USRoadTripper

I hate drop towers worse than anything. Wouldn't ride them unless the bribe was huge! Also hate anything with a pendulum motion (pirate ships, frisbees, ect...never ridden a sky coaster but I assume it falls into the category too). -Julie

Kissimmee! What is your middle name? -Julie

Don't miss the credit whoring stop in Nashville. 15 minutes and $9 later you can have two extra credits from Nashville Valley Amusement Park. -Julie (who lives there, and only has one of those credits herself!)

Well, I personally don't consider it very ghetto, but that's subjective. Heck of a lot better than some parks I've been to. And thanks for complimenting, then insulting the photos. Real nice of you. -Julie

Yep, both twins were running just fine. Like I said in the report, the restraints were getting a little gauged out and it dug into my stomach a bit, but the coasters themselves were fine. They are great coasters, and petty smooth. -Julie

Monday, June 13th Once again, I got off work at a little after 7:00am, and mom and I were on the road to Kentucky Kingdom by 8:30am. It's a little less than a three hour drive from Nashville to Louisville, and I ended up sleeping most of the way so I could at least get a little rest. We stopped at the Okolona exit off 65 and found some Wendys for lunch, then continued on to the park. Parking is only $5 here...which is much better than most Six Flags parks! That's because the lot is run by the fairgrounds, not the park. We stopped at Guest Services to get our vouchers, and the woman was taking forever...she kept coming up to the window and answering the phone and givng me the "Give me a minute" finger, then going back to a computer to do something. It took quite a while before she got around to helping me, but when she did, I was in and our with my $59.99 pass pretty quickly. Can't believe that for the last two years, the passes have been $45.99, and it jumped by $14 this year. Still not a terrible price for what you get though, so I will get my money's worth. We entered the park, and quickly went to the pass processing center. There was no line, so we were in and out in a jiffy...but our pictures both looked horrible!!! Mom looks so mad in hers because the guy caught her off guard, and my head appears to taper up to a point! We were both hysterically laughing because they were both so bad! My first ride was the Enterprise while mom went into one of the shops for a bit. When I found her, she was trying to decide on a pair of earrings, and took forever to make her decision. From there we walked to Greezed Lightnin' but it was closed temporarily, so we walked to the back of the park. We rode the Giant Wheel next, which had no line, then I went to ride Chang, which only had a one train wait. Chang was running quite a bit smoother than last time, though I doubt it was because of maintenance in the off season. The ride was showing a lot of rust, and a lot of chipping and faded paint. The soft parts of the restraints also had chunks missing. After my ride, we perused the gift shop a bit, and I found a ton of rubber ducks...no axe murderer ducks though. They had some cute shirts, but the one I liked only came in light blue, which I don't care for on me. When we left, I rode the Chaos, which gave me a fantastic ride. Three times I was dropped from the top to the ground standing completely on my head! I passed on T2 since it bashes riders to bits, and we walked on over towards Thunder Run. We passed Penguin's Blizzard RIver on the way, but didn't ride. Two seasons ago, I came with three of my cousins, and we got 100% drenched on Blizzard River...so much in fact that there was probably 2 feet of water in the bottom of the boat that didn't drain out! Didn't want to get that wet today! Thunder Run was next, which is my favorite wooden coaster anywhere. Mom waited for me while I rode, and I waited through two trains so I could sit in the very back. It still never fails to thrill me. I think I counted four places where I was ejected from my seat on the bunny hills and such. It's not running quite as smooth as last year, but is still running light years smoother than most wooden coasters. Probably one of the most underrated woodies out there! This thing is awesome! When I was done, we rode the Flying Dutchman wooden shoes on strings ride. This ride is so cute to watch, and fun to ride eventhough the seats are a tad uncomfy. When we were done, it was so oppressively hot that we decided to cool off with some Dippin' Dots. I wanted to get a glass of ice water first, and was told by a girl at the pizza place that they weren't allowed to give out cups of ice water. What?!?! That's money grubbing at it's finest, having PA announcements telling you to drink plenty of water, then they refuse to give you any, and make you spend $2.50 on bottled water! I only saw two water fountains all day, and they were both on the other side of the park. Finally a guy at a Subway sold me a small glass of water for $.25...which I don't mind paying since I'm using up a glass. Should be free though in my opinion, since a lot of parks give water away when it's hot. With water in hand, I got a small cup of rainbow ice Dippin' Dots and they were so good and refreshing. Mom got Cookies and Cream and said they were excellent as well. Refreshed, we went and rode the Zepplin, which are multi-person blimp vehicles that go in circles. Looks like a kiddie ride, but it feels about the same as chair swings. After that, mom stayed there to ride it a couple of more times while I went to ride Twisted Twins. There was no line at either twin, so I rode the green train (Lola?) in the back and the pink train (Stella?) in the middle without having to walk all the way around. Both of these give great rides, with plenty of speed and airtime, but without hurting you. The green train had a big chunk of the padding on the lap restraint missing, so the edge was sort of digging into my stomach, but it wasn't too bad, and next time I will be sure to look at the restraints first! I went back and found mom, and we stopped at the Giant Wheel one more time before going back to the front of the park. Once we walked back, I rode Greezed Lightin' in the second row of the front car. As we passed it, I decided to ride Roadrunner Express since there was a very small line. This ride is very uncomfortable to ride by yourself since there is nothing to pad the side of you that is facing the center of the vehicle. I did my best to avoid injury, but it was still pretty uncomfortable. We hit the Stargate motion simulator as we left, which is an OK ride, but nowhere near as good as Dino Island was. There was a family behind us in the non-moving seats who were bad mouthing the operator because they wouldn't let their kid ride because he was an inch too short. The kid was very small and didn't look excited to be there, so I had to give kudos to the ride op for taking the nasty comments the way she did. Makes me wish Child Protective Services could roam the park taking names of parents like those, willing to risk the safety of their children like that. We decided we'd done everything we wanted to, so we left, and stopped at Mr. Gattis in Okolona for dinner. We stop at this Mr. Gattis every time we go to the park, and we absolutely love it. We played $10 worth of games first and ended up with a lot of tickets. I got two Superman torsos full of bubbles! I plan on using one of them as the masthead on my car during my coaster trip this summer. I also got two little Superman and Wonderwoman figurines. The pizza was good, but the chicken noodle soup steals the show here. After dinner, we headed back home, and were home by about 8:00pm. We had a really nice day, and despite what others say, I think Kentucky Kingdom is a great park. Yes, the bridge sucks big time, but other than that, they have a very nice collection of coasters and flat rides. I don't generally find too many bad things to sad about this park. The employees seemed a bit more attentive and nice on this trip, including one girl standing at a drink cart who was just smiling away at everyone...just because she wanted to! The two guys working at Thunder Run were chatting (read: flirting) with two girls in the line, but usually they would be on their cell phones, so at least they were interacting with the guests. Not sure when I will get back to Kentucky Kingdom since I have a pretty busy coastering season planned, but I always enjoy going there, and am looking forward to going back. -Julie Yay Gattiland! Happy people zipping by on the pink Twisted Twins train. The Zepplin Dippin' Dots break! The Flying Dutchman. Notice how mom's shoe matches her shirt. Me on Thunder Run (no, I didn't have the train to myself, eventhough it looks like it). Julie sees big wood at Kentucky Kingdom Granted, there's a coaster in the background, but is this really the most interesting place for a photo? Plenty of rubber ducks...but no axe murderers. Thunder Run with the new Tornado water slide funnel. Ok, maybe I'm old, but I don't get it. Rockets?!?! What's that supposed to mean? And who wants that splattered across their behind? Mom checks out the bling bling Six Flags style. Our horrible season pass photos. Mom looks like she's having the time of her life, and my head looks like it was squeezed in a vice. Me showing off my newly purchased season pass *insert Venga Boys music here*

Damn girl, and I thought I was picky! I don't get why you can eat chicken tenders from Burger King, but not from any of the other places. Arby's are by far the best -Julie

