Well, just back from a southern weekend of coastering. Here's
the latest and greatest from my perspective:
Friday, Jul 24 -- Hit a little traditional park called Lake Winnepesakuah,
which sit's at the tail end of I-75 in GA, on the TN boarder. It's a traditional park in the true sense of the word, with a low gate price
($1.00) which gets you into the park, and then old-style rides, which can
be rode on a Pay-One-Price or individual ticket basis (a POP was only $10.00).
This rather small Lake-side park is home to the John Allen out-and-backer
called the CANNON BALL. This Cival War-themed coaster (featuring grey and
blue rolling stock!) is one of Allen's better out-and-backers IMHO. The
coaster features a 70' lift hill, and one of the best first drops around.
It's a curving drop, similar to that of KD's Grizzly. It really gives you
that 'butterflies in your stomach' feeling!!
Following the first drop is a series of high-speed rabbit hops which give
great airtime in the front or the back seat. The ride ends with a popper-g
hill. I was there in the day, but I bet this coaster really hauls at night!
A very fun and ride-able coaster, in an enjoyable park.
Cannon Ball - **** out of 5
Saturday, Jul 25 -- Drove over to Myrtle Beach, SC. It seemed like it took
forever to get here from GA! There are two parks at Myrtle Beach --
The Pavillion, and the Family Kingdom, juts down the street. The Family
Kingdom is home to the classic Allen woodie, the SWAMP FOX. This is
another GREAT wooden coaster by John Allen, in a double out-and-back
layout, it offers great negative g's throughout it's circuit. The whole
ride was re-built this season, and was running very fast and smooth,
even for mid-day. The only thing was everyone was at the beach, and
not too many folks were enjoying the coaster (too bad!). I hope this
park continues to do well financially.
Went down the road to the Pavillion. They have 3 steel coasters there,
and rode the Galaxi and their Arrow Corkscrew coaster. Put em on the stats,
and was on my way to NC!
Swamp Fox - **** out of 5
Galaxi - ** out of 5
Corkscrew - ** out of 5
Sunday, Jul 26 -- Went to Carowinds first on Sunday. This is a nice park. Clean, well kept (reminded me of a southern KD/SFoT), but suffers from a
healthy dose of TPM (Theme Park Mentality)!
Crowds were VERY light, and I got about 15 rides on their new VORTEX
(B&M) stand-up steelie. Vortex -- it's def. the smoothest stand-up to
date. It's fast and very smooth. I don't think it is the most excisting
one I've ever been on (It's certainly no IRON WOLF!), but it was pretty neat. It looks GREAT on the mid-way...with a BRIGHT RED track, light gray rails,
and dark grey bents, with red/yellow/black rolling stock. It's a great
addition to this park, and I hope it does well with the public. B&M owe it
to their credit for creating yet another fast and SMOOTH steelie. Maybe
there is hope for us steel coaster lovers who don't dig the head batting!
Gold Rusher Mine Train -- Pretty hateful. The train shot thru the station
brake, and I got treated to a 2nd free ride, but not that I wanted one!!
The layout was better than most Arrow Mine Trains, but as with most, it was pretty jerky, and gave me a headache. Also, it had those "hard to fit into"
trains which I abhor.
Carolina Cyclone -- this is a 4 inversion Arrow looper. It looks AWFUL
(organe track that has been painted over very poorly as a dark green.
Looks really puky, with bright orange rolling stock...bleck!). The lousy
color scheme made me think it would be a rough ride. It wasn't. In fact,
it is one of the smoother Arrow loopers in the country. Off the first drop,
you do two verticle loops in a row, followed by a 180 degree turn to the right into a corkscrew, then into a tunneled upwards helix. An *ok* ride, but most patrons liked it better than the Vortex.
Thunder Road -- This modified John Allen design LOOKS like Curtis Summers
built it...you can tell in the superelevation and curves! I like Rebel Yell better, and I don't even LIKE the Rebel Yell!! They do race the trains, though, so a plus for them. It's an ok ride, with two points of negative gravity
both in the front and in the back. It's smooth and fast, but it's no YANKEE CANNONBALL (or L.W. Cannon Ball for that matter!).
