Photo TR: Midwest Mania! (SDC/SFStL/WoF/AdvL/VF/NickU)

Thanks again for the comments.

The operations at all the parks were good to phenomenal. SDC was running 1 train on Wildfire, but that's all they needed and their load times were great. They were running two on Powderkeg with no stacking.

Six Flags St Louis had 2 on Freeze, 2 on Boss, 1 on Knievel, 1 on Batman (with a 45min wait) and 4 on Tony Hawk...All of them with good dispatches.

Worlds of Fun was pretty much dead, but their crews were doing very well, too. Patriot and Mamba both had two trains Saturday night and one on Sunday.

How many trains was Patriot running? I've seen it run both on totally dead days. And that is a fantastic coaster to marathon.

One last thing about Timber Wolf. I haven't actually ridden it this season yet, so they may be at some weird point in the retracking process that makes it unbearable (but that isn't actually what I've heard from other sources so far). At any rate, I haven't had a truly horrible ride on Timber Wolf since before they started retracking. Since then, it's been way more intense and packed with airtime. I'll have to check it out for myself on Saturday.

It's pretty crazy how similar Dorney Park and Worlds of Fun seem! Is Patriot a clone of Talon?

That's interesting. I've never heard that before. I guess they do have some similar rides, though. I honestly liked Dorney better, but WoF is just my standard park. Patriot is not a clone of Talon. It's pretty close, but they are very different riding experiences. Patriot is much smoother and faster. Talon emphasizes positive gs while Patriot emphasizes negative gs.

Your report is really enjoyable to look at--I really like the panorama picture of Wildfire because SDC's setting with all those trees provides a fantastic backdrop.

I'm moving to St. Louis in a month and I'm really excited to have a whole new set of parks to conquer, so this report has provided a nice means of procrastination on the papers I'm supposed to be writing for finals (thanks!). Looking forward to the Adventureland portion!

On Saturday, Kara and I made a quick run out to Como Town/Como Zoo to check out the animals and pick up a little kiddie coaster credit. The zoo is located just outside of St. Paul, near the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, and admission is free. Saturday was also opening day, so the place was absolutely packed.

The zoo itself was pretty nice, but nothing spectacular. It had a good selection of animal exhibits and we enjoyed our two hours there. The gorilla exhibit was my favorite because of how close you could get to them, although the same could be said for the giraffes, as well.

Anyway, onto the pictures! Adventureland photos coming soon, as well!

Como Zoo Entrance

This guy looked to be having a rough day

...But he was posing for everyone's photos

Hello hi

Como Town's mini-midway

Kid's play area

Ready to rock the kiddie coaster with our 8 tickets!

And thar she is

The ride actually had a pretty insane headchopper here

Smile!

Extremely awkward lift hill

Zoo? Or penitentiary?

Noted

Commence with the jokes, Robb

Here, I'll even help a little

Baby giraffe

How's that bar taste?

The life of a zebra

Reindeer!

This lion sure was enjoying her ball

Just lion around

Basking in the Minnesota sun

And finally, the exit.

Short trip, but it was definitely a good time!

Keep an eye out for Adventureland, Valleyfair and the Wisconsin Dells, all coming soon!

Giraffe... hahah!

That "awkward lift hill" looks just like the kiddie coaster at Beech Bend.

I wish I was there with ya guys! Keep having fun.

Extremely awkward lift hill

Trust me, it was even more awkward for me seeing as how I sat on the "Bigger Person Sits Here" side....fatty .

All in all, I had a great time-- as great as a credit-whoring trip to the free zoo can be. YAY Giraffees!

PS-- You're really catching up. When do I get a new credit?

You know, if I were a giraffe or a zebra or something, I don't I'd mind so much being at BGT or DAK. I don't think I'd want to live in a concrete block cell in Minnesota, though.

/Maybe that Lion robbed a guy, or something.

ComoTown! Gah I keep forgetting it's May already. The offseason went by fast this year. Great pics!

Adventureland!

I was actually very excited to visit this park. I'm a big fan of small, homey parks and this seemed to fit the bill. The place had a nice charm to it, and easily had the friendliest employees of any of the previous 4 parks we visited on this trip. (And that's not to take away from SDC...They had incredible employees, as well.)

The park was very spread out, to my surprise, but was incredibly clean. Outlaw was the best coaster there, with some INSANE ejector air on the second hill, that is amplified by 40 times in the front...especially row 2. (You can hear our screams of pain in the POV at the bottom of the report.)

Tornado was a fun coaster with some surprising pops of air and was very smooth. Dragon wasn't horrible, but not good, and had an insanely-creepy carnival feeling exit. Underground was just bad. We took two spins on the sky ride, which was very awkward, restraint-wise.

Kara took a spin on the Silly Silo (I get sick on spinny rides...Got nauseous watching her ride it), and also won first place in BINGO for a free picture frame! We also won 213 tickets from Deal Or No Deal and spent them all on Tootsie Rolls...213 of them lol.

The front of the park had a strong Walt Disney World feeling to it and was a very nice surprise. Overall, we had a great time and would definitely go back if in the area.

Hello, hi , Adventureland!

Ticket booths

The A-Train

Main midway

Let's explore!

Where shall we go?

Very pretty park

Through the grass!

Not better than Fire In the Hole

Creepy

This is an amusement park???

Guess so!

Tell us how you really feel

Scared for my life...of the hard plastic headrests

Hmm...Let's just wander around under the brakes...Could be fun

Up we go

View of our impending death

Loopage

Interesting exit gate

Almost normal

Slightly less normal

WTF mate?

