The James show. PT.9 - Featuring Deka

So... Yeah... Six Flags Over Georgia.

Being laid-over in Atlanta overnight and having the option to take a later flight the next day... The simple choice was to take a quick trip to Six Flags, I had even done the same thing last summer when a missed connection occurred and a flight the next day was rebooked. If only today had worked out the same as last year. Deka and I ended up at the park on what was the last day of the season before the park switched over to weekends only. It was also bring a friend day for season pass holders. So yeah, it was incredibly busy and after staying in the park just over two hours, we left, without ever riding a single coaster! In fact, we just rode Acrophobia (my favorite) and the new for 2013 Sky Screamer (that Deka had yet to ride, despite SFOG being her home park and being a pass holder herself!) We still managed to have fun at the park, I just wish I could have ridden Mind Bender or Goliath. I don't know... maybe next year.

Anyways, a few photos....

Ooooh.... Six Flags!!!! Were gonna have fun!!!

Oooohhh!!!! Excitement building!!!!

Annddd...... All hopes and dreams of riding anything or having any sort of fun... stopped here.

(and at this point the park had already been open a few hours!)

Walking into the park... You'll pass no less than 2,000 signs for the parks new Sky Screamer. It was almost seasons end and Deka still hadn't ridden it yet and it was on my to-do list. Sadly, I didn't know it would be one of just two things I'd be riding all day...

Mmmm, Goliath and Acrophobia!

I really wanted to ride both, but because of the extreme busyness of the park and lack of time, I was only able to ride one.... but it was the one that's important to me (Acro!)

Even Cyclone had a (long) line.. Running both trains, full. I don't think I've seen any line for this ride in my past 8-9 visits! That being said, I was fine not riding it today....

We had to make our way past it and up the hill for something better... :D

Mmmm, Acrophobia!

My favorite stand-up, spinning, tilting, drop tower!

Also, I guess it's my second favorite drop tower over all. Just behind Hurakan Condor

After a very good ride on Acro, with an extremely long loading process.... We made our way to the park end of the park.

For Sky Screamer! The queue was full and spilling out onto the midway but Deka said this was the shortest she had seen it all summer, pointing to where the park has temporary extended queue areas setup to the left of the entrance....

yaayyy! Swing Towers!

Sky Screamer was placed where the parks Enterprise, Wheelie, once stood (and they used the same queue house). Wheelie ended up making its way to Orlando and was featured in one of the bonus twitter photos in the very first part of this trip!

We're having a Six Flags.... day

(ya ya ya!)

Sky Screamer runs rather short but I guess with a giant line the park cares more about capacity rather than giving the people who just waited an hour a good ride, worth their wait. I don't know, maybe I'm just used to the Star Flyer we have in Orlando that runs a nice long program. (at $7 a ride)

And now.... photos of three coasters I didn't get to ride but wanted to!

(and yes, I've ridden them all in the past... ZzZzz)

NINJA!

Yeah, I know... everyone hates it... But I kinda like it?

And.... Goliath

Pretty sure everyone likes this one...

Annddd... Mind Bender, my favorite coaster in the park :(

(at least I got to ride it 3 or 4 times... last year)

Random 7/11 Slurpee machines in the park now.

Six Flags New England added them as well but I don't remember seeing them at other Six Flags parks I've been to. I'm sure they have them as well.. I just didn't care?

WE'RE HAVING FUN

Yeah, so that's it... After leaving the park Deka drove me to the airport where I found once again my flight was gonna be delayed... But at least this time I got the slightest bit of compensation... a $25 meal card... that I wasted $23.50 of! (on a veggie wrap, a jumbo peanut butter smoothie... a cookie.. and some expensive bagged gourmet popcorn) at some point I did make it back to Orlando where Jeff picked me up and drove me home. Then I went to work the next day and drove the Monorail in circles for 12 hours... yay!

Conclusion PT.2

Yup, a nice relaxing vacation

went from Florida to Georgia to Oklahoma to Missouri to Kansas back to Missouri to Arkansas back to Oklahoma to Texas back to Oklahoma again and onto Missouri to Georgia and once more, back to Florida in 9 days....added some 41 new counties (and a whole bunch of revisited ones!), 5 new parks (and 3 revisited), and some 17 new for me coasters, including a new top 3 woodie! As well as visiting 2 (3?) zoo's, a waterpark... a giant soda store and the largest man-made arch in the world...Along with the 6 flights to and from 4 different airports (2 new for me!)... lots of duck sitings and even a few bears along the way. annddd I got to hang out with two of my first coaster-friends..... friends.

. <3 good times.

Woo, some 225 photos later... my longest blogged-trip update is finished!

