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Planning a cross-country US road trip for March-June 2022 - suggestions/recommendations appreciated!
Hi all My partner and I are planning a cross-country road trip of the US (COVID permitting) for roughly three months between March and June next year (2022). We don't have a fixed itinerary at this stage (other than starting in NYC and finishing somewhere on the West Coast), but have sketched out a rough itinerary/list of proposed destinations at the end of this post. Our plan is to hire a campervan (but not a full-blown RV) for the trip so that we can sleep in that during stopovers on the road, when travelling through national parks and in smaller places we visit, but the idea is to stay in hotels or AirBnBs in bigger cities. We've been leaning towards renting an Escape campervan, but are open to any suggestions for alternative camper hire sites. We have backpacked around Europe and Asia before, but have never been on a road trip or travelled extensively in the US. It would be great if people could share their thoughts on our itinerary (are there any places missing/places you'd leave off the list, any suggestions for good places to see/things to do on the way, places to stay, etc.) and on road-tripping/travelling in the US generally. In particular, any suggestions for places to visit/stay to break up long drives between destinations would be great. In terms of activities, we are open to pretty much anything - exploring cities, hiking/getting out in nature (hence the number of national parks on our planned itinerary), visiting museums, etc. While we don't have a particular budget for the trip (we've saved for this for years and it is a bucket list trip for us), we'd prefer to avoid spending money on unnecessary things where we can. Any thoughts/comments/recommendations would be much appreciated. I know that a lot of this might be covered by other resources, so links to guides or other helpful resources would also be very well received! Rough itinerary:
My parents raised me in an RV for 18 years. These are some of the things that aren't on maps.
Trigger Warning : child abuse I’m not sure when I realized that my life was far from normal. I know what you are thinking. “There is no normal.” Sure. But in the good ole US of America, it’s not exactly typical to spend your days traveling with your parents and 6-8 siblings in a very old, very small RV, stopping and sleeping at different campgrounds. When we knew we’d be staying in one place for a few extra days, my sister and I would share a tent. This was preferable to the nights we’d sleep while dad drove all night, or when we’d have to sleep in a Walmart parking lot. We slept where we could find space outside of the master suite. My older brother Sam got so fed up with the lack of privacy and inability to sleep with his legs completely extended that he once tried to set up a hammock in the tiny hallway between the kitchen area and the bathroom. He used the shower curtain. It went exactly as you can imagine. Fabric ripping, parts of the shower bending and breaking, him falling, and then the beating he took from dad for destroying dad’s property and the family home. He wore the bruises for a month. The next day, our mother decided that the free for all regarding sleeping arrangements was no longer allowed. She led us through a family meeting and we were all assigned places to sleep based on gender and birth order - at least until we can find a bigger RV, because apparently, we are getting a new brother or sister in approximately four months. I didn’t write this to talk about the specifics of RV living, although it was a huge part of my life. I want to talk about why we traveled. As I said before, I’m not entirely sure when I realized that we were different. Mom and Dad worked very hard to keep us from interacting with other kids who would tell us about homes, vacations, and schools. Or perhaps they kept us from those things so that we wouldn’t share their secrets. And they had secrets. See, while I didn’t have access to a library (no library card without a fixed address, ID, or birth certificate), I did have access to books. We had boxes of old, dusty tomes. Stories about legends and witches and things that creep in the dark. My sister Ruth also had a habit of stealing popular fiction when we would shop in towns throughout the US. It was wrong, but returning carts for people at Aldi rarely gave us more than a few dollars, and more times than not, we’d end up giving that money to Mom for food. No one seemed too interested in where our books came from or what they were about, but through the power of reading, we could escape. It also helped us realize that other people didn’t spend their days driving or training to fight imported monsters, like the American Leprechaun, a nasty creature who lives in tunnels under parks. The American Leprechaun steals money from park goers, and if their mark doesn’t have gold, they kill them with a bottle to the head. As you can imagine, very few people in the US have gold on them for the creature to steal. Occasionally you will hear about someone waking up in a park, covered in bruises and missing some teeth. It could have been a bar fight, or it could be that they had gold fillings. The American Leprechaun are nasty, rude, and hard to kill, but I’d rather fight the American Leprechaun than the creatures in the woods. The first time I fought one of our Leprechauns, I was 9. Ruth was 8. We were staying in a campground in Upstate New York, near Niagara Falls. Dad took Sam hunting, while Mom took the twins and the baby to town. Ruth and I were instructed to stay close to the RV and not talk to strangers. So naturally we headed off to the pool and playground. After a few jumps in the pool and general misbehavior, some adult told us to leave and not come back until we found an adult. So we wandered off to the playground. At the corner of the playground, under a large willow tree, we saw a hole. I, being the elder daughter, looked at my younger sister and told her to stay away. She refused, of course. We debated on running back home to ask for help from our parents, but eventually decided that the adults were busy, there was a reason they told us about this legend, and obviously we were the only people suited to this project. Step one. We raced back to the RV to gather supplies. In the locked cabinet that our parents thought we didn’t know about, we found pyrite, a large hammer with a four-leaf clover on the handle, a potato sack, and a small gold coin. I also took a bottle of Jameson from my dad’s stash under his bed. Our plan was to lure the lep out of his tunnel with the gold coin, distract him with the fake gold and liquor, hope he gets drunk, hit him on the head with the hammer, bag him, and toss his body in the river. That’s kind of what happened. We walked up to the hole where I laid down a trail of fake gold. Ruth carried the bottle of booze and the bag, while I held the gold and hammer. We loudly faked having a picnic. I’m sure it was super obvious, but leps are greedy, not smart. After 5 minutes or so, we heard a rustling from the tree. And then he was there. In front of us. Solid. Smiling. His teeth were pointy and rotting. His head was bulbous and sad and rather like a large potato. He did not wear anything green or jaunty, like the illustrations we’d see from time to time. Rather he was nude. His skin was brown, with a bit of a greenish tint to it. His eyes were protruding, menacing, and black. The creature was half our height. I spoke to him. I said, as bravely as I could muster, “please leave this park. I don’t want to kill you.” The leprechaun took a step back. “You can see me? Is that why you left me this *cuss* fake *cuss*? What are you? I smell gold. Give it to me and i’ll let you live.” “Human.” At that point, the Leprechaun laughed and skipped back to his hole, shouting something unintelligible. Ruth looked at me. Her dark, curly hair was coming out of the braids I had done for her this morning. “Do you think he might just leave us alone? That was pretty scary. ” I shook my head at her slowly. She nodded and picked up a stick she had been using as a walking stick for the two kilometer walk from our temporary home to the park area. At that, the creature returned, with a second creature. He introduced it as his wife. This one was clearly female. She was also nude, very dirty, and gave off an odor that can only be described as “wet dog.” Her hair was longer than her mate’s but she was just as ugly. “But I thought there were no females in your species?” “How do you think we make more leprechauns?” I looked at him blankly, and then offered him the bottle of Jameson. He said he would love to have a drink with us, however, he had some terms. First was that we had to drink as well. Second was that we needed to give him the gold. That was it. Ruth, being much less cautious, agreed for me. I could have killed her myself at that moment. She knew. We all knew not to make deals with the others, as we called the inhuman creatures that we were both looking for and running from. I fished out some cups from my backpack, and poured everyone what looked like the amount my dad would pour into his glass at night. The leprechaun looked at me and grinned. His black pointy teeth creeped me out and I tried to force myself to smile back. “May you find the bees but not the hunny” they said, while raising their glass. I also raised my glass, as did my sister. The whiskey burned going down my throat and both Ruth and I threw up. My mom always told us that women can’t drink hard alcohol, and I guess that’s true. That’s when they made their move. The male had the gold coin out of my pocket before I even realized where I was. The not-male was yelling at Ruth to give up her gold. “I don’t have any!” “One gold for one life!” I tried to bargain it down, saying we are children. I offered them the rest of the bottle. I asked if I could go get more gold. They denied my request, and said that I must die as well, as no human had ever looked upon their faces. And since I didn’t offer up the gold immediately, they had to take it, and that complicated things. But mostly, I think, they just liked killing people. Ruth was screaming for me, I was struggling to swing my hammer at them, and I was filled with adrenaline, rage, and panic. Mostly panic, really. Finally, I made contact with the male, who flew across the sunny, empty playground. I moved over to save my sister, she was fighting as best as she could with a stick she had picked up earlier. The woman was swinging her arms, and she had somehow produced a large glass bottle from who knows where. We could see every crevice, every sag, every dangly bit on both of the creatures. Ruth was holding her own. Still, I had an opportunity. I turned the hammer around and hit the woman in the head with the back side of the hammer. You know, the pointy side. You probably call it the “claw.” But I was 9 and to me and Ruthie, it will always be the “killing side.” Or “killy-side’ if we are honest. We aren’t always mature with our language. The creature shuddered and disappeared. There was no time to breathe, though, the male was on his way back. He was hissing, spitting, angry, and now just a 2 foot ball of rage coming at me. I knew I had one shot, so I swung the hammer. I missed. Not only did I miss, but the hammer slipped from my grip and I flung it across the yard. Like a child. He was on me and he was biting my shoulder and my face was in the dirt. I could feel his nasty saliva as he rose up, drooling on me. “It’s a shame, you are so pretty.” I used every bit of energy to roll over and shove him off of me. I kicked. I missed again. But I have a sister and she came through and we are alive. I still have a scar on the back of my neck from him (I wish I’d asked his name, though that would have given him an opportunity to take mine) to this day. I see it and it reminds me of the bond I have with my sister, as well as a reminder to think through how the enemy could respond. We didn’t plan for every contingency. That was my fault. I am the oldest female child. I am responsible for everyone younger than me. Including Ruth, though she is probably a better fighter. (Don’t ever tell her I said that.) The male’s body did not disappear when we killed him. We put him in the bag and brought him home to show our parents. They did not tell us then why only the female turned to dust. That night, Mom and Dad built a huge fire and we burned his body. The twins roasted marshmallows and Sam roasted a turkey he had shot earlier. We listened to our parents tell us again about the old ways, and to be vigilant. After the younger kids had gone to bed, Mom told Sam to go take a walk around the campground to help his digestion. And that’s when the parents came at me and Ruthie. They needed to know exactly who said what, what we did, and why. But first Dad said “well, I guess you are in it now.” as he poured each of us a glass of wine. Mom protested, but he insisted it would help us sleep better. “You must be careful. This is not the life we wanted for you. However, it seems you have chosen it. Tell us exactly what the monster said to you. Do not be embarrassed or paraphrase. These creatures are known to be tricksters and the spare could come back for you. Did you promise them anything?” "No." Ruth said, with confidence. Both of our parents told us that we were extremely lucky to be alive. I related the tale, once again. We saw the Leprechaun hole, thought we should handle it before one of the little kids from a neighboring camp got hurt. I made a plan. We executed it. I told them how scared I was and how stupid it was for me to not realize there could be more than one. I apologized for stealing. "Tomorrow, we will go find his gold. Get a good nights sleep, because it is going to be work." In hindsight, maybe I should have told them about the toast. Part 2
Fan Account Redmare in Toronto - Wendy's Homecoming
PSA: I didn't take too many photos myself, this was literally my first concert of any kind and juggling a fanlight, the sign and my camera as not a good combo... I'll try to link other fancams as much as I can though
Pre-Concert
Hi everyone, I'm exhausted still but the post-concert withdrawal is kicking in super hard and I really want to relive the concert by talking about it so here we go... I work a little outside of Toronto so I took transit (got off at the wrong stop l o l) to get to Coca Cola Coliseum, and got there a little before 6:30 when the doors were supposed to open. I had preordered a light stick, so I was sent straight inside to the merch pick up station. The people working there were having a little game, trying to guess what my order was based solely off how much I paid, which really isn't super important in the whole grand scheme of the concert but I thought it was pretty funny. I'm glad I ordered a lightstick ahead of time, I overheard from someone else there that everything official sold out (of course there were scalpers selling Ts and other assorted merchandise if you REALLY wanted something and didn't go ahead of time). A lot of others have talked about the diversity in the lineup and crowd, but even after reading that I was pretty surprised. Ratio wise, it looked nearly 50/50 for male to female, maybe slightly leaning towards female, because its RV lol. But, befitting of Toronto's diversity, I saw tons of different races, ages, etc. A lot of people came as big massive groups, how they got their hands on tickets all together is beyond me, I saw a couple of younger kids with their parents, which was pretty sweet, but I also so a lot of solo goers too! Just being in the crowd was something else. I only got into kpop a couple of months ago and to be so lucky to have one of my favourite groups come here and be able to be surrounded by others who love them as much as I do was incredible. Toronto has a large Korean population so there were many either international students or Korean Canadians. You could definitely tell them apart in the crowd because they laughed and reacted to things the members said well before the translator finished talking, which i thought was hilarious and cool. Anyways, they finally opened the doors a little after 7, and almost right after we got seated (my view), staff or a fan group, I honestly don't know who, began handing out littlesigns that we were to hold up during the first encore. I think it was solely a fan thing, which is some serious dedication, hats off to whoever organized it, it was prolly pretty expensive, especially since EVERYONE in the crowd got one, and there were still tons to go around. After the signs, I stepped out to get some water for my friend and I (9 bucks for two, really??) but that was a mistake. I soon as I stepped out of the arena, the crowd started to scream. Apparently, either Joy or Irene had stuck their head out off one of the executive boxes up near the top of the arena and waved. I'm not saying that water wasn't worth it but, it wasn't worth it. The rest of the waiting was just accompanied by RV music, an incredible cosplay of their Dumb Dumb doll costume, and then finally the music stopped, the videos changed and the screams began...
