Successful Book Debut this Weekend and the Kennywood Holiday Lights!

The book debut yesterday at the GOCC Party at Kennywood went wonderfully! It was a great day. Kennywood played host to the event and it was an honor to be able to debut the book in the over a century old Parkside Cafe at Kennywood. (The book is available through the drop down menu near the top of the page)

The project is the culmination of years of taking photos, lots of writing, researching along with interviewing over twenty different important folks from ride manufacturers/designers such as GCI, Gravity Group, PTC, Mike Boodley, Steve Okamoto, Charlie Dinn and others, along with amusement park legends such as Dick Knoebel, Paul Nelson of Waldameer, Murl Clark of Dutch Wonderland, Andy Quinn of Kennywood and others such as Rick Sebak of WQED. The 152 page book with hundreds of photos provides a great insight into the history of Pennsylvania amusement parks and a practical blueprint towards visiting the parks of the state with the most wooden roller coasters. Also covered are very neat landmarks around the parks such as the Yuengling Brewery, many state parks, historic landmarks and other cool things.

Great Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Road Trip Book Buying Options

For the book by itself $21.95 USD For the book and our 2014 Calendar $30.00 USD For only the 2014 Calendar $11.50 USD

The way in which this book has come together and had a very successful debut at the party, we could not be happier. It is with great joy that I can tell you this. The project has been in the back of my head for a very long time, but I never had the time to do it. I was blessed with an injury and subsequent chronic condition that gave me the sitting time to be able to complete this finally and it was a blast and really kept me together. I could not be happier. 

Enough talk about the book though. Even though the weather forced the Kennywood Holiday Lights to not open for the public on Saturday Night, the wonderful folks at Kennywood still turned on the lights over a short period for us to enjoy, including the light show over the FROZEN lagoon. What a strange sight to see compared to the way the water looks in the evening with the beautiful Racer and Jack Rabbit lights reflecting upon the water during the summer. They even turned the lights on their beautiful Dentzel carousel. It is always a treat to just be near that carousel, let alone see the dazzling lights at night.

The lights were simply spectacular!

I love the toy soldiers! Always one of the coolest lit things at the park

The landmark windmill on the way out. Overall, it was a really great day. Kennywood was a great host for us and the debut of our book was wonderful. If you are interested in the book, you can get it through the drop down menu near the top of the page. Thank you!

Our newly released book! Great Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Road Trip

Available at the top of the page in the drop down menu:

With the official release at the GOCC party today, here is the announcement we have told you about for the last few days. After many years of photo taking, a long time of having the concept and some drafts together and then getting a serious injury that gave me the sitting around time necessary to kick this into gear, we have created our book "Great Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Road Trip: A Photographic Road Trip Highlighting Pennyslvania's Historic Amusement Parks and Some Interesting Places." We have spent thousands of hours writing, editing, researching, compiling thoughts and completing interviews with so many awesome and important folks in our industry, including ride manufacturers, designers and park pioneers. Also included are quotes from huge park fans and even the great Rick Sebak of WQED! The fruits of our efforts are finally realized and it makes me a little emotional thinking about it.

We have created this book as a blueprint to visiting all of the historic and wonderful amusement parks the state of Pennsylvania has to offer. This state has more wooden roller coasters than any other state in the nation and every single one of these coasters is covered in depth throughout our book. We also cover other classic rides and modern thrills as well. What better thing to do before or after visiting a park than visit some of the wonderful neighboring attractions to these parks? We cover many neat local landmarks to the parks that you may have not even known existed.

From start to completion, working on this project was a joy and I am glad to offer you the fruit of our toils. The book is available. The drop down menu at the top of the blog or bottom of the post shows you what to do to get your hands upon our work. Thank you!

Great Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Road Trip Book Buying Options

For the book by itself $21.95 USD For the book and our 2014 Calendar $30.00 USD For only the 2014 Calendar $11.50 USD

Myrtle Beach Pavilion 2006, Final Season and Reflection

We will have a big announcement tomorrow! Stay tuned!

