonna screw something up. So they were all there to support him and they were going to take him out afterwards. So they chat a bit, then when the show started they all got really quiet and watched very intently. So what happens next? The whole barge explodes into flames. And what did they do? The entire group immediately burst into hysterical screaming! They were screaming "Oh my God! Charlie!!! Noooo!!!" Then the flaming stops for a bit, and they're all just standing there pretending to cry and console each other when someone goes "No! Not the second set of fireworks!!!" and the barge explodes again! The family they'd been talking to says "That's not supposed to happen?!?!" and in between sobs they say no, it was just supposed to be fireworks. They left the show early since they were all so upset about "Charlie," and supposedly the family they'd been talking to was very distraught about knowing someone had died in the explosion. So of course everyone gets to work the next day and *really* hoped they didn't run into that family again! So of course now, every time I see the barge explode, I wish I'd been there to hear the story about Charlie. -Julie

An ex-boyfriend who works there says that row 6 is the best place to ride, and honestly, I must agree with him. Usually I prefer either the front or the back, but this is definitely a "middle of the train" ride for me. The ride is great fun, and not scary at all. And if you see Joe working there, tell him Julie says hi -Julie

I use http://www.onefingertech.com $40 a year including domain, and it has very, very little downtime. I don't know how it meets your specifications, but it more than meets my needs for a price I haven't been able to beat anywhere. -Julie

Someone please explain to me why I laughed so hard at this. hahahaha -Julie (Sorry Robb )

Donkeys in theme parks...they could be working there, riding stuff, terrorizing it, whatever! -Julie

I have two. First was Counting Crows on February 11th, 1994. Barely anyone had heard of them at the time, yet I'd become a big fan after seeing them on SNL one night. They were opening for Cracker and everyone was there for the Cracker show. Adam Duritz was just walking around outside, so I asked for an autograph, and got one. Then later I saw him again, asked to touch his hair and he said yes! Imagine being 14 and getting to touch the dreadlocks of your favorite singer! I could have died happy that night! The other was June of 2004 when I saw Simon and Garfunkel in concert. I'd spent way too much money on a close seat, and it was worth every penny. The performance was amazing, moving and beautiful. I decided to go ahead and splurge on the close seat because who knows if they will ever tour again, much less be anywhere near Nashville again. Being that close I could see their expressions as they sang, and really feel the emotion in their songs. Sad thing was that I only saw 2 people younger than me there! Everyone was my parents age! I thought my generation appreciated good music of any kind! -Julie

I hope you're right, as I'd love to have a great park near me again. But that transformation would be anything but overnight. I just don't see Beech Bend becoming anything special because, look at all the other small market parks that are so much better, yet are nowhere near the destination Holiday World is. Waldameer, Canobie Lake and Lake Compounce and three that come to mind as being fantastic small market parks, yet none of them are truly destinations. As it is, Beech Bend is way behind all three of those parks. I think the woodie will be great in at least bringing it closer to par with other small market parks, but man, they have got some work to do to even get to the quality of Lake Compounce! One great woodie does *not* a park make! -Julie

One time when I rode, the crashing car was sitting still, but then you heard the loud crash and felt the wind effects, and the car folded in half like it was crashing! Just sitting there, then boom, it changes into a crashed car. We thought it was hilarious! -Julie

Yeah, I'd be much more inclined to get a hoodie with nothing on the back since I have long hair, and you couldn't see stuff on the back anyway. I didn't care for the donkey logo either...just a simple TPR logo with no goofy donkey would be great IMO. -Julie

When I was in college, the local IHOP was our late night hang out. We went easily 3 times a week and were always great tippers since most of the time we would sit for a few hours and only order one meal or dessert. All the servers loved us except for one older lady named Sue. She was so nasty to us that her nickname became "that bi*** Sue"...as in "I wonder if that bi*** Sue is working tonight?" So this one night there were about a dozen of us, and that bi*** Sue was the only server there. We sat down along the wall as normal and ordered drinks. She seemed to take a long time to get the drinks to us, but we didn't mind. But then once people started ordering entrees, it took forever to get the food. And this was at, like, 2am, with only one other table of six people in the whole place! After we got the drinks we ended up staying for two more hours, and that bi*** Sue did not come to the table one time to see if anyone needed drink refills. Ice cream got to people half melted, and entrees were either wrong or cold. I'd only ordered a soda, and I told her that I didn't think I should have to pay for it since it had sat in front of me empty for and hour and 45 minutes. Then she yells "I HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY!!!" Uh, no that bi*** Sue, you haven't been! There were two tables in the whole place, and the other one seemed to be as neglected as us! We were all appalled at being yelled at by the server after having gotten such lousy service! On what was easily over $100 in food, we left her a nine cent tip...nine pennies in the shape of a nine. She was exceedingly nice to us every time after that. -Julie

Wow...I cannot imagine anyone who's been to both Beech Bend and Holiday World saying that they are alike in even a tiny way. Holiday World is a superb park with well themed flats, well landscaped gardens and common areas, lots of great shops, nice restaurants and two outstanding woodies. Beech Bend is a redneck playground with asphalt everywhere, no theming on any ride (to my memory), rides that are seemingly still attached to the trailers they were built on, no quality restaurants and no quality shops. These parks are almost night and day as far as quality goes in every aspect. Even with the addition of the woodie next year, Beech Bend is light years away from being half as nice as Holiday World. -Julie

I'd be all over a Simpsons themed park, or even land in an existing park. With stuff like Prasieland with the hallucinogenic statue of Maude, and Little World of Duff! -Julie

I agree that Tanya with an A sound like in "back" sounds pretty redneck. Like Tanya Tucker. The worst is Lerlene! -Julie

Wow...TEN PAGES of responses later and I get to give my to cents Goliath and Voyage are the two I'm most excited about since they are close to me. I guess the Beech Bend woodie would be next since that will be the closest major coaster to me. -Julie

I'm not sure what the restrictions may be, but if you are able to purchase a AAA membership, it will pay for itself in just the tickets. You should be able to get discounted tickets to most if not all of those parks, and it can get you hotels discounts too. Only catch would be that you would probably have to visit the AAA offices in person to get the tickets. Also asking here for specific hotel recommendations might yeild better prices than looking online since we might know some smaller and/or independant hotels. If you want to wing it with the hotels, you can pick up hotel discount guides in most gas stations and fast food places right off the highway. The hotels may not be the greatest quality, but these traveller guides will sometimes have the best prices you can find on hotels like Knights Inn, Days Inn, Super 8 and such. -Julie