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Photo TR: Beech Bend Park - 5/19/07


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This past Saturday (May 19, 2007) I ventured an hour north of Nashville to Bowling Green, KY to meet up with a co-worker’s daughter’s Girl Scout Troop at Beech Bend Park. It was my first time there (even though they advertise pretty heavily in the Nashville market) & was pleasantly surprised. Perhaps it was because there was barely anyone in the park. I couldn’t understand why - the weather was beautiful (sunny & 76 degrees) – then, an employee pointed out that this was the first day Splash Lagoon (the water park) was open. Oh, that’s where all the people are…

 

Needless to say, we walked on every ride (sometimes being the only ones on the ride) & had our choice of seats on Kentucky Rumbler all 8 times we rode it.

 

The park is very family friendly with a good collection of flats & an extensive selection of kiddie rides. It is definitely the smallest park I’ve been to in a very long time but easily the friendliest – I only counted 2 ride ops under the age of 40. Around noon, I looked down at my watch & realized that we had covered the entire park in 2 hours (10:00 open). One thing I did wish is that they stayed open until it got dark (6:00 close). I understand that it’s not a huge corporate park, but I really love riding flats at nite & wouldn’t have minded a dark ride on Rumbler.

 

A couple tips if any of you visit in the future: 1-Antique Cars is probably the lamest drive-yourself car-ride. You pretty much just drive around on parking lot asphalt. 2-Haunted House is not really haunted. It’s just dark. You can barely even see what they are trying to scare you with. 3-White Water Express takes about 3 rides to get you moderately wet. 4-The Flying Bobs cars don’t swing very much. You can tell that it has been operating forever & is in the need of a good greasing. 5-The Sizzler is probably the best one I’ve been on in my entire life. 6-Shock Drop goes up the tower extremely slow & doesn’t pause when you hit the top – you down immediately. 7-Power Surge gives you plenty of inversions if you sit by yourself in an inside seat. 8-The Wild Mouse spins the best with the orange car & the heaviest person in your group (of no more than 3) getting in first. 9-Looping Star has gonad-crushing seats & no leg room unless you are in the first row of seats. At the start of the day, the op wasn’t letting anyone sit in the first or last seats coz she said that it had been running through the brakes recently (always a good sign, right?!?) & she was trying to keep the load a little lighter. Later in the day, a different op had the entire train open (that’s the only reason I rode it a second time). 10-Kentucky Rumbler gave me the most air in the front seat (both sides about equal). The ops, although encouraging about on-ride photography & filming, wouldn’t give repeat rides (even though there was no one in the queue) coz they claimed management do not allow it.

 

I’m sorry I didn’t take any on-ride photos/video but I had just bought my camera earlier that day & didn’t feel quite comfortable with it – my old one had broken the nite before. Also, since my computer won’t upload the video I made of the day, here’s the link to it:

 

Now, with all of that said & done, here are some pictures. (I am so worried that they'll post in the reverse order. Oh well, here it goes...)

 

Thanks for reading!

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Oops. Almost forgot. The shirt I wore that no one had a clue what it was in reference to. I felt really old.

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Finally, the most ghetto Skee Ball ever. They didn't even spit out prize tickets. BTW: Can you figure out what's missing? I noticed at least 2 things...

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One of the overbanked turns. One of the best woodies I've ridden. Small, yes. Short, yes. Exciting from start to finish, absolutely! (For tons of more Kentucky Rumbler goodness, check out the video.)

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"Hi. My name is Kentucky Rumbler & I'm a great intense coaster!"

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For some reason, I just love how the lift chain goes into the building below. I know, I'm lame.

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Kentucky Rumbler's first drop from the platform. I'm on the next train. Woo hoo!

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Kentucky Rumbler (the Holy Grail of BBP) from across the pond.

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Scratch that. At 22 years old, I'm surprised there are ANY left.

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It's hard to believe that there are only like 4 of these left operating in the US.

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Looping Star's, umm...., loop. Nothing says "extreme" like a 36 ft loop on a carnival coaster.

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Looping Star from across the pond.

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You can't see it, but a bird also lives on the upper tier of this ride. One of these days he's gonna get squashed by a mouse. I'm glad it wasn't us.

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The spinning Wild Mouse was great. Especially when you went over the bunny hills backwards.

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I told myself that I wouldn't be a credit whore but I couldn't resist the Dragon.

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Car 13 on Power Surge got me stuck upside down. It was great! Me to the ride op: "You told me to watch my feet when the ride was ending, not my head."

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This has to be the most annoyed bird but, hey, he's the one that built his nest up there.

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Shock Drop aka 50 Ft Tower Of Terror aka I'm Gonna Wet Myself. I am deathly afraid of heights but rode it anyway.

