Eric and Candace's East Coast Trip PTR

After an entire day of naps and recovering, it is time to begin our 2008 TPR East Coast trip report. Robb and Elissa get all of our respect and gratitude for organizing the best vacation we have ever been on. Until you have been on a TPR trip, you can not imagine how much hard work goes into these trips, and they do it the whole time with patience and a smile on their face.

This first update will cover our travels to Philly. Candace and I both took lots of photos, so instead of crediting each photo, I’ll give you a hint for determining who took what photo… the good photos were taken by Candace. So, onto the photos!

P.S. There will be a game for you guys to play at some point during this trip report!

Links to all updates

Day One: Landing in Philly and Coney Island (scroll down)

Day Two - Part 1: Six Flags New England

Six Flags New England Part II

Six Flags New England Part III

Day Two - Part 2: Quassy Amusement Park

Day Two – Part 3: Lake Compounce

Day Three – Rye’s Playland Part I

Rye's Playland Part II

The Denzel Washington Movie Reference Game!

Day Four: Six Flags Great Adventure Part I

Six Flags Great Adventure Part II

Delaware: The Traffic Jam State

Day Five - Six Flags America Part I

Six Flags America Part II

Day Six: Busch Gardens Part I

Busch Gardens Part II DarKastle Backstage Tour

Busch Gardens Part III

Day Seven: Kings Dominion

Day Eight - Part 1: Morey's Piers

Morey's Piers Part II

Morey's Piers Part III

Day Eight - Part 2: Clementon Park

Day Nine: Hersheypark Part I

Hersheypark Part II

Day Ten: Dorney Park

Final Day - Knoebels Part I

Knoebels Part II

Knoebels Part III

Final Summary

Coney Island is next!

There is the Lightning bus as we have officially begun the tour.

We made it!

Cue Boyz II Men now! "Motown Philly back again...doing a little East Coast swing..."

Almost there!

The next morning we were thrilled to see our plane had arrived on schedule!

Eskimos need loving too, and to recognize it, Tennessee named a state park in their honor.

This is Kirsten. She is bored because there haven't been any pictures of roller coasters yet.

This is Baylor. One of the reasons for flying out of Nashville, was we could save a lot of money in kennel costs by letting my parents dog sit.

This is me. I am probably wondering if it is possible to time travel to tomorrow so we can ride roller coasters already!

This is Candace. She is wondering what she is about to get herself into.

We called ahead and had the Highway Patrol clear out the interstate for us. No delays!

Before we could begin the trip, we had to drive to Nashville first.

Eric! I can't wait for the photos. You and Candace are awesome! Can't wait to read the entire trip since she had a camera attached to her neck the entire time.

Day One: Coney Island

On our way to the first hotel of the trip in Conneticut, we stopped at Coney Island for a ride on the famous Cyclone.

I felt very fortunate to ride the Cyclone because if I recall correctly, it nearly closed last year. All I can say about the coaster itself, is that it ran like a 71 year old wooden coaster. The new padding in the seats made it seemed like you were riding in one of those padded sumo wrestler outfits. The nostalgia of riding this classic though was enough for me to appreciate the ride and ignore the pain of bouncing along the track.

As for the rest of Coney Island, it was certaintly an interesting place. Highlights were Original Nathan’s, Dante’s Inferno, the Wonder Wheel and Ghost Hole (simply for the name). Now for pictures…

Good night Cyclone! Six Flags New England up next.

HOT SAUSAGE!!! on fire.

These are birds.

Look, its TPR members! Special guest appearances by Cedar Fair Elementary dedicated trash cans.

What's this guys problem?!?

This is Mike Austin and fellow East Coast Trip participant. He can't eat any American food or it comes out both ends as demonstrated in the picture.

As evening set, the park comes to life. And eats all the little children.

Dinner was at the original Original Nathan's. I had no clue this was where skinny Japanese kids scarfed down a bazillion hot dogs every year.

You do indeed get a great view of Manhatten from the Wonder Wheel.

Awwwww.

There be a credit!

Its your basic ghetto fair with flat rides dumped down on pavement, but it had a little charm at least.

Nice view of the Cyclone from up here.

View of the beach from the Wonder Wheel

Next up: Deno's Wonder Wheel

You can almost picture the parachutes taking people up and down...if you were on drugs!

Its that ferris wheel from Grand Theft Auto 4!

It was a great evening to be on the boardwalk.

Gene Simmons: The Ride

With a side of pain on the right.

Pain on the left

She definitely is a photogenic coaster!

I was surprised to see that you waited to board without any divided rows.

The first train of the evening. I'll let Robb tell his story about the lip-stick camera's first ride on the Cyclone.

The lift hill almost looks straight in the photo.

As we turned the corner and got our first glimpse of the Cyclone, I think two girls on the bus fainted! Maybe it was pre-traumatic stress syndrome.

There must be danger all the time in New York City!

We had to cross the Verazzano Bridge on our way to Coney Island. It is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world.

