Big Mike

Mr. Bebe - You are smart to keep Ms. Bebe happy! Craig - I knew that hiding spot was going to be trouble because the surface was rounded and I figured one side of it would rip off! We never spoke on where the cards were hidden, but when it was brought up, some joker was staring in that direction Peace, Big Mike

That was a great day!!! I like the "can you find Big Mike picture" The gold shirt is doing its job, which is making it easier to find me in group pics lol. Thanks for coming out and sharing a fun day together!!!! Peace, Big Mike

I give you credit for trying to find them before I post where they are, but I would be extemely surprised if you find the Kings Island one without any hints. The Coney Island one you could stumble across maybe. Good luck dude! Peace, Big Mike

Awwww, that made me smile! I REALLY had a fun time today! Meeting wonderful TPR people is really making this year very enjoyable, and it is happening over and over again!!!! I can't wait to see you again! Hope the wait for that Cinnabon was worth it. Lol Peace, Big Mike

YES!!!! ANOTHER brand new account and FIRST post for The Big Mike Road Show 2009!!! We are racking them up!!!! Peace, Big Mike

Mike, I have now passed Gage and made sure he knew it. Lol. Peace, Big Mike

The Big Mike Road Show is back showing you everything else at John Ivers!! Peace, Big Mike PS - Thanks to Craig for contributing a few pictures for this report!!! Craig will have another trip report with better stories and more technical info, make sure to read that too!! "Bye Big Mike, come back anytime!!!" Hope you enjoyed! Peace, Big Mike Since this was so special to Big Mike and the fact that John and his wife were such wonderful people, we had John be a special guest checker offer of Indiana on The Official Big Mike Road Show 2009 T-Shirt!! A nice group shot of 4 crazy coaster riders and one awesome coaster builder. Big Mike thanks John for this rare and thrilling opportunity. Success! John has built a winner. Craig into the loop, success or failure? Craig comes flying down the drop and turn much faster than Gage. Up the lift Craig goes, again with no problems! As John pushes Craig to the lift, I sense a bit of concern on Craig's face. John decides that since The Big Mike Road Show is in town, he is going to try something new and push the envelope of his coaster and see if it can handle Craig! Other rides at John Ivers for the park index lol: Big Mike makes friends with the guard dog

