Big Mike

Thank you VERY much Bebes!!!!! I did not know that!! Big Mike has arrived in DENVER!!! Peace, Big Mike

I KNEW you wouldn't Sue!!! Way to go!!! I was a little unsure if it would still be there 2 months later, especially hidden outside! This is great news. Also great news, Big Mike has made it to LaGuardia in record time!! With a few hours to spare now, Big Mike is sitting down to a lovely breakfast: Chicken Parm Side of Meatballs Spaghetti Garlic Knotts And a large fruit punch! The trip is starting GREAT! I'll keep ya updated, but the big news so far.... We have another WINNER in The Mikestery Treasure Hunt Card Game.

Hi Friends!! Big Mike coming to you LIVE from his transportation to LaGuardia airport!! Everything is on schedule!! Seems like there are 4 coasters that I know are either closed or I can't ride already! Hopefully I can get the rest. Peace, Big Mike

Hey Fantastic Friends!!!!! I am just about ready to head out to the COASTERS, CANYONS, CORNERS, AND COWABUNGA TOUR!!!!! Hope to see a lot of you cool people there!! The response has been pretty good so far! We tweaked the schedule around a bit, but I am going to post the FINAL OFFICIAL schedule right now. It still may change mid trip depending how we are doing, but this is the main stuff! JUST ADDED!!!!!!!!! EVERYONE WHO JOINS THE BIG MIKE ROAD SHOW 2009 ON HIS VISIT TO COWABUNGA BAY WATER PARK OWNED BY FELLOW TPR MEMBER SHANE..... GETS IN FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS SHANE!!!! It pays to be a Valuable Big Mike Reader!!!!! Also, anyone who joins Big Mike during his visit to Schnepf Farms while they are closed midweek gets to ride the coaster on a special Big Mike ONLY coaster opening!!! All that news is terrific already, but ONE MORE BIG SURPRISE!!!!!! The brand new, highly desired, 1st edition SOLD OUT, Valuable Big Mike Reader PINS..... ARE NOW IN STOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have arrived! 200 Edition 2 pins! DONT GET SHUT OUT THIS TIME!!!! How do you get one you ask??? Every time Big Mike goes to a park, he will attach 5 Big Mike Valuable Reader Pins to his Official Big Mike Road Show T-Shirt!!! The first 5 people to come up and ask for one gets them!!!! TPR members only for now since we blew through the last batch in less than a few days!!! If anyone has a seasons pass to Lagoon and can get our whole gang in with a coupon during customer appreciation week, all of us would be happy!!! OK, here is the FINAL schedule: Friday July 31st Arrive Denver at noon Santa's Workshop at 2pm Fish N Farm at 5pm Lakeside at 7pm to close Saturday Aug 1 Elitch Gardens at opening 10am Mile High Flea Market at 2pm Drive to Salt Lake City Utah Sunday Aug 2 Lagoon at opening 11am Hollywood Connection at 3pm or 8pm depending on the day. Cowabunga Bay Water Park at 4pm to close. Monday Aug 3 Park City Mountain Resort at 11am Liberty Land Fun Center at 5pm Drive to Bryce Canyon Tuesday Aug 4 Bryce Canyon Wildlife Sancuary Grand Canyon Drive to Phoenix Wednesday Aug 5 Enchanted Island at 10am Castles N Coasters at opening at noon Schnepf Farms at 3pm Funtastics at 4pm Drive to New Mexico Western Playland* at 9pm *The rest of the schedule depends on if I make Western Playland this night since it is only open from 7pm - 10pm each night. Thursday Aug 6 Oasis Lanes at opening at noon Roswell New Mexico to hunt for UFO's *If I missed Western Playland, then it is back to there and Carlsbad Caverns to see the bats fly out at dusk. If I made it the night before, then it is a drive to Albuquerque. Friday Aug 7 Cliffs Amusement Park at opening at 11am IT'Z Center at 2pm 4 Corners USA at 6pm Saturday Aug 8 Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park at opening at 9am Drive to Denver for Big Mike vs. Big Mike showdowns Sunday Aug 9 Fly home to Big Mike World Headquarters Hope to see LOTS of Valuable Big Mike Readers!!! Follow Big Mike on here and on Facebook (mike betzler) to get up to the minute changes in the plans or to hear how the trip is going!!! Big Mike also gets Facebook and TPR Big Mike Road Show thread posts sent right to his Blackberry, so an occasional post would make the long drives easier See you in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas!!!! Peace, Big Mike Poor Lucky Dog is sad I will be home soon Our drive to drop Lucky Dog off at The Pet Suites of Mom and Dads. Lucky Dog has matching colors to Big Mike's Scandi shirt! THE NEW 2ND EDITION VALUABLE BIG MIKE READER PINS ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you VERY much!!! Anyone else have valuable info?? Peace, Big Mike