I have two cats...the female is Raven and the male is Kumba. -Julie

First coaster ever was Little Rockin' Roller Coaster at Opryland, and I was probably 5 or 6. First adult sized coaster was Rockin' Roller Coaster, also at Opryland, at probably 12 or 13. The one that broke down the fear of coasters was, ironically, Rock N Roller Coaster at Disney/MGM Studios I was 20 at the time. -Julie

My top 10 currently operating coasters would be... 1A. Supeman Ultimate Flight - Six Flags over Georgia 1B. Supeman: Ride of Steel - Six Flags New England 3. Thunder Run - Kentucky Kingdom 4. Rock N Roller Coaster - Disney/MGM Studios 5. Great American Scream Machine - Six Flags over Georgia 6. Legend - Holiday World 7. Fire Dragon - Islands of Adventure 8. Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa 9. Boulderdash - Lake Compounce 10. California Screamin' - California Adventure Wow! That list was really tough to decide on! I feel like I'm insulting Fire Dragon by putting it at #7, when it is truly one of my favorites! This was third only to the wood and steel coaster polls in terms of how long I took to decide on my list! Those polls take hours, literally! My favorite coaster of all time was Chaos at Opryland, so that will always hold the honorary #1 in my book. -Julie

As requested...the ax murdering duck. As I type, the other ducks in the bathroom are in sheer chaos since this little dude isn't there to keep the peace. I mean...look at the intensity in his eyes! -Julie