Hey Fantastic Friends!!!! (This section is repeated from a few pages ago just in case anyone did not hear the HUGE news!!) AWESOME NEWS!!! If you are a Valuable Big Mike Reader, this great info just got passed down to Big Mike World Headquarters!!! Big Mike's hard work and commitment to help make Theme Park Review's website the #1 coaster and theme park website in the World has just been recognized by the main man himself, my great friend Mr. Robb Alvey!!!!! Robb has ALWAYS been a HUGE supporter of The Big Mike Road Show thread, always there for me when the few haters go on attack on me! Robb's support and my love for him and all he has done for The Big Mike Road Show's rise to success has driven me to do all I can for the site and to make helping the park index as much as I can the 2nd top priority this year behind meeting lots of new and old friends!! Anyone who has come out to say hello this year at a park can vouch for me that I tell the group to keep walking as I peel off to take as many ride photos and signs as I can and I will run and catch back up to you. Well the hard work has paid off and Big Mike has been recognized in 2 different ways!!! Robb has: 1. Big Mike now has his OWN website address on Theme Park Review!!! Ever tell a friend about the cool thread on TPR, but had to give the website address and then say go to "forum" and then "donkeys" and then scroll down until you find "Big Mike"? I do it all the time when I take pictures of people. Well Robb has just made it VERY EASY! The Big Mike Road Show thread can now be found just be typing in: www.themeparkreview.com/bigmike Woo hoo!!!!! Our very own link!!! We have made the big time!!! That's not all though. Secondly, now that Big Mike has done such hard work and has posted soooo many trip reports for all the Valuable Big Mike Readers and Theme Park Review family to see when they want to check out a park for their own trip, Robb had made it MUCH easier again!! Now if you go into the TPR Park Index and just search the key words BIG MIKE, soon all the park trip reports will come up alphabetically with park reviews and ride photos!!!! Woo hoo!!! Big Mike has solidified himself as the place to go to find the most in depth information In honor of this monumental expansion of The Big Mike Road Show thread into Theme Park Review history, Big Mike will treat all The Valuable Big Mike Readers, everyone on the Theme Park Review website, and all the coaster world to a VERY RARE AND EXCLUSIVE trip report posting tonight!!! Theme Park Review and The Big Mike Road Show 2009 will proudly present the World premiere of the 1st ever FULL trip report of John Ivers HOMEMADE and BACKYARD coasters!!! There has been coverage before, but as John said so himself, no one has ever done a FULL report which included pictures of John and his wife and dogs, interviews, tons of pictures of the two coasters, ON RIDE photos, and pictures of the other rides on site! Big Mike Productions has stopped all production to bee line this report to everyone tonight to celebrate Big Mike's proud accomplishment here on Theme Park Review! I hope you enjoy!!! Peace, Big Mike This concludes this part, but I have more in store for you, and it is coming up right away! A couple of nerd shots to please everybody. You can just see the happiness! Last but certainly not least, Craig takes it for a spin. Gage is lucky enough to ride with John! Adam is rewarded for hanging out with The Big Mike Road Show with a ride of his own. Two thumbs up and I rate this coaster higher than Son of Beast at Kings Island. Big Mike thought this coaster was real fun. Big Mike had permission to bring his camera on the ride. The drop! Big Mike enjoying the coaster while still managing to bring The Valuable Big Mike Readers extensive coverage. Credit #765 for Big Mike!!! EXCLUSIVE "On Ride" photos! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! John runs a few laps with no problems and then the silence is shattered..... by....... "Would anyone like to ride?" As if the day could not get any better, John decides to start up the Blue Too and do some test runs. Gage conquered the loop! Success! Gage finishes the ride intact! Gage enters the loop and all of us hold our breath for the outcome. The drop. The lift carries Gage all the way up with no problem! The lift carries Gage away. John pushes Gage to the lift and now it is time to see if this coaster really works! Since there is a weight limit on The Blue Flash, Gage was the only person allowed to be a guiney pig, I mean ride it. John moves the car back and forth to cut the grass since no one has ridden it lately. John uncovers the seat to The