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Phil & Michael's 2018 Adventures


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Hey everyone!

 

A while back, I asked Michael, "Where do you want to go for a vacation in 2018?" Given that he has a thing for visiting presidential gravesites and homesteads, he immediately said, "Lincoln's Tomb in Springfield, Ill...and is there any way that we could tie in Branson?"

 

Lincoln's Tomb was the last of the four assassinated presidents of which Michael had not been to their grave, so I knew that it had been a bucket list place for him for quite some time. So in doing that, we also knew that theme parks were going to also tie into this trip because well...we just love theme parks!

 

So when he said Branson, I perked right up, because we all know what famous park resides there...plus they just happened to have a new one of a kind coaster there named Time Traveler. So hell yeah I wanted to go to Branson!

 

 

Given that I knew Michael would also want to see a couple of shows while there, I went online and booked tickets to see a Patsy Cline tribute concert as that is his favorite singer of all time.

 

For you young-un's that have no idea who Patsy Cline is, she is a country crooner that blazed a path for female country singers like Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton (of course, you know HER! ) and Tammy Wynette. While I am not the biggest fan of country music, I do appreciate her music and she really does have an incredible voice. This impersonator was really good too!

 

 

Giving in to our "Let's cram six days into five", we also scheduled in a stop at the St. Louis Gateway Arch. After a couple of cocktails at our hotel the night before, I used my Club TPR membership to go online to Tickets At Work and pre-purchased last minute tickets for SfStL for the following day - a park that neither of us had been to. Such a beautiful park and one that is one of the more under-appreciated parks in the chain due to it not having a lot of the record-breaking coasters like other SF parks have.

 

Overall, we thought operations were wonderful, the park was super clean and most of the employees were right up there with CP's, SDC or Dollywood... I shit you not, people - this is a really nice SF park!!!

 

 

After that, it was off to Branson for three nights. Two days at SDC and one afternoon spent sight-seeing and going to the aforementioned show.

 

After our first day at SDC, we even got to hook up with a fellow TPR member, Andrew (better known as ytterbiumanalyst) for a couple of pints at Branson Landing that evening. Thanks so much for coming down from Springfield, Andrew...it was a real pleasure meeting you!!!

 

 

We also got to see another show that we booked last minute at the Welk resort (where we were staying) called 'The Million Dollar Quartet' which was much like a documentary of the only time that Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis ever performed together. The show was tight and featured a lot of their top hits. The Johnny Cash impersonator was the highlight of the show for me though - this guy NAILED the look and voice of this musical legend!

 

 

 

Once we left Branson, we then headed to Sandusky in hopes of me riding the new hotness. Given the "incident" and one train operations, I knew that it was going to be a super long wait. But despite that and the horrid weather, I did get to ride it Friday night (May 11th)...and I will go on record to say that it absolutely lives up to the hype!

 

All I can really say about Steel Vengeance is to go to CP and ride it for your yourself! It shot up to my new #1, but others may feel differently when having their own experience. Although I can't really imagine someone having a negative or even mediocre feeling about the ride after riding it.

 

The ride is relentless from start to finish, but butter-smooth and just a ton of fun to ride with your hands thrown in the air - don't wait, book your trip to CP now!!!

 

 

While it did turn out to be a bummer because Michael was basically worn down and the weather was absolute crap, CP went above and beyond in our checking out of the Breakers on Saturday versus Sunday. They refunded the cost of the room, our tickets, our FL+ and even the ECV that I had rented for Michael!

 

We were both blown out of the water as we really had already understood the rules and had accepted that we would lose everything that we had booked. The fact that we never asked for a refund for anything but my FL+ ticket (given that they were refunding them because of the SV incident), just reinforced why CP is my #1 park.

 

The addition of SV is just a bonus for a park that literally has everything that one could want, crammed onto a peninsula outside of a small Ohio city. I can't say enough about the friendly staff at this park - they truly are one of the best (if not, THE best) staffed parks in the world. Truly amazing customer service goes a looooong way in my book!

