Erik Johnson

Oh, how funny!

Looks great! It kind of looks like a super Deluge.

I love Kennywood, I am really happy that they are getting a new coaster.

Anyone else get the newest Universal Florida survey asking questions if it would be a good idea to have a Halloween event at a water park?

Fun thread! Does anyone know when Busch Gardens droppped the whole Africa/Europe name? It looks like they have gone back to the old Busch Gardens Tampa Bay as well as Busch Gardens Williamsburg names.

Anyone else experience Monster Mansion yet this year?

Very sweet Retro Photo TR. I guess I should go to Great Escape to ride Comet.

Best way to get to the caves. You also should have gone up to the roof. They just opened it like a month ago and I hear it's incredible. But there's so much to do, you can't do it all in one visit. While I am sad that I did miss out on awesome stuff, I find it amazing that there was still a lot more stuff to see even though we spent quite a bit of time at the place. Next time I make it out there I will be sure to seek out the shoe slides as well as go to the roof.

This is only a rumor, please don't spread it because it's false. Someone wasn't paying attention! Heh heh heh, So that is where you went when we visited the whale.

^ Shoe shafts?... Hmmm shoe shafts. I have no memory of that, but it is quite possible I have simply forgotten what those are. Cold you remind me? Yeah, none of us were really up to buying drinks at the bar. I would have to admit that even though I deal with booze on a daily basis with my job, I actually drink very little. I am not sure what excuse the other people can give you.

^ I still think the Prowler was a very solid ride (8 out of 10), which for me is a good ride. I gave Evel K. the same rating as well. I was just saying that, for me, it really did not seem quite as fast as intense as other GCI's I have ridden so far. After my first front seat morning ride it almost felt more like a GCI Mini-Family sized coaster, which really is not true since its stats are pretty much on par as other GCI's. I think it may be because this one has a much different layout when compared to GCI's other coasters. Prowler is more of a twisty out and back coaster compared to its normal bowl of wood design. I love terrain coasters, especially ones that goes through a bunch of woods/trees. I know that the coaster is brand new and all (which required the removal of trees for construction), but I have to admit I was disappointed to find that for most of the back half of the coaster took place in a field with a real lack of trees. That would be a real nitpick though. I did really liked the section heading back towards the station, it was almost Boulder Dash like. Also, our backseat afternoon rides were certainly much closer to the feel to other GCI's in terms of speed and intensity. I do not think Worlds of Fun is terrible by any means, other than the real lack of cover for its rides queues, it is just that there really was not anything special about the place that sets it apart from other parks. It really did feel much like Cedar Fair's other corporate parks like Kings Island or Dominion.

Actually my reference was when the Royals used have Spring Training at Boardwalk and Baseball at Haines City, Florida.

I have not ridden Terminator yet. I did like Prowler and E.K. quite a bit, but I have to give the edge to Evel. Kentucky Rumbler is my favorite one so far out of the one I have ridden. I have ridden: Lightning Racers Thunderhead Prowler Evel K. Gwazi Roar (SFA) Wildcat (Hershey) Kentucky Rumbler

I do not think that Steel Lasso has a max height limit. I believe this has to do with the new trains. You should be good. We did not even drive by Ozark Wildcat (A real shame from what I understand). The park has been closed the entire season so far.

If I remember correctly, wasn't the ride running a bit too fast during the first half of the back helix section at a sustained 2G turn which ended up tearing up the track. Like Robb said, they mentioned to us that they would have to brake it at some point due to it was tearing itself apart. I am glad I was able to ride it last summer, because it did become my new #1 coaster. I would be curious to see if it stays in that position the next time I ride it.

Yes, that crowd after that concert was really really insane. Stupid free concerts!

Looks to me that you just happened to take a picture of a child being curious. If she walked up to the counter, purchased it, then proceeded to drink the entire thing, that would be a different story.

A delay is a delay. Though they really should stop airing those Universal/Coke radio commericals all the time which basically says that the coaster is open.

