TR: Kennywood Opening Day

[Legendary]

Hey everybody! It’s been a long time since I’ve written a trip report or

anything substantial on here but I went to Kennywood on Opening Day

and here is my report.

 

Well, first an update on what I’ve been up to. As you all know, my father;

my travel partner and best friend, passed away November 5th, 2005. That

affected me very profoundly. It compounded substance abuse problems

I’ve fought all my adult life, not to mention leaving me with a lot of bills

that I never had to pay for.

 

The end of 2005 with the holidays and whatnot, and all of 2006 were

very tough times for me. After paying down debts and getting myself

clean.. I moved to Pittsburgh at the end of August 2006. I started

attending the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute that September and I

just graduated April 14th. In between, I worked at The Cheesecake

Factory as a designated trainer for that store and the Ross Park Mall

store. That spring, I took a job bartending at Calico Jack’s; a new bar

on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. That September, for my school’s

externship, I took a job as Maitre d’ at the Capital Grille in the

new Piatt Place building downtown. After graduation, I started

a new job with PNC Bank; working in the USX Tower on the 28th

floor in Merchant Services. That, in a nutshell.. is more or less

what I’ve been up to since most of you last saw me at CoasterCon

in Chicago. I saw some friends at Lake Compounce for Sue and Rich’s

wedding; but being back in a park was absolutely devastating for me

at that time. I was actually physically ill from it that day, as some

can attest to. (Well, that.. and I was detoxing, I suppose).

 

But life is much better now. I’m seeing a psychologist at the University

Of Pittsburgh and she’s great.. she’s helping me deal with a lot of my

Issues, I have a great salaried job now, and I have a wonderful

Apartment that overlooks the city by Mellon Arena.

 

So, with that out of the way.. Kennywood!

 

I arrived at about 11:30.. grabbed my ticket, and headed in..

despite the overcast skies and drizzle.

 

First off was The Jack Rabbit.. running great as usual. In

accordance with Kennywood tradition was The Racer..

which was better than I remembered. I checked out the

snack stand by the Log Jammer which last year had

AWESOME mini burgers and corn dogs.. not this

year though.

 

So I headed to the Pagoda for a hot sausage. Then I

rode Ghostwood Estate. Wow! The preshow, the

thematics, everything was WAY above my expectations!

 

The cars are trackless , there are wires in the floor and

there are sensors allow the cars to do a lot of tricks. Metal

bar codes are embedded in the concrete floor provide options

for the ride operators. They can make the cars stop, spin, turn,

or take another route if there's a fork in the road or a dead-end.

The cars equip each guest with a laser gun. Hit one of the 200 or

so light-up targets and you get a "trick," as well as points.

 

I don’t want to spoil any surprises.. but definitely give it a spin..

or eight as I did!

 

The rest of the day I just spent meandering, taking pictures,

appreciating my year’s anniversary of sobriety, and riding old favorites

like the Auto Ride, the Turtle, Noah’s Ark, Exterminator, Swing Shot

(which is scary as hell.. swinging over the road and all) my four rides

on Phantom’s Revenge, and five rides on Pittfall.

 

The weather broke around 1pm or so and stayed nice pretty much the

rest of the day. It’s good to be back in the parks, and back on the

Web. I found a link to a video for Ghostwood, here is the link.

Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cUBX28txJk

 

I just wanted to say thanks for everything.. it's good to be back. Pictures from the day can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1011&id=307600064&ref=mf (if I knew how to do a photo tr.. I would!)

 

See yous at the parks!

[Yeti762]

Hi Rob!

 

We chatted with you in the Jack Rabbit line - glad you liked Ghostwood estate!

[EastCoastn07]

Sounds like you had a pretty good time which is great. Unfortunately I was unable to ride anything at the park on Opening Day, I actually started my job there and was working Garfield's Nightmares photo booth for a majority of the day. I got hired by a company called Picsolve, who Kennywood outsourced their entire photography department to and so far I'm loving the job. I'll be working the four photo booths (front gate, Turnpike, Garfield and Log Jammer) this summer so if you're in the area give me a holler.

 

As for Ghostwood Estate, I was able to check it out on my break and from the looks of it, it looks to be a pretty cool ride. Hopefully I can make it to the park soon (for leisure this time) and check it out.