Erik Johnson

Martin's Fantasy Island. Another nice smaller sized park. They opened the 2nd Star Flyer in the country this year which proved to be an interesting experience. They do have an assortment of flats as well. The Log Flume is a must do if you are into getting yourself soaked. #256 Crazy Mouse. Zamperla Spinning Mouse. Elissa really enjoed this one because the coaster forgot to spin. Seriously we faced the same direction for the whole second section of the ride. #255 Silver Comet. CCI Wooden Coaster. Its pretty insane and a blast to ride. It has a few good moments of airtime as well as some extreme laterals.

Darien Lake. I too thought this was a nice park. I guess the new management has really put into a lot of effort of cleaning the place up. It does have a pretty good collection of coasters as well a nice collection of rare flat rides. They also have a Fascination parlor which is always a huge plus. I had to lift a few photos from the official TPR update since I did not have the photos myself. I was able to earn all the coaster credits except for Brain Teaser since you needed to be with a kid to ride it. #254 Viper. Arrow Customer Looper. The restraint was down a bit to tight on my ride so my ride was not the very best. It's honestly nothing too special. #253 Mind Eraser. The first of three Vekoma SLC's that I rode on the trip. It was pretty bad, near the bottom of all SLCs I have ridden so far. #252 Boomerang Coast to Coaster. Its the first of four Vekoma Boomerangs that I rode on the trip. While not bad for a boomerang, I really am not much of a fan of these coasters. #251 MotoCoaster. It is a Zamperla MotoCoaster. It was the first one I have ridden and all I can say about it is, "Cute." #250 Predator. It is a Dinn wooden coaster. I did not care much for it at all due to some of the jackhammering. I should say that it was not the worst wooden coaster on the trip. #249 Ride Of Steel. Its the first Intamin Mega Coaster built and it was running really well the day we were there. While our morning rides were good, its even better in the afternoon. Top 10 Steel for me.

As some of you may know, I like to post all my photos first then do a recap with park opinions/coasters/other rides at the very end. Let us start with: Seabreeze. I really thought it was a nice smaller sized park which was really great to start the trip off with. I does have a pretty descent collection of flat rides that includes a Screaming Eagle, Flyers, Musik Express. There are four coasters there, but I was only able to earn three of them since you needed to have a kid to ride Bear Trax. Ok onto the coasters. As I rate each coaster the number placed in front is my credit counter. #248 Bobsleds (AKA Bobselds). It used to be a kiddie wooden coaster years ago, but they turned it into a weird steel/wooden coaster hybrid. I guess you can say its like an east coast Matterhorn....well maybe not. It was kind of fun. #247 Whirlwind. This was my first Maurer Sohne Spinner coaster. I thought it was a lot of fun, especially backwards. These are much better than a standard spinning mouse. #246 Jack Rabbit. First coaster of the trip, and it was a fun medium sized old school woodie with a few pops of air. It is the third oldest coaster in the country, and yes it does have a tunnel.

I had to leave the trip early since I had to be back at work the next day, but what better way to finish off with my favorite Six Flags park, Six Flags Great Adventure. Unfortunately I was not feeling well at all that day for whatever reason so I was not able to ride as much as I would have liked to. At least I forced myself to ride El Toro and Nitro as there was no way I could ever pass them up. I also managed to earn a new credit as well, since the Dark Knight opened up a few months ago. While my photos from SFGadv are very sparse, I did add a section of photos that details my prizes that I won from Dave's Elissa Photo Bingo game. Thanks Dave! This is the last installment of photos from the trip, but I will post a huge update with park/coaster opinions very soon. Wow....So it is true. Dave's music really does melt your Ipod. Oh God! Is that fire???? It is a mix of Mariachi music with electric guitars with Opera style singing. Thanks Dave!! Let us see how this one is. OK, that was not too bad. Ok, let us first try this one. Yes, it is a long title for a playlist. I first had to create a playlist. I also won a collection of Dave's music. Let us check it out. The blue dinosaur critter is one of the prizes I won from Elissa Photo Bingo. Robb and Roxanne are literally joined at the hip. In honor of Dave's finally earning his Batman: The Ride credit, I decided to post this as well. We had early morning ERT on the Dark Knight coaster. Yes, the reviews have been pretty much correct.

Ha ha true, though when I rode it back in 2005 I had no idea it did that as I had never ridden a real drop tower until then. I was not aware of the ride's reputation.

Acrophobia is pretty bad at SFoG.

Awesome, I am looking foward to the rest. It was a lot of fun hanging out with you two at SFNE.

Oh dear, now everyone can see how long my tongue is.

If I remember correctly, that donut was at least 3 days old.