Blue Flash and asks Gage if he wants to ride so we can see it in action for our report! The ending. The rest of the course. The lift motor. The lift. The cars are attached by a trailer hitch. Front view. The coaster cars. This coaster has two cars and even has steps to the loading platform! Overview. John's second invention is The Blue Too! Here is the ending of the coaster. A view of everything covered so far. Different view of the loop. The Blue Flash even has a loop!!! There is a tight turn at the bottom of the drop. The lift supports are built right into the roof of the shed. The drop. The lift motor. Notice the lift hill is built right on top of his shed. The lift. The coaster car, currently covered up to build suspense. Overview. Now I will show you his two inventions, starting with the original... The Blue Flash! Here he is, John Ivers himself! John and his wife come out to talk to us about the coasters. The 1st thing I noticed was the guard dog sitting by the coaster. A picture for the TPR Park Index! The Big Mike Road Show 2009 proudly presents John Ivers Home Built Back Yard Coasters! Yep, there they are!!! Everyone always dreams about having a coaster in thier own backyard, but John actually did it! We arrive, and from a distance I think I can make out a few coasters in John's backyard! The story starts as my great buddy Craig Iggyace) takes me for a ride to John Ivers house in Indiana along with his son Gage. Adam (Spaceace12) picked the right day to tag along with The Big Mike Road Show for sure!

AWESOME NEWS!!! if you are a Valuable Big Mike Reader, this great info just got passed down to Big Mike World Headquarters!!! Big Mike's hard work and commitment to help make Theme Park Review's website the #1 coaster and theme park website in the World has just been recognized by the main man himself, my great friend Mr. Robb Alvey!!!!! Robb has ALWAYS been a HUGE supporter of The Big Mike Road Show thread, always there for me when the few haters go on attack on me! Robb's support and my love for him and all he has done for The Big Mike Road Show's rise to success has driven me to do all I can for the site and to make helping the park index as much as I can the 2nd top priority this year behind meeting lots of new and old friends!! Anyone who has come out to say hello this year at a park can vouch for me that I tell the group to keep walking as I peel off to take as many ride photos and signs as I can and I will run and catch back up to you. Well the hard work has paid off and Big Mike has been recognized in 2 different ways!!! Robb has: 1. Big Mike now has his OWN website address on Theme Park Review!!! Ever tell a friend about the cool thread on TPR, but had to give the website address and then say go to "forum" and then "donkeys" and then scroll down until you find "Big Mike"? I do it all the time when I take pictures of people. Well Robb has just made it VERY EASY! The Big Mike Road Show thread can now be found just be typing in: www.themeparkreview.com/bigmike Woo hoo!!!!! Our very own link!!! We have made the big time!!! That's not all though. Secondly, now that Big Mike has done such hard work and has posted soooo many trip reports for all the Valuable Big Mike Readers and Theme Park Review family to see when they want to check out a park for their own trip, Robb had made it MUCH easier again!! Now if you go into the TPR Park Index and just search the key words BIG MIKE, soon all the park trip reports will come up alphabetically with park reviews and ride photos!!!! Woo hoo!!! Big Mike has solidified himself as the place to go to find the most in depth information In honor of this monumental expansion of The Big Mike Road Show thread into Theme Park Review history, Big Mike will treat all The Valuable Big Mike Readers, everyone on the Theme Park Review website, and all the coaster world to a VERY RARE AND EXCLUSIVE trip report posting tonight!!! Theme Park Review and The Big Mike Road Show 2009 will proudly present the World premiere of the 1st ever FULL trip report of John Ivers HOMEMADE and BACKYARD coasters!!! There has been coverage before, but as John said so himself, no one has ever done a FULL report which included pictures of John and his wife and dogs, interviews, tons of pictures of the two coasters, ON RIDE photos, and pictures of the other rides on site! Big Mike Productions has stopped all production to bee line this report to everyone tonight to celebrate Big Mike's proud accomplishment here on Theme Park Review! Look for it tonight and thanks to everyone who reads and supports The Big Mike Road Show which made this top honor possible! Peace, Big Mike