Gatlinburg and Dollywood May 25th and 26th If you only want to read about my experiences at Dollywood, skip to day 2. Day 1 May 25th I'd managed to get about 4 hours of sleep after getting off work at 8:00am, and my mom arrived at my place around 1:00 for our "weekend" (a Wednesday and Thursday) in Gatlinburg. We drove straight through except for one brief stop for some bottled water. We tried using the Mapsonus.com directions, but they just took us off the highway, then right back on! So they were no help at all. We stopped at a Smoky Mountains welcome center for directions, and we found our way easily the rest of the way to Pigeon Forge. I thought it was funny how much it looked like 192 in Kissimmee...lots of shops, mini golf, and one of probably every restaurant there is. On the way in we stopped at the Nascar Speedpark to see about getting the coaster credit there. The credit, however, would have cost me $5.48, and I really just draw the line at paying that much to ride one kiddie coaster! So I left creditless, and we made our way to our hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Sunspree up the hill at light 8 in Gatlinburg. I'd never been to Gatlinburg before, and it was definitely not what I was expecting! I was expecting it to look like Pigeon Forge, but it was quite the opposite! Everything was right up against the road, and everything was packed in right on top of each other. It was very quaint, yet almost claustrophobic to drive through. Our hotel was nice...it had a pool right in the middle of the lobby...kinda weird. It seemed very nice though. We settled into our room and tried to decide what to have for dinner. We decided to just walk around and look at menus and find something that looked good. We parked near a McDonald's and eventually decided on Blaines for dinner. I got some spinach artichoke dip, mom got some nachos and we shared a quesadilla. Everything was quite yummy! We walked around shopping for the rest of the night, but all I got were two patches (Homer saying D'oh! and Simon the chipmunk that says "I love dorks") and a big scroll with some birds on it. We had ice cream at the Mayfield store, then headed in for the night. I got showered and we were both asleep by midnight. Day 2 May 26th Thursday was the day we planned for Dollywood. We got up around 8:15, and the park was scheduled to open at 10:00. We checked out of the hotel then drove in to Pigeon Forge for breakfast at the Great American Steak and Buffet Company. A friend had just returned from Dollywood and she'd suggested one of their all you can eat restaurants for dinner, so we figured we'd have a big breakfast and big dinner with nothing between. Breakfast was only $6, and eventhough I'm not a big breakfast eater, everything was great! I had some eggs, potatoes, a biscuit with cheese, some french toast sticks and a fabulous chocolate muffin. Mmmm. I really couldn't believe how much I'd enjoyed breakfast. We made it to the park about 10:30, and after an inordinantly long wait for a parking tram, I made a beeline for Thunderhead. I waited around 15 minutes, which wasn't bad at all I didn't think. The ride was great, but I was really disappointed by the near absence of airtime. The thing looks really great, and the ride *was* great, but not super-outstanding like others had made it sound. When we left there, we went back to the County Fair area (where there were rides mom would actually ride...she's such a coaster chicken) and got in line for their inverted bi-plane looking flyer thingy. We had to have waited at least a half hour for this ride, and what a letdown! You really don't have much control over the movement of the cars like on regular flyers. There was no swooping action to be had on this ride at all! After that we rode the chair swings, which was much better than the first flyer-esque ride. After that we went for the scrambler, and well, it was a scrambler, what do you expect. I wanted to ride their Disk-o, but the line was huge, and I wasn't sure if I'd even like it since I hate anything with a pendulum motion to it. I'd have tried it if the line was short, but considering the low capacity...it was probably close to an hour wait! No thanks Dolly. On the way out, we both bought Icees in refillable mugs with Dolly Parton on them...how kitschy! We rode the train next, which seemed to take forever to load eventhough the trian sat there in the station the whole time while we just seemed to stand there looking at it. Jack the conductor was very entertaining while we waited though! He was so funny, and probably the highlight of the ride. The ride was only so-so...the narration was interesting, but there was almost nothing to look at...and you had to look at all that nothing twice since it uses the same set of tracks going out and coming back! From there I wandered up to the area with the Slidewinder. After an agonizing uphill hike to the top, the wait was 45 minutes, and I didn't want to leave mom waiting around for me that long when I wasn't even all that enthusiastic about riding that ride anyway since I didn't care to get wet. When I came back out, I found mom in a gift shop buying a puppet, and as I looked around, I found rubber ducks! Since I collect rubber ducks, I decided to buy three of them...a black duck, a color