Bonus photos via twitter -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364046689780236288
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364073938600484864
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364088650436333568


Bonus random tweets -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364065563422625792

https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364066007729442816
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364108251073220608
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/364105610494619648

And, um, that's it... Part 9 of 9. Yaayyy for adventures!

never again

The James show. PT.8

Yup.... The Saint Louis Zoological Park

My day at the St. Louis Zoo should have been the last in my adventure... but things didn't end up that way... I only had enough time at the zoo to see the major areas and sadly, not enough time to ride the train... Or explore the rest of the massive Forest Park area (in the end, I had a huge delay at the airport and could have spent hours more at the zoo and forest park.......)  The zoo opened in 1904 and was part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 World's Fair) and the 1904 Summer Olympics as well. Forest Park is also home to the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, and the St. Louis Science Center, as well as large areas of park land. From 1896 to 1963 there was even an amusement park located within Forest Park with a pretty fun looking coaster.

Anyways.... uh, photos from the Saint Louis Zoological Park.

 Woo, not only is the zoo AZA accredited... its FREE!

And incredibly classy.

The zoo is very large and split into six sections. 

    River's Edge, The Wild, Discovery Corner, Historic Hill, Red Rocks, and Lakeside Crossing

It also has a large Chance C. P. Huntington train with four stations... and it runs multiple trains! But due to time issues, I was unable to ride it :( (next time for sure!)

As soon as I entered the park and checked the massive map.. I made my way to the left

(hippo...hippo...hippo!)

Passing a rather large under construction area... That once open will feature bears!

(Guess I was too early, booo)

But that's ok, because just past it was....

The Hungry, Hungry Hippos!!!

(hippo hippo...hippo!)

Oh, and this terrible women... Who while standing NEXT TO the sign saying "Welcome to the Anheuser-Busch Hippo Harbor" kept telling her child "LOOK AT THE RHINO! DO YOU SEE THE RHINO?! LOOK! THE RHINO IS SWIMMING!!!" I was ready to slap her... but I just walked away.

Walking down to the Elephant area you walk along side this neat little stream.

The zoo has lots of water features... Ponds, fountains, waterfalls. Its very impressive. 

At the bottom of the hill is the Elephant Overlook... And yeah, you can see Elephants there. 

Who knew?

I made a quick pass by the Butterfly Pavilion. Yup.

and... I was able to get to the outdoor viewing area 

for the penguins.

They also have an indoor penguin viewing area with puffins as well but it wasn't open during my visit, I believe an entire section of this area in the zoo was under refurbishment at the time.

((Polar Bears were listed as "coming soon"... but I was sooner than them :( ))

Most zoo's seem to be getting in on this Carousel trend. More than half of the zoo's I've visited in the past few years seem to have them. This is the Mary Ann Lee Conservation Carousel. Although unlike most zoo's their carousel represents animals found within the zoo itself.

Oh!

And its across the patchway from the duck pond!!

QUACK QUACK!

Fragile Forest features orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. The area is split half indoors half outdoors and the areas open and close with the seasons.

In the 'back' (or, I guess.. far right side) are the Red Rock Territories and Historic Hill areas of the zoo, Historic Hill being the oldest area, dating back to 1904. Sadly, these were the areas I was only able to spend minimal time at :(

But I did happen upon this sleepy Hyena.

I was unable to spot any of the big cats in the zoo :(

No Lions, Leopards, Tigers, or Jaguars for me....

But I did get to see Mr. Ring-Tailed Lemur!!!

I almost missed the lemur house all together... 

in my race to the exit.

After leaving the zoo I made my way back to the airport with a stop for a quick lunch... Knowing Jeff gets mad at me for eating at chains when I'm in new cities... I found a place on my GPS down the road from the zoo called My Daddy's Cheesecake Bakery & Cafe... and I checked it out. I ended up getting a super yummy veggie wrap.. and well, cheesecake. Tragically, I was unable to pick just one kind to try and ended up getting two <3 :D

Once full of yummy cakes.. I continued onto the airport where I found my flight was to be delayed by hours... So I walked by some trendy camp store filled with custom and wonderful looking rubber ducks, fearing I'd be walking out with 15 of them... I just got myself a panda bear suction-cup and quickly exited... While sitting at the gate waiting to fly from STL to ATL to MCO we were informed our flight was going to be delayed more and that you could call Delta for more info or rebookings... I jumped at the chance to book a later flight out of Atlanta.. I sent Deka a whole bunch of texts and booked myself a flight out of Atlanta the next night. Woo, Six Flags Over Georgia.... here I come!

At some point the flight did leave St. Louis, getting me into Atlanta around 10pm. Deka picked me up at the airport and we headed off to her place but stopping at a Waffle House along the way for some numnums.

In the end, the St. Louis Zoo is pretty amazing. I'd put it in my top 5 zoo's for sure. Not really sure where at but after Omaha (my #1)...  and maybe before the National Zoo (unless they bring their hippos back)

Bonus photos via twitter -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363733758727319552
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363842265430515712

Bonus random tweets -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363693300382834689

https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363726941695647744
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363731719003709440
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363733151597596672
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363771188851380224

And that's it for part 8... Here's where the story ends... well, should have ended. Just one update left now.

The James show. PT.7

Umm... Six Flags St. Louis?