The Concert
Same setlist as the previous Redmare in USA concerts, they started with a video introducing the theme park theme (I thought they had closed down Disney World just for themselves LOL), then went straight into Russian Roulette. By now, the screams were deafening. As I said before I haven't been to a concert before, let alone a kpop one, but all I know is that people were excited, including myself. I'm a pretty shy guy, but the energy really just sucks you in, and next thing I knew I was screaming too. The cheering for Wendy was especially loud, we love our hometown hero and we really showed it tonight, especially in that first song. Irene or Seulgi probably got the second most. After RR, they moved into Power Up, which was also really exciting, seeing as it was one of the songs that got me into RV in the first place. Last night is still a blur to me, so this could've happened sometime else, but both Seulgi and Joy were super into the song and crowd, waving whenever they had a quick break in choreo. The crowd also did the fanchant for the song, as well as for Bad Boy and half of RBB, but that one kinda fizzled out when we got to Son Seungwan lol Their first ment was next, where they did their intros and naturally the crowd went bananas for Wendy. It seemed like a pretty standard intro, I pretty sure it was scripted as they looked like they were reading off of something and Irene definitely slipped up and said "We're glad you could join us in [insert location here]" before she quickly corrected herself" which was absolutely hilarious. I didn't mind it being scripted though, especially since I know outside of Wendy and Yeri the members don't speak English, so it helped them. It was a little hard to understand them sometimes, but we cheered them on anytime they said something anyways. They moved on to dance solos after, and this is probably the only part i was a little disappointed. They were incredible dancing, but I wish we could've gotten a little more time with the song, because I love my Second Date and with their solo dances, because I love Seulgi dancing. Next was Mosquito, which was a song that really took some time to grow on me, but between the live experience and the performance I found myself finding a new appreciation for the song. I'm just now realizing how long this is so I'm going to zoom through the rest and highlight everything else. The use of the VCRs throughout the concert was pretty cool, giving them a chance to change costumes and the stagehands to help set up the sets as well as provide us with some videos that although I didn't really 100% know wth was going in some of them, I enjoyed (especially evil Irene). Some of the standout performances were definitely Happiness, ESPECIALLY during Wendy's Shine on Me moment. This was one of the moments I knew I had to film because I could feel everyone gettting ready to lose their minds and lo and behold they did. The cheering, her god-like highnotes... I don't think I've ever experienced noise and energy like that before. Cheers were especially loud during the intro VCR for Peek-a-Boo/Bad Boy because it marked a shift to more Velvet music, which I understand why it wasn't featured as much, but still wish we got more. The talking segments after the first one seemed less scripted but still in English! They talked briefly about what Toronto was famous for, and of course everyone yelled Wendy and the CN Tower. Seulgi seemed disappointed that she couldn't see the Niagara Falls, but I'm hoping after Vancouver, they can take a break and maybe do a Level Up S4 here! EDIT: Apparently, their manager got them up at 5 am and they went to Niagara Falls!!
WENDY
Probably the most memorable part of the night was after the encore (which they really made us work for, we were cheering for them to come back out, even though we knew they would, for like 5 min straight) was the ending "sharing feelings time" as Wendy called it. This was her first concert home, and I think her first time home in 7 years, so it was a whole mess of emotions, crying, cheering, birthday celebrations and more crying. They played rock paper scissors to see who would talk first, of course excluding Wendy so she could have the spotlight at the end. There was a translator off stage to help them, since this was mostly in Korean, hats off to her she did an amazing job. Again, this was last night and it was all a blur, but I'm 99% sure it was this order lol. Joy ended up going first, and she started crying pretty quickly, talking about how glad she was the Wendy was able to come home and perform on homesoil. She stopped herself soon after, saying "she didn't know why she was crying, she wasn't even Wendy's mom" LOL. Seulgi was next and she as even worse than Joy. In all honesty, I wasn't sure she was going to make it through, she was crying so hard. It was pretty similar to Joy's thanking the crowd for being so amazing, and being grateful that Wendy was able to come home and perform in front of her friends and family, something that she couldn't do back in Korea but Seulgi took for granted (her words). She also led multiple "scream for us moments" as well as a touching happy birthday for Wendy. Yeri's was a little generic, but she seemed super tired and she did hers completely in English, which I loved to see. I knew she was the second best English speaker by default, but I didn't know she was that good! Irene thanked the crowd and talked about how cold Canada was, saying Wendy had a super warm heart and lent her jacket to the members who were cold. Wendy rounded off the first set of ments with my favourite part of the night (part 1, part 2, part 3 , part 4). Here she thanked the crowd said everyone she loved was here, from her family, her high school friends and even one of her teachers. She told her mom to stop crying, even though she was shedding tears faster than Niagara falls. Much like my experience, she said she was super overwhelmed and it felt like a dream. She said she'll never forget this moment and honestly, neither will I. I've lived away from home and missed holidays, but I can't imagine leaving at her age, overseas to a country she's pretty unfamiliar with. I have a renewed appreciation for Wendy after this. Also, her English sounded even better than usual! Being in an English speaking country for even 2 weeks can really help :) Joy surprisingly decided to talk again, asking the crowd if she could say something spontaneous, which of course we all agreed. She talked about the culture shock that Wendy went through, how energetic she was when they first met and how she wasn't sure if they could be friends. The most heartbreaking part was when Joy talked about how Wendy would stay back at the dorms during Korean holidays and they would all go home. Joy really broke down here, ending it with an i love you. After everyone was done crying their eyes out and leading one last WENDY cheer, Irene closed the concert with "this is really our last song" and a great performance of Red Flavour. They stayed on stage after to take some pictures, cheer and dance around on stage and wave at the crowed (it was here that I realized just how tiny Irene is :o). All in all, I talk too much. But seriously, I'm still buzzing the morning after, this was an experience I'm not going to forget any time soon and I'm so glad I went. Random videos from the night:
I am a roller coaster junkie who took the summer of 2009 to travel the country from theme park to theme park (Canada some, too). Here is the spreadsheet I maintained on my Samsung Omnia Windows phone to track every bit of the trip: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NeShV9O9Gb5nQEJrHv5hgbSOaO9nyFSs-nmQ0dLJ6C4 Summer Stats: 42 amusement parks 250 different coasters 2463 total rides on a coaster 714 Hours and 34 minutes spent within a park 8,804,061 feet of coaster track covered 2828 total inversions Edited to add the story: I should have posted this while not at work, when I'd have more time to write the story. As a numbers/excel nerd, the spreadsheet is by far the most interesting part to me personally. Anywho, I knew that a summer between semesters at college was the only opportunity I would ever have to pull off a trip like this. So I planned my own, personal, multi-phase Coaster Madness 2009. I spent most of this trip by myself, but made friends along the way. I did spend one small part of a trip with my mom, who is in large part responsible for my amusement park obsession, and brought my friend along with (now my wife) for another leg of it. I had a US road map with my routes drawn onto each page in marker. I had worked hard to save up the money for the trip, and did everything I could to save money wherever possible. My only souvenirs? Park maps, because they're free, don't take up much room, and every park has one. The highlights of the trip were the coaster enthusiast events that allowed for ERT and some solid memories. I had a 2003 Ford Focus wagon that I converted into a tiny little RV by laying the seats flat, rigging up some curtains in the back, and packing it full full of my clothes, a bean bag, and bedding. I would typically sleep in walmart parking lots, since they welcome people to stay there and having access to a 24 hour rest room was nice. I would often park in hotel parking lots, too, to get free wifi and sneak the occasional continental breakfast before heading to the local park. I wouldn't ever eat in the parks themselves unless they were known for good/unique food (Knoebels, BGW, Holiday World, etc.) since that would have ruined my budget for the trip. I would shower regularly in the free showers at the water parks along my way, once or twice utilizing a shower at a truck stop. I had joined ACE to get access to special events, discounted tickets, and any other perk I could get. I had Six Flags, Cedar Fair, and Busch season passes because that was by far the most economic option for entry. I saw other (admittedly, very touristy) sites along the way, such as Niagara Falls, NYC, Pigeon Forge, and Branson. I had my first legal beer at Canada's Wonderland. I pulled some very late nights driving to the next park, often on very little sleep. More often than not, I would only spend a day at each park so it was a quick turn around to get to the next stop. A lot of Monster was consumed, and there isn't anyway I could do this now, as a 30 year old. Some fun stories from along the trip: HoliWood Nites 2009: I don't know how many of the users on this sub attended this event, but it was magical this year. The saturday night, after a blistering hot day, the park had to shut down all of the rides about 30 minutes before closing due to a lightning and heavy rain. This lined up well with the dinner, silent auction, and Q&A with the guys from Gravity Group. The rain broke just before the dinner ended, and the only lightning remaining was an abundance of heat lightning, which was deemed not a threat. The grease on the wheels of Voyage was still thoroughly warmed up from the heat of the day. But now the track was ice cold, hard, and butter smooth thanks to being cooled down by the rain. It ran like a bat out of hell that night, and the woods were pitch black outside of brief moments of brightness from the lightning. It was the best coaster riding experience I have ever had. That Friday and Saturday I rode Voyage 109 times and my body sure felt it. I cannot recommend that coaster, and the park as a whole, enough. The ride ops for Afterburn at Carowinds were anxious to help me set a single day record on their ride, and I amassed 126 laps on it in one day. That means I went upside down 756 times on that 1 coaster in 1 day. It was the only day I felt any signs of motion sickness, and they were minor. I miss being young. On my now wife's 30th birthday, I was at Lakemont Park in Altoona, PA which was home to the oldest operating coaster in the world, Leap The Dips. That ride was certainly unique and a fun time, but the park's highlight was a wonderful old woodie, Skyliner. It had an old manual handbreak in the station, rather than being automated and the park was completely empty. The ride op let me roll through the station many times to see how many laps I could get. I didn't think I would be able to hit my 2000th ride of the summer, but I did. In fact, I got exactly 200 laps on Skyliner, and a total of 205 that day with 4 on LtD and 1 on their Toboggan. And I'm sure I'll think of some more to add to this.
