PTR: Dave & Falafel Go To SFGAdv!

[Meteornotes]

OK, as always, before we begin, we must review Dave's Rules Of Engagement for his PTRs:

 

- I like to write, make money doing it, and think everyone should read more. So you'll get to do just that during this PTR! Be excited!

 

- I will say something that offends you and/or makes zero sense at some point. What can I say, I'm a slave to the nonsense that rattles around in my head all day, and must share it with someone.

 

- I suck at taking pictures. There will be ones of "questionable" quality used in the PTR, and I will occasionally snag images from Google or some other place to illustrate things I either forgot to take a picture of, or just took one so bad that the subject cannot be identified by a team of scientists. You've been warned.

 

With that behind us...let's begin!

 

So shortly after coming back from Europe, I was talking to Falafel (aka My Partner In Crime) and remarking that since the TPR East Coast trip was coming somewhat close to where we live (well, to be fair, it was coming really close when they went to SFA, but since we'd both rather go to the DMV for the day than set foot in that dump, we were not going there), we should make an attempt to meet up with the trip, as no doubt people would just love to see us (yes, I am delusional). A quick check of the calender showed that Falafel and I were both free on the SFGAdv day, and so plans were made to meet up that day. We decided to drive up the night before and stay in a hotel near the one the trip was stopping at, allowing us to get to the park rested the next day.

 

I've been to SFGAdv several times, but Falafel has never been there. The last time I was there, a number of rides were closed (El Toro had just recently completed construction, but had not opened yet). So I was looking forward to getting some new credits, and checking out the park again. I've seen this park go through a lot of changes over the years, and it's gone from being pretty much a dump to one of the best parks in the Six Flags chain. It's known for being quite busy in the summer, but Robb & Elissa were procuring Gold QBots for trip peeps and for those of us that were joining them for the day (thanks again, Robb & Elissa, for allowing us to join up with one of your awesome trips!), so these would help us with wait times.

 

The drive up Saturday night was pretty uneventful, and shortly after we arrived at our hotel, the TPR trip arrived at theirs. We headed over there, as we had multiple items to deliver to R&E. We were amused to be greeted by a lot of people, many who we had never met before, that greatly enjoyed our Elissa Bingo Instructional Video and Elissa Bingo. It appears that Elissa Bingo has been a big hit on both US trips this year, indeed being more popular than it has ever been before (one of the things I was delivering was a bag of more prizes!). You have no idea how happy this makes me, and though Falafel seemed a bit amazed at the fact that so many people knew who she was, I know that she too appreciated the comments. Seriously, a complete stranger telling you "your video almost made me pee my pants" is amazing. Glad you guys enjoyed it.

 

The next day came way too quickly, and we followed the buses to SFGAdv. We were again shocked when the group wanted us to join them for the group photo, and were amused when we were told to say "grilled cheese" when having the photo taken (you'll have to see the video to understand this, and I'm sure Robb will include it on at least one of the 2008 Trip DVDs). After this, we were taken over to our first ride of the day, Dark Knight. This was an OK ride. Nothing amazing, and the pre-show makes NO sense, though we did have fun adding extra lines to it ("I promise to arrest more bears"). It's really a mouse in a box, and the box should be darker.

 

Next was El Toro. I have been anticipating this for a very long time, and I was not disappointed. The first drop and series of hills after that are completely insane. I do think it loses something in the twisty second half, and I think I still give the edge to Balder at this point. But still, ET is really in the running for best coaster in the US (only Phoenix comes close in my mind), and now I'm REALLY looking forward to trying the new one in Korea in a month or so. I will say that I did get the lap bar shoved so far into me on my second ride that it made it very uncomfortable. I still got a crapton of airtime, though, so the stapling doesn't hurt that. Just your internal organs.

