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Chadster's Vacation Adventures: Final Edition!


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^Hmmm, I'm going to guess the Bubba Gump's question...NO.

 

Oh, and I love the Gravatron. Wish more places had them.

 

dt

 

I would say your very very hot in your guess Until this past summer I had never been on a Gravatron and now I'm kinda hooked on them. I'm finding the carnivals have the better ones although we did experience one on the Jersey Shore that felt like it was trying to shut off my wind pipe, very forceful.

 

...I don't recall doing that salute on Miner Mike, but that was a pretty fun coaster.

 

That was a fun weekend.. hope to do some more whoring in the future.

 

 

I agree, a backwards kiddie coaster was awesome! Who knows, maybe I'll show up again this year

 

The Scandia Screamer is simply a terrifying ride!

 

It's amazing! The fact that it has cell equipment hanging off it makes it even better!

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With Speed: The Ride being carefully dismantled in hopes to be sold to a new park I thought it would be neat to take a look back at the ride and what it looked like just two weeks before being disassembled.

 

Speed: The ride opened on April 28th, 2000 at the Sahara Hotel and Casino as part the NASCAR Cafe. Built at time in Las Vegas history where Casino's were focusing more on the family than the gambler it was hoped the ride, along with a remodel of the property, would draw additional patrons to the North Strip Property. Initially your $7 gave two back to back rides along the 1365 feet of track which included a second launch after the loop that not only boosted speeds up to 70mph but also served as a brake to slow the ride down on the return before going backwards thru the loop. The OTSR's were widely frowned upon by the enthusiasts community, and considering other Premier launched rides such as Mr. Freeze did and do not have them, it certainly didn't make sense as to why Speed did.

 

The ride closed suddenly in August of 2008 and little was known of it's fate. However in February of 2009 the ride re-opened. By this time the price per ride had increased to $10 and you no longer received back to back rides. In fact they began launching the ride only once every 15 minutes seriously decreasing its theoretical capacity of 1600 riders per hour . Not a good deal if you bought an all day pass.

 

Speed closed in May of 2011 about a month ahead of the casino's closure due to lack of maintenance personnel. It packed a punch reaching a height of 224 feet and pulled some nice g's. The initial $1million price tag was super cheap. Many parks would jump at the chance of a coaster of that price. Custom built for the area the owners have yet to find a buyer.

 

If you missed my liquidation sell photos, Clicky

 

Want a piece of Sahara History? I have a mini-shot glass I'm willing to do a random drawing for. How do you enter? Donate $1 to my Coasting for Kids Page (Link in Signature) by Next Monday at Noon. I'll put everyone's name in the hat and announce a winnner during next Monday's episode! Easy eh?

 

TPR Video

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Speed: The Ride was located in the NASCAR Cafe where you found, well, NASCAR stuff.

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Funny, never saw this car on the track.

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I think this would have been the entrance. This was my last visit to the ride in October of 2010. They had four employees, two at the ride, one cashier who was also selling stuff for the arcade, and a person at the photo hut. I happened to be the only customer at about 9:30 at night. Very sad.

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This would be the train and where I would wait 10 minutes to load. They only ran every 15 minutes and I happened to have gotten in line at 9:33. Despite having not run the ride at 9:30, I still had to wait. I was slightly unimpressed with the operations. Yet another reason the property shut down.

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So anyway, I strapped in for what I didn't know at the time would be my final ride and shot out the hole.

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Through the loop, which was amazing...

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Into the second launcher to boost up to 70mph

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Past the strip show...

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around the front of the building...

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before heading up the spike to fall back and do it all over again in reverse. Still a much better bargain, and ride, than that POS up on the South end of Strip.

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A few months after the ride closed I was able to get a few shots from the top of the building.

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I tried for weeks to be able to take pictures inside the station and maintenance area

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But in the end, the owners decided they couldn't allow it.

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Fast forward to end of March 2012 and we find the rear door open to the station. I imagine it's been open since the place closed.

 

Of note, many lights were on in the building and the HVAC was still turning. Signs something is going on...

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The door was also still open on the other end of the station.

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Now we go down the hatch

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nice landing

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surface rust is very noticable all around

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Launch control

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Second launch section

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The plants were also getting watered, so was the sidewalk.

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coming out the second launch

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to zoom past the front of the building

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At least the bolts haven't moved, the power box says it all.

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Loved this part of the ride.

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Overall it was very well designed, one of my top 25

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it almost looks like part of the support has rusted through

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track rust has also set in

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Noted.

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Someone's had some fun.

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Oddly enough, people were coming down sad they couldn't ride today. Apparently they thought the ride would be open....um...no comment.

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See ya later Speed, hope to see you again somewhere soon. If not, you will be missed.

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Also noted.

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The fence behind the fence look familiar?

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It should...it was wet-n-wilds

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And finally, why Wet-N-Wild closed, a still not fully erect Fountain Blue.

 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed a trip down memory lane!

 

I promised last week a look at Pacific Park...but with the disassembly of Speed I figured no one would mind. So next week we will answer the question, finally, does Bubba Gump's use fresh fish?

Edited by chadster
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F you Fountain Blue! What a waste. Parts of Vegas look like (name any random third world craphole). Ghost town. Ah, but the place will renew and reimagine its hedonistic, money churning vision (eventually). So long Speed, you lived to a ripe old age in accelerated Vegas time.

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Another great update again, Chad.

