Photo TR: Coaster Palooza X.....Midwest Excursion

We're off on the trip at 8:30pm!

COASTER PALOOZA X
I don’t know if it is actually “X” but it sounds good!

I know in the calendar I say 13 parks in 9 days, it was actually 12 parks in 10 days, even though we didn’t do any parks on our last day (Sunday). There were 7 time zone changes, 10 states – Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Kansas (including our flights out and back, California, Nevada, and Arizona), 4 flights, 3 car rentals, 6 hotels, and around 3,000 miles driven.

Day 1 – Thursday, Friday - Red-eye to Columbus, Ohio to arrive around 5:30am. We actually gain an hour on the drive to Bowling Green, Kentucky, so we thought we could arrive around noon. The drive is 340ish miles and after an all night flight, it was really sucking. Once we arrived to Beech Bend, we saw that the Rumbler wasn’t running. We walked up to the gate and there was a park person to greet people. She said that the Rumbler was struck by lightning the night before (Thursday) and they are expecting a part for it sometime today (Friday) to arrive from Ohio. We decided to ride the other rides since we were already there. Looping Star is one of the most painful rides I have ever been on. We also rode Power Surge, which is similar to the feeling of X at Magic Mountain, only you don’t have a track to know which way you’re going. It isn’t a roller coaster, so don’t get me wrong, but it flips you around similarly to X. We left after a few other rides and headed out to Holiday World, only 105ish Taiko Happy

miles away. J We were staying at Santa’s Lodge, along with most everyone else. The hotel is great. If you go to Holiday World, just stay there. No other reason to stay at any other hotel, unless it is sold out. With no sleep still, we went to Holiday World for Holiwood Nights. We saw Ted and Catrina, along with his group once we got there. We hung out with them for the rest of the night. The event started with a ride on Voyage. Oh my god! All the reports are absolutely right. This thing kicks a$$. Gyendolynne says it is like riding a quarter horse that is out of control and on the way back to the stables. I can’t believe all the airtime. The first ride felt like the train was actually jumping off the track many times. We were in the middle row too! Just when you think you’re at the end of the ride, you go flying by the queue line (underwater thing) and then you’re still going. It’s like it will never end. When we arrived back in the station we saw Michael Moore (Memphish, not the movie director) and his dad. They hung out with us too. All of us waited to ride the back row next. It was even better. We ate the awesome pizza dinner and had fudge, then rode Legend and Raven a couple of times. This was our first trip to Holiday World. Legend is a great ride. Raven has some fun spots too, but I liked Legend better than Raven. Voyage was definitely the best though. Had some beverages back at Santa’s lodge and then off to bed. We were up since 5am the day before.

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:52 pm Post subject: Day 2

Day 2 – Saturday – Got up at 8am, don’t ask me why. Gyendolynne and I aren’t water park people, so we weren’t going to Splashin’ Safari. We got to Holiday World around 10:45 and rode Legend. We took a walk around the park and then decided to head back to Beech Bend to ride Rumbler. I called them and they said it was running after a power failure. I asked what the wait time was and she said 16 seconds as she was laughing. We left Holiday World around 1:30 and arrived in Beech Bend around 3:15. I am so glad we didn’t call again because Derek said Rumbler was down around 2pm again. The ticket person at Beech Bend said if we waited 45 minutes, we could get in for half price. We needed to get back to Holiwood Nights, so this wasn’t an option. I rode it 6 times and Gyendolynne rode it 5 times. It is a good ride and we’re glad we got on it. The fly-by the station and the bank turns are great! The operators of the ride are really great people too! We had a lot of fun with them. Dinner at Holiwood Nights was at 7:30pm. We sat with Chris and Natalee Godsey from Rideworld. Everyone headed to Voyage after dinner. We were waiting in line with Memphish and his dad on the ummmm, ummm, ummm, pier, yeah, thanks Memphish! We rode it twice in complete darkness. I thought this ride was great, but in the dark it becomes even more awesome. When you don’t know which way you’re going and can’t even see it, OMG! It just seems to get faster and faster. We headed to Raven and Legend for some night rides. All these coasters at night are absolutely incredible. I can’t remember how many times I rode them, but I think I dislocated Ted’s shoulder twice, until he started to lean forward. J A couple more rides on Voyage in the dark and then we called it a day. It was a great event. We enjoyed meeting so many people and talking to everyone.