Scooby Doo -- This jr. woodie is pretty much the same fare as the ones at Canada's Wonderland and King's Dominion. Not much else to say about it,
except I like the one at KD better.
Vortex - ***1/2 out of 5
Carolina Cyclone - **1/2 " " "
Mine Train - ** " " "
Thunder Road - **1/2 " " "
Scooby Doo - * " " "
Later on in the day, I hit Ghost Town in the Sky. One of the more UNUSUAL amusement parks in the USA is Ghost Town in the Sky sits ATOP a mountain
in the Smokey Mtn's of North Carolina! You drive through the mountains
till you get to this small town. Park in the lot, get a POP of $13.00,
and then hop on a chair-lift and take it up a very steep incline to the top
of the mountain. Once at the top, a small western-themed traditional-style
park greets you!
Ghost Town in the Sky is home to the single-loop RED DEVIL steelie, by
the OD Hopkins firm of NH. This is a strange coaster. It starts by
leaving the station directly into the first drop (ala Kennywood's
Thunderbolt!) and then into the loop (which is one of the oddest
clothoid loops around...pulls some really WEIRD and strong g forces!!).
After the loop, you traverse the first of two helix'. The first is
taken at a high speed, the 2nd a lesser speed, but comes out over the
mountainside, giving a spectacular view (the view makes up for what the
ride lacks excitement-wise!). After the 2nd helix, the train hits a
brake run, then climbs a 90' chain lift back into the station!
It's an ok ride. Personally, I liked the chain lift to the park better.
Red Devil - **1/2 out of 5
Monday, July 27 -- I hit Six Flags over Georgia on Monday. SFoG was a
surprisingly nice park...it's probably the nicest looking and well kept
of the 7 SF parks, and probably offered the best coastering experience
of all of them.
Georgia Cyclone -- Oh My God! OH MY GOD!! That's what I was
saying as this monsterous puppy dared to throw my body from it's
seat with intense negative g's!!! One hill had me doubled over the
lap bar for the entire duration of the speed bump! THIS IS MY NEW
#1 WOODIE!! SFoG rebuilt this puppy last winter...a lot of people
felt it was for the worst...well, the trim brakes are off (two
sets remain, but were not engaged), and this sucker is FLYING!! I
can't tell wether I like the front or the back better on this ride
-- both are outstanding and amazing, with oodles and oodles of airtime.
Mindbender -- BRAKED HEAVILY, but still a world-class steelie. Front
offered some airtime, desipite a set of trim brakes, heavily set,
before each of the 4 drops. Boy, what this coaster would be like without
those trim brakes!!
Ninja -- Not sure what they did to this ride between NJ and GA, but
it's a much faster ride! I actually sort of like it now. The front
car is neat, allowing you to realize the ride is over water. This
ride is also deathly popular at SFoG...glad it has a happy new home
(and long lines to boot ... thankfully I didn't have to wait 2 1/2 hours
to ride this).
GASM -- A fun and fast woodie. Not a lot of airtime, but some. This
woodie still has 4 sets of scarf brakes in the circuit, but some seemed
lightly set of not at all. Also, very smooth for a SF woodie. There
were bouts of airtime along the circuit, but nothing like the old days
when it was first built. Not bad, but def. overshadowed by it's smaller
wooden counterpart at SFoG, the GA Cyclone (which proves bigger is not
always better!).
Dahlonega Mine Train -- Better than most (I esp. liked the trains...I
could actually fit my long legs in them -- a first!), but still it was
your a-typical Arrow mine for the most part. I went with a coaster
friend from DEC, and his not-so-coaster friend from GA. The not so
coaster hurled on this ride in the last helix! 8^( (Sort of funny,
but a litytle embarrassing, esp. since I had my ACE shirt on -- they
were probably saying "Geesh, SOME enthusiasts they are!) 8^)