[META] The /r/adventures 2019 "Best of the Year" Awards! - Nominations
Welcome to the fourth annual "Best of the Year" awards! The reddit inc admins have kindly agreed to give away reddit gold to all subreddits with more than 1000 subscribers. We're going to continue with last years's change and only have the one category - "Best Post". Categories and prizes
Best Post - 1st (reddit gold), 2nd (reddit gold), 3rd (reddit gold), and 4th (reddit gold) place
How to nominate Comment on this post linking to the post you wish to nominate. This thread will be in 'contest mode' so you can't see who's winning until we make the announcement. Make sure to link to the post you are nominating and not just the photo. Please check to make sure the post hasn't already been nominated, any duplicates will be removed as they mess up voting. Rules
You can only nominate a post made in 2019.
You can NOT nominate your own posts.
The photo has to be originally submitted to reddit by the person who took the photo.
Nominations can only happen in this post.
The nominations will close on the end of December and the winners will be announced in January once reddit inc has given us the gold to distribute.
Comments on this thread that aren't nominations, or are not replies to the category comments, will be removed.
The winners will be decided by the number of votes in this nomination post, not on the original post, with the prize going to the original poster. Should there be any dispute or tie, the moderation team's decision is final.
Edit: Update to the rules. The last couple of years I've been worried that I'm giving reddit gold to people who don't login to their accounts very often, so don't get the benefit of it if it expires before they login next. Because of this, if any of the winners haven't made a post or comment that I can see on their profile in the last 7 days, I will drop them a PM and wait for them to reply before I send them the award. The following list of top posts in this sub may help you if you are looking for a specific high scoring post, but you do not need to limit yourself to only a post listed here. Any post made during the year that fits into the categories is eligible. January
Fan Account: Red Velvet - REDMARE in Toronto 190219 (Wendy Comes Full Circle)
I'm writing this while still undergoing my concert high because good god I still can't process everything. Forgive me if I mix some things up or forget some things because I'm still processing. So RV is probably my favourite active girl group of this day and age. Therefore, I've been waiting for this day for so long and now it has commeth and gone. Grabbed two P2 tickets for me and my cousin the day they came out (after initially thinking they were sold out because ticketmaster waiting pages suck). Pre-ordered the lightstick 15 minutes before the deadline because hey why not?
Prior to concert:
Nothing extraordinary really. Cousin and I went to AYCE sushi for an early dinner so that we didn't have to worry about food later on. Left a little after 6 to catch the 6:34 train to the Exhibition stop (where the venue was). Train arrives and, OF COURSE, we had to wait for a signal change. Didn't happen for about 15 minutes, but hey at least this was an early train. Get to Exhibition, and there is a huge lineup to get inside which was weird to me because I've gone to quite a few wrestling shows in the same venue and usually just waltz on in, but nevertheless, we got there and there were two lines (one going left and another going straight). There was a sign indicating Merchandise Pre-orders, but no arrow or indication for which line it was. Eventually I deduced that it was the straight line because I saw the tables inside. Finally got my lightstick and went on inside. Got to our seats and we got our banners for the night. It says, "We've been waiting, our happiness" and we were instructed to raise them during the 1st encore song (spoilers much?). Concert was supposed to start at 8, but probably didn't start like 8:20. Right before the start, they started blasting Something Kinda Crazy which everyone started jamming to with their lightsticks (including me).
Main Setlist:
Opening VCR - RV goes to a theme park (not Wonderland sadly), have a blast, they meet some robot, then Thanos snapped his fingers on Wakanda off-screen and all of RV fades. We are the parallel universe. Russian Roulette - Crowd goes wild once they stepped on stage and they start with one of my all time favourite RV songs. I'm pretty much yell-singing the whole time because I'm so amped. Everyone got cheered pretty loudly when it was their turn... and then Wendy started singing her part. Crowd loses their mind. The hometown is all in for the hometown girl. Vocals on point, dancing on point, performance game is ON POINT. That was a fantastic way to start the show. Power Up - Crowd went just as Ba Banana Ba ba banana nanas for this song. Wendy continued to get big cheers everytime she graced us with her voice. The Go Go Airplane part was LOUD. 1st talk segment - Introductions of course. Everyone gets cheered of course. Hometown girl makes everyone go ballistic of course. More or less just a welcoming segment going off the opening VCR how they started from a theme park and now they here. A weird thing I noticed (and other attendees, please tell me if you noticed this too), it seemed like Joy and Yeri's mic was set a pitch too high. I thought I was just being delirious from how hard I went for the first couple of songs, but it seemed to have persisted for a bit until they finally fixed it later in the show. Also at this point, I had to pass my lightstick to my cousin because my arm was exhausted from jamming so hard even though it was only the first 2 songs. We ended up just alternating between talk segments. My Second Date - I actually only just remembered this song recently because it came up on shuffle randomly, but I'm glad I did because the members danced their butts off for this song individually. This was actually more of a dance performance. I can't really pinpoint the standout because they were all great. The dancers were also fantastic. Mosquito - AH WOO! Nothing more. Look - A pretty nice cooldown from all the crazy energetic songs they've been doing so far. Very nice to hear live given its unique, retro instrumentals. First VCR - RV individually found an animal. They enter some carriage and off-screen, somebody used polymerization to fuse the respective animal with the girls. Suddenly, some hunters come about, chase the girls, and eventually corner everyone but Joy. Joy eludes them somehow and then black screen. Mr. E - And now RV are in animal costumes. They all look adorable. Even the dancers with their hunter outfits looked great. The whole hunting dynamic as the chereography was cool to see. Zoo - So glad to have heard this song live. It's really really good. Happiness - BOOYAH. THE CROWD EXPLODED WHEN THIS CAME ON. I've known RV since debut so this was the first song I ever heard by them and I can't believe I never realized how much I needed to hear this song live with a crowd. You don't know what hype feels like until you have a filled audience yell "HAPPINESS" at the same time. Wendy nailed her solo part and it was amazing. Hit That Drum - I love this song a lot so I got amped for this one. The way they danced when they said boom boom hit that drum was pumped full of energy and I loved it. 2nd VCR - They're all just chilling at a house before everyone except Irene goes out to play. Irene then creates these potions that everyone drank. Wendy and Joy became titans while Yeri and Seulgi became tiny. Irene with the pikachu shocked face. Lucky Girl - Kinda bummed that they didn't do the whole song because this is one of my favourite RV songs given its very showgirls-like vibe, but I loved every second of it. They also wore these really colourful dresses which some don't really like, but I thought were nice. Bad Dracula - And right onto the next song on the Russian Roulette album. More Lalalas to go around. All Right - The Red Velvet nation attacked. They took out their baskets and started throwing candy to everyone near the front. I found it funny how they had to put down the baskets every time the chorus came about and some rushed to do so (looking at you Kim Yerim), but it's All Right ALL RIGHT. 2nd Talk Segment - This was a more personal talk segment talking about Toronto. THEY WEREN'T ABLE TO GO TO WENDY'S HOUSE due to time constraints which lowkey bummed me out (but all the more reason to come back). I believe Irene or Seulgi mentioned that they wanted to visit Niagara Falls, but again couldn't due to time. Blue Lemonade - Nothing less of another wonderful performance. About Love - From Blue Lemonade, we go more chill with this song which was such a nice vibe. Moonlight Melody - They all look stunning just standing there and singing beautifully. I'm mad that my angle obstructed the right-most part of the stage so I couldn't see my girl Seulgi. I wish this was the last song given what happens later in the encore talk. 3rd VCR - THEY'RE WEARING BLACK AND GOT GIRL CRUSH GOING HELL YEAH. They're in a haunted house where everything's spooking them and scares all around. Ice Cream Cake (Intro) - Going off the haunted house VCR, they did a robotic-like dance using a rather creepy version of Ice Cream Cake with the Lala lalala. Bad Boy (English version) - WHO THAT WHO THAT WHO THAT IS BOY. Seeing Seulgi do her point dance in the chorus in her outfit was OOOF GIRL YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME. Couldn't stop myself dancing to this one. Peek-a-Boo - From one favourite song to another all-time favourite. I, again, couldn't control myself dancing to this song because the chereography is so amazing to see live. 3rd Talk Segment - They went off from the previous VCR asking if the haunted house was scary. Yeri asked who we thought would be the most scared in a haunted house. I immediately said, "You probably." Seulgi said she thinks Irene would be the most scared which surprised me honestly, although maybe that chic deadpan look she has is all a facade. Yeri then mentions that they were gonna perform a certain song in English for the first time which ended up being... RBB (Really Bad Boy) (English version) - Oh yes, this song is such a blast to hear live. You bet I sang along (or at least my version of singing which is pure cringe). MR BAAAAAD BOY. Rookie - What a catchy, pumping song to "finish" with.
Encore:
Encore VCR - Everything was a dream. Irene was the mastermind of everything (the hunters, the drinks, and the haunted house). Bae Joo-hyun evil smirks while everyone else is puzzled as they walk out of the park. Day 1 - Out comes the banners. They all come out wearing the concert shirts and casual outfits. Seulgi immediately catches my eye again with hers (why you gotta bias wreck me so much). They were out there singing and just having fun as they should. Lot of fan service with each other, kissing and hugging deal including a part where Wendy is in the centre and everyone just extends their affection towards her. They also did acknowledge the banners come the encore talk segment. Final Talk Segment - This ending talk is where things got super real. Right off the bat, Joy started talking about how wonderful it was to finally visit Wendy's hometown and perform as well as how hard Wendy's trained to be a singer reminiscing on their trainee days. cue members tears. She mentioned how polar opposite Wendy was to her when they first met, but now she loves her immensely. She also said how crushing it was when all the members would go home for the holidays while Wendy had to stay behind in the dorm because her family was so far away. Irene followed up seeing how much tonight meant to Wendy as much it did for Irene when they did a fan signing last year in Daegu (Daegu is Irene's hometown). She also pointed out that it was almost Wendy's birthday so we all sang happy birthday to her under her command. She mentioned how cold Canada was (even this night was cold af) and how Wendy always gave them her jackets (bless her motherly heart). Seulgi pretty much extended what Joy said and was hella emotional too. She talked about how she always invited her friends and family and how particularly special the night was for Wendy to do so herself. She wished she could've studied with her so that she could've learned English and met everyone earlier. Yeri (in full English, kudos to her) talked about how she always wanted to visit Canada and thanked us for a fun time hoping to do it again. Then we come to Wendy. Wendy chants echo throughout the venue. Wendy couldn't and still can't believe the tour they've been embarking on for the last week. She talked about how it was a night she'll never forget since she grew up to be a singer for everyone. "Everyone I love is here." Her parents were in the crowd. Her friends were in the crowd. Her teacher was in the crowd. And of course, the hometown love was in the crowd. She thanked everyone for the homecoming welcome and hopes to do it all again soon. Red Flavor - Such a strange way to end the concert given all the feels we just had, but it was wonderful to have so much energy with all the warmness from before. After that, the girls took a bow at each part side of the stage, before doing one final one in the centre. Everyone cheers before giving one more Wendy chant to send them off. Overall, this concert gets a Song of Healing/10. My heart is healed. This concert was such a beautiful experience full of love and energy which is all I could ever ask for. I don't think I've ever jammed for a concert from beginning to end as much as I did last night. Sorrynotsorry to the people around me who had to put up with my crazed fanboying, but it's for the girls. I'm doing P1 next time. I will wait again, our happiness. TL;DR: izgud EDIT: Reddit on my phone decided to wipe the last little bit so I just rewrote it now.
