Cross country trip the last part Added 4/4/06 Page 6

[dws_57]

My Computer at home died. I'm curently at work Don't tell anyone ok? So here's my rough plan. (I'm really winging this trip) I'm crossing the country on US 50 on my Motorcycle. Then visting a friend in NJ and one in WI. I've been saving my vaction and comp time for 2.5 years to get this much time off work. (all of June) so here's my list of planed stops in no real order. (may change stops along the way also) I need to be cheap too. So season passes at multiple places is a good thing.

Joyland, KS (if open, I can't seem to find any info online)

Worlds of fun, Cedar point, Geauga lake, and Dorney.

Holiday world,

PKI, PKD, SFA, SFGAdventure, SFGA, SFKK, The WI Dells

One day to both Astroland and Playland Rye, NY

if funds and time permit. Hershey, Wiliams grove, kennywood and Knobels.

That's my rough plan I will fine tune on the road. (traffic and wheather will play a major role too.) My depature date is set at June 1st.

Kind of Sad I won't make your event at SFMM.

I might be online tuesday, then not again for quite some time.

DWSkunks.

Edited November 13, 2005 by dws_57

[JohnSmith]

gosh, LUCKY!

[coaster1]

Joyland isn't open and prolly will never be again, the new park their in Wichita is getting a Schwarzkopf City Jet next year however.

[dws_57]

Thanks for the info on Joyland. That was a coaster I hadn't gotten to ride. That saves one detour off 50 though. I'll try to post something if I can find internet connection (libary or something) along the way. I should be on the road tomorrow sometime. Talk to you all again soon

DWSkunks.

Vaction 2yrs in the making I'm still can't belive it.

[josephwanek]

^^ RCDB and Screamscape say Joyland's owners are trying to reopen it for 2005. Are you sure it will be closed?

[coaster1]

We passed by Joyland on our way to WOF and it looked worse than some other places I've been that have been closed for several years. There was no sign of any activity had been around in some time.

[dws_57]

Well actually I've been back since the first. My computer at home is still dead and I've been pretty swamped at work since I got back, this is my first real chance to post anything. I won't be able to post/edit any Pics or video till I get my computer fixed. I Did go east on Hwy 50 from Sacramento CA to Ocean City MD. (more small town america that way, than interstate)Rain in NV, Ut. and Snow in CO. and Heavy rain in OH slowed my progeress so I had to drop a couple of the parks I wanted to go to. The Final count was 31 days on the road. June 1 to July 1.

8134 miles ridden. Park list (in order of visit) is as follows;

1 Worlds of (not so much) fun. For the season pass mostly.

2 SF St. Louis

3 Holiday world

4 P Kings Island

5 Ocean City MD (Couple of amusement places together here)

6 BG Williamsburg

7 P Kings Dominion

8 SF America

9 SF Great Adventure

10 Playland Rye, NY

11 Dorney

12 Williams Grove (closed due to rain)

13 Hershey

14 Return to Williams Grove

15 Kennywood

16 Geauga Lake

17 Cedar Point

Crowds were pretty light except for SFGAd. Kennywood and Cedar Point. Probally due to being later in the month. I tried to stay out of the parks on the weekends. Special thanks to the PKI Beast crew for Conversation on other parks, Coasters, food and the two double rides on beast. (spent an hour and a half with this crew during a lighting storm waiting for my first ride.) Only onride footage I was able to shoot was Dragon coaster, Playland. Every one else I asked said no. All in All a fun trip.

DWSkunks

[coasterdude5]

Whoa! I'll probably never see that many parks in my life. Yet, I might get lucky. Hmmmm...

[dws_57]

Hey All;

My computer seems to be ok now, Its a laptop and been giving me Quite some grief. Real life been getting in the way also. Now here we go.

The trip ran June 1 to July 1. Starting in Felton, CA and traveling through 18 States before returning home. 18 Amusement parks and over 80 coasters. 8147 miles traveled when all was done. Yes I did this solo as none of my friends are either crazy enough or had saved enough vacation time.

Things were off to a rocky start, Late starting out then really cold wet weather for the first couple days.

Day one Felton, CA, to Lake Tahoe, CA. Arrived around 10:30 pm only 263 miles, not the start I was hopping for. The shop has messed up my appointment so the bike wasn’t ready till 4pm. Still a lot of snow in the pass unusual for June.

June 2 Lake Tahoe to Ely, NV 359 miles arrived at 7pm 42 degrees and sprinkling. Stayed the hotel Nevada, If you ever go to Ely this is the place for donkey enthusiasts, the casino even has a donkey on the chip. (Sorry no pic of the chips) Also the Great Basin National Park in Baker, has the amazing Lehman cave to go through.

June 3, Ely, NV to Delta, CO. 481 miles, Raining most of the day cold slow going on the Plus first day riding without a helmet, no helmet law. Amazing looking country side Even though I was really cold and wet I really enjoyed this section of road.