I had the opportunity to use a camera with the "Smile" function on it on the Texas trip. That function is amazing and creepy at the same time.

Ok Time to rate the coasters: Frontier City: 1. Steel Lasso: (Suspended Family Coaster) Most certainly the very best Vekoma SFC I have ridden so far. While the track layout is not something too original, the new trains really help these models out. Replace them all...NOW! (7 out of 10) 2. Silver Bullet: (Schwarzkopf/Looping Star) I love Schwarzkopf, but I can not say I loved this ride. While solid it quite did not have the same speed and intensity when compared to others I have ridden. It does have a few strange parts in the ride. (7 out of 10) 3. Wildcat: (Wooden Coaster) It is more of a family wooden coaster which is perfect for this park. Nice setting, not too fast or intense. It would be the perfect wooden coaster for those who have never ridden one before. (7 out of 10) 4. Diamond Back: (Arrow Launched/Shuttle Loop) I had never ridden one of these before. While not tall or superfast it is intense. It was especially intense during our return trip backwards. (7 out of 10) Silver Dollar City: 1. Powder Keg: A Blast in the Wilderness (S&S Power/Premier) This was my favorite coaster on the trip. Incredible theming as well as an impressive launch. The back row has airtime galore. I would wish that S&S would build a lot more of these coasters. (9 out of 10) 2. Fire in The Hole: (Custom Indoor Powered/Dark Ride/Coaster) I am not really sure if you can count this one, but there are a few gravity controlled drops in it. It is much more of a dark ride than coaster. I thought it was a lot of fun. (8 out of 10) 3. Wildfire: (B&M Sit-Down) While one of the shorter B&M sitdown coasters out there, this one does have some bite. The first drop was really great. (8 out of 10) 4. Thunderation (Arrow Mine Train) This was a lot of fun. It certainly is one of the fastest mine trains I have ever ridden. I was not brave enough to ride one of the backwards cars as I would be afraid of getting sick. (8 out of 10) 5. Grand Exposition Coaster (Zamperla Family) This one was made for little kids. (4 out of 10) Worlds of Fun: 1. Prowler: (GCI Wooden) Do you wonder how GCI would handle a terrain coaster? That would be Prowler. It is another one of those, perfect coasters for the entire family. It is not quite as intense as many of the other GCI coasters out there, but the ride still delivers. It does run faster later in the day. (8 out of 10) 2. Boomerang: (Vekoma Boomerang) I am not much of a fan of Boomerangs, but this one really was not too bad at all. (6 out of 10) 3. Timber Wolf: (Dinn Wooden) It did have a few fun sections but the turn-arounds were quite brutal. I undertsand the back car was quite bad for its brutality. Nothing really special. (6 out of 10) 4. Spinning Dragons: (Gerstlauer Spinner) I find these to be fun. Nothing extraordinary, but still a lot of fun. I think I do like the Tony Hawk ones better though. (7 out of 10) 5. Patriot: (B&M Invert) I did like this one. I found the front row a bit more intense than the back, which is rare for a B&M coaster. (8 out of 10) 6. Mamba: (Morgan Hyper) The first couple of drops as well as the head chopping helix were a lot of fun. The rest of it really felt like an oversized mine train. (7 out of 10) Six Flags St. Louis 1. Evel Knievel: (GCI Wooden) While it is not my favorite GCI, it is still a very solid ride. It seems to get faster towards the end of the ride. Great addition to the park (8 out of 10) 2. Mr. Freeze: (Premier LIM Shuttle Loop coaster) I love these coasters. Very fast and intense. This one seemed a little slower than it mirror/twin at Six Flags Over Texas. (8 out of 10) 3. Tony Hawk Big Spin: (Gerstlauer Spinner) This one would be my favorite Tony Hawk simply for its setting. These are a lot of fun, especially for families. (7 out of 10) 4. Boss (CCI Wooden) I think this could be a great ride if they simply replaced the trains with pretty much anything other than G-Trains. It recently has had extensive retracking done which, from what I understand, has really improved the ride. (7 out of 10) 5. Screaming Eagle (Wooden) Older wooden coaster with a few fun drops and shuffling turn arounds. It does need some work. (6 out of 10) 6. River King Mine Train (Arrow Mine Train) This one really was not very good, even for a mine train. It really does not do too much. (5 out of 10). 7. Ninja (Steel Vekoma) Worst coaster in the park. Make sure you ride this one carefully. (4 out of 10) 8. Batman (B&M Invert) These are always good. Very fast and lots of forces. This would be a mirror image of the other ones. (8 out of 10)

