Photo TR: Kyle's Autumn East Coast Trip

[RaptorBoyASU]

Ok, so bear with me. I'm recycling this post for TPR, GAP, and my blog. So there's lots more pictures than people on my blog care to see, and many more words than most people on the forums want to see....but I'll try to make it worth your time. I'm starting tonight with Part 1 of 3: Knoebel's

 

It was quite a weekend. I mean not only did I get to go to one of my favorite parks (Knoebel's), I got to spend it with my favorite Yankee (Craiggers). All in all it was a fantastic trip, and I can't wait for the next one.

 

So the trip started out late Friday night. I arrived at LAX around 11 pm, as my flight was supposed to leave at 12:45 am. Of course, it didn't. The flight crew from Dallas was running behind. Well I thought, "whatever" since I was on the same plane for the whole trip. No worries for catching my connecting flight. So I took a Tylenol PM, boarded the plane, and attempted to try to sleep. When we got to Dallas, they told us we had to deplane, they didn't tell us though that they had changed the plane we were taking to Hartford. So as I groggily walk down the jetway, I have airline personnel telling me that I have to hurry if I want to catch the plane to Hartford. WHAT? Seems that because we were running behind, they changed the plane and the gate. So I ran the 20 yards to the next gate, got on the plane, and we left within 2 minutes. Wow, not something to spring on someone half asleep.

 

So the flight to Hartford was quick but I still didn't sleep much on it. I arrived at BDL with 2-3 hours of sleep behind me, and a long day of driving/coasters in front of me.

 

Craiggers, TokenYankeeGuy, was there waiting for me in the airport (though he was waiting for me on a different level, and it took some text message coordination). We put the stuff in my car, stopped at Dunkin Donuts, and headed out for Elysburg, PA. I was quite a leafer on the drive down

 

We got to the park right at 4pm. We checked into the campground, and went out to set up our campsite in the woods.

 

Ok, now that we have the tent set up, it's time to hit the park

 

I was hoping when I first planned this trip that Flying Turns would be open this PPP (Phoenix Phall Phunfest). The flood earlier in the year, slowed down construction though, and it's not quite finished. I'm not sure if it would have been done anyways, but at least I got some cool construction pics.

 

We even got to sign some boards, but I didn't get a picture of that.

 

I made Craig take a picture of me with the Knoebel's clown. Later in the night, Craig got a picture with him too, but Craig was a LOT more innappropriate. I would never be inappropriate with a Knoebel's icon (foreshadowing)

 

Well, we had some time to spare before the PPP fun began. We bought our tickets, but the only thing open for us yet was the ski lift. This thing terrifies me. It's just a standard ski chair lift, but I hate heights, and it just feels so unsafe. LOL, though I know it's completely fine.

 

Heading up

 

The Yankee

 

Waddup?

 

The view on the way down

 

Mmmmm..........Twister Goodness....

 

Well, we still had quite a while to kill. But we happened to run into Neil (slurbaOh) and his friend James(?) after getting off the sky ride. We tried to ride the Scooters, but they weren't opening until 7. So we headed over to get the Haunted House. I forgot to get a picture of it though. While standing in line, we ran into Danny as well (PlusDanny), and told him to wait up for us at the exit.

 

The ride scared me like it always does (flippin truck always gets me), and I probably nearly ended up in Craig's lap, but it was fun of course. We met up with Danny and his friend Kristin over at Cesari's, and ran into Kip (MindEraser) over there as well. We got in line for pizza, and waited and waited to finally get to the front of the line. Was the wait worth it????

 

I think this picture speaks for itself...Mmmmmmmmmmmm

 

Neil, Kip, and Craig

 

Time to hit some coasters. Phoenix was the first target. Here's the group in the station....

 

It was running well. I really like this ride, although I still love it's cousin on the other side of the park more Airtime alone is not enough for me to fall in love with a coaster, just a strong infatuation. I want laterals too.

 

We managed to get the Coaster Zombies to pose for a picture for us at the exit to the Phoenix. Probably the best bunch of costumes we saw all night.

 

Yes, even better than grandma in the Twister station.

 

I'm excited that we're getting ready to ride one of my favorite woodies.......Twister

 

Yes, I know that before this trip, I ranked Phoenix higher, but this trip made me realize that Twister is so the better coaster. I could have just marathoned it all night. Great air in the back seat, and so many forces. I heart this ride.

 

Next it was time for a flight on the Phlyers. What can be better than a cool evening on the Phlyers? Oh, I know, when they're running it full speed, and everyone on your cycle are snapping like crazy making the whole structure start bouncing. Dude, we had it going insane, I was snapping at the top and bottom of my path. Even the monkey on the ride after us couldn't keep up.