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:58 pm Post subject:

WOW Most of my crew made it into this picture! See! Its us!

Colin"Nice update BTW"C

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:42 pm Post subject:

very cool, any opinions, ranks for those rides?

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:56 pm Post subject:

Coaster Palooza I saw you in line for Son Of Beast with your TPR t-shirt on.

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:57 pm Post subject:

I LOVE the Kentucky Rumbler, it's in the running for my favorite GCI woodie, I'm not quite sure if I like it more than Thunderhead, but we'll see as I'm riding Thunderhead again this Friday. I'm not getting to the Voyage until late next week. Parks we're (Julia and I, with some friends changing along the way) hitting next week:

Dollywood
Indiana Beach
Cedar Point
Kennywood
Six Flags St. Louis
Holiday World

Nice Photo TR, glad you had fun in my part of the country. More west coast cats need to get out here and ride our midwest woodie goodness!

-James Dillaman

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:52 pm Post subject:

I see that you have finally made your way back! Had a great time with you guys at Holiday World!

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 9:45 pm Post subject:

^Hey Ted, have fun in the UK.

^^^Yes, I did have my TPR shirt on at PKI. Come on up and say hi next time! We were having a blast.

I am going to try to get the other days up ASAP. I would rank the parks more than the rides, but we had fun at almost every stop. After I put out all the days, I will put the rides and parks down. Right now though, Voyage, Hades, The Beast (Mainly for the night ride!), Kentucky Rumbler, Legend, Raven, Cyclops, Ragin' Bull, Superman Ultimate Flight, Hoosier Hurricane - all were incredible rides. I am missing a coule, but I am tired.

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 2:22 am Post subject:

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:31 am Post subject: Day 3

Day 3 – Sunday – Got up early….AGAIN….to drive to Louisville, Kentucky (75 miles) for SFKK. It wasn’t a bad drive, but you lose and hour going there. We arrived just after 11am and paid $5 for parking AT A SIX FLAGS!!! This was our first time paying to park on the trip. We went straight to Twisted Twins and rode it a couple times. Not a bad ride, but when you just got done riding Voyage, Legend, Raven and Kentucky Rumbler, anything else would have to really step up. I have been on worse wood rides though. This was much smoother than we expected. We rode Thunder Run next and went to get our on-ride photo. The picture had a border of the ride in the display, but the guy didn’t print it. He said we didn’t ask for it! We couldn’t believe it. That has never happened before. We just got some generic picture. AARRGHHHH!! Roller Skater was near by, so we rode that and then walked through the water park to get to Chang. IT WASN’T RUNNING!!! I rode T2 because we were there, but I will never ride it again. It was so hot too. A lady actually passed out from the heat and the emergency crew had to come. Only a couple of the smashed penny machines were working too. This park was disappointing to us. We decided enough was enough and left for Hard Rock Café for lunch. A 105ish mile drive was ahead of us to Cincinnati, Ohio for PKI. We checked into the hotel and as we drove by the park, it was packed! This was the Sunday before Memorial Day. After a little rest, we went to Lonestar for dinner and then to PKI for some night rides. There wasn’t a parking attendant when we showed up, so we didn’t have to pay! We walked around a little and saw so many long lines. The park was so crowded. We went straight back to ride The Beast. There wasn’t too long of a wait. We rode it once, and then we waited for the front row. This turned out to be the best move. By the time we got up to the front, the park was closing. They had fireworks at the end of the day and we were lucky enough to be on the lift hill in the front row when the fireworks started! It was an awesome ride and it was also in the dark.

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