Photo TR: Robb & Elissa's Silver Doller City Trip...

Hey everyone!

So this weekend we were off to Branson, MO to visit Silver Doller City and check out Powder Keg!

We arrived into Kansas City airport today 2:30 and immediatly you can see the culture difference from Los Angeles. People will let you merge when you put your blinker on, they understand the language you are speaking at McDonalds, you get an actual response from someone in a retail business, and overall the people here are just more polite.

Since there weren't any parks open today, we made this our day to drive down to Branson and get settled...but of course we had to make a pitstop at the Independance Carrabba's location!

We passed by Worlds of Fun, waved hello at it knowing we'd be back in a few days.

The drive down to Branson wasn't too bad. It's about 3-4 hours. Weather was clear and so was traffic so it was about 3 1/2 getting down here. All the way down we saw the signs that tell you how close you are to Branson....

"Yakov Smirnof says - 40 miles to explosive laughter in Branson!"

One of these days we NEED to see that guys show! Just for the hell of it!

So we're in our hotel room now (thanks for the free wireless internet access!) and tomorrow we're off to SDC for some Powder Keg!

Here are a few pics we took today:

Hi there Kristi, have some bread! And thanks for the gift certificate!

Screw the coasters, this is the REAL reason for taking this trip!

Right next to the Carrabba's was this AWESOME looking Mongolilan BBQ! We might have to try this place this weekend.

Here we are driving our cool Ford Focus.....in Michigan?!?!?

Hello Worlds of Fun! We'll get back to you later....

Good to hear you guys got to Missouri safely. I can't wait for your daily updates.

P.S. can we hit up a Carrabba's in October when you guys are over here?

Craiggers "Never been to one yet" K.

Ha. Your plate has "007" on it.

Alvey ...... Robb Alvey.

// Looking forward to some kickin' pics

Cool photos! I can't wait to see how Power Keg was. Too bad you can't ride the Runaway Ore Cart anymore! I wonder why that was taken out. Did they need extra steel for Power Keg?

BTW, I rented a car once from Florida and it had Alabama plates on it!

Gee, it's 1:25 AM EST and I have a 5:20 AM flight! I'll be sleeping on the airplane, all the live long day...

Hey Robb,

great pictures. It looks more like a Food TR, with all this restaurant stuff. However, I liked it. I can´t wait to see your daily updates.

--Soeren

When did they close the kiddie coaster? And why??!!

--Robb "Glad we got the credit in 2002!" Alvey

Sorry we couldn't make it this weekend Robb. Maybe next time!

Ore Cart should be back. It was removed late last season for some rehab. The park said it would return this year, so it SHOULD be back.

Enjoy Powder Keg! Get some good shot. Also be sure and check out the new laser show at Celebration City. I have heard good things about it

Hey everyone!

We've just stopped by the hotel to dump our memory stick to the laptop. Powder Keg was AWESOME! It's kind of hard to describe what kind of coaster it is....kind of like a really big "launched mine trian." Two of the hills have some really GREAT moments of airtime. The launch is good, almost like what Storm Runner's is like. Overall, the ride is great!

The park was kind enough to let Elissa and I in before opening so we can grab footage and photos on ride. We had a great day, got on all the coasters, and now we're off to Celebration City.

We'll have a full update later, but here's a couple of pics from today:

Powder Keg gets blaster over the hill!

At the top of the second lift hill...

Check out all that mess of structure!

We got to go inside the structure of the ride and get some cool shots from the ground!

Video camera is all ready for POV!

Here are on the launch track!

SWEET! Have fun guys!

I got a question about power kegs launch. How does the train stop if it rolls back after the launch?

Not sure which looks like more fun....the ride, or that basket of bread Elissa was holding.

Shari "really, for me it's a toss up" Shoufler

Interesting comment Shari.

Bread is good. But roller coasters are better.

Interesting comment Shari.

 

Bread is good. But roller coasters are better.

Hell, even Wonder Bread is better than the PGA Grizzly.

About the Mongolian BBQ place, there was a BDs here... it closed after a couple months.

Anyway, PowderKeg looiks good with all the trees grown in aroudn it now. But something about it won't let me like it... may it's that retarded lift in the middle with nothing after it. O.o

Craig, there seems to tbe quite a few brakes in the launch area if it rolls back.