This was the first time I got to see Manhatten in person.

Nice TR. Coney Island is one place I've always wanted to visit. I had no idea that the Wonder Wheel was still open (still standing, yes, but not operating). Of course we all know that DCA has a modern version of that ride, and I've ridden that one a couple of times.

Eric

Um yeah, Cyclone was the most horrid thing I've ever ridden in my life. Ok, well the back row was. Brent and I rode in the back and I felt like I had some serious injuries to certain areas.

Front wasn't all that bad though. I did love the Wonder Wheel. That thing made me happy.

This is Mike Austin and fellow East Coast Trip participant. He can't eat any American food or it comes out both ends as demonstrated in the picture.

So true! *Wank!*

This is a great trip report--I really am looking forward to the rest of it! And to Candace, I'm sorry about bashing your knee around on the crazy Bumper Cars at Knoebels last night!

This is Mike Austin and fellow East Coast Trip participant. He can't eat any American food or it comes out both ends as demonstrated in the picture.

 

So true! *Wank!*

 

This is a great trip report--I really am looking forward to the rest of it! And to Candace, I'm sorry about bashing your knee around on the crazy Bumper Cars at Knoebels last night!

That's alright... I didn't need that knee cap anyway!

Eric! I can't wait for the photos. You and Candace are awesome! Can't wait to read the entire trip since she had a camera attached to her neck the entire time.

Scott, it was great to meet you! We got a lot of photos to go through, so hopefully it will not take to long to finish the report.

Those are some great photos! I've always wanted to visit Coney Island. Guess my time's running out for Astroland.

Hey Eric and Candace, I'm glad you didn't have that SLR handy at Legends at Dorney Park! Bring on The Kitchen, damn did that cocktail make me start to sink.

Reminsicing already, from my work desk, that reminds me I should actually do some work today.

I think with Cyclone, we definitely exchanged our pleasure for pain, man that ride is meaner than a Brooklyn mugger in a crack drought.

Seeing your pics from the Wonder Wheel really makes me wish I had ridden it! That night all I saw was a giant Death Trap when I looked up at it. Luckily I made up for it by going on the Giant Wheel at Morey's Piers.

Great TR so far!

I just am not one to praise an old ragged coaster like cyclone. I dont see the big deal in it. the Texas Cyclone was a replica and I didnt see the big deal in that either.

Yes! I tried to ruin the pic by putting up my hands...

SCORE!!

Killer photos so far...especially the ones of me!

Wrinkles

Great PTR! There's some really funny captions in there. Cant wait to see more!

Nice meeting you guys!

-Jahan

Awesome, I am looking foward to the rest. It was a lot of fun hanging out with you two at SFNE.

It was great meeting you guys, I'm glad we got to hang for the entire trip. Can't wait to see the rest.

It felt weird to wake up this morning and not get on a bus.

Hey Eric and Candace, I'm glad you didn't have that SLR handy at Legends at Dorney Park! Bring on The Kitchen, damn did that cocktail make me start to sink.

 

Reminsicing already, from my work desk, that reminds me I should actually do some work today.

 

I think with Cyclone, we definitely exchanged our pleasure for pain, man that ride is meaner than a Brooklyn mugger in a crack drought.

Brent, I wish we would of started hanging out earlier in the trip. I had our "point and shoot" at Legends, but I decided it was better to leave the evening undocumented.

Yes! I tried to ruin the pic by putting up my hands...

 

SCORE!!

 

Killer photos so far...especially the ones of me!

Good job there buddy! I think Chris tried to ruin the most pictures that Candace took. Thanks, there are plenty more pics of you guys coming up.

It was great meeting you guys, I'm glad we got to hang for the entire trip. Can't wait to see the rest.

 

It felt weird to wake up this morning and not get on a bus.

It was great to meet you too. I know what you mean. I've already asked people at work to push me around in my chair. I said if they pushed me down the stairs, it would remind me of some of the wooden coasters on the trip.

Thanks to everyone else who commented so far! It was great meeting all of you!

Six Flags New England should hopefully be up tonight. We have over 300 photos on Day 2 alone to go through!

I hope to meet up with all of you cool cats somewhere down the road!

Peace, Big Mike

Day 2 – Part 1: Six Flags New England

Day 2 was a three-park day which ended up being the best day of the trip for me. The day would start out with ERT on three coasters at SFNE, as well as waterpark ERT! All I can say about the park is Superman: Ride of Steel makes all the other roller coasters there cry for their mommy. Now, I am not saying that the other roller coasters suck, but they just seem mediocre when compared to S:ROS. The ride is just unbelievably good. It has everything. Positive Gs, Negative Gs, Lateral Gs, and other Gs that haven’t been invented yet. I will have to do an update just for the ride by itself because we have so many pictures of it.