 

Oh, Santa, what are you doing back there? Whatever it is, don't stop.

 

Time for more Phoenix

 

Neil looking semi-retarded, but don't worry, I think I have everyone looking slightly Corky at some point

 

See, Danny did too

 

And Kristin

 

Ok, this guy's costume killed when I first saw it. I think one of those handprints was from last time I rode

 

We got a great ride on Skooters (bumper cars), but I forgot to get a picture. All I got was a picture of the entrance sign (and Neil) while I was playing with my camera settings.

 

Oh, look, the Knoebel's sign

 

I wasn't sure what Power Surge did before getting on since I didn't watch a cycle. But it was pretty fun. It reminded me of Chaos, but with less spinning. Of course James (El Taco/Canobie Fan) let me know on Sunday that Knoebel's Power Surge "sucks" because they don't run it full out.

 

More Twister

 

Neil describes the size of his balls

 

More Phoenix

 

Craiggers showing off some skin

 

Group picture

 

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that we got 15 laps on High Speed Thrill Coaster. The guy just kept sending us around, and almost fried the motor in the process.

 

Oh, and we rode the pioneer train too

 

It was a long night, and I was running on almost no sleep. The rides were closed, it was time to head back to the camp site. We got a fire started, and sat around and chit chatted for a while.

 

Craig getting into the tent

 

The extinguished fire

 

Neither of us slept well, so we headed out for Great ADventure early the next morning, but I'll leave that for another update. THis one is long enough as it is.

[niiicolaaah]

but this trip made me realize that Twister is so the better coaster.

 

...blasphemy.

[RaptorBoyASU]

I found one other person in our group that agreed with me, thus why Neil and myself went over and rode it 2 or 3 more times while everyone else went to Phoenix.

 

I guess I just don't get as excited about Phoenix as everyone else.

[RaptorBoyASU]

Ok, I've finally found a few spare minutes to write part two of my East COASTER trip.

 

So as I said last time, Craiggers and I both slept horribly on Saturday night in our tent at Knoebel's. It was cold, the ground was really hard, and it just wasn't happening. So around 6:15 I noticed Craig was laying awake, and he noticed the same and asked "You just want to head out for New Jersey?" So we packed up our tent at 6:30 am and headed out for Jackson, NJ and Six Flags Great Adventure.

 

As we left the park, I noticed the fog everywhere there was water. It was really eerie, and reminded me of Cold Creek Manor.

 

I missed getting pics of some of the better ones, and just got this one.

 

After getting on 476, we stopped at a rest area to eat some breakfast / brush teeth / change. Mmmm…. Big Breafast at McD’s. I hadn’t had one in a long time, because I’m usually driving or in the car, and stick with breakfast sandwiches.

 

We got to the park at 10:15 or so, and were in line for Kingda Ka at 10:30.

 

Entrance

 

Oooh, look, blood fountain

 

1st Destination

 

Ok, so Kingda Ka. Last time I was here, the ride had just opened, and we waited in line for 3 hours before it broke down for the rest of the day. Maybe today I’d get my credit. TWO TRAIN OPERATION……..ugh. And they weren’t even moving fast. The line was barely filling the queue area, and we waited just over two hours. Was it worth it? Of course not. Didn’t feel any different than Dragster, and I like the restraints less.

 

Oh, and this hill

 

It doesn’t do much.

 

We decided to go check out El Toro next. But so did everyone else, I guess I’ll just settle for a picture for now.

 

We were getting hungry so we grabbed food from the Mexican place right by El Toro. It was pretty good. I got steak fajitas (needed some lettuce and cheese though), Craig got a taco salad.

 

Wow, the log flume is actually open. So we headed over that way.

 

Signature shot

 

Craig says we won’t get too wet (and we wouldn’t have if the people at the coin operated water jets weren’t there)

 

Ok, so at this point we were noticing that this side of the park was way too crowded. I mean Rolling Thunder had a 45 minute wait. So we decided to head over to Nitro.

 

Not any better. 1 hour.

 

I got so bored, I even asked Craig to “pound it”

 

So close, yet so far away

 

Oh, I don’t have that credit still, but I’m not waiting in that long of a line for a Batman clone.

 

At least I had this to distract me through the line

 

I really like Nitro. It’s pretty to look at too

 

Well, at this point it’s 3:30, and we’ve been on 3 rides. I was over the lines (and the line to get a Q-bot was well over an hour). So I asked that we head over to El Toro so I could ride it before we left.

 

The line hadn’t gone down at all, it still went out the queue and wrapped around the ride’s fence to the water side.

 

Oh, well, let’s get in line anyways.

 

We waited forever, due to the fact they only had 2 people checking restraints, meaning super slow dispatches (oh and 8 seats were roped off between the two trains). They could barely keep up with the Flash Pass people meaning the standby line was moving at a snail’s pace.