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White Water Express looked like it'd get you soaked. But it don't.

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Too bad the cool dark Ragid Rapids Water Slide was closed.

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A lot of the girls hung here at Splash Lagoon. Ooh, cold water!

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The action-filled Sizzler & the action-less Flying Bobs from across the pond.

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The girls had to drag me on Moby Dick but it was a blast! Tons of air when you sit on the ends.

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I taught two 13 year olds how to ride the Starship 3000 upside down.

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I taught a 10 year old how to get the most whirl out of a Tilt-A-Whirl. "Lean this way... now... this way..."

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Dizzy Dragons made me extremely dizzy. It gets rather hot inside a big plastic dragon that sits out in the sun all day.

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I feared for my life on Jitter Bug. Plastic seat + old chain + 190 lbs = disaster.

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This is the only time I saw anyone on the Tea Cups.

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The scariest thing at the Haunted House was the ride operator. She kept forgetting to use the brake & cars were slamming into each other at the station.

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Note to self: Change sign to NOT SO Haunted House.

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The Ferris Wheel that I hardly saw anyone on.

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The station of the lame Antique Cars.

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Notice: no adults.

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The Kiddie Bumper Cars.

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Notice: no kids.

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The Adult Bumper Cars.

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A "short bus" girl wiped out after getting off of Rainbow Rock. Go figure...

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This is the short bus.

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Crazy Bus. Not to be confused with the short bus.

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Is it just me or does Oscar look guilty of something? Oh, he's broken down.

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Kiddie Hop was giving adults pint-size thrills.

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Too old to ride Bumble Bee Bop? Not this daring extreme rider.

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The non-Disney Dumbo-ish ride - Jumping Jumbos.

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Jalopy Junction is exactly what its name implies.

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If I was 5 years old I'd ride Happy Pond. It's so cute.

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Kiddie Whip looked fun. I wish I was 4 feet shorter.

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The Merry Go Round that I only saw someone on once.

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Very nice.

 

I loved my trip to Beech Bend as well. Did you ride the Looping Star? It was suprizingly painless. I would have whored myself to the Wagon of Dragon, but it was closed.

 

Where can I get one of those T-shirts? It's funny that the background has *cough*seven*cough* flags on it, instead of the, um..... six.....flags......

 

 

Was the Whipper Snapper Revy or Coli? I can't remeber....

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I'm not entirely sure, but I think me and my girlfriend are the two people on the right side of the SHOCK DROP. We were at the park from around 2 till around 4 or 5.

 

I remember someone taking pictures of the tower while I rode, and those kinda look like my shoes.

 

Good TR though! It's cool we were there at the same time at least.

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Great report! I'm all excited now since I'm heading there on July 24th! I'm looking forward to get all the roller coaster credit when I'm there especially Kentucky Rumbler!

 

I'm doing my little tour call "Screamin' in the smokies!" and will be visiting these park in order: Beech Bend, Dollywood, Carowind, Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, and Holiday World. I will be spending 1 1/2 days in dollywood and two days in Carowind! Sound like fun?

 

Again great report! I saw the video on YouTube! Well done!

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Very nice.

 

I loved my trip to Beech Bend as well. Did you ride the Looping Star? It was suprizingly painless. I would have whored myself to the Wagon of Dragon, but it was closed.

 

Where can I get one of those T-shirts? It's funny that the background has *cough*seven*cough* flags on it, instead of the, um..... six.....flags......

 

 

Was the Whipper Snapper Revy or Coli? I can't remeber....

 

Thanks!

 

I did ride the Looping Star &, yeah, it wasn't painful as a coaster goes - the seats with the gonad-crushing hump in the middle hurt the most. That's why I rode it again once they opened the front seats - they don't have the hump.

 

That shirt is probably close to ten years old. I think I got it from a catalog called Betty's Attic but I'm not positive. They also had a shirt with Mortimer Moose's face on it - my ex got that one.

 

I haven't watched it in a while, but I'm almost positive Whipper Snapper was Revolution. I seem to remember them going to that ride when Chevy shot John Candy in the rump with the BB gun.

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Wow! I better be sure to bring my ribbed tank top undershirts, cutoffs and trucker hat on the Midwest Trip!

 

G "Carnies...small hands...!" Money

 

You'd fit right in, especially at the race track adjacent to Beech Bend.

 

Seriously though, it is actually a very nice, quant, friendly, family park (despite the ghetto/carny references in my TR) with a couple standout rides & some decent flats. I think the fact that everyone was in the water park & not riding rides made it look so desolate (in my mind & probably the pictures too). Either way, Rumbler makes the trip worth it! I hope you enjoy it!

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