Hello Fantastic Friends!!!!! This next park was declared "The park that the most TPR people wanted Big Mike to visit". KINGS ISLAND!!! Big Mike was happy to oblige, especially since he still needed 4 credits there and one of them was the newly opened Diamondback!!! The Valuable Big Mike Readers did not disappoint, as we had a nice big turnout The park is so big and covered so often, that Big Mike did not rush around this time trying to get pictures of everything, plus he wanted to hang out with the really cool people! Hope you enjoy! Peace, Big Mike Zach (PKI ManJZ) checks off Ohio on The Official Big Mike Road Show T-Shirt!!! Who better than the Kings Island man himself??? Hope you enjoyed everybody! Come out and say hello sometime soon! Peace, Big Mike The late crew at King's Island including Jared (Reon) The early crew at King's Island, which included Craig and Gage all day long! Rebecca! Zach! ... and friends! Ken and James! A GREAT day of coasters... Son of Beast. Backlot Stunt Coaster. Vortex. Rugrats Runaway Reptar. Fairly Odd Coaster. Invertigo. We will close out Kings Island with some shots from high up in that tower. Flight Deck. Son of Beast. Drop Tower. Congo Falls. Delirium. Viking Fury. Adventure Express. Monster. Zephyr. Vortex. Dodgem. The Beast held Big Mike's #1 spot for a long time, and is still one of Big Mike's favorite coasters! Beast. Once the interviews were over, it was time to go help out the park index a little. Crypt. Once Big Mike was done with his new credits, it was once again time to do some interviews and continue to get The Big Mike Brand Name out to the people! Overview. The last credit of the day was the Racer! Racer has two sides and counts as two credits, but Big Mike could not remember which side he rode before he became a "Coaster Collector", so he only counted it as one until he rode both sides. Big Mike's coaster count has integrity! Coaster credit #774 for Big Mike! The Racer! The boys little brother started crying and hugging Big Mike because HE wanted to ride with Big Mike too!!! All was ok in the end as Big Mike treated the kids to a treat. All went well and we posed for a picture after the ride.... but then.... trouble!!!! Credit #773 for Big Mike! We found a very nice family that let me ride with one of thier sons Little Bill's Giggle Coaster! I bet you are thinking, "Hey, Big Mike messed up, its the same picture!" Nope, this Brian deserves DOUBLE CREDIT!!! Not only did he tip us off, he also ESCORTED Big Mike to the kiddie coaster where you need a kid to ride and he WALKED THROUGH THE LINE ASKING PARENTS FOR A KID TO RIDE WITH ME!!!!!! Now THAT is COOL!!!! I LOVE when Big Mike gets "special" treatment! Big Mike on the left side of the picture! See, I tell ya, that gold shirt really sticks out The lift. Craig is sticking his head out and you can see Big Mike's sexy legs 3rd over in the top row. Big Mike is super happy with the secret info and got right on for Credit #772 for Big Mike! This is Brian and he is a really cool guy that came to Big Mike's rescue and actually hunted us down after we went to ride another ride and told us that Firehawk was ready to open!!! He deserves to be recognized for the outstanding effort he put forth to help out Big Mike!! Next we were going to try and hit Firehawk since Big Mike needed that credit and because it is a very slow and low capacity ride. It was not open yet. Yep! Big Mike really liked Diamondback, as these are his favorite type of coasters to ride. Splashdown. Hmmm, that tower looks like a nice place to get a splashdown picture? Big Mike's favorite restraints in the world! Drop. Lift. Overview. Oh yeah! Diamondback! Credit #771 for Big Mike! Why was I here again? I also met this cool dude, but misplaced his name. Please post! Zach (PKI ManJZ) Rebecca (SakuraElizabeth) Craig (Iggyace) James (jamesdillaman) I was real happy to see some old and new TPR friends that came out to say hello! Ken (slither37) Of course, Big Mike still has to do a little TPR Park Index loving, just not as much as usual. Kings Island!