My uncle and I are planning a trip across the country. We will have a 27 foot travel trailer pulled by our truck, and we will be staying in KOA's most the time. Our plan is to stay in St. Joseph, and wake up early in the morning, drive to Detroit and visit the Henry Ford for most the day. Our trip then takes us through Canada twords Niagara Falls My question is, where should we stay that night after we visit Detroit? Neither of us know much about the city, but from what we have heard, it gets a little sketchy at night, especially if you are living in a camper. We talked about crossing into Windsor that night, but from what I can see, there aren't any RV camping areas. Both of us will be tired after a long day, and we want to know what to expect. We can stay in a hotel, which I see a lot of, but how can we be sure there will be a spot to park the camper? Thank you in advance, I know we may sound inexperienced, and it is because we are. haha.
Warning: Wall of Text Below TL:DR From 8PM on Saturday the 21st of September until 10AM Saturday the 6th of October I flew 46.2 hours on my journey from Helena, Montana to my sister’s wedding in Syracuse, NY. A lot of adventures, and misadventures, were had a long the way. Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/EBqNxcv Airports Landed: KHLN, KMLS, KABR, KFAR, KPIR, KOLU, KPMV, KIOW, KVPZ, KPHN, KIUA, KSLK, KART, KFZY, KIAG, KSYR, KYNG, I22, KMZZ, KDVN, KRRQ, 9V9, KRAP, KSHR, KBIL Day 1 I was supposed to leave on Sunday, but the weather was deteriorating quickly. The person who was supposed to have the plane before me in our club said he wasn’t going to fly in the morning due to the weather so I was free to take the plane. I packed in a couple of hours and moved my RV (getting the entire wildland fire department stuck behind me for a few minutes as I ran out of fuel in one of my tanks). Started my pre-flight and instantly saw that the red nav light was not working. Of course it’s the weekend so I call my A&P friend, but he happened to be out of town. I call up the other A&P and he graciously comes out to get me a bulb. After the short delay I do a final inspection and get ready for the trip. The flight started out uneventfully, weather was good as I passed Billings. The airport I had intended landing up had the METAR updated with my ADS-B and was showing 700ft ceilings. The entire state of North Dakota, with the exception of my final destination – Fargo, was covered by a thin layer of stratus clouds. I landed at Miles City, Montana and filled up with fuel and called flight services. They said the clouds ended right at the North Dakota/South Dakota border and if I went via Aberdeen I should be able to stop there before making it to Fargo. I landed in Fargo around 4AM – the clouds ended about 15 miles away from Fargo itself – and took an Uber to my sister’s house. Day 2 I woke up at about 10 in the morning and we headed to the airport to fly to NY. Skies were forecasted to be clear, or to have high ceilings, along our entire route of travel. Loaded her bags in the plane, started my pre-flight, checked my nav and landing lights, those were working fine. The rest of the plane was air-worthy so I pulled the chocks and got ready to fly. Three pumps of the prime, mixture rich, prop control full forward, throttle 1/4 in, and… click click click. The battery, which was admittedly not a new unit, could not handle the cold Fargo night. Call-out fee on a Sunday would have been over $300 plus whatever actually needed to be done, so we called it a day and decided to wait until morning. The avionics shop said the alternator was fine, the battery just was old and wasn’t providing enough cold cranking amps. They would put a new one in and it should be charged up and ready in the late afternoon. All the while the weather was deteriorating. We finally left Fargo around 6:00PM Monday with marginal VFR conditions prevailing. I kept a careful eye on the ammeter, and an even closer eye on the weather. About an hour south of Fargo the clouds started dropping, with scattered low clouds popping up more and more often. After they became more frequent I opted to head to Pierre, SD which was reporting clear skies. Landed in Pierre with beautiful clear skies at about 8:30PM. Grabbed some fuel and weather reports from flight service, and had encouraging news. Pierre was clear, south in Nebraska was clear as well. VFR over the top seemed perfect. Decided to head towards Norfolk, NE for the night. The flight from Pierre towards Norfolk was uneventful, but as we got close to Norfolk I could see that there were no holes there. Columbus, NE was nearby, so I elected to fly there instead. A couple beautiful holes let us drop down through the stratus layer and land at Columbus. By the time we had got fuel, and I had checked the weather we were stuck under a layer of clouds again. Day 3 A night spent at the Columbus Inn was just what I needed. The best pillows at any hotel I’ve stayed at in a long time, as well as great water pressure – both of which I love. The owner of the hotel was kind enough to give us a ride back to the airport as well. If you’re ever in Columbus – give them your business! The weather that morning and afternoon was IFR and forecasted IFR and marginal VFR conditions until late. We took off around 3PM and flew to Plattsmouth, just south of Omaha. Grabbed a bite to eat, and a movie, and when we came out we had clear skies for miles. Made it to Iowa City that night and crashed for a few hours. Day 4 Day four was the day of the big push. We were up early in the morning and in the air by 7:30. Tailwinds pushed us along at over 130 knots over the ground and we made it from Iowa City to Porter County Regional airport in a hurry. Quick stop for fuel, and we were back in the air headed to Port Huron on the US/Canada border. Conditions were not ideal across Canada and into NY at the time so we took a nap and had a bite to eat. By 4PM we had a good window. Filed my flight plan and we grabbed a squawk code in the air. The Canadian portion was uneventful. Did a couple of laps in the Niagara Falls scenic tour, and then landed about half an hour from my sisters in Canandaigua. Her vehicle was broken down, so we grabbed a bite in town and waited for her fiance to finish work and come get us. Day 5 We flew to Saranac Lake on the next morning. Leaving Canandaigua around 9:30AM and flying VFR over-the-top to Saranac Lake, landing around 11AM. Gorgeous views of the Adirondack park as we flew in over the lakes with the fall foliage turning colors. The rest of the day was spent canoeing and enjoying family time. Day 6 I switched my passenger from my sister to my mother. We left Saranac Lake around 9AM and started heading to Oswego County Airport. About halfway there the clouds started dropping to the point where I wasn’t comfortable maintaining VFR and ground clearances, so I headed north to Watertown, NY and landed there to wait it out. Half an hour later conditions had cleared down south so we took off and headed back down. Views of Lake Ontario shoreline, and the little towns along our path made for a gorgeous flight. We landed in Oswego and had a bite to eat at the Tailwinds Diner (great place with reasonable prices if anyone ever flies in there) and then got picked up by my cousins. Day 7 Day 7 started out early as well – up early to take a couple of my cousin-in-laws (is that even a thing) to Niagara Falls. Headwinds were miserable on the way out there, but we had some gorgeous views of the falls. Justin had never seen the falls before so his first view was from 3500′ in a Cessna! We did a quick landing at Niagara, I threw some oil in, and we headed back to Oswego. Days 8,9,10 Day 8 was my sister’s wedding day so no flying was accomplished. Instead I enjoyed meeting his family, and spending time with our family. Day 9 was the intended day of leaving. My sister decided to grab a commercial flight (smart girl) so I would be solo the whole way back. Oswego County was dark that day, my friends. Clouds were scattered at 500, 900, a broken ceiling at 1000′ and overcast at 4800′. A few hours of waiting and a big gap opened up leaving only the overcast layer at 4800′. I ended up making it all the way to Syracuse (a twenty minute drive by car) before conditions deteriorated again. I parked at the Million Air, grabbed some fuel, and headed back to my cousins. Day 10 had thunderstorms forecasted all day, so I didn’t bother even going to the airport that day. Day 11 Day 11 was forecasted to start clearing up in the early afternoon. I had my cousin drop me off in the morning just in case it started to clear earlier. I grabbed a nap in the theater room in Million Air, and then played the waiting game. Around 5PM I started seeing some breaks in the clouds so I preflighted the plane and went to pay for my parking fees. Patty, who had been friendly all day, directing me to an awesome BBQ joint for lunch (Limp Lizard), told me she was waiving the fees, and thanks for stopping. Great start to the beginning of the journey home. I left Syracuse and flew to Youngstown, Ohio, landing with some C-130’s doing touch and go’s. Grabbed some fuel and got ready for the extreme headwinds heading west. I flew to Randolph County, Indiana at a blistering 83 knots across the ground. Out of caution I did a low approach as there is only one runway at that airport. Winds were 20 with gusts of 30 knots straight crosswind on the runway. I went around and did another approach. Kept my speed at 95 knots indicated until I was just over the runway and cut power. Full rudder kept me on the centerline and I headed for the fuel tanks. I grabbed some fuel and got ready to go again planning to make it to around Peoria, Illinois. After about 30 minutes in the air I saw some thunderstorms start to pop up on my ADS-B radar so I landed at Marion, Indiana – just to the north of Indianapolis. I spent the night in the plane until the FBO opened in the morning 5 hours later. Winds were shaking the plane, rain was pounding on the roof, and I restlessly slept. When the FBO opened I caught some rest on the recliner in the lounge. Day 12 The weather cleared around noon and I grabbed some fuel, did my pre-flight, and headed towards Davenport, Iowa. The scattered clouds that were overhead when I left Marion quickly dissipated and I was left with beautiful sunny skies as I flew west. I wanted to make progress that day so I grabbed some fuel in Davenport and pushed west by northwest planning on stopping around Sioux Falls. As I trekked across northwest Iowa the weather started going downhill. An overcast layer ahead meant that Sioux Falls was starting to report marginal VFR, and some in the surrounding area had already gone to IFR. I changed my destination to Rock Rapids, Iowa and descended lower. As I got closer the outside air temperature dropped down to the freezing level. I pulled carb head, put the pitot heat on, as the rain started to fall violently on the windscreen. I kept an eye on the wings, and the pitot tube to watch for icing as an Airmet for icing had been issued. Visibility dropped to 4 miles, and the ceilings hovered around 1200′. I made some radio calls on the common traffic frequency, and headed for a straight in at Rock Rapids. A textbook landing put me on the ground as the rain continued to pour. I called up some of my friends who live about an hour away and they said they’d love to see me. I waited in the lounge for them to come, and we headed to South Dakota where they live. Day 13/14 I spent most of the day in South Dakota, watching the forecast and staying in touch with flight service. We agreed that it should be clearing around midnight. I got dropped off at the airport around 6pm and grabbed a quick nap in preparation for the long flight home. I took off just before midnight on the fifth. Sioux Falls still had an overcast layer over it, so I went VFR over-the-top and headed to Chamberlain. The one annoying thing about night flying is that the only airports that are easy to stop at are ones that have self-serve fuel. You really have to plan your stops carefully. Chamberlain had an overcast layer over the river and the airport so I dropped down on my approach, grabbed some fuel, and eagerly jumped back in the plane. I headed to Rapid City following the interstate. Rapid City was gorgeous at night, with nice long runways and a good self-serve area. I made myself a sandwich and checked the weather heading to Helena. Everything was still looking good the whole way here. My next stop was going to be Billings. About half-way to Billings I felt the sleep coming on so I decided to land and grab a nap in Sheridan, Wyoming. Landed there and there’s no after-hours access at any of the FBO’s so I took to the air immediately. I landed about an hour later in Billings and instantly fell asleep at the self-serve FBO on the couch. Two hours later I was awakened by people coming in and decided to head to Helena. An Airmet for mountain obscuration was active, but that’s not abnormal for this time of the year. Both Billings and Helena were reporting good VFR conditions. I had brought a lot of oil with me on the trip, but ended up one quart short in Billings so I ended up having to go to the full-service FBO and grab some before getting back in the air. Montana never disappoints with its vistas and the cloud-shrouded mountains with their snow-covered sides looked especially majestic as I flew towards Helena. As I got closer towards White Sulphur springs, the weather started to look worse. A fog bank was rolling from north to south, low scattered fog was in front of it. I flew the pass in the mountains by Mount Edith at 700′ AGL staying below the cloud deck. I was happy to see the clouds lift in the Helena Valley area. A quick short field landing to show off my landing skills put me on the ground and back in Helena. I don’t think I shall ever have an adventure quite like this again.
