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^That's not unreasonable. They already have free short-term lockers at Grizzly River Run.

Jan Van Der Velde (ex RIT employee, now involved in industrial espionage for competitor AFW) just added his company's website to his facebook profile: Awsome Fun World (http://awesomefunworld.com/) Google Analytics checks out -- it follows the same pattern as the other three sites. Now we finally know what AFW stands for!

The 11 barcode on the existing rides spelled out riDEthEedGe. Entering that at Http://rideinstitute.com/xii/12vbn.php leads you to the video at from Coaster Test Pilot Solutions.

An animated GIF has shown up on the O'Connell Plumbing and Drain site on the Client Login page: The first pic was taken near the location of the image below, near the restrooms. The text "endofline." might indicate that this is where the station for the new ride will be, or it may indicate that this is where we will find the end of the barcode. The second pic should be fairly obvious: those restrooms are going away with the new construction. The third image is weapons from the game CLUE plus half a barcode. Clearly the barcode has a clue in it once we find the other half. In the fourth image, is that bench located in the same area as the first picture? It looks like a different style of bench than the ones in the Google picture, but they may have replaced the benches since Google went through. My only guess for "hellotornadoman." is that "tornado man" might be a reference to Fred O'Connell (he designs toilets, and a toilet flushing looks like a tornado), who could show up on th bench. We also might find the other half of the barcode there, which will lead us to more information on "tornado man". The fifth image shows the same bench with the date 07.18.11. Clearly, whatever we are meant to find there (Mr. O'Connell or a barcode), we will find it on the 18th.

I really need to get to Japan one of these days.

An interesting post from CoasterBGW at Keystone Thrills:

There is a phone number listed near the bottom of that spreadsheet in light grey. Calling it reaches a voicemail box. I created a subtitled version of the voicemail message, which you can see below. A transcript also follows. Some things to note: The voicemail password is 0852# The first two voicemails are from Rocky LaMarcus and Jan Van der Velde. The last voicemail from Fred O'Connell's wife asks who is singing the song in the backgroud. Is that a clue? Products listed in the last voicemail include glazed apple danishes with nutella and vienna bread. The Jensens (sp?) have plans with the O'Connells. Can anyone understand what toy might've been left in Fred's pickup? The name Carina is mentioned (presumably a daughter of the O'Connells or the Jensens). Carina happens to be the name of a constellation as well.

I think the LaMarcus Brothers site was the portal clue we were supposed to get from that study. The last piece doesn't seem to contain any useful information.

That's funny, I got an XL and I wear a medium.

I got one as well. I can't wait for my LMB bag of crap!

Looks like Hersheypark is planning to expand into the Golf Course: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/06/derry_township_road_project_co.html

Freakylick at Keystone Thrills found that searching for 2VBm leads to http://rideinstitute.com/pdf/jvdv_com_ch02.pdf A translation from Dutch: The second page:

Those are the guide wheels that prevent the train from falling off the track to the left or right. You can clearly see them in the picture of Storm Runner below:

Answers to some of the submitted questions have been posted at http://www.rideinstitute.com/pdf/RIT_Interview.pdf Interesting wheel bogie on the bottom of the last page:

I'm already a paying member of another club, so no ClubTPR membership, but I'd definitely be in if it opens up to us "regular folk".

Jan Van Der Velde posted the following picture on facebook. It appears to have been taken next to the Lightning Racer gate. Looks like Intamin...

Throw Maverick's old heartline roll (it's gotta be in storage somewhere, right?) at the end of a megalite. Now everyone's happy!

Freakylick at Keystone Thrills found that searching for 2VBm leads to http://rideinstitute.com/pdf/jvdv_com_ch02.pdf A translation from Dutch: The second page:

http://rideinstitute.com/studies.php has been updated, and the banner is now an animated gif that flashes colored letters. The order is: Normal - 0.07 seconds All White - 0.02 seconds Yellow 2 - 0.10 seconds Orange V - 0.10 seconds Lime green B (or β) - 0.10 seconds Light blue B (or β) and light blue M - 0.10 seconds Normal - 2.00 seconds

The 12 inversion coaster has been around for a while. I'm pretty sure that the 12s refer to the fact that this is Hersheypark's 12th coaster (their 11th coaster, Fahrenheit, was teased in a similar game that used as many 11s as possible).

The weirdest thing about the Kangaroo Bridge is that kangaroos dont live in New Zealand (there are some wild walabies, but no kangaroos).

From gb980109 at Keystone Thrills: http://lamarcusbros.com/ Lots of stuff here. Lets start on the About Us page: Two references to the number 12, as well as HPRK (HersheyPaRK) Services: Station height 12 ft, first drop 220 ft? Smooth high-air base with a specified slope sounds like a megacoaster. Above-ground drainage repair and rerouting sounds like what they are working on in the creek. A reference to the leaked plans that came out of the permiting process? Projects: Storm Runner and Farenheight are both Intamin. "Kangaroo Bridge" better not be the name of the new ride. Safety: It doesn't sound good for those hoping for lap bars, although I guess an OTSR restraint (similar to that on i305) was a foregon conclusion given Intamin's recent history.

The story so far: One more piece left!

There is some awkward wording here, which could mean that there is a clue or clues hidden in the text. The phrase "wind paving" especially sticks out to me, since it is a made-up phrase (as far as I can tell) with no apparent meaning. It's also weird that they would mention crossing the South Pole Telescope specifically, and not just crossing the South Pole (the telescope is located at Amundsen–Scott Station, just a few hundred feet from the exact location of the South Pole). Perhaps another astronomical clue (remember the Big Dipper/Ursa Major and Comet Halley from earlier)? I won't even touch the "iron launchings" (i'm not sure "launchings" is even proper English -- "launches" is definitely the common term).

This picture looks like something to do with the H-R graph maybe? The carbon percentage is how old the stars are, because as stars get older they start burning carbon instead of hydrogen and helium. Then the white dwarf is a type of star, except it wouldn't be on that part of the graph it this was the H-R graph. Just thought I'd share this. As an engineer, I can tell you that it's not an H-R graph. It's a phase diagram, similar to the one below for steel. The %carbon refers to the amount of carbon in the steel.