XGatorHead 8904

Whoa... I just looked up the Live Entertainment page on KI's website. All of the shows are now weekends only with the exception of Cirque. Hard to believe it's already that late in the season. I still have yet to see Off the Charts and Down Home Country this year, and I've only seen Cirque once so far this year. Since my weekends have been and will continue to be busy for the forseeable future, I was hoping to maybe go up some weekday evening to see them. For Cirque that's fine if I can go this week, but it looks like I'll have to try to find time on a weekend if I want to see the others.

Wow, what a well written and well researched article! I'm not used to that when reading articles on amusement parks. I'd love to see some, or all, of the classics back. Watching the Brady Bunch episode reminds me how much the park has lost over the years. How great it would be to have TumbleBug, Bayern Kurve, Spinnin Keggers (or even the Cauldrons), Wheel of Fortune/Trabant, Rotor, Halley's Comet/Round Up and Cuddle Up back in the park! Hopefully some of this comes to fruition with KI. Good luck to the pickers, bring back some good ones for us! Brilliant idea! Or actually, ideas plural, if only Mr. Hart would be willing to part with his shoes, which I doubt he would be.

http://www.wlwt.com/news/police-on-scene-of-multiple-vehicle-crash-sb-interstate-71/34559920

^ I used a Wally Gator one for years but decided to change it up. I originally wanted to be incognito on this site, and was for a few years, but once I started to meet people from here and working Haunt, I decided to start using pictures of myself too. I'll still use Wally from time to time, just not constantly like I did when I first joined.

^It's now one of mine too! What a great piece of history. We rode it twice, the Gatorettes in the front and me in the back each time. While Mrs. Gator & GatorGirl were amazed at the smoothness, I was amazed at the airtime I got (and the hard slams back into the seat) that they didn't get. The ride op warned me before our first ride that I might want to prepare and stand up a little before the dips. After about the 2nd or 3rd dip and the very hard slam back to the seat, I heeded his advice. Great ride! Our original plan was to go to both Lakemont & DelGrosso's that day, but once we got to Lakemont we decided that we could definitely spend all day there and take our time to enjoy what they had to offer. We even stopped by the gift shop and bought matching Leap the Dips shirts and a book on the history of Lakemont Park (to add to our collection of other park history books, on Idora Park & Coney Island). We'll visit DelGrosso's next year, and plan on going to Lakemont at the end of that day to ride Leap the Dips and Skyliner again!

Unrelated to rides, but related to some concerns brought up earlier in this thread, I found myself in an awkward situation this past weekend. Mrs. Gator's family reunion is always held at a park (not amusement park, just a city park) in Pennsylvania. In this park is a community pool, which a large portion of the reunion goes over to to spend some time in. To get to the pool, you have to walk through the changing room/restroom. When I walked in, there were two boys there, ages approximately 4 & 5. The older boy was trying to help his younger brother get his shorts pulled up. While I was washing my hands after using the facilities, the youngest boy came over with his shorts down around his calves and asks, "Excuse me, can you help me get my shorts up?" I kind of stammered at first and finally got out "Um... don't you have a parent around?" The older boy said, "Yeah, but not our dad." I said, "Sorry, I can't help you," and left. I felt bad for leaving them in their predicament, but what else was I to do? I can only imagine being the parent of those children upon hearing that a stranger helped them pull up their shorts. The boys were young enough that they probably should/could have gone into the women's locker room with their mother. I wouldn't have sent my child(ren) alone to a locker room at their ages. If it was me & and a 4-5 year old GatorGirl, I would have put her in her bathing suit at home, taken her through the men's locker room (covering her eyes if need be) then taken her back home in her bathing suit.

Seedr poynts gittin a slawtrhows? I gota git up thair n meat em! I wundr wut kind ov meat theyl b wurkin with. Im not piky I lyk all kinds. Thair far enuf away that we shuldnt b runin in 2 any problms with r meat suplyrs. I kant wayt 2 go up thair n c thair oprashun! -Sam EDIT: Now see what you've gone and done? You've got Sam all riled up. It got even worse when I told him that nothing's been confirmed 100% about Cedar Point getting a Slaughterhouse. I had a terrible time trying to calm him down after that. (For those of you new to the site since last year, Sam the Butcher is an alter-ego that emerges every fall, the Hyde to my Jekyll. All this talk about a Slaughterhouse North brought him out a little earlier than normal, but he's been safely locked away again.) Excellent show! I'm so glad I got to see it last year (and bought the t-shirt).

When I stay in a motel, all I need is a clean place to sleep & shower at a reasonapble price (under $100, preferably under $90). I read the online reviews and make my decisions based on those. I have to say, the Motel 6 in Altoona, PA this past weekend was wonderful! Sure, it's no Hilton (which I never stay at anyway because they're overpriced IMO), but it met my qualifications (clean rooms & bathrooms, and about $68 per night). Beds were comfortable enough and the Gatorettes even enjoyed the pool there, saying it was cleaner than more expensive places we've stayed.

I'm proud to have ridden 4 of them (#3 Jack Rabbit, #6 Thunderbolt and #10 Racer all at Kennywood, as well as #7 Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk) and adding #1 Leap the Dips tomorrow!

Sure, The Great Scenic Railway is the oldest continuously operating coaster in the world, but even more impressive to me is the oldest coaster in the world (even if it was shut down for years), Leap the Dips at Lakemont Park, which beats TGSR by 10 years in age. Even though it's tame compared to most coasters, I'm extremely excited to finally ride this piece of history tomorrow!