June 4, Delta, CO to Lamar, CO 361 miles. Woke up to the quietest parade I’d ever seen no marching bands or any noise at all. A truck was towing a flat trailer with some people throwing water balloons they were the noisy float. Another really pretty section of road. Also rain, snow and hail. What a day. When I got to Pueblo. Split through on 50 between two storm east of Pueblo North and south of me. Finally some dryer weather.

June 5 Lamar CO to Kansas City MO. 525 miles. What a difference now its 85 degrees humid and lost of bugs to eat along the way. Ick.... Taking a couple days longer that I had hoped I arrive at Worlds of Fun and the Harley Davidson Plant.

Monday June 6 Started the morning off by heading up to the Harley plant for the tour. That was pretty cool seeing where my bike was assembled. Then off to worlds of fun. Bought a season pass here Almost the cheapest in cedar faire parks. Made into the park around 12 noon. Park was open till 8pm. Well boomerang was closed, first missed coaster. Mamba was fun. I enjoyed this coaster and rode quite a few times as the park was pretty empty. But the staff was pretty slow. Only running one coaster, So still about a 10 min wait. Spinning dragons was fun and a little different. Short line but still took about 15 min. or so. Timber Wolf no wait at all one ride I knew why. This was one rough coaster for no reason. Felt like they had put oval wheels on the thing, it used to be better. This was by far my least favorite ride. Other Highlights at Worlds of Fun. Huss Enterprise, Spinning Barrel stick to the wall drop the floor ride. (Forgot the name) Log ride was pretty small but fun, (made to look like canoes) Clone Sam’s Cloudpopper 2000, and a raft ride with lots of stacking and a really wet top spin.

Next posting Six Flags St. Louis. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

On to the pics Dws

Water Balloon float. Quiet please

Snow in June? Only in CO.

Getting ready to travel through snow brrrrr

winding wet 50/70

Utah Off Hwy 50 and I70

Wheeler Peak Leheeman caves underneath

Don't shower with Donkeys??

Hotel Donkey I mean Nevada

Hwy 50 oustside of Austin, NV

Lake Tahoe

Packed and ready to go

[dws_57]

More Pics

Bikers for sale at WOF thats all

A big Splash?

Mamba money shot

Steam Train Yea Were not just coaster's are we?

Launching close together.

Line for Timber Wolf hmmm. Only one train too. no stacking

This guy jumped in my shot from the ferris wheel.

Mamba on the second hill and some trailer construction.

Huss Enterprise Isn't it prety?

Raft Stacking an olympic event.... I think not.

Mamba in the Helix, DUCK... Nice head choppers

Me and mamba Finally made it yea...

[Twister II]

2 things.

 

1. YTF didn't you stop at SFEG?

 

2. Im so confused with the guy in the ferris wheel shot! What is he doing?

[dws_57]

1)Denver Was getting Golf ball sized Hail that day. Combined with the Later than planned start I decided to skip the detour up from 50 to Denver.

 

2) Sky coaster is right in front of the ferris wheel. It was funny to me...

DWS

[andrea]

wow i wish i could have been there, all the mountains and rocks look so pretty plus all of the rides, i bet you had a great time

[Jeezus Juice]

Awesome, I'm looking forward to more pictures! We did our cross country trip in 04, only we were in a car. I can't imagine being on a bike in some of the weather we went through!

 

At least you had hotels to stay in, all we had was our stupid dome tent. Tents don't protect you from monsoon flooding and lightning!

 

I'll try not to make any Easy Rider references.

 

-=Don

[PhishyBrewer]

HOLY CRAP! You did this trip on a Harley Sportster!

 

Dude... when I ride my 03' Sportty to Reno, my ass is killing me about half way there. But when I get to the Bunny Ranch, I'm alright again

 

Can't wait to get my Ultra Glide

[Erik Johnson]

I always love cross country road trips. The best part of a trip is usually not the final destination, but its the events that occur as you are travelling there. Thanks for posting.

[dws_57]

June 7; 260 miles Leave for St Louis or really Eureka MO. and Six Flags St Louis. 50 merges with 44 and goes right by SFSL. Slow going through Jefferson and some site seeing I arrive at the Econo lodge at 5pm. A quick check in and off to SFSL.

Open till 10pm. Payed to park. Impressed they have preferred motorcycle parking. They also have metal detectors in place takes a few minutes to get through (steel toed boots)

Started off by shooting some footage of batman. Then two rides in a row. Parks pretty empty on a Tuesday night. Shoot over to Ninja for some arrow/vekoma head banging. Only really rough in a couple of spots not as bad as I have heard. Did three rides here quick then off to The screaming Eagle did two rides on this a littler slower to get through and around the line (it had one) so did The Boss running about 25 min wait. One train operation. Then back around to the mine train I missed. Another on batman then off to Mr Freeze. I ended up riding this quite a few times and playing charades with two of the ride ops while waiting. Pretty funny and fun.