Manta gets my vote.

Seriously the City Museum is simply insane. It is difficult to explain it to people who have never been there before. It does have 3 floors of some of the most random collections you have ever seen. The big plus is that there are some of the craziest (Jungle Gyms??) in the museum. Really, there are about 1001 different ways that you can kill yourself here. On weekends it is open until 1:00am with a full service bar inside. So you can imagine of all the craziness in the place. There is even a place you rent for special gatherings/dinners/whatever in case if you wanted to bring a larger group of people with you. I do not have a ton of photos from the place since we were there at night, and its quite dark at night. Plus I simply was afraid I would break my camera if I had it out too much. The City Museum: Wait do I see a ferris wheel on the roof? Wow, this building is actually famous. Cool stuff to buy. "Yeah! I am going to die!" This would be the roller slide of death. Though at night, they turn off pretty much most of all the lights. And yes, they have more crazy things to climb on. Back inside the museum we find this area. Basically a ball pit and dodge ball rolled into one. If you get tired, you get stuck or fall to your impending doom. You guys are crazy. There was no way I would do that one. Hi Paul! "Are you sure this place was built for adults?" This gives you a better perspective how high up it is. It also hangs over the edge of the building. We eventually ended up in the cockpit of some plane. I should state that we were about 4 or 5 stories above the ground when we did this. No there is not a net. I am supposed to climb through that? At least they have a band out here to play your Game Over theme song. This sign should say. 4,265 new ways to kill yourself located out here. Just random to be random. Please don't die. Slide! Paul taking the plunge. This would be the entrance to the 3 story tall slide. Andrew did quite well in not killing himself on all this stuff. These used to be all over the country a long time ago. No idea. But I think its cool. Inside the museum there are a ton of stuff to look at. You would never see anything like this at a themepark in the United States. Just museums. They really mean it. This place really is insane. For $5 more you can go to the very top, The Roof. We ended up skipping out on it though. Its 10:00PM. The place stays open until 1:00AM on Saturdays. Look Dave! We made it! The worst thing about these trips is saying goodbye. Everyone say Good-Bye to Cameron.

While we were finished with theme parks for the trip, we decided to head on into St. Louis to do a couple of activities. The first one would be to visit the world famous Gateway Arch. The other one, which should also be world famous, would be the most insane museum you have ever seen, The City Museum. Our friend Dave (Djsnow) did a Photo: TR last year of the museum. So we had to make sure to go visit the place ourselves. Whew! We made it down at last. Time to head on down. One final shot of the courthouse. Gulp! We really are high up here. Getting dark now. This is what the trap door of doom looks like. This is what the windows look like. Busch Stadium. Maybe they can relocate Big Bad Wolf there. Gretchen Wilson would be down there. I first thought it was Heart when I heard her amazing rendition of Barracuda. This would be me touching the highest point. Its cool that you can actually make out the feet of the arch from up here. It is about 200 feet taller than Kingda Ka, in case if you wanted to know. The ride is really a marvel in engineering. Especially how the train of pods adjusts itself on the way to the top. "Yeah, Arch ride credit!" You expect all of us to sit in that thing? But first, we had to endure a preshow. All that was missing was Gary Sinise. I wonder what is behind door #2. More intense please. It would be time to head to our ride to the top. Lewis, Paul, and Clark. We first watched the movie about the building of the arch before we went to the top. Beaver! "Hi there! This is a much better gig than the Hall of Presidents." This would totally count as an Elissa Bingo square. We had to check out the museum as well. It would look like this, but more on that later. You may wonder what kind form of transportation was required to reach the top. There were several packages to choose from. You buys tickets here. Let us head on into the vistor's center underneath the arch. Ok, just one more. I also had to pet the thing. Yes, I present you with yet another photo of the Gateway arch. Gateway Arch without trees. Gateway Arch with trees. I had visited before, but was sometime in the mid 1980's. In the wintertime to boot. I bet you never seen it from this angle before. It is big and made of metal. For some reason I craved french fries after seeing this.