The Myrtle Beach Pavilion was a wonderful little seaside park in Myrtle Beach. It was a small, 11 acre amusement park, similar in size to it neighbor down the street, the wonderful Family Kingdom. Pavilion operated as a traditional amusement park from 1948, on. Pavilion really traces its history back more than a century since it was home to a seaside dance hall. A mainstay in most amusement parks from that era, dance halls/band shells/ballrooms are something that are so critical to both amusement park and American history in general. If you ask your grandparents or great grandparents, there is a good chance their first date was at one of these dance halls, dancing to live bands like the legendary Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and others, eventually breaking down many barriers in the battle for civil rights, but I digress.

The dance hall was a venerable place, having burnt twice with the third building lasting until a real estate developer felt it right to tear it down and replace it with a field. The plight of this park is very similar to that of Six Flags Astroworld, if you are more familiar with that. Just as infuriating.

Photo Credit to Newsplusnotes and I think it was sourced from Google Earth in roughly 2006. You can see the Hurricane Category Five coaster forming the backdrop. The building in the lower left corner is the old dance hall that we were talking about. Middle bottom of the park you can see the log flume and their old dark ride. On the far right you can see their rapids ride.

Zoom ahead to 7 years to 2013. They turn a thriving amusement park in the center of a tourist area into a barren wasteland. "We've got real estate of value! We need to tear down this amusement park ASAP"

This is pure conjecture, but I would imagine that since the closure was decided sometime around when Hard Rock Park was announced, the owners likely thought they had more value in the real estate than the park. The thought was likely that it would be squashed by the competition from Hard Rock. I regret they tore down this park for nothing but I am also glad they gave us a season of warning as opposed to many recent closures with no warning. At this point, the park land is in perpetual vacant standing like Astroworld and Geauga Lake. At least the wonderful and venerable old Family Kingdom, an absolutely must visit park, is still only a few blocks down the street. 

Myrtle Beach Pavilion was a very nice little park with a fun selection of rides including an Arrow log flume

Named fittingly

The centerpiece of the park was the relatively recent, but member of the cursed CCI class of 2000, Hurricane Category 5. Classmates Villain and Mega-Zeph are also gone or pretty much gone. The only g-trains I have ever found bearable were the ones on Hurricane. 

In this final picture, you can see some of the canyon theming for their rapids ride, complete with faux mountains, high tension power lines and more. It was right next to the road so it was funny to hear the distinct sounds of riders screaming "WHOAAAA AHHHHHHH" that you only hear on river rapids style rides. You can also see their waveswinger, which I think was perfectly placed near the center of the park. 

The park had a small, but decent collection of flats including the wave swinger, Huss Enterprise and Calypso. The Hurricane coaster had a helix surrounding the ride, making for a pretty disorienting effect. 

The Arrow Wild Mouse variant is probably my favorite of the genre. The rides are super smooth and have some wonderful airtime. 

This was the view from the ride's station. The poor ride did not have a chance. It was ripped apart mercilessly like Villain. I really enjoyed the ride. The way I will always remember the park is through this ride on it. Looking one way at the mammoth coaster. The layout felt very long, speedy and powerful and the drop felt huge. It was 100 feet tall but it really felt closer to 150 if that makes any sense to you. It just felt huge. A very enjoyable ride for me. I will always remember this specific moment though, about to ride the Hurricane off into the sunset, feeling the warm ocean breeze and that smell of sand and saltwater. Pavilion was a great place to spend an evening and that is how I will always remember it. Now does anyone want to buy it and resurrect a few old Schmecks and the Riverview Bobs? 

Don't forget, the wonderful and venerable Family Kingdom with Swamp Fox, the John Allen classic, and a 1923 PTC carousel that was removed from another sad closure at the famed Casino in Asbury Park, Springsteen's hometown. 

Available now is our 2015 calendar. It is on early-bird special and available through this link!

Favorite B&M Hyper Poll!

Be sure to vote for your favorite B&M Hyper! What is not to love about a B&M Hyper?

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Helping Conneaut Lake Park over the Summer

It was an honor to be able to help out the park this summer, doing some restorations to the Devil's Den Darkride. I drove from Pittsburgh to spend the day helping the park on a day off. Earlier in the summer I dropped in to ride the newly reopened tumblebug and the new and improved Blue Streak. I must say that I was fantastically surprised with both. The progress the park has made since 2010 restoring the Blue Streak is really something else. Lenny Adams and crew have made that ride top notch once again. I was shocked at the difference. I rode it a bunch of times because it was that great. The strides the park is making are huge, thanks to the team efforts of everyone involved.

