Photo TR: Physics Day at California's Great America

[pomplemus]

I never brought my camera to the Bay Area Bash, and I wouldn't have had any time to take pictures anyway. So I guess that I'm making up for it now, documenting physics day at CGA. And yes, I was a physics student! My AP physics teacher decided to take us to the park as an end of the year treat. This TR will be full of park index love, as well as what I think are some pretty nice pictures, considering my aging digital camera. Anyway, here is CGA on Friday the 21st, less than a week after BAB! This also my very first TR, so please let me know what I I did right and what I could improve.

Here I (Adam) am at 6:30 in the morning. Ugh. NOT a morning person... But note my park attire: TPR shirt, and roomy cargo pants so there is no need to rent any soft, soft rabbits engorged with drugs and slime. This applies more to SF parks, however.

And yes, this is the famous home made TPR shirt that debuted at last years BAB and returned this year. Once again, its back by popular demand!

Breakfast of champions!

This is the picture that Kristen (KT) gave me at CGA during this years BAB. She gave out only about 10 of them, so I feel like I'm a chosen one or something! It's proudly displayed on my fridge.

Twinkie: "Can I go with you to CGA? PLease, please, PLEASE?" Me: "No, I don't think they allow dogs there. Sorry!"

"Stupid CGA..."

Our physics room was used as the staging area before the hour trip to Santa Clara.

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?." NO, we're still in the school parking lot!

ALSO: Notice the hat...

Uh-oh. A busload of physics kids! Quick, someone run it off the road!

AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHH! Another one!

"For lease." Hmmmmm... The next TPR headquaters?

Ah, finally! After going right past it and almost hitting San Francisco.

NOT a good sign.

LOOK! Our ride has wheels! If your name starts with Jeff and ends with Johnson, chances are that you count this as a credit.

Nooo! Physics day children! Gives you an idea how crowded the day was.

Amazingly, I have a fellow TPR member in school that I JUST found out that morning! He saw my world famous TPR shirt and introduced himself. This is coaster-crazy AKA Nick AKA the guy who does all the SCBB Haunted Castle construction updates. SWEET! I now have someone coaster literate to go around the park with me! And that we did. AWESOME! I never expected to meet another TPR member outside a TPR trip.

Star Tower.

This can't be good.

Obligatory shot!

Wow, CGA FINALLY got a new ride! Bench: The ride.

Vortex doing its thing.

Those poor, poor people don't know that the chains were replaced with licorice sticks.

Is Avatar playing?

The all new Panda Express, brought to you by Nick! Later in the day, it had a line out to the Skycoaster..

It may LOOK like a Skycoaster, but its actually a giant slingshot.

We see you testing Invertigo!

OMG is it stuck again?

Those lucky, lucky water dummies might not have heads or arms, but they get Invertigo ERT! Oh wait- that's a bad thing isn't it?

TAKE THE TUNNEL!!

" This is just an observation tower, ri- AAAAAAAAAAAA!

Here's to Grizzly earning a 16th year as #worst!

Its not THAT bad actually, the retracking helped a lot. But it still doesn't do anything. If only they could give it a Colossus style reprofiling, but in reverse...

Even Grizzly had a long line!

One of the weirdest wildmice ever, Psycho Mouse.

Index love!

That mouse creeps me out. What is it plotting? Today the old train station, tomorrow the world!?

Nick trying not to smoke.

Unfortunately, Planet Snoopy and Kidzville were closed. We missed the Intamin credit. We tried not to cry. I don't remember if we were successful.

Formerly known as the Nicktoons cafe.

Loggers run station. Imagine four high school students squeezed into one of these boats. Yeah, it happened. Yes it was tight!

Weeeeeeeeee. This was a fun ride.

You call that a splash?

We did not ride this evil machine.

More love!

Old Tidal Wave/ Geezed Lightnin' footers. Sniff.

Grrr not open yet.

Freaky floating head and disembodied hand.

LEGAL INFRINGEMENT! We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Mr. Pants...

Flyers!

Hey, this ride isn't rough, is it?

Must... not... let... physics... nerd... emerge!

My first Enterprise! The buzzer is EXTREMELY loud though. Painful.

I figured out how to snap! I got some good *90 DEGREES* action.

If it had "Hollywood" in front of the name, it could be called "HRRR." Totally original abbreviation. Really.

Rattle rattle rattle. An intense loop.

Your head goes WHAM into the restraint right about here.

A random torture machine.

Physics kids all look alike.

The Top Flight deck Gun sign. Looks decently cool.

Zero- GEEEEEE!!!

Various rodents fly missions in these actual planes.

WHOOSH.

Didn't I get to see this from a better angle in the BAB backstage tour?

Lucky number 7.

NERD SHOT! This is actually the chain tensioning mechanism.

Those missiles are totally real. Stored just in case of another Beverly Hills Cop III situation.

Wow, that is one ugly butterfly.

MUST. PUSH. BIG. RED. BUTTON.

Yes I just rode Top Flight Deck Gun. Yes this is my Tom Cruise impression. No I did not jump on Oprah's couch.

This is also my MANLY POSE. No, I didn't see Gertrude.

And stop laughing.

I think TPR is Robb's personal planet.

The original bumper cars.

So, when is CGA getting that Mega-lite?

OMG! I want to ride that orange thing!

As you can see, Star Tower had lots of invisible people in line.

That's a lot of wheels... so its two credits! One for the trip up, and one for down.

If you took the car off the tower, it would look like a giant blue doughnut.

Whats this thing called again? Afterburn?

Loggers Run and Boomerang Bay. No Yankee Clipper. No Stealth.

A Vekoma creation.

If only the gates had looked like this when the park opened...

The Columbia Carousel is quite impressive.