 

 

So with that said, let's begin our journey, shall we?

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Given that we were headed to Springfield, it made perfect sense to spend the first night in Springfield...Ohio!

 

We drove through not one, not two, but four Springfield's on this trip. And we didn't see the Simpsons once!

 

But when we saw this place, we knew where we were having dinner - the rays of light beckon us! ;-)

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Sure, we missed Cinco De Mayo by one day, but it didn't matter because the food was still good and the beer was cold and that's all that matters, right?

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Fast forward to Saturday afternoon and we made it to our first destination!

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The street going to Lincoln's home was beautiful. Just imagine carriages going down this street back in the day!

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Here it is in all it's grandeur - Lincoln's home!

 

The home actually had several remodels and additions done during the Lincoln's tenure there.

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Inside the home. You were allowed to take pictures, but you got a flogging if you touched the walls (original wallpaper)!

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This was a replica of the vehicle used to bring Lincoln's body home from Washington.

 

The funeral caravan passed through a small town near where I live - Westfield, NY.

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And here is the tomb - quite impressive!

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Inside the tomb. Lincoln is actually buried below in a sealed tomb due to some idiots trying to rob his grave.

 

Yes, there were idiots back then too!

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Now that is one happy guy right there...another destination checked off the bucket list!

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Fast forward to Sunday morning and we are in St. Louis at the famous Gateway Arch!

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I have to admit that handicap accessibility wasn't the greatest here, but they were working on a new entrance plaza that mentioned being more handicap friendly.

 

SfStL coming up...thanks for reading!

Edited by Philrad71
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without even reading the caption, my first thought at the picture by the Lincoln statue was: Dang, Michel looks SO happy.

 

 

can't wait to read the rest of your report. . did you go up into the Gateway Arch? It's something i've always wanted to go do, but simply haven't found enough to do there to justify a trip to St. Louis for us.

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^^ Thank you!

 

You do some great reports yourself!

 

 

^ Thanks Bert!

 

We couldn't get up in the Arch because the website said that you needed to be able to walk 90+ steps and that it wasn't wheelchair accessible. Michael wanted me to go alone and I was tempted, but the line was insanely long just to buy the tickets.

 

Actually the entire area around the arch is not handicap friendly, but it looks like that will change once the new part opens. I was bummed that we couldn't even go into the museum or the gift shop without a ticket, so we didn't get our fridge magnet or Christmas ornament like we always like to get when we visit places.

 

But it was cool to see it close-up and at least walk around it and underneath it...it's a very impressive structure!

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Ah, yeah, I can understand their restrictions regarding going up to the top of the Arch. Even though they take you up in a sorta elevator, the possibility of it breaking down means you'd have to traverse stairs for an emergency exit. Plus, those little pods they use have 5 seats, but dang if you can barely fit 3 adults in there comfortably.

 

I wonder when all this work on the Arch is gonna finally be finished. It's been going for quite a while now.

 

Apparently once everything has been finished, the museum will once again be free admission (I guess stuff requires a ticket right now because of the renovations...?). Sounds like what they're doing is gonna be pretty cool once it's done; they're even gonna have a replica of the top portion of the Arch with live webcam views in the windows for people who can't take the elevators/pods up to the top!

 

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/hotlist/gateway-arch-museum-visitors-center-to-open-in-time-for/article_9222e6c1-b789-54ac-93af-241ea9abeccd.html

 

Loved your pics of Lincoln's Home and stuff; can't wait to see your Branson pics!

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Time for some Six Flags St. Louis!!

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Who doesn't get excited when they see a view like this unfolding before your eyes?

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Batman is one of the coasters right at the front of the park. Here is the obligatory 'Six Flags' pic as well.

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You can't tell from the photo obviously, but they are running Batman as Namtab for the month of May!

 

So this was my first coaster of the day and holy sheet was this insane going through the circuit backwards!