Thanks Jordan!!! I love new credits!! Great info, I am proud to have you as a Valuable Big Mike Reader, showing everyone how we give the most up to the minute info Peace, Big Mike

I don't care what the Thai people say, I like your boobs! Cant wait for the pictures of your next adventure! Peace, Big Mike

You win good buddy!!! PM me your address and the pin will be on the way! Also, Congrats for being in 1st place!!!!!! Peace, Big Mike

OK Everybody, I started the Kings Island update but it is too big with too many friends to finish tonight, sorry! I will have it up tomorrow! In the mean time, I had one brand new, super hot, collectors edition Valuable Big Mike Reader Pin left over from the Scandi trip and I would like to give it away to the 1st person who helps me come up with a picture that I am way too lazy to go try to find on here in TPR Land! The 1st person who posts the picture of Big Mike at West Coast Bash with the line to get the pictures taken with him gets the pin!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good Luck! Also, Colin and John, PM me your addresses so you will be on the top of the list when the next shipment of Valuable Big Mike Reader Pins come in since you guys guessed who the 1st person to wear a pin was and who won the 1st annual TPR Grand Prix! Peace, Big Mike

Hello Fantastic Friends!!!! Here are the winners from Find the Ducky Round #3: X2coasterfreak themeparkguy27 coreysjunk The Bebes coasterdude28 Iggyskid Groteslurf SuperShawn Chiquita Loquita GREAT JOB!!! Here are the standings after 3 rounds: 1ST PLACE WITH TWO WINS: coreysjunk The Bebes SuperShawn 2ND PLACE WITH 1 WIN: Lenaapple1974 kezrez11 bhartley Brandy524 Emiroo robinschroeder Coaster Palooza Reality15 STR8FXXXINEDGE mmousefan lisadancer Yeti762 megamatt hansrubens picknyourseat X2coasterfreak themeparkguy27 coasterdude28 Iggyskid Groteslurf Chiquita Loquita 3RD PLACE WITH NO WINS: Everyone else on TPR! *Remember, you only need 3 wins to successfully win this quest! Good luck next time!!! Peace, Big Mike PS- UPDATED BIG MIKE ROAD SHOW READER OF THE YEAR STANDINGS ON PAGE 1 RIGHT NOW!

Hello Fantastic Friends and fellow ducky hunters!!! Here are where the duckies were hidden in round #3. Don't fret if you lost, there are still 12 games to go!!!! Peace, Big Mike This ducky is INCORRECT! The winning guess in Round #3 is SEVEN!!!!! Congrats to the winners Peace, Big Mike This ducky is CORRECT! That is 7. This ducky is CORRECT! That is 6. This ducky is CORRECT! That is 5. This ducky is CORRECT! That is 4. This ducky is CORRECT! That is 3. This ducky is CORRECT! That is 2. This ducky is CORRECT! That is 1.

He he he. Great job! Peace, Big Mike

Hey Guy!!! Always feel free to voice your opinion here in this thread, I am always open to detecting possible shananigans! I agree that every once in a while another Valuable Big Mike Reader may have a "slight" advantage if they hung out and saw where a few duckies were hidden. On the other hand, I wouldn't want people not to come out and hang out just because of this either! I wouldn't want anybody sitting out either since that one game could possibly mean winning the condo week or not, and that would be uncool for a friend to come and hang out and get penalized in the process! If I had to choose one or the other, I would choose to give them the slight advantage. I thought that Scad 2 ducky (yes it is a ducky everybody) was VERY ingenious, and we wouldn't have had that possible without some help from Craig! Just to quell a possible uproar, the answer of 8 duckies that Craig gave is officially wrong anyway! Lol. Sorry dude! Big Mike always sneaks away and hides secret duckies, making it impossible to have a full advantage on others. What do The Valuable Big Mike Readers think?? You guys have veto power over Big Mike since this thread is all for you! Peace, Big Mike

OK, phew! I was wondering how I could have missed a whole huge stadium like that! I retract being a retard now Peace, Big mike

One more week until The Big Mike Road Show visit to Cowabunga Bay!!!! Wooooooo Hoooooooooo!!!!!! Do you have any gold colored wristbands to match The Official Big Mike Road Show T-Shirt???? Peace, Big Mike