Yeah, the lift in the middle kind of breaks up the ride, BUT that drop off the lift is actually very good! Decent airtime on that drop. But it is weird that you go up the lift to basically just do the drop and a turn into the brakes.

--Robb

Awesome! Yeah, I kind think it was a bit pointless to leave the lift hill in there but whatever. It's just hit me that this is the first coaster to have both a launch and a lift hill. Some pointless trivia.

Anyway! I can't wait to see the pics and hear about Celebration City. Ozark Wildcat looks awesome, but you never hear too much about it.

^ Unless you count California Screamin. Because it has a launch and a lift hill in the middle, just not a 'chain' lift.

--Robb "I can't think of any other launched coaster with a lift hill, though." Alvey

wow, when i went during spring break, there werent hardly any trees around the ride, it looks even sweeter now

Now that we're back in our hotel room, we've got a few more photos from today.

Celebration City was GREAT! The last time we were there was in 2002 when Branson USA had closed and they were tearing the old park down. We really didn't know what to expect with the new park, but we thought it was more like a large sized family entertainment center, kind of like Boomers in Dania Beach, FL. We were wrong. It really is more of a 'full sized' park, but your admission INCLUDES mini golf and go karts! Considering that a round of mini golf and go karts would cost you about $8 each at most family entertainment centers, that's not a bad deal at all for the $27 admission.

Especially because that admission includes Wildcat, which is certainly one of the better GCI woodies we've been on. In fact, I think we may have both liked it a little more than Thunderhead! GCI's are certainly more like a 'wood ballet' (I credit DaveTH for that phrase) but this one is pretty good. It's got more airtime than most GCI's. Of course, I mean "GCI Airtime" which are those little 'pops' that you get all over the place. Regardless, it was a really fun ride, and much better than I was expecting.

The rest of the park was just really nice and relaxing. I was surprised to see Flyers there, and even more surprised to see GOOD flyers! They were REALLY fast and I managed to get them to snap fairly easily. Not as good as Knoebel's, but probably one of the better flyer rides I've been on.

The Miler steel coaster was "funny." I mean, it's REALLY brutal! More brutal than the Hi Miler or Scandia Screamer, but it was still fun...in a "funny" kind of way!

We saw and rode other cool stuff....they had a good Double Shot, I got a 'solo ride' on the Scrambler, there were 'human powered' Rock Em Sock Em Robots, and lots more to do!

Anyway, on to some more pics from Celebration City today and we'll have more SDC pics tomorrow....

Dude!!! Human powered Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em robots!!!! COOL!!!!

Nobody told us this park had good Flyers!

Robb & Joe love S&S rides!

The park is REALLY nice!!!

Lots of curves...just like all GCI's!

As you can see the park was REALLY busy today!

Hey look! Something you don't see too often on GCI woodies...AIRTIME!!!

The first drop is really weird...it's kind of like the "Alpengeist of wood coasters." It was better than I had thought it would be.

We got to ride Wildcat early so we could film!

Great pics, hey it looks like there isn't many people at Celebration City! Was today on off day or do they usually have low attendance levels?

You got to ride new flyers. Now, I am really jealous.

New flyers rock, not as good as the older ones, but Larson did a great job with the original design, it's a shame tho they got rid of the snapping on the newer ones. They told us at Larson that they regularly make them unsnappable, with a few exceptions i've heard about .. some are snappable.

^ Yeah, these were definitly "snappable." I mean, I was actually a bit shocked the first time I did it, because they didn't seem like they would snap....and then.....*BAM!!!* :shock:

After that, it was pretty easy to keep it going!

It was an off day at Celebration City. The weather forecast called for "Severe Thunderstorms" all day, but we got REALLY lucky and all that nasty red and green we saw on the weather channel passed just north of us! It was overcast and misty a little bit, but it never rained.

So that kept the crowds away and allowed us to get lots of riding!

--Robb

We got your rain .. dammit.

Nothing but wet stuff today at Dollywood .. but it finally ended around 4pm .. so gave us some unpainful rides on Thunderhead and Tornado ... I'm sending the rain back to you!

I have to ask Robb, how do you think Ozark Wildcat compares to Thunderhead .