 

I normally don't get disoriented on coasters, but this thing was crazy intense. If you get a chance to do one of the Batman rides backwards - do it for an experience that you won't soon forget!

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I was going to try Ninja despite everyone saying what a POS it is, but it was down when we walked by it and I never made it back to that side of the park.

 

Andrew said that I definitely didn't miss anything. lol

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Another ride that I didn't mind passing on.

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Another ride that I chose to pass on. I normally don't mind boomerangs like some folks do, but the line was fairly long and I was looking more forward to riding the woodie (Screamin' Eagle) in the background there.

 

For some dumb reason, I didn't get any decent photos of this classic icon. Luckily, there was only a two train wait for the front car so I was able to nab that. Screamin' Eagle is a classic out and back woodie that sits pretty secluded on it's own in the woods. While there was a little jack-hammering at the bottom of the hills, it gave some really fun floater air at the tops of the hills.

 

This could be a really interesting ride at night. Maybe not quite on the level of the Beast at night, but I bet that it's still a neat experience.

 

Anyone else note the grammatical error on the rules sign where riders board this coaster? ;-)

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The Shoot the Chutes ride had water flowing, but was not open. Another down ride was the Superman drop tower, which was a shame as that was one that I definitely wanted to do.

 

I love me some Intamin drop towers and I am sure the views from the top would have been stunning- given it's location at the top of the hill.

 

I saw it testing at one point, but never saw riders on it.

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I see you over there, my pretty - the coaster that I was the most excited to ride!!! :-)

 

Part 2 of SFStl coming soon - thanks for reading!

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Ah, yeah, I can understand their restrictions regarding going up to the top of the Arch. Even though they take you up in a sorta elevator, the possibility of it breaking down means you'd have to traverse stairs for an emergency exit. Plus, those little pods they use have 5 seats, but dang if you can barely fit 3 adults in there comfortably.

 

I wonder when all this work on the Arch is gonna finally be finished. It's been going for quite a while now.

 

Apparently once everything has been finished, the museum will once again be free admission (I guess stuff requires a ticket right now because of the renovations...?). Sounds like what they're doing is gonna be pretty cool once it's done; they're even gonna have a replica of the top portion of the Arch with live webcam views in the windows for people who can't take the elevators/pods up to the top!

 

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/hotlist/gateway-arch-museum-visitors-center-to-open-in-time-for/article_9222e6c1-b789-54ac-93af-241ea9abeccd.html

 

Loved your pics of Lincoln's Home and stuff; can't wait to see your Branson pics!

 

Thanks for the nice comments and for posting that link - a very interesting read!

 

We were wondering when the renovation would open as the signs said opening in 2017, which contradicts the article stating that it was set to open in 2015.

 

I figured that they must have hit some red tape with funding or something.

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Great report! I'll be reliving your same trip minus the history next weekend. I will be doing the Arch though and your report affirms my decision to buy tickets in advance online. I also have the 8 am tour which I feel like people won't want to wake up for.

 

Shocked (and happy) to hear that SFSTL is that friendly. Looking forward to seeing more on their other two woodies.

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^ Yes, definitely pre-purchase your Arch tickets online to be safe!

 

In terms of the other two coasters, let's see what I have in the vault here...

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Wait, I thought we were in St. Louis?

 

Check out the wooden version of the Liberty Bell!

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"All around a water tank

Just a-waiting for a train

A thousand miles away from home

Just a-waiting for'n the rain

I walked up to a break-man

Just to give him a line of talk

He said, "if you got money

I'll see that you don't walk."

"I haven't got a nickel;

Not a penny for to show."

"Get off, get off, you railroad bum!"

And he slammed the boxcar door

They let me off in Texas

A state I dearly love

The moon, the stars above me...and what else?"

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All aboooooard!

 

Here you can see Ninja's drop as well as the mine train. While I didn't ride Ninja as mentioned, I did ride the mine train.