Casey is never a bother!! He is awesome!! Peace, Big Mike

Wow! What a GREAT trip!! A group of 14 today at Six Flags Great America! Group of 7 at Indiana Beach! Group of 6 at Kings Island! Every stop had good friends show up. Hope everyone who came out to say hello at any of The Big Mike Road Show Stops had a great time!!! A super special thanks to Craig (Iggyace) for everything!!!! More to follow! Peace, Big Mike

Hello Fantastic Friends!!! Six Flags Great Adventure had thier Media Day for Bizarro this past Thursday and Robb invited his East Coast Division's top in depth reporter Big Mike to cover it for all The Valuable Big Mike Readers and the rest of the TPR community! Big thanks to Robb for making this happen for The Mighty Big Man because Robb knew that I was dying to cover this!! Many of you could figure out why I am sure. Two words. Angel Aristone! Well of course Robb wanted a top notch job done also, so it was a match made in heaven. I wanted to make Robb proud and cover every aspect of the ceremony, and I wanted to make Angel proud and get the word out to everyone that Bizarro is now open and a lot of fun to ride with the new elements. I hope I was able to make both of you proud! Enjoy everyone! Peace, Big Mike PS - I also hired a new Public Relations mascot for The Big Mike Road Show 2009, see it at the end of the report. BIZARRO SOARS INTO SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE Park Debuts the Most Anticipated Coaster Transformation of 2009 Jackson, N.J. – Six Flags Great Adventure today announced a transformation of epic proportions – the debut of BIZARRO. Themed around the DC Comics character Bizarro, this newly-enhanced roller coaster offers thrill-seekers the exhilaration of a Six Flags signature coaster combined with the unique storytelling of the twisted world of Bizarro. The experience features high tech special effects and precisely orchestrated on-board audio production designed to assault the senses for a world-class “show” on a roller coaster. The DC Comics character, Bizarro, is best known as a peculiar Superman-like creature from a parallel Earth known as Htrae where inhabitants believe in “doing the opposite of all Earthly things.” Because he is the imperfect duplicate of Superman, his powers and abilities manifest themselves as opposites of Superman’s powers including freeze vision, heat breath, spotlight vision and x-ray hearing. The BIZARRO experience begins the moment guests enter the ride queue through a custom-created comic designed exclusively for this ride by DC Comics. Guests quickly uncover the mysterious background of the Bizarro character and his destructive takeover of the attraction before stepping onto the ride. Unlike traditional coasters, BIZARRO is floorless, giving riders the sensation of flying as their feet dangle above the track. The three minute and fifteen second thrill begins with a pulse-quickening 146-foot climb before plummeting 61 miles-per-hour through Bizarro’s freeze vision “cool zone.” The rush continues as riders twist and turn through seven loops – including 114-foot vertical and 96-foot dive loops – blast past bursts of Bizarro’s fire breath and race by bizarre scenes and illusions. The mind-boggling 3,985-foot twisting journey of storytelling and high-tech elements ends by sending riders head first into a spiked-shaped Auger of Doom, set inside interlocking corkscrews. Throughout the entire journey, riders experience the adrenaline rush with heart-pounding, on-board audio taking them to a whole new dimension of imagination. “Six Flags Great Adventure is recognized for our unique coaster collection and for continually pushing the envelope season after season,” said Mark Kane, Six Flags Great Adventure’s President. “With this transformation, guests experience a thrill ride so surreal and so menacing, no other coaster compares.” Six Flags introduced a unique multimedia, interactive marketing campaign for the BIZARRO launch, generating community engagement via an alternative reality game (ARG). After an intense five months of online play and more than 500,000 participants, Six Flags Great Adventure hosted a final in-park scavenger hunt rewarding 30 key players exclusive access to the grand opening and the opportunity to be the first riders on the all-new BIZARRO. The BIZARRO debut at Six Flags Great Adventure coincides with the grand opening of BIZARRO at Six Flags New England in Agawam, MA. The height restriction is 54 inches to ride. Guests can receive up-to-the minute park news and purchase a 2009 season pass online at sixflags.com. I am not sure what Angel is making over at Six Flags (hopefully a ton), but I think I overpaid for Lucky Dog! Hope you enjoyed! Peace, Big Mike I was impressed with the job Lucky Dog did, so I hired him and awarded him his very own Big Mike Road Show 2009 Dog Tag. Lucky Dog ran and ran and told about a million people before he ran out of gas. We stop at a park and he runs all over the place saying "Go ride Bizarro!" Here you see him hanging out the window telling people to go ride Bizarro! Lucky Dog looks out the window for potential people to tell about Big Mike's awesome in depth coverage of Six Flags Great Adventure's Media Day for Bizarro! We hop in the new Hot Rod and start his public relations work. Lucky Dog feels my pain of missing Angel already and offers to try out for the job opening. So I go back to Big Mike World Headquarters after the Media Day and I tell Lucky Dog that I need to find myself someone as talented as Angel to do public relations work for The Big Mike Road Show 2009. We will finish the coverage of Media Day with a picture of Angel and Big Mike together! No offense to the TPR girls, or Elissa's mom, or all the super models out there.... THIS is the hottest girl on the planet right now :)Getting serious though, excellent job Angel! I am very impressed and proud of the job you are doing for Great Adventure! You have a very bright future. (I know she is going to read this, YES!) A big shout out to Mark and Angel for a job well done! The Bizarro transformation, according to Head East Region Theme Park Review In Depth Reporter Big Mike is a success! In an exclusive interview after his ride, Mr. Six said he liked it too. Jordan liked it too. Josh gave it a thumbs up! Lots of fire! You face the fire here, unlike X2, MUCH BETTER! Fire! You also traveled through a pair of cut outs. I really enjoyed the mist. Cool zones a plenty on this ride. The lift where you hear the audio from your speakers. If you are expecting pumping rock music like X2, there is none. The first riders who won a previous scavenger hunt. Angel on the phone talking about: A. Someone getting fired for the streamers. B. Discussing with her agent a possible job switch to The Big Mike Road Show. C. Telling her friend that she just met and had her picture taken with a really hot guy. The audio box. New speakers. This gave us ample time to take a few shots of the new trains. A crew had to be called to remove it. I have a strong feeling that there will be no streamers next time. The streamers blew right on to the track lol. Once the ribbon was cut, streamers were shot off. Next up was the ribbon cutting ceremony with the two NJ ACE reps. Every single media outlet has the same old pictures, people speaking in front of the podium. So just to be different, Big Mike wanted to give everybody a different and MUCH better angle to look at. Everyone is the crowd loved listening to Angel. Angel finished things off by absolutely captivating the crowd with her smart wit, excellent enthusiasm, and stunning beauty. Mark led things off and excited the crowd. Last but not least, here she is, the lovely and talented Angel Aristone! Larry! (Chief Engineer) Now lets announce the main presenters:Park General Manager Mark Cole!(I told Mark that Angel was the best PR girl I have ever seen and I wanted to steal her for The Big Mike Road Show PR job) Free eats and drinks too. Stew! (stew560) Andrew! (MilleniumCP) Joe! (Bubba Z) Josh! (josh davidson) First lets announce the special guests attending today: Jordan! (jbarner14) Balloons and Ribbons for the ceremony! The new ride sign! Not everyone is familiar with Bizarro, so here are his attributes! The new Bizarro design! Bizarro stats! Media Day for Bizarro and Big Mike has his press pass for Theme Park Review.

