Thrill_Biscuit

Was it "Tropical Storm" by Lee Ritenour? There's also a piece by Joe Satriani called "Surfing With the Alien," but it's heavy metal sounding. The only other guitar instrumentalist of wide appeal that I can think of is Eric Johnson (of "Cliffs of Dover" fame). He might have a tropical sounding piece in his repetoire as well. Happy hunting! -Tb

I don't know who lays down the stax o' wax at the Splash, but I think what you're describing could be anything by "The Rippingtons" or "Spyro Gyra," who have some awesome instrumentals that sound tropical... there are a lot of them, though... Example:

That might narrow it down to "Is This Love" by Survivor. I've tread those mean streets, blind alleys Where the currency of love changes hands All touch -- no feeling Just another one night stand I need to know that there's someone who cares Could you be the angel to answer my prayers? Is this love that I'm feelin' Is this love that's been keepin' me up all night Is this love tha I'm feelin Is this love Great, timeless pop tune by the lads that brought us "Eye of the Tiger" and "I Can't Hold Back."

That's "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" by Heart.

R.I.P. Numb with disbelief. Prayers and thoughts for his family.

One other thing - give away free blue ice cream cones! ...or make them like they do at Wolfe's Market in downvillage Morrow (it would resemble "Marge Simpson")!

We marathonned Backlot earlier this year; it left me feeling dizzier than I was used to, but back-to-back blasts on The Beast were the best, bud! [[[[splash cymbal]]]

Wow. I once had a dream I was riding Vortex, except the restraint was a piece of string. And that dream occurred BEFORE I started riding it! (had the dream in either '08 or '09, and I started riding in 2010). Weird huh? That could get rather bumpy! I've dreamt that Vortex had a section that was 900' high, but you had to disembark the classic train, and walk over to a gymnast's hoop/zip line thing to get back down safely... THROUGH the now 900'-high corkscrew, batwing, etc.Talk about hanging on!

"Cranes? We don't need no stinkin' cranes!"

How can we know, really? There's not enough data being sent back to now from the future to be able to form an opinion as to whether it is or not.

I read that he was a wood carver at Kings Island. You know, someone out there somewhere probably has a dusty old souvenir that they don't realize was made by him. That'd be a cool discovery, I guess. I'm sure the powers that be will get around to it; so long as he's game.

I have to say, AE is one of the most underrated coasters in the world, and I think it's just a matter of perspective, given the selection of other major coasters in the park.

1. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has tighter conversations with Voyager 2 than this thread! 2. That sounds delicious! Gonna try a Spalito tonight! 3. On topic, and from the relatively unqualified perspective of a mere observer, I'd think it'd have to be the Eiffel Tower, with having to keep count of occupants, operate the elevator while giving a timed-and-rehearsed speech, then answer random, sometimes technical questions as accurately as possible, all while smiling in the spare time remaining before reaching the top. Kudos, I say!

We're now beginning to talk about counterfeit souvenir Son of Beast wood. Fast forward 30 years, watching "Antiques Space Show" on my Dyson Air Couch... "Well, if this were real Son of Beast wood, it'd be worth about twenty million kilodollars; however, this is obviously fake, so it's worth only about two thousand." "Aw, shucks! I can't even buy a Veggie Pepsi with that. Oh well." ..."how much for this ACE tile?"

Oh, and then there's the ubiquitous red tape of letters of professional aggrievement by losing bidders, bid-stage and post-contract assumption and qualification addenda, multi-eschelon government regulation and oversight review, and ex parte complaints by special-interest parties, etc., etc. etc... Tb, who once almost died of being an assistant project manager for an independent electrical contractor in Maine. Oy.

I really did CBS when I saw that. ;-)

Nice report! Thanks! To really luck out with rain, though, you have to get caught on Vortex during a downpour.

So does "Technicolor Yawn," and "Selling Buicks to Earl," and "Yodeling Soup,"....

Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments! -Tb

One of those toys with the doll that flips around on a trapeze comes to mind. Kind of a poor man's X, if you know what I mean... scary.

Thanks! Man, the rendering time for yours must have taken hours!

Wow! That sounds like a whole lot of fail! Glad you got it locked back down again. Whoa, just thinking about the corkscrew, much less the loops! I'd have reported that right away to the ops; a rogue loosening is not a good thing...

Just for fun, here's a mashup of a couple of trips we took this year. One was early in the season, the other was back on 8/4. This is kind of a preview; there's a lot of footage I want to make into a 2012 "video yearbook" of sorts, but it takes a lot more time than I had. Contains the world's fastest "Dinosaurs Alive" and "Wall of Fame" segments... ends with BLSC at night. Enjoy!

The 0.15 person gets killed on a really small coaster. Hey! Watch... it ... with... the... tomatoes... ouch!