 

Fairly standard Arrow mine ride, but I did like the little surprise at the end of the ride.

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Here is a better shot of the lift hill

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A little more of Ninja as well as some train theming.

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The water park had not opened and the pieces for the new Pro-Slide were still in pieces in the parking lot.

 

Glad to see that they are sinking money into a new slide, because the water park looked a little run-down and in need of some TLC.

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Batman...or at this time, Namtab.

 

Love how close to the ground this gets.

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Loop De Loopeeeeee!

 

The train passes right around Batman at the front of the park.

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Several rides in one shot

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Now on to those two other wooden coasters...

 

This is American Thunder (aka Evel Knievel). To be honest, this was the SURPRISE hit for me at this park!

 

While I knew Mr. Freeze would be awesome, I am a bit hesitant about knowing what to make of any wooden coaster that isn't named El Toro, or was built by RMC, but this coaster delivered the goods!

 

Surprisingly, I found this coaster to be butter smooth and the 14 crossovers and 16 hills were tons of fun!

 

I ended up riding this later in the day as we were winding down. Had I known how awesome this coaster was, I would have hit it first instead of Batman and taken multiple laps!

 

There was literally no line for this coaster and I got a walk-on in the front seat - I will say that a front seat ride is highly recommended!

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A twisted mess of track and for a coaster that only boasts an 82' foot drop, this bad boy packs a pretty nice punch of smooth laterals and pops of airtime...loved this coaster!

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Now for coaster #3 - The Boss.

 

I guess that this is the only photo that I grabbed of it, and maybe that was a premonition before I rode it.

 

Going up the lift I thought that the layout looked really cool and that this might be right up there with Ravine Flyer 2.

 

Wrong.

 

Oh man was I sooooo dead wrong.

 

This was probably one of the roughest coasters that I have ridden outside of Son Of Beast and Hurler. Good God mang, this made the old Mean Streak feel like Steel Vengeance in comparison.

 

The first drop was great and the revamped part at the end was decent, but in between I was holding on for dear life hoping that I didn't rupture my spleen or another major organ.

 

This is one of those "ride it defensively" coasters - so be warned. My recommendation for Canobie Coaster would be to wait it out for the front seat and let us know if it's any better than Satan Seat #3.

 

Ouch.

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We ended up back at the original station at the Super Loop/Ring of Fire/Rolling Thunder/Diablo/Drunk Puking Hangover...or whatever the f&ck this one is called. Was tempted to ride, but decided to skip it.

 

Thanks for reading...more SFStL soon!

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Glad to hear American Thunder is still smooth! Some of the GCIs I've ridden haven't aged too well like Thunderhead (still rideable but not exactly smooth). As for the Boss, I'll come prepared. Was the new turn at the end smooth at least?

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Glad to hear American Thunder is still smooth! Some of the GCIs I've ridden haven't aged too well like Thunderhead (still rideable but not exactly smooth). As for the Boss, I'll come prepared. Was the new turn at the end smooth at least?

 

I was totally shocked that AT was as smooth as it was. I was preparing for something worse than The Boss or Wildcat and walked away feeling totally impressed with that coaster!

 

As for the new turn, yes that was smooth - that and the first lift/drop were fun, but everything else in between was tortuous.

 

Well, I know you had fun at the parks, Phil. But what about Michael? How's his thrill tolerance these days?

 

Awww...thank you for asking!

 

Michael rode the train with me, but he watched while I rode the thrill rides. While I know that might initially seem cruel for him to have to wait while I ride, he assured me that he is 110% fine with it. He will grab an an ice cream, cold lemonade, or a cold beer while I ride - and he LOVES to people-watch!

 

When we visited BGT in December, SfStl and SDC on this trip, we kept our day in the park relatively short (about 5-6 hours). I would either push him in his wheelchair (SfStL) or we rented an electric scooter (BGT and SDC) so he could bomb around the park without getting too tired.

