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Buzzards Across America 2008


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Well it's a year later than planned, it's completely insane and it's gonna be one helluva trip.

 

Flights, Motels and car Hire is all sorted and four members of The BlueBuzzards are heading Stateside at the end of May next year. Anyone who wishes to join us at any time will be most welcome so here's the trip (and yes we know it'll be hard work!)

 

30th May - Fly in to JFK and drive to Harrisburg (DerekRX recommended the local hospitality in terms of Ale!)

31st May - Knoebels

1st June - Hershey

2nd June - Kennywood

3rd & 4th June - Cedar Point

5th June - Indiana Beach

6th June - Holiday World

7th June - Beech Bend

8th June - Dollywood

9th June - Paramount's Carowinds

10th June - Busch Gardens Europe

11th June - Paramount's Kings Dominion

12th June - Six Flags America

13th June - Six Flags Great Adventure

14th June - Six Flags New England (Thanks Zoom for cancelling the Saturday flight)

15th June - Coney Island and fly home

 

Yup it's a lot to do and we are not deluding ourselves about the distances involved. All of us have done 2500 miles plus Euro trips so we really do understand that this is no walk in the park (ahem!)

 

For those of you who messaged me in the early stages of getting this sorted many thanks for your advice.

 

See you next year?

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We considered Kentucky Kingdom for a while but two of us have already been there back in 1999 and Beech Bend was deemed a better choice as it's smaller and we have a long day that day driving wise so wanted a small park just to break up the journey without being hard work.

 

Admittedly the Schwarzkopf looper is tempting but it's not enough on it's own to warrant a visit as the rest of the coasters aren't really up to much.

 

Thanks for the hint anyway.

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  • 2 months later...
I would suggest splitting June 14th into both Six Flags New England and Lake Compounce. They have some good flat rides at the park as well as....Boulder Dash!

Agreed. If you are at SFNE for opening, and get a Q-Bot, you can EASILY be done there in a few hours. If you have a Gold Q-Bot you can be done in a few hours with MULTIPLE rides on S:ROS and then head over to Lake Compounce for the last couple hours of the night and close that park out on Boulder Dash.

 

--Robb

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EEEK.

 

Now don't twist my arm about Lake Compounce as I loved Boulderdash! Seeing as we're all season passed up for Six Flags there's every chance we'll do OK at New England. Hmmmmmm. Is another park just pushing it a bit TOO much.

 

YOU'RE SWINES!

 

Well it's worth discussing amongst the four of us I guess!

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Is another park just pushing it a bit TOO much.

If you spring for the gold Q-Bot at SFNE I wouldn't think so. You could wind up at SFNE around 3pm having done every coaster in the park going "now what?"

 

--Robb

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Is another park just pushing it a bit TOO much.

If you spring for the gold Q-Bot at SFNE I wouldn't think so. You could wind up at SFNE around 3pm having done every coaster in the park going "now what?"

 

--Robb

 

Oh ... errmmm .... what a dilemma!! *sigh* Ahh well, I guess we might HAVE to suffer a few hours over at Lake Compounce, then.

What a shame!! *GRIN*

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Yup, looks like the decision has been made. Seeing as they're on a 5pm to 8pm special entry price we've now scheduled the evening session into our plans seeing as the motel we're staying in is only 40 minutes from Lake Compounce.

 

It'd be rude not to!

 

As an aside I've finally updated my photo gallery with my USA photos from 1999 and 2001. Sorry about the quality but back in 1999 I was the only one on the trip with a Digicam and 640 x 480 was considered cutting edge back then. I had the same camera in 2001 but I'd learnt a lot more about using it by then so although still the same size I got better photos!

 

http://www.bluebuzzards.com/gallery/index.php?cat=2

 

Already got the gallery ready for this year's picture fest and also updated the tour site with the new itinerary. Still 12 weeks away I know but better to be prepared!

 

Keep the advice coming peeps.

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  • 1 month later...

Doesn't time fly?

 

Well we're down to just 39 days to go before lift off and short of a few minor things to sort out most of the trip is in the bag and ready to rock and roll.

 

Just got our Airport parking, GPS hire, travel insurance and tour merchandise to sort out now.

 

So keep an eye out for us as we blast round, blink and you might miss us! It would be great to bump into some fellow enthusiasts whilst we're over there so do let us know if you intend to be at the same park when we're there.

 

There will be a couple of laptops flying around with us and if all goes to plan we should be able to update the tour site and TPR as we go.

 

Too be honest it'll be a relief to get on that plane and set off.

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  • 1 month later...

Well from 39 days we're down to

 

FLYING ON FRIDAY OMFG!!!!!

 

So I'm all packed (just about) and in about ten hours time I shall be setting off to pick up the lads on the way down to Southampton ready for our afternoon flight on Friday to JFK.

 

Tour Website is here and if you want to contact us whilst we're away then you can use usa2008 @ bluebuzards . com as the email address.

 

I know Derek and Heath are hoping to meet us at Hershey along with their good ladies and if anyone else is likely to be around drop us a note.

 

See you on the other side.

 

Jason, Pete, Lyndon and Mike

The BlueBuzzards!

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  • 2 weeks later...

What a trip we're having.