changing purple duck, and a duck that, by all accounts, appears to be an ax murdering duck (his tag says pirate, but everything about this duck says ax murdering thug to me!). Next we went to the back of the park for the other two coaster credits. I rode Blazing Fury first, and waited probably less than 10 minutes for it. Ok...this was hands down the WIERDEST coaster I have ever been on! First there's an old couple sitting on a porch, then the saloon is on fire, then the hotel, then the barn...then a man pops out of an outhouse! The bridge starts to burn, and when you try to cross it, it collapses and suddenly you are inexplicably on some railroad tracks, then everyone gets wet and leaves the ride thinking "WTF?!?!" Just so weird...no other coaster even compares except for Mummy at Universal! But that is on the extreme other end of the reaction scale! Tennessee Tornado was next, and while it wasn't terrible, it bashed my head around pretty good and left me feeling woozy. It had a great first drop though and some massive Gs in the Iron Butterfly. When I left there, I had to ride Blazing Fury one more time, just to make sure I remembered it clearly so I could write about how messed up it was in my TR! At this point mom and I decided it was time for dinner, so we headed to the fried chicken all you can eat place that my friend had recommended. The food got a thumbs up, especially the vinegar based pasta salad, which is probably the best pasta salad I've ever had. At 9:50, we both thought it was good and wouldn't hesitate to eat there again. When we left dinner, we found Chasing a Rainbow, the Dolly Parton Museum. We quickly walked through it, and it was relatively interesting considering that it was a *Dolly Parton* museum. On our way out, we stopped to ride the Smoky Mountain Adventure Tour. The preshows and loading seemed to take eons, especially when I was going to make a run for one last ride on Thunderhead before the park closed. The ride was just ok...it's the kind of simulator where just the seats move, not the whole room, and those make me a bit woozy usually, but I was ok during this one. When we left, I had about 5 miutes to get up to Thunderhead before it closed. I hoofed it over there while mom grabbed us a giant cinnamon roll for the car ride home. Of course, I was the first person to be turned away from the ride once it closed for the day, which sucked, but oh well, what can you do. While I was there I found a great shirt..."Life's a roller coaster...ride on!" Had to get it when I saw it. On the way out of the park, we perused the gift shop (that you are forced to go through, as the only exit turnstyles are on the far side of the shop!). Dolly has quite a bit of very nice merchadise, and some stuff that would again make Joe Public think "WTF?!" like the teddy bears with Dolly Parton's face on the stomach. All I got was a luggage tag that looks like a patch, and a brass Christmas ornament of the Dollywood grist mill. At this point, I now had three bags...all of which are paper, and have no handles on them. Who thought that was a good idea? Carrying around bags with no handles got very inconvenient very quickly when walking around a crowded theme park. On the way out, we decided to just walk to the car instead of wait on the tram, and I drove us all the way home to Nashville. We quickly wolfed down the cinnamon roll, and it was great! Made me wish we'd each gotten one instead of sharing one Eventhough I seem to only be finding the negative things to say about the park, we did have a nice time and were glad we went. The park is very pretty and reminded us both of Opryland in plenty of places. The trees are all grown in, so there was lots of shade, and it was landscaped very well. They seemed to have a very friendly staff, and the park also appeared fairly clean and well cared for, as I don't remember seeing any graffiti or much trash lying around. They had a fantastic variety of gift shops, and quite a few diverse food options too. One thing I didn't care for about it was how far apart everything was. Like, you come in and there's Thunderhead, but to get to any other rides, you have to hike halfway across the park, with nothing along the way except shops. Then most of the flat rides are concentrated in the County Fair area, which made that area an absolute mob scene. I wanted to ride the Disk-o, the ferris wheel and the bumper cars but couldn't for the huge waits. The layout was a bit confusing, and we found ourselves on more than one occasion looking dumbfounded at the map for a minute, then asking an employee for help. Most of the rides seemed "just ok"...not necessarily rides that will make me want to drive the 4 hours from Nashville very often. Overall, we both had a nice time, but we both agreed that we're not in a hurry to go back. Omigod! It's Dolly Parton! My mom clucking like a chicken during dinner. For God's sake, no one tell her I posted this, else she will absolutely kill me! The Dollywood Grist Mill The Tennessee Water tree...a tree with water pouring out of it. Ohhhhh. Biplane flyers with OTSRs Hey, I didn't know my Grandpa modeled for the shooting gallery! I love pickles...no more comments necessary Thunderhead Happy 20th Birthday Dollywood! Daytona Draft...the kiddie coaster at Nascar Speedpark

