Photo TR: Dorney Park and more

Continuing with riding every week of the season, this week I originally has set aside for going to SFGAd. Of course, with El Toro still not opened, I decided to not even bother and decided Dorney would be a good alternative. I hadn't used my pass yet this year and it doesn't look like I'll get back there for quite some time. Fellow BACT members Heath and Kim decided to come along. Once we were done with Dorney (in 2 hours) we decided to do some breweries in the area.

The day started off with rain, but it ended shortly after getting to the park. It wasn't exactly warm though, so the waterpark wasn't busy yet. Basically we rode the coasters each once and then left.

Ooooh, finally Talon patches surface at the park

Talon: The Grip of Beer

This puzzle is Derek Approved

Sadly, Laser was closed. Probably because it has too many vertical loops and has forces

We managed to survive Steel Force, I guess there were no Valleyfair maintenance workers in the park today

Kim and Heath practice their Heathfaces for later while I work on my confused Derek

Of course, we HAD to jeopardize our lives and ride in the back car

Notice how the back car is still on the track

Another exclusive shot

This marks Thunderhawk as a classic ride, therefore expect Cedar Fair to take it out fairly soon and replace it with some trash cans and cement

So here's the new for 2006 Subway that required knocking down the oldest building in Dorney Park. Cedar Fair, masters of removing heritage, charm, and uniqueness and replacing it with concrete, trash cans, and genericness

Forceless snapless cobra roll

What every coaster needs, a JoJo roll. Can you imagine how awesome Voyage would have been if it had a JoJo roll instead of 3 90 degree turns!?

Only a year old and it still has no line. The curse of Hercules lives on

Exclusive shot

Hydra: The Nap

Formerly the Red Garter Saloon, now its some sports bar

Some people were still not wet enough so they went on the water rides

Dorney was doing something really stupid and not letting people ride in the front row during the rain. Quite odd

Hooray for rain!

First coaster of the day was Talon. Still pretty forceless, but check out that loop baby!

So here's Dorney. Not too crowded yet, just like 1 row of cars and like 12 buses in the parking lot

After Dorney we hit several breweries and brewpubs in the area to kill some time.

And I got a not yet dead filet mignon cheese steak

Heath tried the new lobster salad sandwich

One of the coolest things (besides good food and great beer) is in the bathroom

Crantastic!

Heath had a pimp goblet of Imperial Lambic. How was it?

Then it was onward to Bethlehem Brew Works to visit my mug

And I had cinnamon

Kim went with mint chocolate chip

Then we headed into Bethlehem. First stop, Heavenly Hedgehog for some ice cream. Heath had Strawberry Chocolate Chip

Turns out Shangy's really was the authority on beer

Whoa! I didn't know Jeff Johnson had his own beer!

And Russian coaster beer

They've even got some Belgians

Victory is ours!

And Three Floyds

Nice selection of Avery goods

And beer to the right

Beer to the left

This is what I'm hoping the afterlife is like

Heath kinda looks like a local hanging out here. This ain't the Quik Stop dude, buy something!

Next we stopped at Shangy's to see if they were really the beer authority

Too bad Carrabbas wasn't opened yet

And we drank some beers too!

Of course, we all went for the spent grain pizza

And we shared the beer soaked fries served with a Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot barleywine mayonnaise

I had the gazpacho

Any place with this logo is fine by me

Next was a stop at Weyerbacher's sister restaurant on the other side of town.

And then we bought an assorted case

We went to sample some of their new stuff, like the Double Simcoe IPA

First up, Weyerbacher in Easton

Since we were in the area, we decided to check up on Tom. Not having seen him for quite a while, I was worried he died or something.

But we're not really good brewers, or patient, so we just went back to the bar for more beer

We found the good stuff!

The bottling machine. Too bad there weren't bottles going thru, nor did we have any gloves

4 samplings for $1 and a free self guided tour

Finally we headed across the bridge to River Horse in Jersey

And a cool looking bar. Too bad the beer wasn't that good

Very posh place

And a balsamic chicken sandwich!

I had the beer sampler

Cool location in an old train station

The next afternoon we headed to New Hope to check out Triumph Brewing

And then I fell asleep and off my barstool

Even Crazy Jake showed up!

But I may have had a little too much to drink

Still great stuff on tap

Lots of good times down there

Turns out he was just hiding out down at his bar (or just got back from Hawaii)

Nice photos! Now damn if that pic doesn't make me hungry..lol

Perhaps CF can change the Hydra name now

1. Hurcules-The Revenge (back..lol)

2. Snoopy meets 5 Dragon heads

3. The Nickelodeon X-press

* I love it when it rains at a park sometimes (not a heavy rain thought), because the park(s) are nearly empty and besides getting wet you can experience virtually NO lines...wheeeeee!

I love how Dorney rarely has lines. I can't say I'm that surprised about them not allowing people to ride in the front row since it is just another rule to add to the list of stupid Cedar Fair rules. Too bad Laser was closed, I hope it was just closed because of the weather and not anything else.

Thunderhawk goes 60 mph?! (that sign) That has got to be wrong.

I think we should take bets on what gives out first, Derek's liver or my lungs.

Public Service Annoucement:

Although it may seem "cool" and "gnarly" to drink a bunch of beer and then ride coasters, it isn't a good idea. Notice how Derek only got trashed, hammered, falling-over pissed drunk AFTER the day of coaster riding was finished. This should serve as an example for all you future coaster/beer enthusiasts out there. That is all.

-James "The More You Know" Dillaman

Ok. I REALLY need to know where that beer store is. Nice selection.

I never know that Briess malts had such a following!

^You just gave the site owners a new title....lol

"Theme Parks, Rollercoasters & Pink Elephants" oooops (covers mouth).

sweet dude, you must of felt like a kid in a beer store so who knows the difference between pilsner, stout, ale, and lagger?? those pictures were "teh funny" with derrek all wasted lmao

Great TR! It seems like you drank more beer than rode coasters!

At the Cedar Fair parks I've visited (except for Cedar Point), the parks seem really dead on all other days except for Saturdays. I remember visiting Dorney Park on a Saturday in July and it was packed! Then I went on a Sunday and it was pretty dead. I went to Worlds of Fun on a Thursday and Knott's on a Sunday -- they were pretty dead too.

Shangy's is down the street from my house. If you like 80+ dollar a case beer that you cannot find anywhere else, and don't mind it skunked or bad, it's a good place to go.

Other than that, other local distributors get my money before SHangy does. I've gotten some funky _BAD_ beers from him, and he refused to do anything for me about it.

Just sayin.

I love how Dorney rarely has lines. I can't say I'm that surprised about them not allowing people to ride in the front row since it is just another rule to add to the list of stupid Cedar Fair rules. Too bad Laser was closed, I hope it was just closed because of the weather and not anything else.

Laser was only closed due to the rain. It was running two trains yesterday, and the park was also empty. Snarking titles aside, the reason there were no lines for Hydra on Sat. was that there was no-one in the park. Never is when it rains like that, except for a couple of inner-city bus trips.

Yesterday was much the same.. and I do have to say, Hydra has actually picked up some speed in it's Sophomore season. It's quite a bit quicker than last year, but still not a brain scrambler like seem people seem to want.

Not sure how anyone can say Talon is forceless though.. unless you are riding in the middle of the train all the time.

Man. I call Dorney my "home park" and I haven't even been there once this year. At this point last year I must have been there at least 7 times.

Shangy's really is awesome. My uncle calls it the "health food store" and makes me go down for a beer run about 3 times a week. Very very good selection there and fairly well priced.