 

Not that we didn't love theme parks before, but getting to go to one now gives us a new-found appreciation for just being able to go live life and have fun again - or even just being able to watch others have fun.

 

We agreed that it's therapeutic for both of us because we're doing what we liked to do before he got sick. Michael has accepted not being able to ride and even admitted that several of the bigger, faster thrill rides were too much for him even before he got sick.

 

Given that his surgery to remove the cancer in his bile duct resulted in them doing a Whipple Procedure where they end up taking part of the pancreas in what is a very risky (we didn't know this until after the fact) procedure, we are now very reluctant for him to ride anything that moves too fast (that could potentially jostle open his mended organs). They didn't know until they got him open that the cancer had spread into part of his pancreas and liver, so it was a last second decision that I needed to make during what turned into a 13 hour surgery.

 

After the surgery, he had three bleeds where one was a lanced aortic artery as a result of the Whipple, another bleed happened at one of the ports in his chest and then he had a hepatic (major) aneurysm about three weeks after that. Then at least three clots and A-fib from a heart attack (after they nicked the aortic artery).

 

So as painful as it is, we both understand that he is never going to be able to ride a coaster or high speed thrill ride ever again, unfortunately.

 

Our plan for our Saturday at CP a couple of weeks ago was for him to be able to ride the train, antique cars, ferris wheel and Sky Ride with me, but unfortunately that didn't come to fruition on this trip. We do plan on getting back there this summer, if all goes well. Hopefully we'll get warmer weather, Michael will be feeling much better and we can get the scooter and FL+ to make the day enjoyable for both of us.

 

 

The best news is that he survived all of the horrific setbacks, kicked cancer's ass and is here to tell the story. Granted he (nor I) are the same person that we used to be, but we do have a new lease on life where it proves that you need to enjoy everything on this earth that you can while you have your health, because what you take for granted can change in a heartbeat!

 

That is why it is disheartening to see people complain about things like the Hangtime event at Knotts. Here you have all the fun that you could handle, ERT, free food...and people came on here to complain about it. While Michael and I are people that rarely complained before (unless it was 110% warranted), we certainly have nothing to complain about now because he is here, versus the alternative.

 

And we're going to enjoy every last second of it.

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Hey folks - had time for a little update after trying to get my yard up to par and attending family events.

 

Back to SfStL...

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Unfortunately Colossus was closed during our visit. Was hoping to get Michael on this, but I guess that it's waiting on a new part from the manufacturer.

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A bit of the rapids ride from the train...looked fun, but I didn't do this one.

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More rapids ride as well as a shot of the best coaster at the park.

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Someone photobombing my shot of Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast from the Skycoaster - in an awesome sort of way!

 

Mr. Freeze...what can I say about it, but Holy Shit!

 

From the quirkiest loading platform that I have ever seen to the first reverse launch that I have ever ridden....WOW, this literally took my breath away!

 

I love the part when you are going up the tower backwards and when you think that you are at the top, Mr. Freeze says, "Oh no, I'm not done with you just yet" and then proceeds to pull you up high enough to where you question if your going to come completely off the track - and then it just drops you and you free fall and fly through the course facing forwards.

 

This ride was worth the stop alone.

 

And with absolutely no wait (really?), I got to ride in the front, back and 2nd from back without having to walk back through the queue...yay for no wait re-rides!

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Also got a spin on Pandemonium - this one had a funky layout that I had not experienced on a spinner - a great family ride and a lot of fun!

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What have we here? A smokehouse and a bar?

 

Yes please!

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More parks need places like this that have good draft beer AND a fully stocked bar!

 

I had one of the local IPA's (can't recall the name) and Michael got this funky mixed drink that had like ten kinds of booze in it...both yummy!

 

Of course, it wouldn't be a Six Flags day unless you have some sort of really bizarre customer service, so here goes...

 

 

Earlier in the day, Michael asks if I could get him a lemonade, so I walked into one of the pizza restaurants to get him his drink.

