fan of beast

it is business. this is my 4th trip over here for a total of 5 1/2 months since last october. most have never even heard of slovakia. it is a little gem in the heart of europe. the entire country only has 5.5 million people. in the states we have cities with more people. the people here are very friendly. i have made quite a few friends here. there are mountains to climb, caves to explore, castles to see and rivers to raft. most of these are within a couple hours drive. you can take buses or trains almost anywhere. the transit system here is great. many people here do not drive. there is no need to. if you can dig it up, i did a tr the first time i came over. it shows more of the scenery here in the city of Kosice. it is one of the oldest cities in this part of the world. it has an unbelievable charm. i have requested a transfer here, but the company has not yet given me an answer. fan of beast

great job, ronny as usual, excellent photography. i'm starting to get real homesick and these pics don't help none. i have done nothing at work today except read kic. i fly home on the 28th. i'll be headed straight for ki. ok, i'll probably say hi to the wife first. i did get one cp trip in this year. i am also a big fan of maverick. blue streak threw me all over the place. the restraints on that thing allow you to feel like you're coming out. the first time i rode meanstreak, i thought it was great. now i agree with everyone else that it is way too rough. i'll take sob anyday. fan of beast from slovakia

do you know what city? i'm in Kosice. it is the second largest city in slovakia. the largest is brataslava, which is the capitol. brataslava is just across the danube river from vienna, austria.

now it was on to the jasovska jaskyna. jasovska cave. it is in the town of jasov, slovakia. there was a "hrad" or castle at the top of the hill. it is deteriorated to the point that there is nothing left to see. we entered the cave at the bottom of the mountain. we exited at the top. the whole mountain is hollow. there are markings in the cave that date back to 1000 a.d.. more on this cave can be found at the following link. josovska cave i have taken over 3000 pitures in slovakia in the time i have spent here. it is hard to choose which ones to share. i am gaining a lot of experience with my new nikon D40. i am learning the language slowly. the people here are wonderful. i find here a sense of community that america has long lost. it is really something you must experience to appreciate. fan of beast

over the weekend while you were enjoying kic second coming, i was in the mountains of slovakia. the pics do not do justice to the awesome beauty of the scenery here. i'll attach a few pics anyway. this is a mountain lake at the resort at dedinka. the rain and fog really hampered the clarity of the pics. you expect me to get in that! oh well, if i can ride ttd, i can ride this. we have started our ascent to the peak. what!! i thought we were going to the top of the mountain, not down and up the next peak. i don't remember ki's skilift being this long. like i said,the fog really hampered the photo op's. you can still see how wonderful this country really is. now to the "dobsinska ladov jaskyna", dobsinska ice cave. when you are 20 meters from the cave entrance, you start feeling cold. when you get up close you still have snow on the outside. remember, this is august! the pics do not capture the magnitude of this chunk of ice. it is 110,000 cubic meters in size. the ice has been here for 1000's of years. under normal circumstances, this ice will never melt. it is essentially a glacier that is trapped in a cave. this is ana. she was my tour guide and translator. you can see here that as water seeps in from above, it immediately freezes. this ice mass will just continue to grow. dobsinska ice cave here is a link to learn more about this cave. i have more from another cave but, i will enter it as a different tr as i don't want this to get too long. Fan of Beast

looks like i missed a great event. i was originally distraught over the day being scheduled the same day as my annual whitewater rafting trip to the new river in west virginia. then the company sent me to slovakia, so i missed both. i would have loved the tour of sob. it is by far the best ki has to offer at this time. i have seen it up close during the jdrf walks the last 2 years. during those walks, we go the entire length of the parking lot before entering behind timberwolf. we then travel under sob and thru the woods. we come up the hill by Firehawk, travel behind racer, and around The Beast. we end up exiting the park at bb. it's a great event for a great cause. our group is sponsored by ford. after the walk, ford gives park tickets to everyone in our group. i usually chaperone a small group of 8-12 yr. old boys thru the park. that can be an experience as boys will be boys. great job again, ronny. fan of beast

Where's the beef?

great job. looks like you're having a blast with that camera. i just got a d40 a month ago. i only have the 18-55 lens. it really limits what i can do. i'll get the 55-200 when i get back to the states. i priced them over here in slovakia and it was over 10,000 slovak koruns. oh, that's $500. i have taken 1000's of pics over here. today i'm headed for the high tatras mountains. it is described as slovensky raj (slovak paradise). i can't wait to rip off a few hundred more pics of the scenery there.