You can check out this article from back over the summer when folks came and put in time to help out the park. Be sure to watch the video because they interview me! http://www.yourerie.com/story/crew-filming-conneaut-lake-park/d/story/jK543g091USByxSOzNplCg

Please support us and get a pretty 2014 calendar that comes down from 16.49 to 11.50 plus free shipping with promo codes FBC18 and FREESHIP. It will make for a great gift for someone or for yourself. http://www.lulu.com/shop/my-calendar/calendar/product-21243899.html

Poll Results: Arrow Megalooper

Vortex Kings Island	54 (41%)
Viper Magic Mountain	17 (13%)
Anaconda Kings Dominion	15 (11%)
Shockwave SF Great America	7 (5%)
Great American Scream Machine Great Adventure	18 (13%)
Viper Darien Lake	8 (6%)
Dragon Mountain Marineland	10 (7%)

The runaway favorite, which is also my favorite, is the Kings Island Vortex! I love this ride. I love the way it uses the terrain, the order of inversions and more. This ride can go head to head with most roller coasters. This Arrow megalooper is still terrific, even as it approaches 30 years old. I would take it over many modern loopers. I also think this and Magnum are the best Arrow coasters. 

The second favorite is the long-extinct Great American Scream Machine. 

In 3rd is the SFMM Viper. Photo from Joyrides

Please support us and get a pretty 2014 calendar that comes down from 16.49 to 11.50 plus free shipping with promo codes FBC18 and FREESHIP. It will make for a great gift for someone or for yourself. http://www.lulu.com/shop/my-calendar/calendar/product-21243899.html

BE SURE TO VOTE IN DECEMBER'S POLL: FAVORITE B&M HYPER

Further Waldameer Improvements: X-Scream Tower New Lighting Package

Waldameer added a spectacular new lighting package in addition to the great improvements they have made so far that you can see in this post: http://coastertalknobszone.blogspot.com/2013/11/waldameer-offseason-updates-newly.html

Watch this video shared by the park. It is truly great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDlQ3tUNFp4

Must See Non-Coaster Things: Ithaca, NY

Ithaca, NY is one of those most see places. It is incredible all around. The region has dozens of gorges, which are awesome waterfalls. This shot below is from Taughannock Falls in the winter. Any season it is awesome. In the winter you can see scenes like this, or in the summer, in a few of the waterfall areas you can swim, climb up the waterfalls and dive into giant pools under the waterfalls. It is really something else. 

 It is in the midst of the finger lakes, with hundreds of wineries with great views of the lakes and tons of vineyards. This one is Wagner's in Lodi, NY on Seneca Lake

Below is Lower Buttermilk Falls, really a pretty cool place. 

Brit is from Ithaca and we will be heading up there for Thanksgiving and that made me think of how awesome Ithaca is. It is a place you really should take a road trip and check out. The place is really like no other.

Why not look at pretty photos of coasters while you write your appointments down on the calendar? Why not get this as a gift for another of your coaster loving friends? 15% discount for Thanksgiving/Black Friday Gift buying week!http://www.lulu.com/shop/my-calendar/calendar/product-21243899.html

Arrow Megalooper Poll!

4 More days to vote for your favorite Arrow Megalooper! Do so on the right sidebar of the page!

If you like keeping the things you do organized and like to look at nice pictures, please help support us and get our 2014 calendar at http://www.lulu.com/shop/my-calendar/calendar/product-21243899.html

Food for thought: Knoebels Twister turns 15 next year!

Next year will be the 15th anniversary of the building of the Twister. As you may or may not know, this was a rebuilt from scratch remake of the original Mister Twister at the original Elitch Gardens in Denver. This coaster is a joy to ride and add in the fact that next season will be the first full season of Flying Turns, I highly recommend taking a trip to the park, whether you have been to it, or if you have not visited, what are you waiting for?

I don't know about you, but I can just hear the Twister looking at this shot, hear it echoing off of the small valley in the back. I can also just hear a train that will be going through those helix elements in just moments. That thunderous sound is one of my favorite sounds in any park. 