I guess that is just one of the extra special perks you get when you come out and hang out with The Big Mike Road Show 2009!!! Peace, Big Mike

We will be at the 9am early entry for Diamondback and then head over to Firehawk at 10am! We had a group of 6 today, hope we can beat that tomorrow! See you tomorrow. Peace, Big Mike. (Now in Kentucky)

The Blue Too is correct!!! Great Job!! Very close Jeff, you were only off by a couple inches. Lol Craig and Gage got both coasters, but Big Mike was over the weight limit! For all the Valuable Big Mike Readers that do not know these coasters, they are homemade backyard coasters at John Ivers personal home! One even has a loop! John told us that no one has ever done a feature article on his coasters, just some photos. The Big Mike Road Show 2009 will present the EXCLUSIVE extremely in depth report with tons of pictures including on ride photos coming soon on the best roller coaster website, Theme Park Review! Peace, Big Mike PS - Holiday World is now complete, add The Voyage to the coaster count! Beech Bend at 4pm today. Kings Island 9am tomorrow morning, all day.

Wrong

UPDATE!!!! The Big Mike Road Show 2009 has just pulled off a MAJOR very hard coaster credit!!! Full photo trip report to come, which will be a TPR EXCLUSIVE, and possibly a WORLD exclusive! You can never underestimate the power of The Big Man! Peace, Big Mike PS - who is going to be first to guess which coaster it was?

Hey Friends of the Midwest! The Big Mike Road Show 2009 has arrived in the Midwest!!! Looking forward to meeting lots of cool people!! We are on the way to Holiday World right now to hit opening! Beech Bend later tonight, between 4ish and 5ish! Then we already have a big guest list for our visit tomorrow to Kings Island, once again at opening! Come out and say hello! Would love to see you! Peace, Big Mike PS - As soon as I can get a free hour, I will post my view on Bizarros Media Day at Six Flags Great Adventure!

I would be happy tp come say hello! Where exactly is the sales window? Peace, Big Mike

The Big Mike Road Show is hitting this park (this Tuesday) just in time!!! Full trip report of the place coming soon! Peace, Big Mike

Hey Friends!!!! Good and bad news!! The bad news is that Big Mike Productions was pumping out trip report after trip report so fast, all filled to the rim with useful info, awesome pictures, and top notch witty humor that.... ....doing all of this non stop blew up The Big Mike Road Show motherboard on the Super Computer! Either that or all the sexy hot babes that were posted blew the motherboard, but one of those did. Thus, the Big Mike Road Show Super Computer is done! Finished! Kaput! Now the good news! Big Mike Productions and everybody at Big Mike World Headquarters now has replaced the Super Computer already with a new Super Duper Computer!!!!! We are back in business.... as soon as Big Mike figures out how to use it lol. Since The Valuable Big Mike Readers were inconvienenced, I will add one more bit of good news. The Big Mike Road Show 2009 has listened to the Valuable Big Mike Readers requests and can now announce that The Big Mike Road Show WILL switch plans and hit Six Flags Chicago at opening on Monday Memorial Day to meet up with all the cool TPR people!!!!!!! Theres still time to add your name to the ever growing list of cool people now meeting up at each park!!! Peace, Big Mike

I will have to get with Craig later tonight when I give Him m airline info and see if we have an updated schedule! It seems that everybody meeting at Six Flags Chicago can make Monday, but not Tuesday. Get back to you soon! Peace, Big Mike

The trip is almost here everyone!! Everyone living in the Midwest, this is your chance to complete one of the Big Mike quests to win the Grand Prize! The schedule is posted above and it would be fantastic to meet some awesome Theme Park Review people at the parks all weekend long!! I like to take a roll call so I know who is coming and who to look out for, so if you can make any of the parks, post it here and I will add you to Big Mike's guest list of very cool people! Here is the current list of attendees: KINGS ISLAND: Reon Sakura Elizabeth PKI ManJZ Traincrossin James Dillaman Slither37 INDIANA BEACH: Funky Badger Coaster05 Cameron SIX FLAGS CHICAGO: B&Man Jojo19799 Cameron HOLIDAY WORLD: Emiroo Space Ace BEECH BEND; No love so far Of course IggyAce will be at all the parks with me. If I forgot anyone or anyone else can make it, please post and come out and say hello!!!! If anything changes mid trip or to see up to date arrival and departure times for the parks, this thread will be updated often via Blackberry! Also follow us with the same timely updates on Facebook! Add Mike Betzler! Hope to see everyone this weekend for a very fun time! Peace, Big Mike PS- any Kings Island coupons out there?

Awwwwwwww! Is it the season finale already???? I am VERY sad to hear that! hehe Love you Shane, see you in August dude! Peace, Big Mike

I have not received the final itiniery yet from Craig, but I would lean towards Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day. I fly out of Chicago, so it makes sence. I think Craig may be waiting on the weather to make sure we hit all the parks, but it will definately be Mon or Tue! Peace, Big Mike