 

Next we were the first riders for Kingda Ka. This was also closed the last time I was here, so it was another credit. I've been on some smaller versions of this type of ride at this point, and still think that it's a lot of wasted effort for just up/down/brake. I will admit the launch is awesome fun, and the view you get for a second or so at the top of the hill is impressive, but if I waited in an hour or more line like most people do to ride this I would feel really ripped off. If they're going to build these, why not add some more bunny hills or something before you hit the brakes? It would be so much better. On a related note, I have to say "good job" to the guy working the mic in the station, as he was super enthusiastic and very funny, even at 10 in the morning. Almost all the employees we encountered that day (with the exception of food service) were really good and doing a great job.

 

We got our QBot after this (Falafel had to carry it, as it makes her all hot and bothered and happy), and started riding stuff with no wait. We conquered Superman (fun, but I'm not a huge fan of flying coasters), Nitro (delivered the best ride I have ever gotten on it), and among some other random stuff, Batman. I point out that we rode Batman because this means I FINALLY GOT MY CREDIT ON IT!!! Yes, I never have been on this ride before. Every time I have been to the park it has either had an hour long line, or has been broken. So I was quite excited to finally get this out of the way (plus, I still think the Batman coasters are awesome fun).

 

We were lined up for Skull Mountain, but before we got on, a storm descended on the park and closed everything down. And sadly, it never let up. It looked occasionally like it would, but the storm never moved off. I believe the only reason they kept the park open all afternoon was because there was a concert there that night. At around 5, the TPR group voted to leave (with R&E already working out a way the trip peeps could get back to the park and get their credits if they wanted - again, I point out how hard these two work on these trips and will do everything they can to make sure people have the absolute best trip possible). And Falafel and I decided to leave as well, since the weather report showed it was not going to improve.

 

We still had an awesome good time, and I want to again thank Robb, Elissa, and all the people on the trip for allowing us to hang out for the day. While we didn't get all our rides, we really enjoyed our day at SFGAdv, and we'll go back next year.

 

Not a ton of pictures, as I figured I'd take more after we got Falafel all her credits. These are all mine, perhaps she will post hers later, though she's about to leave to begin her journey to becoming a Laaaaady Carpenter, so it might be awhile...

 

Anyway, enough of my yammering, let's go to the visuals!

And this was the only "myspace" photo we attempted all day. We wanted to actually have someone else take a picture of us, but never got around to it. Maybe next time. Thus concludes our visit to SFGAdv! We had an amazing time, and want to again thank Robb, Elissa, and all the trip people that let us hang out for the day. Other than the fact that stupid Delaware and its idiot traffic made our trip back take forever, we really had a good time. We have one more adventure planned for this year, but that will remain a secret - for now! Thanks for playing! May no rabid bears with flamethowers attack your place of residence until our next PTR...

Before we leave, a shot in front of the fountain.

No Falafel, you cannot run off with everyone's Gold QBot to some remote island where you can make them your harem! Elissa would end up with a nine billion dollar Visa bill, for starters...

Hmm...Falafel and a pretzel...yeah, sounds good!

We soon discovered that the unicorn made for an awesome hat. We also discovered that it easily passed on its unicorn syphilis by dumping pink spooge on all of us.

Falafel has declared that the unicorn is her new best pal. The QBot may not like this!

She won two prizes, a Big Bird that apparently had failed spinal surgery, and the unicorn!

Elissa is the Whack-A-Mole Queen!

Falafel waits out the storm with her best friend, the QBot. Again, if there was a fire, and she could only save me or the QBot, she chose the QBot. Ah well...

Yeah, if you sat under a roof at a game stand for a couple of hours and had to put up with Dave, you'd look like this too.

Elissa used her phone to keep us all updated about the weather. A bunch of us had a good time hanging out and listening to stories, like True Tales Of Ladies' Bathroom Terror!

Food time! We had vouchers that were good at various places, so we chose to use ours at Papa John's. Not bad, but the service is really slow (I blame both the staff and the customers, though, as it seems some people cannot handle the difficult task of ordering pizza).

Scary skull! Perhaps it eats babies. Which would be kind of entertaining.

I FINALLY GOT MY BATMAN CREDIT!

BATMAN!