The run back to the bus after riding Superman really proved to me how out of shape I am. The funny thing is that I somehow accidently bumped my video camera into its "on" position while it was in my pocket so now I have a POV (Pocket of View) segment of me running to the bus. I think we had 90 seconds to spare while Kim had around 30-40 seconds. It really was too close.

Me too, I wish I could have hung around for the whole thing, but I had to return home for work. EDIT: Oops I accidently edited your post instead of quoting it. Its now back to normal.

I agree, that had to be the most insane whip I have ever ridden. At least for the one at Rye Playland, if your weight is just right your car can leave the floor right after the turnarounds. We saw a really scared couple while waiting in line. We choose the same car that the couple rode, but Richard and I must have weighed a more than they did because our car did not come off the floor. Needless to say, the ride was still insane. Rye Playland Part 2. With this photo, Playland is now finished. Time to return home to Playland. It looks like we made it home. Grrrrarrrghhhhrrrghhh! Ok, he looks kind of scary. Oh, its also populated with strange looking people/trolls/gnomes. Are you ready for your ride? The ride length was quite long. Maybe around 12 minutes long? Actually you do not get very wet. Playland also has an Old Mill. This was the best one in the park. Especially the end. I never did see Freddy in the ride itself. I thought the devil's teeth effect were quite cool. Rye Playland has a pretty good collection of Dark Rides. Here is the first one. Scary stuff, but still awesome.

I have never ridden Ge Force so I can not comment on that. I think most people who have ridden both consider Ge Force to be the better of the two.

Next stop: Rye Playland Part 1! Though we had a selected amount of time of unlimited rides. They use a bar code system for your ride tickets. The parks sits right along the Hudson River. TPR in a blur. This thing was probably going around 40mph, it is pretty insane. This is what it looks like while its not moving. The Derby Racer is awesome. It is just like the Time Warp at Canada's Wonderland. Oh dear.... Anyone who is over 6 foot tall, got denied on the Mouse. They have some sort of weird height restriction on this ride now. Talk about lazy, this is the only picture I have of the Dragon Coaster. Welcome to Rye Playland. See anyone you know?

Ok let us head on back over to SFNE for another half day. We had more ERT on two other coasters as well as Superman: ROS. Its pretty amazing that the best two coasters in the country are within a hour of each other. Let us finish this update with the #1 Steel coaster in the country. Especially when you ride it in the afternoon. Maybe they should add bathrooms to the Qbot. Its pretty insane. Ahhhh........ Heads are ready to explode. Hanno sure was. You guys ready? Its the only S&S Swat in the United States. Its another Bingo credit. Thanks guys!!! "Unacceptable amount of wetness". Ewwwwww..... Are you sure this is not a Cedar Fair park? These things ripped off our money. Here is my Gold-Bot group. This is another reason why TPR is awesome. Brent had an entire train to himself. A shout out to other Florida people. My train, which was the first of the day, got stuck here for around 8 minutes. Oh, I should also say that this was my 300th credit. Looks to me that you are in correct riding position. We also had ERT on the Boomerrang, which was great since it was down the day before. We had ERT on Pandamodium. Which spins really fast with 3 people. I had no idea you owned Coney Island Ted. Does Catrina know? Its me and some huge blow-up train doll. We have returned.

Onward to Lake Compounce where Boulder Dash proved to be the biggest surprise of the entire trip. At least for me. In case you did not know, Boulder Dash was recently retracked during the off-season which apparently, according to others who have ridden the ride before, really improved the ride. Its really running like really super insane right now. Its rumored to be slightly tamed for next season because its just blasting around the back turnaround a bit too fast. So if you get the chance, try to make it out there really soon....and make sure you take in a night ride if you can. Hooray for another credit!! Along with nighttime ERT on Boulder Dash, they also opened the Kiddie Coaster as well. A sign of quality. The electirc car ride was really good. There was even a drive-in movie theatre along the track. Are those people in those boxes? Why is it that Boomerangs always makes my vision blurry? I have to admit we were really hoping to see real fried bats. I can not wait until the DVD. It maintains its speed during the whole ride. Actually I think the 2nd half might be faster. The entire coaster is built on a wooded mountain. It sure will get my vote. I had no idea that this was going to become my new #1 wooden coaster. It really was amazing that day. It is another one of those new ACE signs. Though I did not care much for the Wildcat. At least the logo is cool. I really liked Lake Compounce.

On our way over to Lake Compounce we made a short stop at Quassy. So how was your ride? Actually it was pretty fun. Thank you for re-opening your ride! Due to bad weather, the Mouse was down for a while. Though because TPR is awesome, we waited a little longer to make sure everyone got the credit. "Elissa's Mom Rides a Ride." I just earned another Bingo square. Almost a TPR take over. Might as well earn the other credit first. The Mad Mouse was closed when we first got there, so we moved on. Welcome to Quassy, where people become shark bait.