 

Too much to condense into one tiny post but we've had the pleasure of meeting Derek and Nicol at Hershey. Then today at Dollywood who should we bump into but Robb, Elissa, Kidtums and their pack horse. (Sorry Joe)

 

It's been fab to meet all of you and we're having a blast.

 

Link for photos and reports is in the banner.

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^ Wow! You guys got that picture up quick! Good meeting up with you guys today. Although it was kind of creepy you guys kept stalking us, but we'll let that slide!

 

Keep us all posted on the rest of your trip!

 

--Robb

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Oh we're not hanging about with the updates.

 

Two laptops on tour with us and plenty of long drives for all the work to be done before arriving at the hotels so it's easy to do an update as soon as we get to the hotels.

 

Had a HOT day at Carowinds today but the Flyers were Snapping like crazy so the Buzzards are happy.

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Well, I didn't meet you - but I sure SAW you a lot at Kennywood last Monday.

 

In fact, we were pretty much right beside you guys in quite a few lines. I remember seeing the shirts, and the hat.

 

Talk about a HOT day, but after 5 PM, you couldn't have asked for better. 2 train waits for Jackrabbit, 1 train for Thunderbolt, and walk-ons on most of the flats. I grabbed a decent amount of pics with my new camera that day. Here's a couple of them for show.

 

 

-Josh

night.jpg.b588d3a0e642773ac1b34c0b5a2ed36c.jpg

tbolt.jpg.b522279b25a8828ca3ef625be1257ca5.jpg

bird.jpg.7c407d5e4925efb85ebc07bed5946ae1.jpg

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^ You should have said hello, we don't bite.

 

Well the trip has now come to an end, and boy what a trip! Pretty much most of the parks were excellent, apart from Six Flags America. Which to be honest was a bit of a joke, ride op's letting people carry on loose articles when the should not be, ops in control booths listening to their iPods instead of concentrating on their jobs. Also one ride op told someone to "shut the f**k up" We could not get out the park quick enough, Juggler sent an email to the park. Wether we get anything back is another thing.

 

Highlights of the trip were:

 

Voyage, WOW

El Toro, bigger WOW

Griffon

Apollo's Chariot

Alpengeist

Thunderhead

Kentucky Rumbler

TTD, and of course SFNE's S:RoS which is still my number one steelie.

 

Plus many highlights.

 

One ride which was a disappointment was Kingda Ka, it felt like it was shaking itself apart and the launch was juddering rather than it being a smooth consistent launch like TTD has.

 

All my photos are now uploaded to the link in my previous post, and Juggler has pretty much done all his reports.

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Well what can I say about the best USA coaster trip I've ever had? Firstly from a personal point of view it was all the more satisfying because I did a vast majority of the planning so to have it run SO well was just great.

 

There were so many great things that to try and list every little detail would take months but here's a select few.

 

The Flyers at Knoebels (still the best)

 

Meeting Derek and Nicol at Hershey and then onto ABC was a great start.

 

Hitting Cedar Point on a quiet day and riding everything with repeat rides on all the coasters plus night rides on Dragster.

 

Hooking up with Flyer Addicts Anonymous at Holiday World and Beech bend. Finally riding The legend and then The Voyage with Kentucky Rumbler the day after.

 

Dollywood was just an amazing park and is now my top park in the USA plus we bumped into Robb, Elissa Kidtums and their Pack Horse. Thunderhead was fab and Mystery Mine blew us all away.

 

The Flyers at Carowinds were running perfectly (SNAP SNAP)

 

Finally ticking several boxes on my wish list by riding Alpengeist, Apollo's Chariot and Griffon.

 

Adding to the wish list with Volcano: the Blast Coaster.

 

EL TORO. OMFG, WHAT A RIDE. Nitro wasn't bad either.

 

Superman Ride of Steel at New England is STILL the best steel coaster on this planet.

 

Ending the trip on the front seat of the Cyclone at Coney Island.

 

A big thank you to all those we bumped into planned or otherwise for making us feel so welcome and if you're ever over this way I'll be amongst the first to try and say hello and make you feel just as welcome.

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Yep, it was such a wonderful bonus to see you guys. I had a sort of feeling it could happen one day, but it actually DID! Made my day even better (suck-up mode disengage).

 

We weren't really stalking you of course - it's just that coaster people have this a-track-tive force that brings them together. OK, shoot me now.

 

Actually Robb's suggestion that I look on his map to find where the others were was one of the comedy highlights of the day. I should have replied "who do you think I am, Harry Potter?" but I wasn't quick enough...

 

What an awesome trip it was! Just about the only bad thing that happened (apart from Sick Flags America) was missing a ride on Boulderdash. Everything ran like clockwork, for which we are all grateful to Jason and his organisational skills.

 

Oh yes, before I forget! Could Josh (or anyone else) please name the bird in his photo? We saw them everywhere, and I don't know what they are called. Ta!

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Oh yes, before I forget! Could Josh (or anyone else) please name the bird in his photo? We saw them everywhere, and I don't know what they are called. Ta!

 

That would be the American Robin. His photo appears to be a male--the female would be a bit paler about the head. It is one of the most widespread birds in North America

 

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/American_Robin.html

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