Let's talk about CCI - Custom Coasters International
This is a long one... Part 1 of this series here Year By Year Ranking Chart on the Mitch Hawker Wood Coaster Poll - Here - A interesting resource to see how some of these rides were ranked by enthusiasts over the years. So the genesis of Custom Coasters International, actually begins in 1979 with the construction of The Beast at Kings Island. Charlie Dinn worked at Kings Island and oversaw the design and building of The Beast. In 1983 he formed Dinn Corporation and constructed a handful of woodies in the late 80's and early 90's. Just about all of these can be seen in Part 1 linked above. Dinn Corp. closed in early 1991, but Charlie Dinn's daughter, Denise Dinn-Larrick started a new company named Custom Coasters International in late 1991 and brought over the team of designers from Dinn Corporation. I should probably say everything in the next paragraph should be prefaced with "allegedly." I have no sources for most of this information except just being in the hobby a long time and hearing A TON of rumors about various things. None of it may be true, who knows. I'll let you guys do your own research, there is a lot of stuff out there if you know what to google. PleaseDontSueMe CCI was known for being an.. "interesting" company. They had some questionable business practices that Denise Dinn-Larrick picked up from her dad who was known for being cheap. CCI's were insanely cheap. The average cost was between TWO AND THREE MILLION dollars. The most expensive coaster I can find from them is Boulder Dash which was $6 million. It's honestly amazing they lasted as long as they did, as it doesn't take someone with a business degree to tell you that this is not a long term sustainable model. They used the cheapest building materials possible, which is why many are seen as maintenance nightmares today. They frequently took on contracts to build new coasters, in order to pay the vendors for their old coasters. After a while PTC didn't want to make trains for their coasters unless the park specifically paid for them, as PTC were one of many vendors that CCI didn't pay on time. The company folded after Denise Dinn-Larrick had an alleged affair with one of the CCI employees, which led to a divorce with her husband (who was co-owner). They both wanted control of the company in the divorce, but an agreement couldn't be reached so it just ended up closing instead. end please don't sue me clause This business model was good however, for very small parks who got headline attractions for little cost to put their park on the map, and of course us the enthusiasts who get to ride so many of these incredible wooden coasters. In 2002 CCI closed in the middle of building the New Mexico Rattler for Cliff's Amusement Park. Denise Dinn-Larrick went to S&S where she headed the Wooden Coaster division in 2004 and 2005. S&S built four wooden coasters in that span, two designed by Alan Shilke. The rest of the engineers from CCI went on to form The Gravity Group LLC. They have an impressive resume of coasters including Hades, Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Mine Blower, Wooden Warrior, Cú Chulainn, and numerous woodies in China (all seemingly named Jungle Trailblazer). I've been lucky enough to ride all but 5 CCI's thus far, so I'll give my opinion of the ride for each coaster I've been on. Each one of these 34 coasters has it's own unique and interesting story and it's worth researching each one on your own as my small blurbs here aren't nearly enough to cover everything.
--THE COASTERS--
1992 - Kingdom Coaster at Dutch Wonderland - Formerly known as Sky Princess, CCI had a very modest start with this smaller family coaster for a tiny family park in Eastern Pennsylvania. I don't remember much about this coaster as my only rides were in 2008, but it's a perfect size coaster for this size park, and not far from Hershey if you want to stop for a quick visit. POV 1993 - Outlaw at Adventureland, Iowa - If you look at pictures of Outlaw, the first drop is strangely reminiscent of a GCI coaster. There is a reason for that, because it was designed by Mike Boodley (who is a very interesting guy himself, but I'll save all those stories for a future GCI thread). Mike Boodley left CCI and went on to form Great Coasters International with his business partner Clair Hain the year after Outlaw opened. Outlaw as a ride is fun, but not very forceful at all. I like the ride, as it's kind of a history lesson about the origins of CCI and GCI, and it's very easy to see the influences that would become standard on early (and even some modern) GCI's. POV Here's an odd story about Outlaw. In 1999 the Roller Coaster Club of Great Britain visited Adventureland, and had ERT on Outlaw. There was a disgruntled employee who wanted to get fired, but not without providing a very unique and memorable experience for the RCCGB members. He disengaged the brakes at the end of the ride and let the train go FLYING through the station and back around to the lift. After an hour of this it allegedly put an extra FIVE YEARS of wear and tear on the ride in around an hour. I think it's safe to say he was indeed fired. Video of incident 1994 - Hoosier Hurricane at Indiana Beach - Hoosier Hurricane was the first modern wooden coaster with steel structure, which makes sense given the majority of structure is in a lake. The layout is a basic out and back, but it is SO picturesque, and has some great interactions with some of the other rides and structures on the peninsula. I'm gonna say this a lot about some of the coasters here, but with a little bit of extra maintenance this would be a really terrific ride. It's not really rough, but it could definitely track a little better than it currently does. POV 1994 - Zach's Zoomer at Michigan's Adventure - Zach's Zoomer is a slightly larger clone of the Scooby Doo/Woodstock Express family woodies found at Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Kings Island, and Canada's Wonderland. It was named after park owner Roger Jourden's grandson, Zach. POV 1995 - Cannonball Run at Waterville USA - The "forgotten" CCI, as CCI didn't claim this on their website due to some legal issues. Long story short: Waterville was parking the train on the lift after the park closed, which caused some broken lift ledgers. Waterville sued CCI, CCI didn't claim responsibility and blamed Waterville. It was a mess. Waterville is a small FEC/waterpark so this coaster is a strange one since they have literally no other dry rides to speak of. It's just a small little out and back coaster over and around the parking lot, which is best in the front seat. POV 1995 - Cyclops at Mt. Olympus Theme Park - The first coaster of the "Big Chiefs Karts & Coasters" trio of CCI's. Cyclops is a very small coaster which uses the natural terrain of the park to make an interesting layout. For a long time it was home to one of the most insane moments of ejector air ever coming off the big 2nd drop, and they even had a sign in the station saying "You must be 18 or older to ride in the last car". This drop was recently reprofiled to be "smoother" (aka less airtime) and they also took the last car off the train. As you can imagine this has rendered the once-famous drop nearly void of any airtime. With the drop Cyclops was in my Top 10 wood, but honestly the reprofile has rendered the entire coaster pointless. POV 1995 - Raven at Holiday World - Before Raven, Holiday World was a sleepy little family park. After Raven, Holiday World began it's ascension as a major thrill ride destination. Raven also put CCI on the map as a company able to produce major thrill rides, instead of smaller family rides. Named for Edgar Allen Poe's poem of the same name, The Raven borrowed heavily from The Beast at Kings Island, as park president Will Koch was a big fan of The Beast and wanted something similar at his park. While it doesn't quite have the length of The Beast, it utilizes the terrain magnificently, having the largest drop in the middle of the ride. It finishes with a fast and furious race through the woods, which will leave even the most jaded enthusiasts among us breathless. For those of you who have only ridden it in the day time, book a trip to Holiwood Nights to snag a handful of night rides. It's a COMPLETELY different experience at night. When it opened the Raven received many awards and accolades, and it seemed to be on EVERY Discovery Channel special back in the day. For good reason too, even 20+ years later it's still an unbelievable ride. POV 1996 - Underground at Adventureland, Iowa - More glorified dark ride than actual roller coaster (think Black Diamond at Knoebels), this "roller coaster" just meanders around indoors at a slow speed, but doesn't have nearly enough theming elements to go along with it, so the majority of the ride you're just in darkness. I'll blame the park for that one, it's such a strange ride. POV 1996 - Pegasus at Mt. Olympus Theme Park - The 2nd CCI at what is now Mt. Olympus, this woodie is clearly geared for the younger set. It's got a really strange layout featuring hard flat turns, and very few hills. Pegasus was the source of a video a few days weeks ago and an accompanying meme. POV 1996 - Timber Terror at Silverwood - Timber Terror's original name was Grizzly, but had to change it in 1997 after being issued a cease and desist from the Paramount Parks to avoid confusion between their two wooden coasters at Kings Dominion and Great America. I like the new name as it makes the coaster a ton more unique, even if it is a simple out and back design. This is one of the few CCI's I have yet to ride, but all reports have nothing but positive reviews for this and Tremors, leading me to believe Silverwood knows how to take care of their woodies. POV 1996 - Great White at Morey's Piers - When I first think of Great White at Morey's, I don't actually think of the coaster. I think of it's amazing setting. Morey's ran out of space on the piers so they built this literally on the beach. Great White is such a beautiful coaster too. It's got those iconic sweeping turnarounds, reminiscent of the coasters of yesteryear. Luckily this would become a trademark on many of CCI's rides. It also starts with a drop out of the station that goes under the boardwalk! When it's running well, Great White is a haven for floater airtime, but the sea salt spray coming from the ocean usually isn't too friendly to the wooden track. POV 1996 - Megafobia at Oakwood Theme Park - In addition to putting Oakwood "on the map" in the UK theme park landscape, MegaFobia also brought back a wooden coaster resurgence to all of Europe. MegaFobia was also CCI's first coaster not in the United States. It sends riders on a layout that is constantly weaving in and around the structure with a ton of airtime all throughout, and is incredibly rerideable. It won the Mitch Hawker wooden poll in 1996 and 1997, and stayed in the top 5 for another 4 years after that. Another coaster with a gorgeous setting in the Welsh landscape, it's probably the only coaster out there where you can find sheep grazing underneath. POV 1997 - Tonnerre de Zeus at Parc Asterix - Tonnerre de Zeus which translated to English is Thunder of Zeus, has a very unique "T" shaped layout which is only shared by Timber Wolf at Worlds of Fun. Another one I have yet to ride, TdZ is either capable of being one of the best coasters ever (as evidenced by 3 straight #1 rankings from 1999 to 2001 in Mitch Hawker's Wooden Coaster Poll), or complete trash depending how well it's being maintained on any particular day. Disturbing fact - The large Zeus statue in front of the ride wears panties. POV 1997 - Stampida at Port Aventura - A coaster I've literally never heard anyone talk about in any capacity, Stampida was CCI's first racing woodie. The backstory for Stampida says there are two competing families that have a carriage race to determine who gets to claim the land of Penitence (which is the name of the Old West section of Port Aventura). Layout-wise, this ride is awesome. It's nice and long, has a fair amount of airtime, laterals, and a ton of side-by-side racing moments. Execution wise though, not so great. When I went in 2007, Port Aventura had just gotten rid of their PTC trains, for some awful disasters of roller coaster train design by KumbaK. (They also did the new trains for T3 at Kentucky Kingdom. Blech.) Somehow they ride worse than they look, and combined with some iffy-at-best maintenance you're left with another ride that should be so much better than it is. The Spanish version of wikipedia says this ride underwent some trackwork in 2015 and 2016, so hopefully it's riding better these days. Red Side POV, Blue side POV 1997 - Tomahawk at Port Aventura - Tomahawk is a small family coaster that weaves in and around Stampida. They were all designed together, and I love seeing all the wooden track everywhere going every which way. In 2015 the park replaced the PTC train with a Mini-llennium Flyer from GCI. It's a much better version of Pegasus at Mt. Olympus; a bunch of strange flat turns and some smaller airtime hills. The surroundings are much more impressive though. POV 1997 - Zeus at Mt. Olympus Theme Park - The last of the Mt. Olympus CCI's, it's another simple out and back design. Before the addition of Hades it had trees on both sides, making it feel somewhat of an out and back version of Raven, but half the trees have since been replaced by a giant parking lot. The straight sections of Zeus are pretty good with some great floater, but the turnaround is an unholy shaky mess. After riding all 4 (the aforementioned 3 and Gravity Group's Hades 360) of the Mt. Olympus woodies you'll be left scratching your head saying "what if?" The potential for greatness is possible in every single one of the four, but the execution by the park is so piss poor you just end up leaving sad and confused. POV 1998 - Shivering Timbers at Michigan's Adventure - The only reason ever to go to Michigan's Adventure, Shivering Timbers is without question, the