johnychen

Hopefully something gets built soon. We need a theme park badly here in Houston. 4th largest city in the US and we have no major theme parks since Astroworld closed in 2005.

S&S towers are like giant frog hoppers. I do like the one at SFoT. It's over 300ft tall and has some great views. I call it the soothing and relaxing drop tower. The most intense one that I have ridden is Lex Luthor Drop of Doom. One of the most nerve racking ones is the one at the Kemah Boardwalk. It's not the tallest but it doesn't give you any warming on when it is going to release. It just drops you as soon as it reaches the top. I believe the Lake Winnie and Waldameer ones are similar.

Great pictures! I like how well the pictures are composed.

I ended riding the Togo Machine of Death at New York, New York in Las Vegas on Jan 14 on a chilly 35 degree morning. Interesting first ride of the year. I was too numb from the cold to feel the pain the ride was delivering.

Got the date saved. Last year was a blast.

Found this on another site. coasterbuzz.com/Forums/Topic/coasters-running-slow-in-the-cold#362644 So I guess they are running a bit slower. I am still surprised that the park is opened until this Sunday. I may go this Sunday to see the last day of operations for the season. I still have two extra 2012 one day tickets that I did not use. Got them for free during the Coaster Wars film shoot. I wonder if they would still work? I have a season pass so don't really need them.

Either the NTAG at SFoT or the Togo machine of death at New York, New York in Vegas.

Decided to drop by the park yesterday since I was getting pretty bored staying at home. Thought 45 degree drizzly weather should keep the crowds small. The crowds were definitely pretty light. Here's the entrance to Iron Rattler. The brake run. Another shot of the brake run Brake run going into station. The station brake run. More of the quarry tunnel to station. Looks like it might be straight from the tunnel exit to brake run. More of the quarry tunnel to station. Station exit. Double lift hill shot. Looks like pieces of the old Rattler. Not too many people buying this today. Fiesta Bay Boardwalk with Christmas lights Big tree in Rockville Scream with tree. Lights Lights More Lights Screaming lights. There are a lot of lights here Lights everywhere Everything had lights Spassburg lights. The log flume was actually opened to any brave soul that dared to ride it in freezing weather. Sparkly Even the dragon was decorated. The bumper cars were converted to a skating rink. They had snow miser and heat miser on the screen. The train covered in lights. Lights set to music. A festival of lights Road Runner Express all lit up. More dancing lights. Just imagine hearing Trans-Siberian Orchestra in the background. You can have your picture taken inside a snow globe. Fiesta de las luces. Goliath all sparkly. Goliath with cool blue lift hill lights. There was a very perky ride op there that sounded like Dory speaking whale. One more light shot before leaving. Goodbye Fiesta Texas.

Happy Alpacalypse Day.

Here's what I did for my office.

Looks like there may be another park being developed in Houston. Got this from the old Astroworld fan site. Looks like it will be near the Dog track, outlet mall, and the largest Buc-ee's gas station ever. www.galvestondailynews.com/business/buzz/article_c92a6f90-3ddb-11e2-9380-001a4bcf6878.html sixflagshouston.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3566

This was random and scary. I was at Knott's Berry Farm waiting to ride Montezooma's Revenge. I saw two employees get in the coaster train to ride. The ride op was about to put their lapbars down but the two employees made a gesture that they wanted to ride with lapbar up with only seatbelts. The ride op went ahead with checks on everyone else and left their lapbars up. By this time I was pretty shocked already. The two lapbar less employees then proceeded to not use there seatbelts also and the ride dispatched!! Amazingly the two riders without restraints came back to the station alive.

Thunderation at SDC. Great weather and rides in the dark with no wait.

I finally got to ride Iron Shark at Pleasure Pier.

Great job Chadster! I mainly shopped steam and Amazon prime this Black Friday. Did pick up some great bluray box sets at Fry's though. There is an interesting Amazon lightning deal coming up at 1:39PST today. DOMO Toaster at Amazon Lightning Deal Not sure what the discount will be since the deal hasn't started yet.

"Adventure is out there!" - UP! “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” –Walt Disney from the movie Meet the Robinsons

I have a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin (So I am a rocket scientist) Master in Business Administration from the University of Houston Clear Lake I worked in the Johnson Space Center for 3 years as a space shuttle safety engineer. Currently I am a web applications developer for Schlumberger. I also have been a Mobile DJ since 1987. My true passions is entertaining people with a ton of high tech equipment. Which is why I love theme parks.

^ Here's a picture of all three of them at once. Viper, Greezed Lightnin, and Texas Tornado. www.coastergallery.com/2001/AW20.html

I am going to miss hearing soooper! a hundred times at the preshow. I hope the replacement will be soooper!!

I wonder if we will hear Burl Ives in the park soundtracks.

The Alpine Sleighs and the the rest of Astroworld. Worst reason to remove a profitable amusement park in a market with no competition.

Found this video on YouTube. As usual the phone is held the wrong way.

Glad I had a chance to see it in person two weeks ago.

I got confirmation on both shoots today and will be there both for the New Texas Giant and the Titan Shoot. I may do something crazy and drive up to Magic Springs to get in my X-coaster credit before it is removed. So I may look like a zombie on Sundays shoot.

From this picture you can see that there is plenty of room for the Texas Chute to fall.