You're next!

But one more of you

Six Flags Adventureland?

Hi

It was really crowded today

Something about wheels seats...Ask her, she's the nerd in the relationship

Wheeee!

Kiss? Or eating glasses?

Was a fun ride! Not spectacular, but fun!

A nice employee offered to open the gate to get us a picture in front of the coaster.

Heading to Outlaw now

Two words: Fill Flash. Try it.

Hey buddy!

The second hill there doesn't seem like much....But guard your valuables with extreme caution!

Great ride...But not very photogenic.

Three Rides, One Shot

The geese hissed...So I hissed back.

Shall we?

POV!

AL's flume ride from the sky ride

Scenic....I recommend it.

$15 for all of that...And very good!

She won 200 off one game....I won 13.

BINGO in a park=AWESOME

Four boards for $.50 per game

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

I felt bad for this dude...

She made him count out 213 Tootsie Rolls

The day's winnings

Carousel time!

Yeah...No thanks

Yack!

Dammit

Burt Reynolds is here!

We finished the day with a mini-marathon on Outlaw...Something like 14 rides in a row without getting off, just switching seats.

I'm PRETTY sure this is the second hill...Yep, second hill alright.

Like I said, the park was packed today.

And mini-donuts for the walk out.

Now for the videos!

Outlaw On-Ride:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7lH3RUc0nE

Tornado On-Ride:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsf8O-GY5a4

Thanks for reading! ValleyFair, Nick Universe and the Wisconsin Dells coming up soon!

Looks like you guys had a good time. It really does look like a nice little park - I didn't think it was that nice from what I have seen from it. Seems I was wrong.

Your camera takes some excellent photos!...oh and nice going with the tootsie rolls there Kara

Almost has the same look and feel as LAGOON.

Almost has the same look and feel as LAGOON.

- Sid "Fire Dragon for the WIN" Vernon

Adv is a great place, though it's mostly family oriented they have a mini Huss frisbee and a topspin. I'm sure they could get in a coaster after the financial scene dies a bit. Also, Outlaw was my first woodie. Can't remember it though.

I passed Adventureland on my way to Chicago once. I could see all the coasters and rides but we didn't go

It looks like a nice place that could survive here in Kansas. It kinda makes me think that Wild West World should have tried to be like this. Nice selection of rides, family oriented, great landscaping, etc.

^^ Yeah, Adventureland is a very, very nice park. As far as small parks go, I still prefer Holiday World and Indiana Beach, but it's definitely up there. And you definitely can't go wrong with a park that has both BINGO and gut-mauling ejector air.

Timberwolf is easily one of the worst coasters, wood or steel, that I have been on. Boss might be a top 10 favorite of mine. Boss is brutal in a kick your a$$ kinda way, but it's because the ride is powerful. Timberwolf just jack-hammers through the course and doesn't have one ounce of fun in it.

Sorry to bring this back up but I just re-opened your thread and saw this response. I'm definitely not saying that TW is a good ride, but I definitely don't believe it flat out sucks. I've had some brutal rides with tons of jackhammering on it, but I always seem to get a nice amount of airtime too. Awesome? No. Has some fun moments? Yes.

That's also why I said I respect your opinion though, because I haven't ridden it yet this season and I can definitely see why someone would hate it.

I'm sure it does have it's good days, perhaps...But the day I rode it, Timberwolf was absolutely horrible, and if you read through some other people's opinions on here you'll see the same reactions from different times.

Nickelodeon Universe!

I'd been here one time before, so this trip was much more of a relaxing day. Thanks to Looty, we scored some comp tickets and had a fun day at the Mall!

Spongebob is a fun ride, but I still highly prefer Mystery Mine over it. The restraints just killlllll your shoulders on a couple of spots, especially the first drop. It's a fairly disorienting ride and has some fun elements. Avatar is a blast!

We also rode the bumper cars, the "Log Chute," and the ferris wheel. Onto the pics!

Heading to MOA with our employee wristbands and ICEES!!

Hello, hai!

Ya'll are probably getting tired of seeing us by now...

Just a little taller and you'd fit, babe...

Yay!

Trying to be Kumba

Still don't know what this is

Oh how I loathe steep/vertical lift hills

Down we go!

Weeeeee

Same drop, different angle

Overview

Hangtime

I got murked

Skipped...Not a credit

So much fun!

Touch the sky!

Fairly fun coaster

Mall overview

Ruby Tuesdays wasn't enough, need more to eat

Mmmm

We got an extremely spinny ride this day

Hangin' with The Man

I just absolutely love that there's a log flume indoors

Scary!

We then decided to have some Crepes (skinny pancakes where I come from) before heading out. These things were amaaaazing!

Kara went with the chocolate/banana crepe with ice cream

I opted for the incredibly yumtastic cinnamon and whip cream

Valleyfair coming soon!

You should have entered this in my photo contest. It would have had a very good chance of winning. (Of course with that being said, I can't accept it as an entry now).

Awesome Pics! Looks like you guys had a good time. I love the log chute too although you don't want to know the truth about the water...

And what might that truth be?

It's just incredibly nasty and not cleaned as thoroughly as you would think (in fact, you often see alge growing inside of the trough).

Wow, you would think they would drain the water when they rehab the ride.

Why have I not gone back to Nick Universe yet? Otherwise, good TR.

I saw you guys at Valleyfair today! I was gonna say hi but didn't know for sure if it was you guys. Gator, I saw you taking pics outside of Steel Venom I think.