Rounded off the evening with scooby doo floating boat shooting ride and couple flat rides more Mr. Freeze and finish with a mini marathon on batman the ride. A good day but didn’t feel a strong need to return in the morning as I had done pretty much all I wanted to in the 5.5 hrs there. Meet a family there 2 adults and their teenage daughter talked about parks with them and they were coming from PA. and heading south from there. She is sure to end up being a coaster enthusiast someday. Hottest day out yet 89degress with high humidity Off to Denny’s and a shower.

 

June8 299 miles. How come the flat states is where I get lost the most? I had made a couple wrong turns in Kansas as the road signs were confusing. Same for IN. Hit morning traffic in St Louis on my way to Holiday World. Missed the 50 exit twice. Got the map out and figured out another way to 50 in IL. Crossed into IN. Got lost again another wrong turn. Time change and my watch died. Not sure when I got to Holiday World around 5 or so park closes at 7pm. Decided to stay the night at the Santa Claus lodge and do HW in the morning. All you can eat Pizza, soup and salad bar, in the shopping center across the way is dinner and only $5. Wow Pretty good too and it includes drinks.

 

June 9 HW at the inn No rooms available for tonight I decide to risk it in this sleepy town and leave everything loaded on the bike except the tank bag as it will fit and a locker as it has both my cameras in it.

Up front, like right at the gate, is the parking for Motorcycles wow. Free too. Don’t feel to apprehensive about leaving the bike loaded now. I spent the most money in this park as things were so reasonably priced. Also used my ace card for a discount to get inn. I brought lunch, Dinner, an onride photo from legend, funnel cake, towel and some hand dipped marsh mellows I found legend and Raven to be force full and smooth. Both very fun rides. Raven was having some problems and would go up the lift really slow then speed up at the top so they ended up closing it down pretty early in the day so no evening ride on it for me. The water park was also fun Zoombabwe is a very cool 4 passenger raft enclosed. I rode it alone and went backwards all the way down. Bahari wave pool is bigger than the other wave pool there and more of a tiki theme. The new Amazoom and Bamboo chutes were fun rather short though. Jungle racer was a blast. One kid in our group was getting a time of 4.5 sec while the average was around 7. I was closer to 8 sec I just couldn’t get the hang of launching. Lol

All and all I really enjoyed this park the friendly and helpful staff was willing to go out of their way to help you. Free drinks and free sun screen added up to a really nice day. What they don’t have in massive attractions they make up for in the little things and now adding the Voyage will make this a must visit park for all.

Leaving HW I decided to skip going to Six Flags K.K. and head straight for PKI to try to make up some time. Take I64 to I65n and stop at I65 and Hwy 50 for the night Just outside of Seymour IN. Only about 120 miles or so. This was the biggest detour off of 50 the hole trip and well worth it.

Thank’s for reading now on to the pics Next update PKI and Ocean city, MD Dws

Scooby dooooo!!! where are you

Mr Freeze Ok that's all I got for this one.

Splash boat

The Boss

screamin Eagle second hill

Ninja sidwinder element

batman in the first loop

on my way to St Louis Didn't citizen Kane live here

[dws_57]

Holiday World

Good Night Santa

Does santa make me look thinner?

bumper boats how cool is that?

racing on a warm IN. day.

More legend

Jungle jets run and get wet

Raven closed before I started taping

bangsite cannons in the toy musem.

Legend money shot

the only original ride left at HW 1946

Zinga bowl thingy

[robbalvey]

Wow, this is one hell of a trip! I'm loving the photos and the TR's!

 

--Robb

[Nrthwnd]

Awesome TR.

 

Makes me miss my Honda 82 Silverwing which was outfitted for touring, which I did, up and down the west coast.

[BiCoastal Kid]

Where was that last photo taken?

[dws_57]

^Santa Claus Lodge In Santa Claus, IN This is the closet you can stay to holiday world It's right across the intersection and has Shuttle service to the park.

^^I never had a silver wing But did have 78 cb 750k for a while. I Also love riding up and down th CA coast. Been through OR. once too. Hoping to do a NW trip next year.

Thanks For the Comments too.

Dws

[zburns999]

Awesome TR so far. I can't believe you were able to keep all of your supplies and clothing for that big of a trip in a bag small enough to be carried by motor cycle. I can't wait to see more!

[ECZenith]

DWS, that's exactly the kind of trip I would want to go on, just need a bike... and time.. and money... Great photos man, keep us posted.

[dws_57]

^^ If you look at a photo of the bike here's a quick rundown of How It's packed. Front fork bag. Some tools, Tape and 2 Coin Dollars (hold up better when wet) just in case. Tank Bag; Sweatshirt on warm days couple of tee shirts on cool days, 35mm camera, Current day map or directions from online. Saddle bags; a 6 day supply of clothes. I just plan on a wash day every week. Most motels have a Machine or laudary near by. Plus a few bigger tools just in case. Rack bag; video camera, Notebook, Lenses for the 35mm camera, Maps not in use today, Big map books Bandanas Park maps, (collecting along the way.) A box of Granola bars and three bottles of water, also just in case. It's a tight pack but I added shirts and things along the way and got much better at packing it up.

^ Hang in there, Keep those dreams alive. This is something I've been wanting to do since I learned to ride at 17.