most impressive looking coaster that CCI ever built. The entrance to the parking lot is on the far end of the coaster, but to get the park entrance you have to drive (probably while distracted and with your tongue hanging out) the ENTIRE LENGTH of Shivering Timbers. It's a giant coaster, so nothing encumbers your view. Park owner Rodger Jourden had a dream of having a coaster going all the way to the end of his property, and CCI delivered with the most impressive $4.5 million investment ever. The definition of "airtime machine," Shivering Timbers is one of the longest wooden coasters in the world, and by far the largest pure out and back. For the first few years of it's life it was ranked very highly by every poll and won all sorts of awards.. then Cedar Fair bought the park and neglected to maintain it leaving a slow and shaky ride. They have corrected this in recent years and are retracking and reprofiling the ride in sections, and it has definitely improved for the better. I'd love to have ridden this when it was brand new. POV 1998 - Rampage at Alabama Splash Adventure - Rampage is a much larger, much more impressive version of MegaFobia as the layouts are near identical, and Rampage sits on a hill overlooking the park. Alabama Splash Adventure has had a ton of different owners over the years, leaving Rampage to be somewhat of the red-headed stepchild that gets jerked around. Vision Land opened in 1998 as a joint effort between a bunch of local governments and the Alabama Legislature. They made it 3 years before filing bankruptcy in 2002, leaving Rampage SBNO. A new ownership group bought the park in 2003 and Rampage reopened. A lot more park name changes and changes in ownership left Rampage with seemingly always uncertain stability from 2003-2011. In 2012 the amusement park closed, and the majority of rides were sold off while the water park remained open. Rampage was SBNO for 3 years during this time. In 2014 members of the Koch family came from Holiday World to purchase the park, and re-open Rampage in 2015. If you've ever been to Holiday World you know they take care of their woodies, and Rampage is no exception as they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars retracking and refurbishing the ride. The ride is absolutely phenomenal now, but honestly Alabama Splash Adventure isn't. Rampage is the only adult ride in the dry side of the park, it's such a strange place. It's worth a visit, you never know when this place could close again without warning! POV 1998 - Excalibur at Funtown/Splashtown USA - Just by looking at it, Excalibur seems unassuming and probably just another "generic" wooden coaster. But if you take a ride, you'll see that it's anything but generic. Funtown isn't a big park, but Excalibur has it's own section off to itself, kind of setting up the magic that is about to unfold. The first drop is full of great floater, but the second drop off the turn around is flat out ejector. From there you go into a long sweeping left hand turn/hill combination which gives great airtime and laterals simultaneously. You exit that and go directly under another support for a great headchopper effect, before another fantastic airtime hill, and then another headchopper! Another turnaround and few more drops before Excalibur slows down around the figure 8 finale. This is the only "boring" part of the ride, but other than that I think it's fantastic and one of CCI's best designs for it's size. Another ride that is well taken care of and imminently rerideable as I've never heard of there ever being a line. Only thing is the operators make you get off and go around each time! LAME! POV 1998 - Twisted Twins at Kentucky Kingdom - For two unremarkable coasters, Twisted Twins sure have a lot of stories attached to it. Originally named "Double Trouble" in it's conceptual phase, the ride opened as Twisted Sisters, and was the first ever dueling coaster having 4 dueling points, beating Dueling Dragons and Gwazi by one year. The theme was centered around two crazy sisters, one named Lola and one named Stella. In 2002, Dee Snider of the hair metal band "Twisted Sister" threatened to sue the park on the grounds of copyright infringement. The park quickly complied and the ride was known as Twisted Twins for the rest of its operating days. Kentucky Kingdom has an interesting history with Six Flags/the city of Louisville/a ton of other possible park owners, all which is too detailed to go into here, but due to various situations this left Twisted Twins SBNO for an extended amount of time. Woodies left SBNO for 8+ years aren't easy to get back into working condition, so RMC came in and worked their magic to create Storm Chaser which opened in 2016. Twisted Twins was home to the first ever Gerslauer wooden coaster trains. They were lighter than PTC's and supposed to track better for easier long term track maintenance, but man they rode terribly, especially on the wheel seats. This ride was "Meh" with a capital M. It had such an interesting concept, but nothing interesting other than the duels happened throughout the entire ride. After Six Flags closed the park, the two Gerstlauer trains were sent to Six Flags St. Louis as spare parts for The Boss. I usually hate to see wooden coasters lost, but I didn't mind the conversion to Storm Chaser as SC is a far superior ride to the Twins in every possible way. Plus it helps to accelerate the growth of Kentucky Kingdom, which is always good. POV of both sides 1998 - Ghostrider at Knott's Berry Farm - Ghostrider might be the most well known CCI, since it's at a large chain park in a large metropolitan area. It's one of the five I've yet to go on, so no personalized report here. Originally scheduled to open in the spring of 1999, Ghostrider opened in December of 1998 nearly six months ahead of schedule. It features a very classic "old west" look which fits in well with the Ghost Town area of the park. It's support structure is twice as dense as normal wooden coasters, due to earthquake regulations. This provides an insane feeling of speed as a good portion of the coaster is spent weaving in and out of this huge structure. I remember it opened to rave reviews initially, and then of course Cedar Fair's lack of maintainance led to many rough ride complaints. They finally corrected this in 2015 as the ride was shut down for 10 months so GCI could completely retrack and reprofile the coaster. Add in 2 new Millennium Flyer trains and you have essentially an entirely new ride. From all accounts it's back to it's rightful place earning rave review after rave review. I can't wait to get out there and ride this thing. POV 1999 - Silver Comet at Fantasy Island - Another underrated gem from CCI, Silver Comet is another fantastic mid-size woodie at another out of the way park. While there is a decent amount of airtime, that's clearly not the focus as this might be the most lateral heavy ride I've ever been on. It has a normal enough "out" section with airtime hills and the classic turnaround, but after that is a pretty quick succession of hard right turn, hard right turn, hard left turn, long sweeping left turn, gaining more and more speed the further you go. The rest of the park is traditional amusement park fare, but Silver Comet really stands out. If you ever find yourself near Niagara Falls, head to Fantasy Island to ride this thing. POV 1999 - Tremors at Silverwood - I remember even as a young enthusiast seeing pictures of Tremors on CCI's official website and just being in awe. Even 18 years later, that awe has not stopped as I still love looking at anything I can find on this ride, if for no other reason than it is so remote, and you rarely hear about it. To this day Tremors remains my current #1 "must ride" coaster in the world. I am sure I have built it up so much in my mind that there is no possible way it can live up to expectations when I finally make the journey to Idaho. Tremors features 4 underground tunnels, one through a gift shop, and all sorts of awesome looking airtime hills and helices. Tremors was also the first wooden coaster to receive Topper Track from RMC in 2010. POV Gerstlauer Trains - Of the 9 coasters CCI built between 2000 and 2001, 7 opened with the god awful G-trains (Boulder Dash and Cornball got PTC's). The only reason I'm including this little blurb is to hopefully stop me from making the entire rest of this write-up about the trains. I already touched on the positives and negatives of them in the section about about Twisted Twins, but just about every single one of these rides are or were shadows of what they could have been with some decent PTC trains. I will try not to complain too much about them, but I can't even put into words how much I just HATE them. Strangely, only 2 (Boss and Cheetah) of those 7 are still operating with the Gerstlauer trains, so maybe the damn things are cursed. 2000 - Legend at Holiday World - Legend did originally open with a single Gerstlauer train, but that was sent to Raging Wolf Bobs at Geauga Lake after 2001, and in 2002 Legend opened with 2 brand new PTC trains which still run to this day. President Will Koch (RIP) took a bit of an unusual route when planning this coaster. He reached out to the enthusiast community to share their opinions on how the ride should be designed, named and themed. One of the old Discovery Channel shows has him talking about and fanning out the giant stack of letters and e-mails he received, I'll see if I can find it. It just added to the legacy of Holiday World being a favorite park of enthusiasts. As for the ride itself? It's sensational. It's got a nice long layout, plenty of airtime, and laterals so strong in the helix they'll cut circulation to your legs. The 2016 update from GCI made it even better and smoother than ever before. Legend is often forgotten since it's in the same park as Voyage, but it deserves to be in the conversation for one of the best wooden coasters on Earth. POV 2000 - Boss at Six Flags St. Louis - Boss probably has one of the most unique and original layouts I've ever come across. It skirts the traditional woodie style of endless airtime hills, by having 3 massive turnaround elements and 4 massive drops. At the bottom of all these drops are these really intense low to the ground sections, which are surrounded by trees (and wooden support structure) that I absolutely love. The first drop even has a surprise "dip" at the bottom of it, which does provide some good airtime. The helix at the end while awesome in theory, is a victim to Six Flags' maintenance budget. Regardless, I love just about everything about this coaster, and I don't think people quite understand how unique it is when they complain about the roughness or say it should be RMC'd. In a perfect world this would get the Ghostrider GCI treatment and Millennium Flyers, which would easily make it a Top 5 ride IMO. POV 2000 - Villain at Geauga Lake - One of my favorite coaster names and logos anywhere, Villain was part of the giant Six Flags Ohio rebranding which included a 4 coaster expansion in 2000. Villain was Double L-Shaped out and back, sort of like a smaller Ghostrider. This was by far my favorite coaster at the park, and I always felt like it was the most overlooked. It's somewhat special to me since it was my very first CCI. In my one visit to then Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in 2003, I managed to ride this 14 times, including something like 8 or 9 in a row at the end of the night. I don't remember much about it except it was so absurdly intense, but I loved every second. When Geauga Lake closed, I was quite upset that Villain wasn't saved like most of the other new coasters were. It didn't even get to hang around and be discussed like Big Dipper! Sure Big Dipper was historical and deserved to be saved, but Villain should have found a new home somewhere else ASAP. Surely it wouldn't have been difficult, it even had steel supports! But, no attempt was made to save it whatsoever, and it was sold for scrap for a pithy $30,000. POV 2000 - Hurricane at Myrtle Beach Pavilion - Hurricane had quite a simple layout, a smallish out and back with a big clockwise helix for the turnaround, and then a small counter clockwise helix (around the Scrambler!) to end it. But that small layout packed a big punch with airtime and laterals galore (despite the trains...). It was quite a picturesque coaster as well, situated on the South side of the city block that Myrtle Beach Pavilion occupied, with beautiful Palmetto trees underneath. Inexplicably in 2006 the owners of the Pavilion stated they were closing the park at the end of the year with intentions of "redevelopment." Well 11 years later and the only redevelopment we've gotten is a zipline over a grass field. Some of the flat rides survived and are now at the Pavilion Nostalgia Park up the road at Broadway at the Beach. The trains for Hurricane found their way to Kings Island to run on Son of Beast after the loop was removed in 2006. To this day, the Pavilion remains one of the most pointless park closures I can think of. POV 2000 - MegaZeph at Six Flags New Orleans - The only CCI I'm unlikely to ever get, (even though I have paid my respects in person a few times), MegaZeph was the star attraction at an all new park called Jazzland which opened in 2000. Jazzland wasn't profitable due to numerous factors and Six Flags bought the lease in 2002, with a rebranding in 2003. It wasn't profitable under Six Flags either, and I think we all know the story after Hurricane Katrina. MegaZeph's name came from the old Zephyr wooden coaster which was at an amusement park called Pontchartrain Beach until that park closed in 1983. MegaZeph looked like it had all the best that CCI offered with numerous airtime hills, fan turns, and a helix. The only thing it's used for now is as a backdrop on movie sets. POV 2000 - Medusa at Six Flags Mexico - Medusa was sort of like a bizarro-world version of Boss. It was nice and long with the large turnarounds, but it was compact and wrapped around itself, and was situated on