 

 

We finally got on 3 hours later. Was the wait worth it?? YES. Oh my god this ride is good. Would I wait 3 hours again, NO, but for a first ride, it was so worth it.

 

I didn’t know airtime could be this extreme. Like I was seriously worried that the lap bar would fail (we rode in the very back). Especially the hill crossing Rolling Thunder. Wow, INSANE! Even the turns at the end were good (though the last 2 hills were disappointing). Awesome ride. Definitely one of the best STEEL coasters I’ve ever been on. What’s that? It’s wood, I couldn’t tell.

 

So after El Toro, we headed out to Craig’s grandmother’s house in Eastern PA (just outside Trenton kind of). Dinner was mostly ready when we got there. And I was excited to eat home cooked food with a family, even if it wasn’t my own.

 

After dinner, I crashed out hard considering I had 4-5 hours of sleep in the last two days. I woke 10 hours later, and we headed back to New England.

 

Next up: Six Flags New England

[Canobie Fan]

I woke 10 hours later, and we headed back to New England.

And got to SFNE... LATE!

[RaptorBoyASU]

Okay, last day of the trip.......

 

So like I said, I actually got a good night of sleep out at Craigger's grandmother's place in Pennsylvania. So with a full tank of gas (both as far as my energy and the car), we headed out on the long drive back to Conneticut. It actually went pretty quick thanks to the Ipods hooked up to the car stereo, since we sang along a lot (but no camera, thus no video of car karaoke). We drove in Pennyslvania, New Jersey, New York, Conneticut, and Massachusets today (since the park is like 1000 feet into Mass).

 

We got back to Craig's place in East Granby, CT at 11:20 am, which should have been just enough time to print off a Six Flags ticket for his sister, Erica, and take off for the park to be at the gate at noon (it's like 25 minutes to the park). Notice I say SHOULD HAVE. The printer decided to be retarded though. And after even trying a different printer (from the basement) we still didnt' have results. So Craig finally just ran over to the neighbor's house to print it off, and we were off to the park (it's like 12:05 at this point already).

 

We took all these random back roads to the park, but it was neat. And I got to see some really cute New England type houses.

 

Oh, and I didn't realize until we got there that the park is basically in CT, since you literally cross over into Mass, and it's 1000 feet ahead. James (aka CanobieFan aka El Taco) was at the gate waiting for us (since we were late), but we had called him to let him know, so he had managed to go get a couple rides in while waiting.

 

The front gate as seen from the pedestrian bridge

 

They had much of the park decorated for Fright Fest.

 

We weren't here for Fright Fest though, and that didn't start until much later in the day. Instead we headed straight for pure Intamin goodness.

 

SUPERMAN Coaster #197

 

Wow, what a great coaster. Awesome first drop, airtime galore, overbanked turn, decent helix. It was really really good. I'd put it right alongside Goliath at Six Flags Holland (Walibi World, whatevs) as far as my top 5 go. I'd have to ride them closer together to pick one. But they both have a great first couple of hills, they both have good turns, and both have that ending of great bunny hops. Superman has the edge in number of hills, but Goliath wins in the best finale (since I loved that quick 180 into the breaks). Oh I also thought the carousel hills or whatever are better on Goliath, but Superman has the more intense turns.

 

BTW, we rode in the back for the first ride

 

Station shot

 

Another shot of the amazing first drop.

 

Ok, now that I've spoken my love for this coaster, it's time to move on. We next went over to Poison Ivy's Twisted Train or whatever the family coaster is called. It has a decent layout, but it's still just a family coaster. I prefer the Vekoma Roller Skaters since they still get my stomach, but I'll take what I can get. #198

 

Lift hill shot of Erica

 

OMG, it's such a twisted train

 

Oh, and you can get a pretty decent picture of Superman from the ride.

 

Lunch time, typical Six Flags nastiness. Considering how much nicer this park is compared to other Six Flags parks, I was surprised that the food selection was so pitiful. Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, and Pizza was all I really saw offered. I should have stuck with the pizza, but instead went with a burger that was flavorless and gross, oh and SOGGY FRENCH FRIES. So not worth even half of the $12 I spent on it.

 

Ok, onwards. It was time to face CYCLONE #199.

 

I had heard this ride was brutal, but didn't find that to be the case. Well it was brutal in one aspect. James insisted that we had to ride in the very back seat. Ok, I wasn't quite sure I was in for, but I wasn't looking forward to it. Turns out, the back seat delivers crazy air on the first drop, but not the good air, violent slam you into the lap bar and fear for your life airtime. Oh, and it does it again later in the ride. Oh why would I trust El Taco?

 

Me in pain, after the ride is over.