RATTLESNAKE

i believe someone already mentioned "rattlesnake". that's what i'm sticking with.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/c...=7&cxcat=16 here is an article from the dayton daily about the new mall. i couldn't find anything newer.

i'm usually the one screaming. the kids have to drag me out.

i live in lebanon. i've never heard anything about best buy coming in. i have heard target and lowes.

just remember, if you grow up, you get old. my wife makes me take my 15 yr. old to keep an eye on me.

i was gonna ask what you meant by that since that hits close to where i grew up, but after being away from there for 27 years, i know exactly what you meant. actually, the southwestern corner of ohio has its share of loose nuts.

You're welcome. While we were out on the Kenai, I noticed it was dead quiet-no cars, planes or anything-just the occasional screech from the eagles. I had the special experience of seeing one catch a fish and fly right over us with it. It was something I will never forget and hope to see again very soon. The fishing was an off day, but I still nailed 4 fish total. fish in water that cold is the tastiest fish you'll ever have.

i told my wife we would go south to the beach this winter. i think my arm could easily be twisted to go to alaska next spring. you got me with the fishing pics. i have been salmon fishing in lake michigan, but i bet that doesn't compare to alaska. there are lots of bald eagles in northern michigan. they are amazing to watch. they have massive wingspans if you ever get the opportunity to see one fly over close. you'll probably need a vacation to recover from a vacation like that. thanks for the awesome report.

ok bodda, you now have me really confused. after seeing "ride sally ride", i was convinced it was "mustang". your post has me guessing again. the way you capitalized "EXTREMELY", is making me think that "extreme" is in the name. you also said they practically gave us the name on one of the signs. after pondering on "the park strikes back", could it be "GOLDSTRIKE"?

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii77/HT.../DSC_0302-1.jpg http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii77/HT...IV/DSC_0304.jpg http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii77/HT...IV/DSC_0305.jpg http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii77/HT.../DSC_0308-1.jpg http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii77/HT...IV/DSC_0310.jpg here you go, avatar. i caught some of the airshow. we were trying out my new camera. what better place than the island.

speaking of the next KI event, any word on the next KICentral day?

the tower was at the moscow airport. i don't know why, but it made me want to get home to KI even faster. the food was not impressive. it was mainly slavic (eastern europe) cuisine. i was training the russians to run the new jobsite we installed at severstal steel. this was the most dangerous mill i have ever seen. there is no attention to safety at all. the fact that i didn't see someone get killed is an absolute miracle. i went to a club to watch the russian soccer team in the euro 2008 tournament. they were playing the dutch. it was the first time i ever watched a futbol(soccer) match from beginning to end. the europeans sure are passionate about their soccer team. when they beat the dutch in overtime, the whole city went nuts.

buildings are not in good shape russian orthodox church pic taken at 11:30 pm pic taken at 3:30 am very short nights after a wedding, the newlyweds put their names on a lock and attach it somewhere in the city. we seen these things everywhere they use homemade brooms. they are made of branchs of any bush or tree around a severstal steel airplane. these things didn't feel airworthy. Eiffel Tower replica in moscow statue of Lenin my chariot awaits. i spent the last month in cherepovets, russia. cherepovets is an 8 hr drive north of Moscow and 8 hrs. east of St. Petersburg. it is an industrial city supported by Severstal steel. the city is rundown and extremely dirty looking. it is not a very photogenic city. i met some wonderful people there, but most are very rude. very few people here speak english. we had to rely on our translators heavily. the wages are low and everything here is very expensive. i don't know how they survive. this city is young compared to most of europe. it is about 300 years old. there is not a lot of tourist attractions here. the nearest rollercoaster is in St. Petersburg.

2 slipped discs and an artificial hip and i ride sob every time i go. (8 visits this year so far) it is a great coaster and it's not near as rough as leanstreak at cp.

imo, sob is currently the best ride in the park. at least until we get our diving,hyper, log flume.

sounds like a great day. i take my 7 yr. old grandson. i enjoy watching the progression of moving up to *bigger* rides. last year we got him on backlot. this year he's getting more daring. racer,ae,and flight deck. he even asked to ride the front of flight deck on our last trip together. the only thing i have never figured out is that when he was smaller, he would say that some of the rides in nick were too tall or too fast, but his favorites were scrambler and shake, rattle, and roll.