Oh yes, I won something. I will post a picture of it at the end of the trip report. It is sitting on my shelf of honor right next to my donkey hat.

Its time for another update, this time its Six Flags New England. We actually split up our visit to the park over two days since we had a lot to cover in the area. So this update is just from the first day. But really, who could blame him? Jay was really into the Intamin wheel. Ummm...wrong park John. It looks like Tweety is into cops. Epic Fail #4 Epic Fail #1 We all cheered John as he played the game. Thanks for helping me with an Elissa Bingo square. The check is in the mail. Yes, they are quite serious about the rules here. My very first Vekoma Mad House credit. Max must have Cyclone allergies. Just beware of the Cyclone all together. Beware of the last section of the Thunderbolt. There are some extreme airtime moments. We saw several brand new ACE signs over the next day or so. I miss Terrence. We might as well earn a few more credits. This is why TPR trips rule, I think I rode it 7-8 times in a row. Yes, I really liked it a lot. Oh yeah, we had an hour of ERT on this one as well. Since SFNE has the GOOD Dark Knight coaster, there is no need to build another one. Might as well send it to Six Flags Mexico. Its a mini-B&M floorless. I found it to be pretty good. "Anyone see my movie yet?" SFNE actually has the real Dark Knight coaster. Well, we might as well get the SLC finished first. "Hey! I am walking here!!!" On our way to early morning ERT we were greeted by a rather large truck. It is a new Six Flags credit for me. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Yes I count six of them. Oops, I forgot to add this to the Coney Island update. Its the Donkey themed bumper car ride.

Coney Island Part 2. Silly Jahan blocked my Elissa Bingo credit. Thanks a lot! One final shot of the Cyclone. We thought this was pretty cool, plus it only costs 25 cents. Look at that, you are even here in Coney Island. The Pistacchio soft serve ice cream was godly. Thanks for the tip Ryancrash! Good to know. Yummmmmm... While I have had Nathan's hot dogs many times before, it was fun to eat at the original one. After all that riding, it was time to get something to eat.

^ Oh dear, that was not my intention. I am sorry about that. Now I am quite embarrassed.

Ok let us head to the first official park of the East Coast Trip, Coney Island. I will have to do this in 2 parts. Part 2 coming soon. Yes, you can see Manhattan Island from the top. These cars do not swing nearly as much as the one at DCA. Yes, "From Above". Anyone see Cloverfield yet? Hey wait, I know these people. But since we are from TPR, we choose swinging. You do have a choice for which car to ride. The original ticket booth still exists. Disney's California Adventure has a recreation of this classic ride. Let us go check out the Wonder Wheel. Did you enjoy number 300, John? Was it really that fun? It is the third and final credit in the Coney Island area. The parachute tower still exists. Here is a shot of the boardwalk. Everyone who wanted it earned the credit. How many Wacky Worms have you seen with a turntable? The skytower was closed....awwwww. GJ seemed to enjoy it. It would be a real bummer to be this guy. Since I like dark rides, I had to check this one out. While the area is called Coney Island, the actual name of the park is Astroland. Thank God for all the padding in this train. More rules. There were plenty of rules. We pretty much took over several Cyclone trains. We all just sort of hung out in the station. Good afternoon, Jahan! How Swee! It is the Cyclone! The Cyclone is an American classic.

Well blast, I only have a couple of pictures from Lakemont and zero from Delgrosso's. The only thing I can remember from Delgrosso's is the sauce. Anyways, I will add pictures from Sesame Place in this update. Sesame Place was an add on park to either the Behemoth Tour or the East Coaster Tour. So let us wave goodbye to Vapor Trail. While its a nice park, there is very little to do if you are over the age of 8. Ok, who farted? It is Big Bird's Beach Party. Its just like the one in the show....ok maybe not. So when is this going to change? We took in the Elmo show. Unlike the other Busch parks, Sesame Place does not have a hospitality house. The Alvey's are ready to earn another credit. You guys looked thrilled for Vapor Trail. Grover's voice greets you on the lift hill as well as the final brake run. Vekoma helix action. Vapor Trail is a custom Vekoma skater built over the edge of a large hill. We had to wait a few minutes before getting in the park. Can you spot the coaster nerd? So I thought it was very cool that the Vekoma Skater was themed to Super Grover. Grover was my favorite from when I was a kid, especially Super Grover. Sesame Place was an add on park on the trip. So how was that ride?

The next park is.....Lakemont Park, home of the oldest running coaster in the world, Leap the Dips. I will first start with another video which features footage of Leap the Dips, Skyliner, the Skydiver, and a little more. Enjoy! Lakemonttprinternet.zip Lakemont Park For Download Lakemonttprinternet.wmv Lakemont Park

Yeah Dollywood. I am also glad that you waited for the front row of Thunderhead, it really rocks there.