I was overall EXTREMELY impressed with this park. It was by far my favorite Six Flags park on the trip, and second only to Six Flags Over Georgia overall. The park went out of their way to make us feel welcomed, not to mention hooking us up with ERT on 5 coasters over two days! The Q&A session with the park managers was very informative and not the B.S. sandwich that came with the Kings Dominion Q&A. Plus, I won a Batman Cape, a XXL Superman T-shirt and a kick-ass Batman pen at the raffle drawing.

Here are the first of the pictures which will feature Superman:Ride of Steel. Hope you enjoy!

More SFNE to come!

This ride is what airtime is all about.

The spray was very disorienting

The last half of the ride doesn't look like much from the pictures, but turned out to be absolutely insane!

More TPR members enjoying their ride.

Eric Millar: "I think I just scored!?!"

Do you think Drew is enjoying his ride?

Insane airtime right here.

I am not going to write a lot a captions in this update, just let the pictures do the talking.

Hey Eric and Candace! Amazing Photo TR so far. What an amazing camera and photographers of course! Looking forward to the rest.

It was great meeting you both!

Cheers,

J

Great pictures. I would love to ride the Cyclone no matter how bad the ride actually is. (bonus points for being from Knoxville.)

^Like I said before, it was worth it to ride it for nostalgia purposes, but beyond that it is just a very rough wooden roller coaster. I couldn't imagine driving out of my way to ride it. You live in the Knoxville area as well? Whereabouts?

Hey Eric and Candace! Amazing Photo TR so far. What an amazing camera and photographers of course! Looking forward to the rest.

 

It was great meeting you both!

 

Cheers,

J

Thanks! I enjoyed our truck stop buffet we had together. Nothing like 1 pound of water to go with your spaghetti.

^Thanks! I enjoyed our truck stop buffet we had together. Nothing like 1 pound of water to go with your spaghetti.

That is way too funny! I almost forgot about that. Luckily the other Sbarros didn't weigh that water-soaked spagehetti and veggies by the pound.

Six Flags New England Cont'd

After surviving our near death experience on Great Chase, all three of these rides were looking appealing now! More SFNE to come soon!

In the end, to everyone's relieve, we made it back to the station alive.

Finally, Richard is using his "Look baffled and maybe it will go away" technique.

Alan chose the "Make your fingers look like there in some type of Chinese finger torture device" technique.

G.J. is using his "John Travolta in Urban Cowboy" technique.

Second time around, we each had to come up with our own defensive riding technique. Here I am using the "Lance Armstrong except I have both testicles" technique

G.J. : Aaaaaahhhh! It was airtime!

Me: Wait, what was that?!? Was that...airtime?

Richard and Alan: No, No, it couldn't be!

Richard: Hi Candace! I am really scared!

Everything seems normal here. Oh look, there's Candace. Let's act like we are really scared.

Great Chase looks like a normal kiddie coaster in this picture right?

After riding this, I now know how Evander Holyfield felt after his bout with Mike Tyson. I had no ear left!

Two pieces of crap in one shot!

I hate you Vekoma!

We would have ERT Saturday on Pandemonium. I actually enjoyed it although it spun WAY too much!

Oblivious to the rare event unfolding nearby, the pretzel guys go for another round.

Water coaster evacuation credits are extremely rare.

Yes! TPR breaks the water coaster!

Why is that maintenance guy walking up there? Could it be?

I did ride Zooma Falls which was Hurricane Harbor's version of Deluge at SFKK. But wait, something looks wrong!

Three men in a pretzel.

I didn't go on these slides but they looked like fun.

Narrowly escaping death, Pamplona style, it was time for ERT at Hurricane Harbor!

As we tried to make our way to waterpark ERT, we witnessed one of the benefits of going on a TPR trip. Being on the other side of a rope drop!

These guys were awesome! We kept seeing them all over the park and every time they would get in this exact pose! Complete with the random kid attached to Wonder Woman's cape!

And it is photogenic too.

Seriously though, I didn't really mind Mind Eraser. As long as you braced yourself properly, it wasn't half-bad.

If you think my captions are crazy tonight, I'll blame it on PTSD from this thing.

As you can see, there are no trains on this track because of the aforementioned fiery death.

The ride actually has different programs similar to that drop tower in Spain. This is the "Lift hill with no track at the end so you fall to a fiery death" program.

Then you collide directly into this fence! Talk about adding insult to injury.

After a scorching death, you go through this loop. Not that it matters though, cause you are dead!

The lift hill takes riders straight into the sun!

Batman: The Dark Knight was a great, forceful ride. Great way to start out ERT on the trip.

The blue lane is for big ass delivery trucks only. Do not walk in the blue lane.

New park rule: No scissors allowed on this bridge or you will receive a 5-year ban from this bridge.

We begin this update with a stalker alert. Tony may be filming you now!

Haha great pictures Eric.

I love the pictures of you guys on Great Chase. I had no clue that it had any airtime. Guess I'll have to try next time I get out to Springfield. Also great pictures of the water coaster breakdown. You don't see that too often.

Can't wait for the rest of the update.