a big hill instead of a valley. It was an absolutely gorgeous coaster with a great name, but like Boss wasn't the smoothest coaster due to Six Flags maintenance, Mexico City heat, and the stupid trains. I did get to ride this in it's final year in 2013, and it was actually significantly better than I anticipated, having heard the horror stories of roughness for years (but again my roughness tolerance seems to be higher than others). The oddly named Medusa Steel Coaster opened in 2014, and looks to be one of the more impressive layouts from RMC, but I haven't ridden it yet myself. POV 2000 - Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce - Boulder Dash is a master class in how to construct and integrate a roller coaster into existing terrain. It's also a master class in how to add a large coaster and remove as few trees as possible, which some large chain parks still haven't figured out yet. Since it's opening you can always find Boulder Dash at the top of any wooden coaster poll, and rightly so. It's absolute insanity from start to finish with airtime galore. Lake Compounce takes great care of Boulder Dash and it has seen 2 major retrackings in 2007-2008 and one heading before the 2017 season. The name is a very creative play on the word "balderdash", and one of the larger drops in the middle of the course flies past giant boulder. Such a great ride from start to finish. POV 2001 - Cornball Express at Indiana Beach - Cornball might be one of the most deceiving coasters out there. It's pretty small, but it used to pack a pretty big punch with awesome ejector and floater on every hill. I rode it initially in 2005 and absolutely loved it, working it's way into my top 10 easily, but after a fair amount of rides this year, that punch seems to be lacking. It's not rough at all, it just lacks the power that I remember. I'm fairly certain that Cornball has the last PTC train with buzzbars that was sold on a new ride. One of the most interesting things about Cornball is how they wedged it into a park that was completely void of any empty space. It was designed to share a lift hill structure with Hoosier Hurricane. Other than the first drop, it goes completely over and around the kiddie area, a restaurant, and the Tigrr coaster. And then it has a suspended support structure over the drop over the lake, which is one the most interesting things about this unique coaster. POV 2001 - Cheetah at Wild Adventures - Honestly one of the biggest disappointments on this list is Cheetah. I first rode it in 2012 and liked it well enough, but after another visit last December it's clear that absolutely no maintenance of any kind has ever been performed on this thing. That combined with the trains and you just have a flat out absurdly rough ride. You would think that being owned by Herschend they could put some people into the park that knew what they were doing along with some money to fix this mess, but that's unfortunately not the case. It's got a really cool out and back layout with what should be a fast figure 8 finale, but the entire ride just shuffles and jackhammers from drop to brakes. Cheetah is literally the only thing at Wild Adventures that gives the park any semblance of personality, why won't you let it be your shining star? I don't need a new shiny B&M or RMC, just one ridable coaster please. This park isn't worth visiting as it is. POV 2002 - Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain at Indiana Beach - The closest thing we'll probably ever get to a wooden wild mouse in the United States, Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain is one really strange ride. For 2002 Indiana Beach asked CCI to convert their existing Superstition Mountain dark ride, into a roller coaster. What resulted was one-of-a-kind ride with an elevator lift, and many turns and hills with the radius of a small pizza. The 2 car trains have netting all over them so they feel like caged mine carts, and you sit face to face with other riders. You're constantly weaving in and out of the mountain so you really don't quite ever know where you are. A good portion of this ride does take place in the dark, but there's not really enough theming elements to go with it, which sucks because you're close enough where anything you pass could have a huge impact. This ride is really really fun, but mostly due to the strange and unexpected nature of the ride. You could probably ride it a million times and still not know the layout. POV 2002 - New Mexico Rattler at Cliff's Amusement Park - The last coaster designed and constructed by CCI, as they went bankrupt literally in the middle of construction. Cliff's later personally hired the crew that was building the coaster, and put them on the park's payroll instead of leaving the ride unfinished. The park based crew took a bit longer, and it didn't open until very late September of 2002. Since Cliff's is such a small park, the layout for Rattler is really really wonky, skirting over and around a bunch of other existing rides. The ride is great, with a ton of airtime, laterals, and multiple tunnels throughout it's course, it's always turning or undulating, just like a snake. It does so many different things well, it's the perfect encapsulation of CCI's legacy. POV
--Projects that had designs but never were built--
Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer - LINK - Everybody knows about the coaster at Waldameer that opened in 2008, a ride that gets consistent rave reviews. But did you know it started in the planning stages way back in 1993? CCI formed a preliminary layout for them with a hopeful opening date of 2000. Years and years of governmental red tape delayed the construction, and CCI eventually went out of business. Gravity Group formed not long after, and the plans continued on with them. Finally it opened in 2008 with a modified layout that was to be even more intense than the original. Six Flags Astroworld - I can't find anything more than a few forum posts about this anymore, but I remember CCI and Six Flags Astroworld announced an "L" shaped wooden coaster at IAAPA in 2000 for a 2001 opening. It was to take the place of the XLR-8 Arrow Suspended. It never ended up happening for one reason or another. There's another possible rumor that this coaster became Cheetah at Wild Adventures, which doesn't make sense as Cheetah is a smaller out and back. Astroworld was closed and subsequently demolished after the 2005 season. Opryland - LINK - It's impossible to say how far along in the planning stage it ever got, but the Nashville, Tennessee based park had plans for a coaster that looked very similar to Silver Comet at Fantasy Island. Unfortunately Opryland was closed and demolished after the 1997 season. Tulsa Terror at Bells Amusement Park - LINK - Another coaster that never got off the drawing board, Tulsa Terror was to be a smaller "L" shaped out and back. The proximity to the surrounding residential neighborhoods sealed it's fate in the planning process. After some sketchy maneuvers by the Tulsa State Fair, Bells was ousted from their land, closed, and demolished after the 2006 season. Could there be more? So what do you think about the woodies from CCI? Love em? Hate em? Find them boring? Too rough? How many have you ridden and how would you rank them? What are your favorite/least favorite features of these rides? Did they spread themselves too thin by building so many coasters in such a short amount of time? Anything else you want to say?
28[M4F]Montana/Lower48/CAN - Dead-end life? Urging to travel? Like the cold? Come trucking with me!🚚💭💭
I hope those stupid emojis turned out right 🚚💭💭 Beep Beep! Who am I and where am I going? Hello there! I'm looking for someone with whom I share values with and is interested in the same lifestyle as me. I'm currently a trucker who stays mostly west of I-75 and tries to stay up north as much as possible. I do not function in hot, muggy weather despite having been born and raised in the deep south. I do not go east of I-81 and I do not go into California. I drive full time and in the next 2-3 years, I'm planning to have property and other big expenses taken care of so I can come off the road. I dream of an off grid homestead either in ID, MT, or WY where I'll have all manner of animals and whatnot and just work a local/seasonal job like hauling grain during harvest. I could go on for a while about that. The point is, I'm going to live nowhere near a major city so if you'll die without starbucks, it ain't gunna work! :D I desire a simple life in the country doing nerdy redneck things, like taking apart microwaves and making arc welders out of them or charging our battery bank with an old car alternator. If nuclear war has brought about the collapse of society, I'll be the one in the cabin who has powered everything, homemade clothing, dried/preserved/canned food, and water. I'm very drawn to the self-sufficient self-sustaining lifestyle. You'll laugh, but if I end up on a property that is inaccessible during winter, I am seriously considering sled dogs as an alternative to a snowmobile. We'll talk more about all of that later! At the moment, I work for a company and I drive their truck running their loads. Next month, I'm going back to finish buying a truck I started buying from a friend last year. I'll have full control over where I go and when and what kind of money I make. I'll once again have full control over customizing my truck's interior exactly the way we want. I'll be free again. I made a mistake going back company so when I buy this truck, I'm sticking with it. I'd rather deal with my own issues than be at the mercy of a dispatcher who has never even sat in the driver's seat. The money is much, much better too, but that's a given. Dealbreakers for both of us I call myself a conservative atheist. I lean like 90% to the right and the 10% is I suppose libertarian. For example, I have no issues with same-sex marriage. I do not get along with liberals at all, so that knocks out 95% of you. That said, I don't let political discourse run my life and affect my every though and action. It would kill me to eat, breathe, and sleep politics like some people on Reddit. I don't find tattoos and excessive piercings attractive. I don't do or tolerate any drug usage, including weed. I don't drink often at all. I might have one bloody mary every six months if I'm lucky, even then I probably won't finish it. I do smoke tobacco, though when I'm able to not drive cross-country anymore, I'll be quitting. I can't survive these roads without a smoke :( I am strictly monogamous. I don't want children any time soon, but I'm not saying never. The time will come when we're ready, financially and mentally. I don't do social media. I don't care if you do, but if you can't go 15 minutes without your phone, don't bother. Vegans and vegetarians need not apply :D Me (I suck at this and it's always a rant...) I'm 5'9 and stout. At last check I was 240, but I know I've come down a bit from that. I'm not flabby or obese. You won't catch me in skinny jeans anytime soon. I've always been stocky. I suppose my childhood romping through the woods has gifted me with tree trucks for calves :3 I look like a damn lumberjack in the winter! I have blue eyes and brownish/blondish hair. I usually keep a beard, but not as thick as in winter. I keep things as simple as possible. If something's on my mind, you're the first to know. I'm loving, supportive, and loyal. When someone has my heart, anyone else might as well be Rosie O'Donnell. I LOVE cuddles like holy shit do I love cuddles. If you're the kind of person who craves touchy feeling and closeness all the time, hi. I am very easy to talk to about any subject possible. I don't embarrass easily. I don't do things selfishly without taking you into consideration. If you're into outdoorsy stuff as much as indoor stuff, we'll do well. I am masculine, but not overly so... well, until some jackass cuts me off to take an exit at the last minute. Then, I have the urge to rip their arms off and beat them with them .