Six Flags St. Louis (Final Part) We still had some time to do things. Let us head on into the city. 6 Flags. Thank you, we will. I now have visited all three of the original Six Flags parks. All in the same year. One of us accomplished that in a little over a week. It ended up being my favorite coaster in the park. Though Mr. Freeze was really good as well. We took one final ride on E.K. before heading on out of the park. Log flume! Though we did not ride. Its like a combination of an Enterprise and a slow moving Frisbee. We did not ride the insane looking flat ride. So what kind of things go on in this place? I did not see the team from Fresno. For shame. I now have every Batman coaster/clone credit in the United States. This would be Gotham City. Is it the Bat logo, or does it look like someone's strange mouth? Awww, we forgot to ride the train. Weeee! No matter, it still rides the same. Though this one goes in the opposite direction of the other ones. Should this one really be called Namtab: The Ride? These coasters always deliver. Yes, it would be time to hit up the last coaster in the park. No Six Flags park would be complete without one of these. I can now say I have ridden all three Ninja coasters. The one at SFMM is certainly the best one to ride. Hooray for Vekoma. Random mine train photo! Ninja through the fence. This would be the way I remembered it. Expo '86 in Vancouver Canada. It was called Scream Machine back then. (Photo from RCDB) This would be my second encounter with this ride. Though I did not ride coasters like this in 1986. Oh dear, it would be Ninja time. There used to be two tracks for this coaster. You now have to go to Magic Springs to ride the other one. Look! Mine train track. After lunch we headed on over to the mine train.

Six Flags St. Louis (Part 2) This line was just too long to ride it today. This would be the drop tower. The cubbies were at least color coded. The coaster was not too bad. Though there was a lot of extra shuffling on the turn arounds. We would first have to conquer the M&M stairway. Next would be the classic wooden coaster in the park. I thought the coaster was a lot of fun (lots of extensive trackwork done during the off-season). Though the G-Trains do hurt the ride. I should note that they were running 3 trains. This would be the first time I had seen stacking in the park. Though this only lasted a few seconds. Someone wanted to show off their excitement with the artform known as gum. They do not look too beaten up. I would have to agree with Tyler that this would be a good thing. Another sign. This was then I noticed that they run G-Trains on this thing. Oh no!! Its really has a huge layout. I really did not know anything about this coaster. Though it looks like it might be fun. You do have a long walk before you actually reach the coaster. It is really set on the far back end of the park. See, The Boss! The second wooden coaster of the day would be The Boss. Look, lots of trees. I really like the setting of this coaster. It is well shaded by all these trees. Here would be the coaster doing it's thing. We had about a 20 minute wait to ride the coaster, so we got to leearn all about Tony Hawk's career. Though the pre-station death spin did not seem as bad on this one. This would be the third Tony Hawk coaster I have ridden in a week. Ok, let us head on over to this area. We now leave you with a photo of The Boss. You can see a little bit of Tony Hawk, Scraming Eagle, as well as the Superman drop tower. Mr. Freeze. Oh dear, I forgot we would be riding Ninja later that day. Would this be the only mirror clone actually still called Batman? This would be Evel Knievel. Let us go up high on the big wheel and take a look at the park from above.