 

OK, here comes the big moment. It's time for my 200th coaster. Now I know some of you would have made sure that Superman was #200, but that would be easily forgotten. No, I had a much better choice.

 

GREAT CHASE - #200

 

I thought Great Chase was the perfect coaster for #200. Mostly because I almost always skip the kiddie coasters. Plus they were running two laps today, (which I've been told is an extreme rarity).

 

#200

 

Ok, now that the milestone is out of the way. Back to more coasters. Next we rode Mr. Six's Pandemonium (which I guess is just Pandemonium now???). The line was long, so we did single rider line. Craiggers and Erica both had to ride with strangers, but somehow me and James ended up together. It was decent, though we didn't get much spinning out of it. I don't like spinning coasters that don't spin. Of course, when Adrian and I rode Exterminator, we spun a little too much (almost drug the ride op in the station into the track area because we were spinning so fast). Anyways, this had almost no spin .......*YAWN* Oh, and I forgot to get a picture fo it.

 

Next, FLashback: check. Really do I need to say anything about this? It's a boomerang. Oh, I know, it had nice cars. No picture of this either.

 

On to the other side of the park. Thunderbolt had a longish line (for Thunderbolt) so we helf off on riding until later. So on to Mind Eraser. This actually ran decent for an SLC, but it was still semi-painful. Not from the head bashing, but the hanging in the restraints. I tend to skip these too, but decided to ride today for credit's sake.

 

I tried to take a picture of it, but got distracted by the better red coaster.

 

Oh, and I got distracted by trying to capture James on film. He avoids having his face on camera so well.

 

 

Finally, I had to bust out my stalker photo skills and I even managed to catch him smiling. HA, take that!

 

I really wanted to get a ride on Splash Water Falls, but the line was ri-cock-ulous, so we passed. Looks like fun though

 

Craig says "Line's too long"

 

Ok, well on to Batman: The Dark Knight then. James made this coaster out to be worse than it was. Still my least favorite of the B&M floorless coasters, but not as painful as he said it would be. In fact, I didn't have any headbanging issues.

 

Craig, by the brake run

 

Batman: TDK

 

Oh, by the way. Here's the HAT O JUNK. We would all put our cell phones/cameras/sunglasses in here and Craig would put it in his backpack before every ride.

 

Only one more coaster to ride, and that would be Thunderbolt.

 

Craig taking a picture of the red train back on the track.

 

The blue train coming back into the station

 

It was a decent little woodie. It had a very crooked lift hill, and a few moments of mild air. Just a classic wooden coaster. Kind of reminded me of Big Dipper at Geauga Lake without the out & back layout.

 

Well, all I felt the need of a re-ride on was Superman, so we headed back that way. Front seat this time. Me and craig leaned forwards with our arms outsretched, and it was kind of like flying. Still a fantastic ride, though I think I like the back seat more.

 

James offered to ride Nightwing with me, but after hearing the horror stories of junk-smashing, I decided against it. I'm not a huge flat-ride fan anyways. It was pretty neat looking though.

 

The line for Superman was still like 30 minutes, so we headed back home instead of getting yet one more ride. We parted ways with James in the parking lot, and headed back across the state line. Oh, and we stopped at Stop and Shop on the way back for some ice cream, and some liquor store for beer. We got Sea Dog Blueberry Ale, and it was SO GOOD! It went well with dinner (spaghetti with italian sausage)

 

I would show the picture of me enjoying the beer, but I had spaghetti sauce on my face I'm a messy eater.

 

We watched X-Men 3, and Craig posted his PTRs to the boards. Then off to bed. I got up, went to the airport in the morning, and ended up back in sunny L.A.

 

It was a great trip, and I can't wait to go back to this area of the country again (especially since I missed Lake Compounce and Boulder Dash). The scenery is great, and I have a ton of pictures of road signs and fall leaves that I might share at some point. Thanks for reading if you stopped by.

 

Kyle "Superman Makes Me Horny" Miller

[Canobie Fan]

Yay.. No 'bad' photos of me

[Real]

Definitely one of the best STEEL coasters I’ve ever been on. What’s that? It’s wood, I couldn’t tell.

 

 

ROFLMAO BEST. LINE. EVER. !

[RaptorBoyASU]

^It's true. Nothing about it felt like a wood coaster.

[Gnome]

^ which did you prefer between SROS and El Toro?

[RaptorBoyASU]

Hmmm.......that's a tough one.

 

Probably El Toro. But I only got one ride on it, so it's tough to say for sure. I got two rides on Superman, and my first reaction to a ride is always more intense than after a few rides.

 

But I was blown away by El Toro's insane "air" (you're stapled, so it's not really airtime). If the end of the coaster had just a little more pop to it, it wouldn't even be a question.