Mark's Postcard Paradise

One of the fairly big news stories this past week was finally hearing that the long dormant coaster, Cliff Hanger, at Ghost Town in the Sky was reopening. Well it did reopen with riders at least for a little while. It seems to be down again at the moment while undergoing some technical refinements, so let's hope the park can get the bugs worked out for this very unique ride. Here's a postcard featuring an aerial view of Cliff Hanger and the rest of the park built high on a mountain top in North Carolina.

In celebration of the TPR Deep South trip having begun, here's a postcard of my personal fav inverted coaster, Top Gun - The Jet Coaster (aka Afterburn), at Carowinds.

Welcome to the South and have a great time on the trip y'all!

[montezooma"Can I get clamshells out of this ATM?"]

Hey what is up with that postcard???? Did they repaint the track or is that a photo enhancement? The track was originally silver.

Good eye Shane! I'm not sure if it's a photo "enhancement" or not. All of the pics on RCDB and in the TPR park index show it with silver track. Anyone know for sure if it ever actually had blue track?

[SeaWhippetYummy! I just ate donkey!]

It still has it's original paint scheme. The blue has been flaking off the supports and needs to be redone. I'll be riding it about an hour. Yayyy for me.

I'm so jealous Scott! You'll have to let us know how it's running.

It's time to heat things up a little bit this week, and join the TPR Oven the State...oops I mean Texas...trip with a look at Sea World San Antonio's Great White and Steel Eel. When I visited in 2007, Sea World was packed wall to wall with kids in strollers. I have never seen more strollers in my life! Needless to say it was not an easy day of getting around the park. Also, the operations were honestly pretty bad, especially at the food service places. I would almost rather go back to Fuji Q than Sea World. Hopefully TPR has a much better experience!

Also...BONUS POSTCARD! I've been to Texas quite a lot over the years, and everytime I go, it seems like something crazy, wacky, or really unusual occurs. For example, back in my indie rock band touring days, we were driving from New Orleans to Houston when just as we crossed the state line and saw the "Welcome to Texas" sign, a huge chunk of metal flew off the truck/trailer driving next to our tour van and crashed through our windshield! Although we tried catching up with him, the driver never slowed down or noticed, but sped up and kept going. It was a seriously scary moment. You definitely don't mess with Oven the State!

I did some digging back in the Paradise archives for this next postcard from Virginia's Buckroe Beach, a defunct park you never really hear much about anymore. I really have no idea how I acquired this card since I've never been to Buckroe, but it has been in my collection as far back as I can remember. According to RCDB, the park closed in 1985. This view shows the 1920's John Miller built Dips woodie with its station in the foreground. I've always loved how Miller's drops were built only inches from the ground. It appears there was a pretty good double down on this coaster too.

Did anyone here ever get to visit Buckroe and ride Dips?

This postcard should get all you peeps going to the Bay Area Bash this Friday even a little more excited. It's Medusa at Six Flags Marine World...err Discovery Kingdom. Enjoy your floorless ERT!!!

August is turning into "follow along with the TPR West Coast trip" month, so today I'll post a card from Great America when it was owned by Paramount. Here's Drop Zone Stunt Tower. Did CF change the name to just Drop Ride I wonder?

Oh and does anyone notice something a little odd about this photo? Find it, and win a ducky prize from Big Mike! Just kidding, but you can certainly email Dan about it.