__. I am financially responsible and I don't waste money on frivolity and I do not play with credit cards and such. That said, I do have some old debt to clear up from student loans and an old vehicle loan but that will come later. Nowadays, it's cash or nothing. I love snuggling up and watching movies. I haven't seen anything new in a while, but some of my older favorites are Memoirs of a Geisha, Inception, all Iron Man movies, all X-Men movies, Deadpool, Bourne series, Interstellar, and a ton more. I'm not so much into anime anymore, but I still have love for Inuyasha and Chobits. Not much of a gamer either, but I used to play WoW pretty heavily and recently I'm finding myself on Minecraft with a few friends just dicking around passing time. I love cooking sooo much. My two favorite dishes to make from scratch are simple ribeye steaks and pasta alfredo florentine, usually with shrimp. Being southern by birth, I have a love for all things spicy as well. I will drown myself in anything cajun or creole. I listen to most genres of music but I can never pick a favorite (with anything really). I listen to some country, some hiphop/neosoul, rock, pop, fuckin everything really. There's at least 3 songs in every genre in any language that I like. I prefer the Fonsi/DY version of Despacito and jrock still makes an appearance in my playlist. I'm in the tenor vocal range and my favorite song to sing currently is... Let It Go, transposed lower of course cause fuck that high note. I don't play much anymore, but I used to play clarinet, flute, drums, bass, violin, and piano. I used to speak fairly fluent Japanese and can still read and write korean from my time running an Asian market. I'm currently learning Spanish. I'm forcing myself to stop here ._. What I'm looking for (I'm way to picky for my own good. #ForeverAlone haha!) I am mostly attracted to short, petite girls. I am not attracted to overweight or tall girls at all. If you have cheeks, I'm in love already. There's just something magical about being able to wrap my arms completely around someone I care about. I think it caters to my protective nature, idk, but I like it. I want someone who can work the girly girl but isn't fragile. If you can have me believe you're a dainty flower one minute and the next you've thrown up a ponytail and ballcap and you're getting dirty with me forking hay and wrestling rams to shear and shit, oh... I'm putting a ring on you. If you're educated/intelligent, but can't see yourself living a life of monotony in an office or a lab somewhere, here's your chance to live in the real wild west. If you get upset easily at stupid things or misunderstandings, this probably won't work. If your go-to reaction to disagreement or frustration is the silent treatment instead of communication, don't even bother. You don't have to be perfect at everything or have a 100% success rate with anything, but you do have to try. You do need effort and determination. I can't be with someone who is pessimistic and self-doubting all the time. Since I plan to stay on the road another couple of years, you should be prepared to deal with that as well. My bed is a twinXL and I have most electrical appliances and whatnot in here with me. You should definitely be a shower person because bathrubs do not exist out here. On a darker, more personal note, if you have things in your past that you think might scare me off or change the way I think about you, don't worry about it. Physical or mental scars don't scare me and I have experience with people who have been through certain thing. You'll be in good hands, I promise. Holy shit, I think I like what you sound like as a person... but what can I expect trucking with you? Tight quarters like a small RV. I have a twinXL bed, most normal electrical appliances like fridge, keurig, microwave, rice cooker, crock pot, etc, and storage for clothes and other junk. As I mentioned above, there are only showers in the major truck stop chains, no bathtubs. It's not as gross as it sounds. They're cleaned thoroughly after each use. You should be able to go at least a day without a shower. There will be times where we'll be parking overnight at a customer or some other location that does not have bathing facilities. If one day without a shower will kill you, you might wanna move on. Likewise if your cycle is particularly painful and you're the type who has to remain still in a quiet, dark area and all that, this will probably be miserable for you and I couldn't ask you to endure that. Also, while you'll get to travel all over the country, don't expect to have any real time to get out and explore and whatnot. If we're deep in a city that has no truck parking, we can't leave the truck somewhere and go walking or biking. Though there will be times where we'll take a day off if we're in a particular area we want to check out. There will be days where we shake off the claustrophobia, but there will also be times where we have to sit for 34 hours and all we have is a rinky dink truck stop or the truck itself so if you get cabin fever easily, let's not do this. I'll consider sharing my wifi with you if you're lucky! :P Also, I'll of course be covering your expenses for the duration like your phone and incidentals. Don't worry about trying to save up money. I gotchu. Some pros to this lifestyle are that I know where many awesome spots are to explore. Since I've gotten to where I know the country like my own neighborhood, I can show you around all sorts of places. If we're up near Niagara Falls, I know where I can drop my trailer and we'll bobtail into the park. I know where one of few Waffle Houses are in the country that have truck parking (cause I love Waffle House). I know amazing spots in the Gallatin Valley near Yellowstone where we can park along the river, trailer and all. I could go on but I'll leave some surprises :D Basically, if you wanna head to almost anywhere in the country, we're there in less than a week depending on where we start. Never seen real mountains? We're there. Wanna see actual bison, antelope, prarie dogs, and bighorn sheep? Let's go, I know a place! Want Texas Best BBQ on Monday, In N Out Burger Wednesday, and Bison Burgers Friday? That can happen! What if I don't like it or like you after all? I'll cover your transportation to any destination in the lower 48 via whatever makes the most sense between bus, plane, or car. What if we like, have a huge fight or something? You'll still get fed and I'll still get you safely to wherever you need to go. What if you're like, a kidnapper or serial killer or something? I wanted to put a joke here, but this is actually a serious concern so I won't. If one thing leads to another and you wanna come trucking, I'll provide any information about myself, my company, my truck, etc that you need to send to someone who can take action if something ever happened to you. Before you even get in the truck, I'll have you send pics of my plates, license, etc to someone you trust. No request you make for your safety and peace of mind will be rejected. By the time we've gotten to that point though, both of us should be reasonably sure we like each other and ideally should meet in person at least once before traveling together. Do you have a gun? If so, have you ever had to use it? Yes, I carry a 9mm in the truck at all times that is registered to me in the state of MS. I have not ever had to use or display it. The one instance I had a hostile encounter with somebody outside my truck while I was inside, I threatened them with a "tire thumper" which is like a small version of a baseball bat. To be honest, I have a particularly intimidating demeanor and appearance so I rarely have trouble even in places like Compton, Chicago, Detroit, etc. You've heard of resting bitch face? I sometimes have resting "I will stomp a mudhole in your ass if you come with some bullshit" face .___. I not scary I promise!... Yes, my accent gets worse if I'm upset, I tell ya hwut. You didn't read this far but I'll put something here anyway to conclude So, you're 18-30 with no kids, no commitments holding you to one spot, and you want to throw everything to the wind and haul ass! You want to just get away from everything or start over. You'd enjoy living in the country with animals and wildlife after you've seen the country and we've decided on our favorite place. You want to live somewhere that actually has four seasons and is possibly even isolated/inaccessible in winter. You want to travel with someone who will take care of you and see you as his equal. You want someone who will call you sweetheart and darlin' in that southern accent. You may or may not have gone to college. You may or may not be working a dead-end job. All you know is you're ready for something life-changing. You're ready for a new beginning and you're ready to explore someone new, someone different. You're ready to have your mind blown by meeting someone who's actually honest and loyal for a change. You're ready for someone who can make you happy. You're ready... What are you waiting for? :) Note for Canadians: As I understand, you can visit the USA unrestricted for up to 6 months per year without a passport or visa or something like that. Either way, you're not off limits, though you will have to make your own way to a border crossing or meeting point stateside because I don't enter Canada.
Hi, Im doing a roadtrip all across America for about 2 months, we're hiring a small 2 man campervan and driving so we will be staying at campsites/rv parks ect. we want to do it as cheap as possible and are looking for places to safely park overnight rather than having a campsite with loads of unnecessary facilities we wont need/use Are there free sites that you know of? or a way of finding cheap sites? ideally we dont want to be paying more than $25 a night and want to average it out around $10/15 here is a rough list of where we are going any help or suggestions would be appreciated Niagara Falls, Chicago, mount rushmore, yellowstone national parks, craters of the moon, olympic national park, mount rainer, columbia river gorge, san fran, big sur, LA, san diego, Las vagas, grand canyon, new orleans, florida Many Thanks
Please Help! Any suggestions on campgrounds, routes, and places to stretch our legs on our way from TX to MA?
I have a rough draft of a route here. This will be late May/early June. Most of this is not set in stone aside from visiting Niagara Falls. My husband has never been so we're going. The route home will be on the south side of the mountains (taking the Blue Ridge Parkway for some of it) so I might make another post looking for recommendations on that route. Things I've had to consider:
I'll have my two (large) dogs. They will need places to walk/run every few hours. If anyone has any suggestions about parks or historical places along this route that would be great. I love finding monuments/memorials on road trips! I've tried to make sure the campgrounds I've looked at allow dogs on trails. Not all places do (which is why I'm skipping National Parks). They also mean I can't/won't visit places that don't allow dogs.
I'll also have my almost one year old. I'm guessing she'll want to stop just as much as the dogs. Hard to tell as she's not even crawling yet.
I'll have my trailer. It's not very big (shorter than the truck) but I need to make sure it can get to where I need it to go. It would be nice to take it on some scenic routes, but not so nice to get it stuck somewhere.
It's not super important, but I'm trying to drive through as many states as I can (thus the campground in KY and the ample time to hit up NH and ME before getting into MA). We already have Ohio and Pennsylvania checked off the list.
All my extra stuff slows me down. I'm estimating for every three hours we will be stopped for a full hour, so I'm trying to make the time between campsites seven hours or less. It would be nice if I could take two full weeks to get up there but I have to budget vacation time.
We haven't done much travel on the eastern side of the Mississippi so I don't know much about this half of the US. What I'd love recommendations on:
Dog-friendly outdoor places to stop.
Favorite grocery stores! I'm not a walmart fan and I'd love to plan to get food elsewhere. Also any local sort of fast food for lunchtime would be nice. Can't really do restaurants but we will still need to eat (breakfast and dinner will be cooked).
Campgrounds. Non-RV parks preferred. State parks, National Forest campgrounds, etc as long as I can reserve it in advance. There are so many choices when I use google and I've (mostly) blindly picked some. I would appreciate suggestions.
Scenic routes. I don't mind adding an houchanging my route if it means a lovely drive while finding a pretty park or a quiet campground.
The campsites I've listed on my map for now are Daisy State Park AR, Hillman Ferry Campground KY, Big Ridge State Park TN, Blue Bend Campground WV, Loleta Recreation area PA, Four Mile Creek State Park NY, Molly Stark State Park VT (with a trip to see Madam Sherie's stairs). TIA for any help!
Find parking costs, opening hours and a parking map of all Niagara Falls parking lots, street parking, parking meters and private garages. Reservations; Niagara Falls. Now 2 hours. Garages Street. Filter. Sort by: Distance Price. Niagara Falls State Park - Cave of the Winds Lot #2 400 spots. Visitors only. $10 2 hours. Paid Parking. Generally in Niagara Falls you will end up paying for parking. The high volume of tourists means you will likely have to pay regardless of the day or time. Street parking at metres is limited to as little as two hours, and you have to come back to feed the metre or risk getting a ticket or being towed. Parking in paid lots usually gives you “All Day” parking for a flat rate. Are you planning on camping in niagara falls, New York? Before you hit the road, check here for information on parks in niagara falls, New York that offer WiFi, swimming, cabins and other amenities Good Sam Club Members Save 10% at Good Sam RV Parks Parking regulations for the City of Niagara Falls are defined in the following municipal by-laws which govern: City of Niagara Falls By-law 89-2000 - Traffic and Parking Common on street parking violations Find parking costs, opening hours and a parking map of Niagara Falls State Park - Lot #3 Goat Island Rd as well as other parking lots, street parking, parking meters and private garages for rent in Niagara Falls Access to the 1,500 space Casino Niagara parking garage can be found off of the main driveway of Casino Niagara (5705 Falls Ave.) The 2,500 space Fallsview Casino Resort parking garage has two entrances: one off of Fallsview Blvd and the other off of Murray St. Valet parking is also available at the Fallsview Blvd entrance. Find & reserve a discount parking spot in Niagara Falls at a discounted rate. Use our map. Book online for as low as $5 to save time & money when you park. ParkMe: The award-winning free app that helps you find the cheapest and closest parking around! Save money and get to your destination faster with ParkMe. Informed RVers have rated 20 campgrounds near Niagara Falls, New York. Access 49 trusted reviews, 9 photos & 7 tips from fellow RVers. Find the best campgrounds & rv parks near Niagara Falls, New York. TIP: There is free day time RV parking in Parking Lot 3 until midnight on Goat Island right AT the Niagara Falls. We viewed the falls during the day, hung out at the lot until night time to see the lights, then drove 15min to the Walmart for an overnight stay. Stayed here in a 30 foot-long Truck Camper (RV). seatsale would stay here again. Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Niagara Falls Canada. Jellystone Niagara Falls is a great option at just 3.5 miles from Niagara Falls. As an added bonus, they offer a shuttle bus service to Niagara Falls for their campers. Jellystone has big-rig-friendly pull-through sites available that can accommodate those of you traveling in a large RV.
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