Hello Fantastic Friends!!!! The 3rd round of The Find the Ducky Contest is now CLOSED!!! What a great round, we had 53 people play this time!! Even so, thats still pretty good odds to win the Championship!! Here is some quick notes: Everyone who has found a Mikestery Treasure Hunt Card so far has also guessed this round, with the exception of rawrtotheargh. That means there are 12 people who really mean business lol. Also, if you don't have a Mikestery Card yet and are looking for the free pass to the Finals with the most ducky wins, only 13 of the 18 people who are tied for 1st with one win even played this round. Your chances are still great! OK, here are the break downs for Round #3 The overwhelming favorite was 6 duckies, guessed by 22 people, which is double 2nd place. 2nd choice was 4 duckies guessed by 11 people. 3rd choice was 5 duckies guessed by 10 people. The last choice was 7 duckies guessed by 9 people. Then, there was 8 duckies guessed solo by Iggyace. Can he pull off what I like to call now, a "lenaapple" and win all by himself?? Was it 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or did ALL of you get it wrong this time?????? It is time to open up the forum and let you post your answers as to where you found your duckies!!!!!!! Peace, Big Mike 4 duckies: Calicoasters B&Man Brandy524 ajinaz Emiroo monkeyoverlord71 tigerxeyez jbarner14 Mechanic Jojo19799 Yeti762 5 duckies: robinschroder Homeboy23 cprocks22 mush619 jakizle cal1br3tto LJGoBlue jamesdillaman MASH80554077 pirouettes907 6 duckies: Crazy4Coasters bhartley KnottsDisneyFarm ernierocker Hikaru-chan Yellow Jacket Jon34MA tunnel lover#1 STR8FXXXINEDGE coaster_dad traincrossin hyyyper Team Thriller lisadancer spaceace12 Reality15 rckrazy06 depotrat Mataceman picknyourseat hansrubens njf1003 7 duckies: X2coasterfreak themeparkguy27 coreysjunk The Bebes coasterdude28 Iggyskid Groteslurf SuperShawn Chiquita Loquita 8 duckies: Iggyace

Great job at quoting everybody! Seems we miss one person each day lol. OK, Big Mike is tallying the results, so if you want to enter, you have about 15 minutes to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Peace, Big Mike

Hey Zach! Glad to see you had a fun time, you were a really cool dude! Some excellent pictures my friend. I did get a little pissed off reading it though as I had visited there a few years ago and saw the Texas Rangers stadium from the parking lot and I had NO CLUE that the Cowboys stadium was right behind it! UGHHHHHHHHH I take pictures of all the NFL stadiums I visit and never found that one. I am a damn retard Peace, Big Mike

WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATS and thanks for posting a picture for us I will put you on the front page shortly! Everyone else, about an hour before we close the Ducky Game!! Peace, Big Mike

Awesome report again Bebes!!! I am telling you, you guys have a real knack for producing some really funny trip reports!! Readers, make sure when you are reading you don't miss that last picture with the blinking red eye, I almost missed it and that is a solid ending!! I can't believe you hung out with all the cool Valuable Big Mike Readers like Shawn and family, Cody and his girlfriend, and John! I REALLY can't wait for West Coast Bash already lol. The West Coast people are all so awesome! So, I admit, I am scrolling down reading the story as it goes along and I get to the Lady Bebe picture and I just stop scrolling and I say out loud, "wow, she looks F-in great in that picture". Now, people that know me know that I don't swear at all really, so you know the picture must have been waaaaaaaay good for me to say that! Then I scroll down and see "Big Mike eat your heart out" and laughed my butt off! VERY FUNNY!!! I often sit at Big Mike World Headquarters with the higher ups contemplating how we can secure the top spot in TPR history and we always talk about threads that may sneak up and catch us. The higher ups say that will never happen as The Big Mike Road Show is too damn good to beat, but I have an uneasy feeling in my stomach that The Bebes are even better! Good thing I got a huge head start Peace, Big Mike Saved it to my computer before I even read the comment!

Hey Friends!!!!!! Today is the deadline for your guesses for the 3rd round of Find the Ducky!!! I will cut it off when I get home from work later tonight!!! Today is special, because Big Mike is calling today: SNEAKY SUNDAY!!!! While I was going through the thread yesterday trying to clean up the front page and put up the exact up to date standings in the ducky game and the Mikestery Treasure Hunt Game, I stumbled across a posy by Mr. Bebe saying he would take a bribe to tell where the Dorney Park Mikestery Card was hidden lol. That got me to thinking, I NEVER posted the Dorney Park clues!!!!! That is right when my computer crashed and before that I posted the spots park by park, but after that I posted the whole trip in one huge post. Dorney got lost in the shuffle and has now been hiding almost TWO months, lets hope it is still there!! So, in SNEAKY SUNDAY fashion, it will not be posted on the front page or in headlines yet, but it will be posted right now for the die hard Valuable Big Mike Readers to have first crack at it! Good Luck! Also, if you want to check out the new and improved front page, click here! Good Luck! Peace, Big Mike Clue #5 THERE IT IS!!!!!! Hopefully still there lol. Go find it before the rest of TPR finds out about it Peace, Big Mike Clue #4 Clue #3 Clue #2 Clue #1

Got ya! I am hitting that park early, so hopefully it won't be too bad yet! I will try my best to find you for sure! Peace, Big Mike

Hey Jordan! I will be at Lagoon on Sunday Aug 2, is Metro Station playing on Saturday or Sunday good buddy? Peace, Big Mike

I am currently going back through the thread to try and simplify page #1 with links and up to dates standings and totally missed this post the 1st time around!!! This is awesome!!! I need a picture of that for sure Peace, Big Mike