I work in a hotel, and the reason we don't accept them is very similar to the rental car comment. When I swipe a check card to hold someone's room when they check in, it automatically authorizes room and tax plus $20 per day for incidentals you may or may not use. And when it authorizes, it holds aside that money in your account until you check out and it is charged, or until the hotel asks that the hold be taken off (like if you pay in cash, or change to a different card). These holds, however, can cause stuff to start bouncing if you were expecting a paycheck to be deposited partway through your trip, and you didn't really have enough money in there to pay for it all the second you checked in. Not to mention that if you don't spend all the $20 a day it holds for incidentals, it can take up to a week for the hold to be taken off that money. You don't have the same problem with credit cards since every charge you make is making the balance grow bigger, not smaller like on a check card. Worst that can happen (realistically) with a credit card is that it gets declined. Worst that can happen with a check card is that outstanding purchases can start clearing while you have that hold on there and you could be hit with overdraft fees! My hotel won't accept a check card to hold the room at check in, but we will accept them at check out, once you have your final bill, and we know exactly how much to charge to it. It doesn't put a hold on it, and it charges just like if you bought something in a store. Sorry to be long winded about it, but I have to explain this to people EVERY SINGLE DAY, and still most people won't understand (and get ticked that you won't take their card). -Julie

Ralph is definitely my favorite... What do those berries taste like Ralph? "Tastes like...burning!" -Julie

Mine was...don't laugh...Blazing Fury at Dollywood! Hands down the weirdest coaster I've ever ridden! -Julie

Hi everyone! Here are a few of me! A regular fall portrait Me hiding in a hedge at Canobie Lake Creepiest coaster photo ever! Me and my friend Brian and two zombie kids on the Great Chase at SFNE

Could you please change mine to "A What? A TIME MACHINE!" including the quotes? Thanks in advance! -Julie