 

In a lot of ways, with the relocation of Speed, it's good to see the ride in it's original 'element' prior to being gussied up again in the future. For me, it was one hell of a shuttle loop- and one I'm glad to see returning in the future.

 

R.D.

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Greetings and welcome to this weeks edition from Pacific Park in beautiful Santa Monica, California. Built in 1909 the pier almost met the wrecking ball in the early 70's but locals refused to let it go which forced the city council to create the Pier Restoration Corporation. The carousel building, known as the Hippodrome was designated a L.A. County historical landmark by Uncle Sam.

 

Today the Pier is made up of kiddie and family attractions and houses several restaurants including Bubba Gumps. Speaking of Gumps, ever wonder if they serve fresh fish? Does Hot Dog on a Stick sell all beef hot dogs? Well, you're in luck! I have that answer to those questions and many other's so get ready, it's gonna be a blast!

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Welcome to Sunny Santa Monica! What on earth could we be doing here today, hmmmm....

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Why is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Muscle Beach? Why no! It's a mini Morgan kiddie hyper!

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So let's head on over

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And a beer in my hand, life is good today...

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Yuuup! Looks like a pier. I'm I allowed to even use Yuuup! anymore?

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Who are these two ugly sons of bitches?

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Caught two kids trying to break in, called the cops, cops came, took the kids to foster home, parents went to jail. True Story.

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Cirque was in town with Ovo, sadly I didn't have time to see this production which I understand is really good. So if you are in the area, see it before it leaves.

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Before the park opened, RD and I did some exploring. Didn't realize they had a Gumps.

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Hey look, they are getting a food delivery!

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WTF?!?!?!?!?!!!! FROZEN FISH??? THE OCEAN IS RIGHT THERE! So now when you see fresh shrimp, fresh cod, fresh whatever advertised on the menu, yeah, it was fresh, 6 months ago. And to boot they are using the Walmart of food, Sysco. They are now dead to me. #GordonRamseywouldshutitdown

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Buy tickets to see the Whole City!

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Grab a burger and some crap.

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After you grab a burger and some crap, you can walk with your crap, your burger too perhaps.

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Or maybe sit on the beach with your burger and crap.

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Then when you get done on the beach you can buy more crap.

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NOTED!

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Some famous movie was filmed here.

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Classic movie foto

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And here is what the other side of the Pier looks like. So now you have seen the pier.

 

Oh, wait, you want to see what's inside the park, well, ok.

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I'll take a #2.

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So I guess we are going here so RD can get his credit. Feeling sad and pathetic, I decided to ride again.

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Intense G's are being pulled in that helix.

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More airtime than El Toro

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For you lift hill nerds.

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For you lift chain nerds.

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And I couldn't leave out the anti-rollback nerds.

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So we turn and turn in the helix, pulling tons of G's and was able to get a few aerial shots.

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These were super tough to get, the intensity was so much I almost could hold the camera.

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So I hope everyone appreciates the fact that I struggled through almost grey out conditions to get these past few foto's

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Ok, that's enough, get me off, I'm gonna puke.

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So before we left, we went to check out the Carousel.

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Hand crafted goodness.

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ACEr's have their own private seat!

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Hey look it's the original Hot Dog on a Stick stand!

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WTH?!? Turkey Dogs?!?!? SCREW THAT!

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APPROVED!!

 

That's it for this week, hope you enjoyed! Check back next week for another California Park that just might include a ticket giveaway for Give Kids the World!

 

Be sure to post your comments!

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Ha! My guess that Bubba Gumps did not serve fresh fish was correct! I demand a shout out to Ice Bat in your next report.

 

I thought this was a cool little park to spend a couple of hours at the one time I visited. And I'm always a fan of being at a park near the ocean. Well, as long as it's not the Jersey shore...

 

dt

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I'm not sure if people are being serious or joking, but very little of the shrimp served in the US is fresh. That's because most of it comes from Thailand or Indonesia or elsewhere in southeast Asia. And seafood can't generally stay fresh long enough to transport around the world. The main exception to this would be down south where you'll find some Gulf shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, but since the oil spill, fewer restaurants are carrying that, despite claims that it's safe. (Although you might think that a place called Bubba Gump's would be more likely to sell fresh Gulf Shrimp!)

 

I work for a restaurant that makes a really big deal out of only serving the freshest fish. We even fly Wild Salmon in fresh from Alaska and Dover Sole in fresh from Holland. But even we serve frozen shrimp. In fact, it's just about the only seafood we sell that's frozen, besides calamari, which is similarly almost always frozen in the US.

 

If you're eating at a nicer upscale seafood restaurant, I'd generally suggest choosing something other than shrimp or calamari. It's not that it's not good, it's just not going to be that much better than you can get at a cheaper restaurant, whereas the other fresh fish should be a lot better. Save the shrimp for the cheaper restaurants.

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Ha! My guess that Bubba Gumps did not serve fresh fish was correct! I demand a shout out to Ice Bat in your next report.

Noted!

 

^ I don't think it has to do with just the shrimp being frozen; it's the fact that everything they sell is frozen.

 

This. In my little town in central Oklahoma we have two fish markets that fly fresh fish in twice daily. Both have their own restaurants attached and both supply that fish to various sit-down restaurants in town, so it's not hard to get fresh fish, but it requires a chef to design his or her menu around what they can get. My guess with Gumps being a chain, they have a corporate chef to set the menu which requires them to produce/purchase pre-battered shrimp, fish, etc. IMO fresh is better and when I go to a fish/shrimp restaurant I expect fresh, or maybe I'm just a snob

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