Nitro was running great on this day. Only Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland is better than this B&M hyper.

So Falafel knew all sorts of Wiggles trivia, probably because she works in a toy store. I suppose this means she would know all sorts of Ron Jeremy trivia if she worked in a pornography store...

Yeah, that pretty much says it all...

and yet more! Hope you enjoyed this collection of park randomness. Please exit through the gift shop.

and more

and more

and more

Park randomness

And the El Toro drop. Seriously amazing. This is a great ride, though I think I still give the edge to Balder. But really, this ride is amazing, and if you haven't experienced it yet, you need to get to the park and ride it.

Even from the parking lot, El Toro looks awesome.

I will not be dumb enough to ever ride you again, GASM. Seriously one of the worst coasters on the planet.

Kingda Ka. It's tall. And that's about it.

And some more.

Coasters from the parking lot. Here's some of Superman.

The Wizard Of Lamb sounds like it should be a Sci-Fi Original Movie

The next morning, we spot something in the parking lot that defies explanation. So of course Falafel must pose next to it for a picture!

Only an hour into the trip, and Falafel is already begging for the sweet release of death in order to escape my presence. Perhaps a meal at Chik-Fil-A will distract her from her misery for a bit...

So before we can get on our way, we have to make some stops for supplies. We head to the Target in White Marsh to buy all sorts of random crap!

And also thanks to EZ Pass, since it helped us zip through the ten thousand or so tolls between Baltimore and NJ. And thanks to Falafel for taking her job as Hot EZ Pass Girl seriously and helping us at all tolls.

First, a shoutout to my GPS, which Falafel has dubbed with the name "Squawky". It once again did an awesome job of getting us to our hotel in NJ.

[jarmor]

it hurts me to see ET ruinning, knowing I was just there a few weeks agao and it was down!

[Moose]

I didn't even see you take most of the pictures that I know I was around for. Apparently I'm sort of olivious to things.

 

I had a great time hanging out with you guys. I might have told Matt to run off with Falafels' backpack if it was filled with Q-bots while we were still there.

 

Do not worry about missing the Safari, we did not see any carnivorous bees. Perhaps they were in their shelter?

[Groteslurf]

Loved to read this TR too.

 

Too bad the storm closed all the rides.

[Bubba Z]

Dave, I'm finally glad you got your Batman credit. I still forget why we didn't ride that day with Guy ?

[cfc]

I think Elissa won a rousing round of "Whack-a-Hun" at BGE last Tuesday, too (I wasn't even close to winning, which isn't unusual).

 

Falafel, the unicorn hat is so "you."

[gk]

Nice TR. Falafel appears to be the Teller to your Penn.

[larrygator]

Why did I not know Elissa was a Whack-a-Mole expert. I shall challenge her to a duel next time.

 

Props to eating at Chick-Fil-A. Falafel must love it, because I know Dave has a disdain for CFA.

[Meteornotes]

^Actually, I have found something at CFA that I love: the nuggets. They're the best chicken nuggets ever, and are damn tasty without any sauce. So I get a box of those and I'm happy. And yes, Falafel loves CFA, so we try to eat at places where there is food that she likes, since she has a diet similar to Elissa's.

 

Glad people are enjoying this. The pictures are kind of odd, but hopefully they show that we still had awesome fun even if it did storm.

 

dt

[BarryH]

 

I have to wonder...what tasted better...the plate or the pizza?

 

I always laugh when I see a PTR of Dave and his girlfriend Falafel. It makes me feel like I am trying to find the elusive carnivorous bees. Fally-fel is Romy to Dave's Michelle, although I bet Falafel invented Post-Its.

[Meteornotes]

Dave, I'm finally glad you got your Batman credit. I still forget why we didn't ride that day with Guy ?

 

From what I remember, it was broken in the morning, and then when it reopened it got a huge line, and I decided to ride Nitro with you guys instead of getting my credit. Ah well, at least after six or so visits to the park, I finally got the credit! It just took awhile...

 

dt