 

There was a women and her two kids waiting on a pizza where you order the food. The two employees were chatting and just ignoring everyone in line. Clearly the women with the two kids was waiting for their food, but one would think that the employees would have helped the next person in line? Nope.

 

So after trying to capture their attention to see if I could continue to the fountain drink area, I said excuse me to the family waiting for their pizza and went to the woman at the cash register and asked if it was okay if I just ordered and paid for a lemonade.

 

She said okay, hands me a cup to fill and asks me if I am a season pass holder? I said "Nope, what do I owe you, Ma'am?" She says "Nothing Sir, have a great day!"

 

So if I were a season pass holder, she would have charged me? I just walked out shaking my head laughing thinking that was the most bizarre thing to ever have happened in a theme part restaurant. I thought that maybe she saw me in line waiting my turn and she felt bad because her co-workers were ignorant slackers? Dunno, but it was certainly an interesting experience to say the least! LOL

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And we'll wrap up Six Flags Mid America (Sorry, I do prefer that name) with a shot of the park's flume.

 

While a teeny drop, this flume was loooong and wound its way through the woods. And yes, the entire left side of me got soaked after the drop!

 

While this Six Flags is one of the smaller and less recognized in the chain, it still has some great rides and coasters in a beautiful setting in the woods on a hillside.

 

An RMC, hyper or giga would be great for this park, but it still has enough charm and thrills to stand head to toe with some of the other parks in the chain - we're glad that we visited!

 

Up next - onto Branson and Silver Dollar City...thanks for reading!

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Ooops...I got out of sequence and forgot a food update.

 

For shame! LOL

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After we left Springfield, we stayed at a Hampton in Rolla, MO which is about an hour or so from St. Louis.

 

This place was within walking distance, so we decided to check it out.

 

Anyone ever been to one of these before?

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While I am sure that there are tons of Chicago deep dish places where you could probably get better in Chi-Town, Michael and I were both very pleased with Nancy's pizza!

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Believe it or not, Michael had never had Chicago deep-dish pizza before and while he was apprehensive (he's a thin crust guy), he ended up loving it!

 

This had pepperoni, mushroom and green olives...soooo good!

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Great report, great pics of SFStL, and a nice shout out to Rolla. My wife grew up just a few miles from there, so we're up there pretty often (just this past weekend, in fact). I've never heard of Nancy's. Their website doesn't list a Rolla location, and Google Maps hasn't heard of it either. You mentioned it's in walking distance of the Hampton; is it on 63?

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^ Nice catch, Andrew...thank you for keeping me on my toes!

 

The Hampton that has the Nancy's pizza next to it was actually in Litchfield, Ill off of I-55 just south of Springfield. Rolla was the next Hampton that we stayed at the evening after we left SfStL.

 

We ended up having dinner at B-Dubs that night as I didn't see a lot of local offerings and we just wanted something light and a cold beer. While the food was not photo-worthy, we did have a neat time sitting out on their patio drinking beer, eating and watching a really cool lightning storm over the hills.

 

We made it out of there just in time to get into the car before all hell broke loose. We ended up waiting it out in the Hampton parking lot for the torrential rain and wind to stop before we went up to our room...it certainly was an interesting evening!

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After leaving St. Louis, we headed for....BRANSON!!!

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I had been told by a co-worker that the Titanic Experience in Pigeon Forge was pretty cool, so we decided to add tickets to our Welk Resort package.

 

It was interesting, if not a bit of museum overload for me. They give you cards at the beginning with a name of someone on the Titanic and then you see if you live or die at the end.

 

Somewhat morbid, but I did end up "surviving" the sinking of the ship - Michael didn't fare so well, however. :-(

 

Oh wait - he did...that's him down there on the sidewalk!

 

Hi Michael!

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We went downtown to see a Patsy Cline tribute, which was a hoot. Before the show, we were looking for a place where Michael could get an ice cream.