Gives you an idea of how close the office buildings are. And there is something missing from this picture that SFGam still has.

As part of the physics day festivities, there was a FIRST robotics competition.

OMNI-WHEELS!

The Lego candy...

CAN STACK!

Apparently, these jawbreakers are "psychedelic."

... in what direction?

No! I missed the splash.

The pressure to think up of a witty caption is overwhelming.

Bayern Curve.

Demon was down when the park opened later in the day. I had a pretty good ride, ho headbanging. I braced my shoulder against the inside of the car.

Demon doing that thing where it goes into a hill so steep that it loops around.

Looks like the Arrow welders had a brain fart.

Grizzly's famous hour long turnaround.

The drop tower went down in the middle of the day. Literally and figuratively.

Apparently the survivor contract will expire in a year. The it will be just called "The Ride."

Um, I'll try?

We still have our chairlift SFGam! In your face!

 

 

I seem to have hit the picture limit, look out for part 2!

[robbalvey]

Great start so far! Love these in depth trip reports!

 

Also, that's awesome that you have one of KidTums' pictures on your fridge!

 

--Robb

Edited May 23, 2010 by robbalvey

[Pingu1651]

^^ I already know I have a TPR member in my school. He's the one who told me about it!

 

Anyways, nice TR. Way worse crowds than CP's M&S week. I'm also loving the homemade shirt.

[the ghost]

There is a member at my school and my friends younger brother is a member. TPR is like a cult, there are members all around, yet you will never know who they are. This is a very good TR of a park I will hopefully hit sometime in the next couple years if my California take over trip ever happens.

[coaster-crazy]

Who is this famous ''Nick" you speak of? He seems to be a pretty chill guy....

 

Heh - awesome TR Adam. That was a really fun day! I will look out for part dos!!!!

 

~Nicholas

[CGA_88]

Great report!

 

Side note to anyone reading: In the park index for CGA, Berserker is listed twice, once as Berserker and once as Bayern Curve.

[pomplemus]

Thanks for all the comments guys! And yes Nick, it was a very fun day. Anyway here's part 2:

That we are!

Lets go this way! No that way! No, the other way!

This thing! Oh, and those two blurs are the ghosts of Tidal Wave and Stealth. Still around.

Arrrrrrr.

Wait, what? How is this a pirate ride?

Inside of the Joe Cool Cafe. We had the Joe Cool burgers. Looks pretty good.

This and the next few pictures were taken from the chairlift.

Go carts.

I had a funny experience in line for Grizzly: a couple of kids saw the back of my shirt and were discussing what TPR could mean. The winner? Toilet paper roll. So, from now on, I will refer to TPR as a bathroom item.

A Vekoma and Arrow in one shot! What horror! Actually, Demon is still quite fun.

Swing, swing, swing.

This slide was testing, there was water running in it and everything.

So many colors! My eyes!

This revolution looks so... small.

Always a fun ride!

We never saw Firefall open all day.

Vortex is actually a pretty compact ride.

Rapids loading station. Staring at the rotating platform makes you dizzy.

Vortex really needs to be repainted. Perhaps a Cedar Fair red?

The palm trees are sad that they are to big to ride Top Flight Deck Gun.

So close... and yet so far.

She's happy no one sprayed her.

Random spy cabin?

Red alert! Battle stations! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!

I actually got reasonably wet on this ride. Nick escaped almost unscathed, however.

Anyone know what this island is for? I like to think its a secret paradise for special people.

You were closed all day! Got the sniffles?

Water wins. Unless the fire is hot enough to evaporate the water first. But that would be pretty hot.

Here you can see just how wide B&M trains are.

What happened to Alpha, Beta, and Gamma flyer?

It stayed pretty crowded all day.

Vortex tries to appear American. But we all know he's actually Swiss.

And all this time I thought Mount Rushmore was in South Dakota!

Why is this bear so happy!? Perhaps because his flowers are pink...

I wish they would bring back the original Demon theming.

Invertigo is kind of bad at hiding.

This guy will pull the train up the second lift when Invertigo opens.

Invertigo stole the Toys "R" Us" R"!

Why does Vekoma call this a Butterfly Loop? It looks more like a cobra...

A rare moment when a train is not on this turn traveling at 0.00001 MPH.

Why do the cars travel up the tower at different speeds?

Drop Tower was our last ride of the day...

...AKA "Pord Rewot!"

The sneaky Demon almost escapes my camera!

This must be a very boring job. But who knows, he could be sleeping under those sunglasses.

Invertigo stooped testing in the middle of the day. About the time a guy started to mess with something above the station.

Two classic rides in one shot! Score!

Almost forgot this sign.

Old Triple Play queue.

I swear the train was there a second ago!

Almost out of the park...

I think Cedar Fair park are so clean because if you just throw a piece of trash, chances are that its gonna fall in one of these.

Isn't having on a hat and hood on at the same time kind of redundant?

"California's Great CGA America."

Last shot of the Columbia Carousel! I swear!

Is this the real Tidal Wave or a just a model in guest services? YOU DECIDE!

STAMPEDE OF PHYSICS KIDS!

Some random kid who made me take a picture of him. Oh wait, that's me. I had fun!

Whoo, I know know a TPR member outside of BAB! Nick had fun too.

This trash can seemed so... out of place. Also, is it just me or is it camouflaged?

Last coaster shot! Still have no idea what to call this thing.

No comment.

[Hilltopper39]

Is it just me or does this picture look like there is a guy standing up on the left, and another person that has possibly fallen into the water on the back right? Only at Great America

[coaster-crazy]

^Haha - well, that person on the left is actually standing up. However, the person on the right is actually just leaning over and splashing people by putting her arm into the water! Only at Great America....