Sam's lurking, waiting just below the surface to be unleashed upon the earth once again.

I usually do that too if I want to ride alone, particularly on AE, BLSC and Racer. I prefer the right side on Beast so I don't do it on that. When we rode Tempesto at Busch Gardens Williamsburg a couple of weeks ago, I was lined up for row 2 and the Gatorettes were in line for row 3. There was a group in front of us that was occupying rows 2, 3 & 4 that was letting people go in front of them because they were trying to ride with their friends in row 1. (Really? You're trying to pair a same ride cycle with front row, which always has a longer line??? If you're in a group that requires multiple rows, you forgo the front row if you want the same cycle!) Things were working out perfectly for the Gator family to ride together until the group decided that being on the same cycle didn't really matter. The Gatorettes were next on, and the single rider teenage girl in front of me took the first seat she came to. I politely asked her if she could move over so I could ride with my family, which she did and I thanked her. While the ride ops were checking the rest of the train, I made sure to say "Thanks again for doing that," and she said "That's okay, I really didn't want to ride by myself anyway." As far as riding with someone else's child, I absolutely will not do it. I'll ride with them if I'm friends with the parents, but a stranger's kid? No way, no how. When GatorGirl was little, I even felt self-conscious about taking her to the playground by myself, being an adult male, alone, sitting on a bench watching her play. If someone had not seen me come there with her, how could my innocently sitting there possibly be misinterpreted?

Yay, they have those shirts again! I'm probably going to the park tomorrow, hopefully they have them in my size. Thanks for posting the picture Pagoda!

It could be worse... I've only seen it once this year!

Not really a darnest thing, but a good story on karma... Heard on the radio this morning, the topic was "the worst selfie you ever took": Male Host: Good morning, what was the worst selfie you ever took? Female Caller: It wasn't me, but my best friend who would be too embarassed to call. We were at Kings Island the year the Diamondback opened, and she wanted to take a selfie of us at the top of the hill. She got her camera out and dropped it because we got pulled over the hill. Male Host: Did she ever find it? Female Caller: No, we think it landed in a grassy area. Female Host: And she didn't tell them about it either because it was probably after they told you to put your cellphones away. Female Caller: Yeah. Now they have a whole box of broken cell phones there to tell you not to get them out.

Coaster-count.com also says that the Kennywood Racer is two coasters. It is definitely NOT. Of course, you are welcome to classify KI's Racer however you want, and I know many people on both sides of that argument, but coaster-count (and by extension, RCDB, since that's where their data comes from) is not the be-all and end-all of coaster classification. I mean, neither of them count Devil's Den at Conneaut Lake Park or Haunted House at Camden Park as coasters, and they definitely are by every definition of a roller coaster. Amen! My coaster count ended in a ".5" for two years because I only rode one side of Kennywood's Racer the first time I visited. Two years later, I finally got the other side and brought my count back up to a whole number! As soon as I rode Devil's Den, there was no question in my mind that it's a coaster so I added it as coaster credit #126.5. On the flip side of that, I begrudgingly included Canada's Wonderland's Thunder Run in my count because it's listed as a coaster on rcdb, but I made sure to asterisk that line on my spreadsheet. -Gator, who recently celebrated riding Coaster #150 (Verbolten, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, July 17th, 2015)

Mine, but we're an atypical family, usually visiting 7-10 parks a year! Yes, please! I've wanted a Doll Factory ever since I first went through Happy Jack's at Cedar Point. I like that, especially the name! That's quite alright, it's that time of year! I just submitted my app today for my 8th year of Haunt (and 24th season overall at the park).

^It was mounted better than the fabled camera that supposedly made Robert Reed decide not to ride The Racer.

Loved it! Thanks for the link, I'm never up that early so I would have missed it otherwise.

Hmmm.... methinks I've found something new to tack on to our annual Illinois family reunion trip (40 miles SE of St. Louis) next year instead of our usual Holiday World visit...

I already posted this in the KD/Carowinds roadtrip topic, but thought it would fit here too. I wish I had known this a little earlier, as it would have weighed in my decision of KD vs. BGW. When I went to KD before, it was when KI still had King Cobra and I decided that I wouldn't ride Shockwave (or FoF) because of the similarities... yes, this was before I cared about my coaster count or riding for any potential differences in the ride experiences. I was fortunate enough to ride Skyrider at Canada's Wonderland last year for the first time right before it's removal, so it would have been cool to ride Shockwave right before it's removal too. But now Mrs. Gator has already bought our BGW tickets from AAA. Oh well, it's just not meant to be. I'll just try not to think of Shockwave while I'm enjoying my time at BGW!

Thank you! Great job, it sounds so much better than it did on Coasterstock weekend, when we begged the ride op to turn the organ on for us. Carousels are always so much better with an actual organ playing the music! Do you mind taking a trip to Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania next?

You can see the video in the link at the OP Yes, but the video is shot from far away and shown with no audio. In any situation, a cell phone video of that quality is far from telling the whole story.

I would have been concerned too if I was in that position. I never would have thought that something that goes over my shoulders wasn't part of the restraint. Either way, I can't wait to go there next week! It'll be my first time, and I'll be getting coaster credit #150 while there. Now just to figure out which ride will get that honor... probably Griffon since I've never ridden a dive coaster. I'm just as excited about the shows as I am the rides too.

I know a certain butcher in Slaughter House that works with pigs, and this drives him nuts. Why must Mama torture Sam so? I always thought Sam was her favorite, at least that's what she's told him, but now I think she says that to all the boys.