 

This place certainly fits the bill!

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Someone is a happy camper with his hot fudge sundae.

 

I got a chili cheese dog and it was really good!

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When we went to the theater, it was somewhat odd, although very reminiscent of how theaters used to be with the old soda jerk and concession stand...neat!

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No pics of Patsy, but here is the theatre where she performed.

 

I know that this may sound petty, but I was really impressed that you didn't have to pay for parking in downtown Branson - how cool is that???

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Here is downtown Branson's version of the Bellagio fountains in Vegas. Every hour they do a cool fountain show with lights, fire (came from those tubes) and music.

 

We heard some Joe Walsh, Beatles and another cool band (Fleetwood Mac perhaps?)...a great selection of songs with the fountains dancing along in synchronicity!

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We decided to hit a Mexican restaurant at Branson Landing and order a couple of drinks and appetizers to watch the show.

 

It was so relaxing and fun...and given that it was a weekday in May, crowds were non-existent!

 

The queso, salsa and guac were outstanding, but my watermelon margarita was a bit too tart for my taste. Michael's mango one on the left tasted much better, although nowhere near as tasty as the ones we drank in Aruba.

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A pic of the view from our room at the Welk Resort - very nice!

 

SDC coming soon!!!

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We heard some Joe Walsh, Beatles and another cool band (Fleetwood Mac perhaps?)...a great selection of songs with the fountains dancing along in synchronicity!

 

you sure the third band wasn't these guys?

 

[youtu_be]https://youtu.be/HsKz1FBPTxc[/youtu_be]

 

 

[youtu_be]

[/youtu_be]

 

 

 

 

great pics, that Titanic stop is all kinds of F-ed up, which means we'd LOVE it.

 

 

how were the crowds, age wise?

 

We've never done Branson only because we didn't want to be the youngest people there (oh, we don't mind being in that situation . .after all, we did go to Weeki Wachie to see the mermaids). . but we don't want the whole trip to be like that (shades of the Holland America Cruise my Mom took us on).

 

 

 

 

and I've discovered with Margaritas that are too tart? after a couple of sips, one doesn't really care.

 

 

 

can't wait to see SCD pics.

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^ LOL - I would have loved it if they would have played Synchronicity II as that's one of my favorite Police tunes!

 

To give you an idea about how Branson and SDC were in terms of age, I made mention to Michael at SDC that it seemed weird that I was the outcast in terms of age at a theme park!

 

I would say that the majority of people at the park and in Branson were either senior citizens or young kids (school groups mostly). And there were lots of seniors working at SDC as well that were all very polite and pleasant - personally I would rather parks hire seniors than young school kids based on their work ethic alone.

 

And yes, I was definitely the youngest one at the Patsy Cline and Million Dollar Quartet shows by a large margin - lol!

 

Certainly don't let that be a factor in visiting though...I really had a great time and would highly recommend the area to anyone. Beautiful country, clean, and with very friendly people everywhere without quite as much Jesus stuff thrown in my face like in Pigeon Forge.

 

I came away very impressed and hope to go back again someday.

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To give you an idea about how Branson and SDC were in terms of age, I made mention to Michael at SDC that it seemed weird that I was the outcast in terms of age at a theme park!

 

I would say that the majority of people at the park and in Branson were either senior citizens or young kids (school groups mostly).

You went on a weekday before school was out, so that factors into it. On weekends it's a lot of families, and during summer you see a better mix of people. SDC truly is for everyone. It's weird when we travel and see almost nothing but groups of teenagers--SDC doesn't really have that demographic.

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^ I have to admit (albeit a bit greedily) that I loved going then because just about everything was a walk-on (TT & PK were by far the longest waits). I literally rode Wildfire & Outlaw Run with like 3-4 other people on the trains!

 

Although it is interesting that they didn't allow re-rides if no one else was in the station. They make you go back through the line if you want to ride again - so I ended up getting tons of steps on my pedometer during those two days.

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