 If you like keeping the things you do organized and like to look at nice pictures, please help support us and get our 2014 calendar at http://www.lulu.com/shop/my-calendar/calendar/product-21243899.html

Geauga Lake Raging Wolf Bobs Demolition

On today, November 20th, 2013, the demolition of the Raging Wolf Bobs is either close to being finished, or finished completely, with crews on site dismantling the ride. While the ride was not my favorite, it is difficult to watch any ride come down like that. Being from Allentown originally, Dorney's Hercules hit me pretty hard, even though many people did not care for the ride, I loved it. I can relate to the pain of someone whose homepark was GL in seeing this happen to Raging Wolf Bobs.

Photo credit tot he Geauga Lake Facebook Page

Here is a shot from better times of the Raging Wolf Bobs, I can almost smell the new lumber just looking at this shot!

Photo credit to Geauga Lake Today

 If you like keeping the things you do organized and like to look at nice pictures, please help support us and get our calendar at http://www.lulu.com/shop/my-calendar/calendar/product-21243899.html

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Diamondback Before and After

I can't wait to see the full difference once Banshee is set, but in the mean time, we can look at the dramatic skyline change that Diamondback made upon the Kings Island skyline.

Not a perfect comparison, but pretty close. Beautiful!

Waldameer Offseason Updates Newly Painted Waterslides and Ravine Flyer II Retrack Loving! Plus fun along Lake Erie

We went up to Fredonia, NY to visit family and on the way back today, we stopped by a few places in the interesting weather and took in the sights. Among these sights are Barcelona, NY and the wonders of Waldameer in Erie, PA.

We love going through this area. It was weird seeing the grapevines all devoid of growth. Last week they were wrapping up harvesting for the season.  The weather was strange as we were heading back, right on the cusp of a storm line. The skies were truly spectacular. You can see a stray raindrop or two on the window I shot this photo through. 

All along the lake, in every small docking town, they have nice little lighthouses. This one in Barcelona, New York. We stopped for a little while just taking in the beauty of the small docking area. 

The entire area is vineyards, as far as the eye can see. Welch's grape comes from this region. There are also numerous wineries all scattered about. It makes for a really beautiful area along the lake. 

They have a re creation of a War of 1812 boat that they are trying to restore once again. Yeah I know that sounds confusing, but they are doing a funding drive to restore it. As you may or may not know, naval battles actually occurred right on the lake. 

This guy is pretty chill, even in the face of that impending storm. Also quite a bit more chill than it was just about 200 years ago in the midst of the war. Pretty crazy to think about it happening in such a relaxing place.

These three guys were pretty relaxed as well. The winds picked up enough though that they were actually blown off of the posts. 

Not before Brit could snap some shots though! The strangest thing about this storm was that the winds were blowing in from inland. 

Pulling up to Waldameer now, we could not believe how greatly the new colors on the slides made the park stand out! You could see them from almost a mile back!

To quote Rod Stewart "You wear it well" but nothing looks a little old fashioned with these slides!

The park focused even more upon retracking Ravine Flyer II, after this season was arguably as great, or even better than opening season! You can see the extensive retracking they did during the last offseason in the galleries on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/coastertalknobszone You can see it during the season, and a visit we made like this last spring. I cannot even imagine how much greater it will run next season! Nothing quite like PTC trains running on a well maintained track!

The ride, and Waldameer itself, were looking really lonely.

The bridge never ceases to amaze me, along with the wooded setting and views of the lake. 

This is a shot you cannot get once the trees are filled in! Also with the fact that the swings actually have no swings, making it look like a  giant spinning top.

The new slide colors look absolutely spectacular!

Front view! Expended enough energy on crutches getting out for the rest of the views, but all I have to say is wow on those colors. I love the multi-colors on the one slide. 

The twisted nature and brilliant engineering on this ride never cease to amaze me! I never took in this view because I was never in the passenger seat going under this before. Simply wow. 

What a drop! You can also see some solid retracking at the bottom!

So this is what Erie folks do? I laughed pretty hard at the strangeness of this billboard. 

Conneaut some other time! Boy I wish it were summer!

It is always fun driving on the Lake Erie Scenic Byway. It is something else with so many interesting things to see. I highly recommend taking the trip through there!

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