One of the worst park experiences of my life happened here back in 2005, as well as one of the, if not THE biggest coaster disappointment I've had to date...there was a long while where I just wanted nothing to do with this park at all. 8 years later, it was almost an entirely new park for me. Since my last visit the park has added three new coasters, a drop tower, and a Star Flyer as well as turned Mr.Freeze around backwards, I ended up missing this ride back in 05 due to thunder storms, bad planning, and traffic in the St. Louis metro. They've also reopened their Falling Star and expanded their water park. I was slightly nervous pulling up to the park based on my previous visit.... but did my best to be optimistic while watching the rain clouds rolling in, Déjà Vu? At least this time it wasn't gonna be 100*s out 

Well.....here goes nothing.

Yup.... Six Flags Road...Eureka, Missouri

Home to Six Flags St. Louis... uh, the third and final park built by Six Flags.

And one of my most hated parks

Apparently the park was now Missouri's Coaster Capital

Too bad only two (maybe 3?) of their coasters are worth riding.

Thanks to my Gold Pass, I was able to enter the park 15 minutes before non-passholders and ran to be first in line for Mr. Freeze : Reverse Blast, the only adult coaster I was unable to ride my first trip here....and the only one I really wanted to ride today.

Ah, first to make it to the queue entrance! But wait...

ZzZzz

At least it could be heard testing... so they were actively trying to get the ride open.

After hanging around around maybe 30 minutes the ride opened... and I raced to get my front (back?) seat ride.

Ah, that moment when you're the only one in the station for a ride and its open!

Quickly taking my front seat ride... I was locked and loaded.. and slid over to the launch tunnel.

This ride is super fun, absolutely loved it!

Being launched out of the station backwards.... climbing the 200+ foot spike.. facing downward the whole time, and the fantastic free fall on the return run! Over the day I rode it some six times and would have ridden it more had it not closed during the heavier rain...

After a couple rides on Freeze, I made my way up the hill to Pandemonium, ugh

Taking advantage of my single-riderness I jumped in the first seat I saw, got my one ride in, CREDIT! +1 and walked away not caring to ever ride it again. Why couldn't Six Flags have invested in some good spinning coasters?

I'm not really sure what happened next... But I ended up bringing myself to get in line "line" for Boss.

Boss..... its so terrible no one wants to ride it.

Back in 2005 this was one of the biggest, if not the biggest roller coaster disappointments of my life. The ride is just so massive and one of the few rides I'd go as far to call beautiful.. sadly its 100% CRAP. Its mega slow and ultra rough and it runs G-Trains to boot! I absolutely hated this ride the one and only time I rode it before.... Part of me wanted to make sure it was as bad as I remembered, I guess that's why I got in the nonexistent line. Anyways, it was still terrible but I was able to see the ride has potential to me amazing. If it only got some (good) retracking and maybe new rolling-stock... But for now, I'll be just fine never going back on it.

While exciting Boss, I saw the parks enterprise running.

"Highland Fling", it was closed my last time here.. So I took the opportunity to ride it this time.

I also rode Xcalibur, although this was the only non-coaster I got to ride in 2005. Its not run the way it should be, but its still fun for what it is.... although the loading process takes forever... and I was the *only* rider on it!

I made my way over to Superman: Tower Of Power, the parks Intamin Giant Drop.. but things weren't looking to good.

 The employee at the ride entrance kept telling everyone to check back later in the day and that it would be opening at some point....

It never did.

But the parks new (used) Boomerang had opened for the day, 2 hours after park opening!

Good for them not being able to open a 24 year old ride on time

Even worse, the ride seems extremely popular 

(guess that's a good thing for the park)

Not only did it turn out being the longest line all day for me, it might have even been the second longest line I've ever waited in... for a Boomerang. :/

While working my way up to the top of the park... I found they've moved the entrance for Screamin' Eagle. Now you're forced to walk past a bunch of crappy midway games I wasn't gonna play anyways.. and it made it slightly awkward to find the coasters entrance... ZzZzz

While the line was only a two train wait for the back car, it started pouring... not being known to me, until the train exited the station. I'm not sure how I feel about this ride... Its not bad... but I don't find it that great either. I guess its kinda like Scream Machine at SFOG, where it looks like an airtime machine... but it just turns out... not to be.

While still at the parks top (hill top) I made my way over to SkyScreamer.

This was the first Funtime Star Flyer to be built in a Six Flags park 

(their up to 8 now)

I guess its OK, it runs an extremely short cycle. This was my fifth true Star Flyer (up to 6 now) and for sure had the quickest cycle.

Heading back down the hill I walked over to the parks giant Ferris wheel, Colossus.

And much like my 2005 trip, it was closed.

(all day, no signs of work being done)

But oddly enough while exiting other rides in the park the employees will "suggest" that you "go check out _____" and more than once Colossus came up.

Uh, the Six Flags Railroad was one of those rides telling you to ride the closed Colossus. I rode the train a full lap for photo ops...but due to poor weather and lighting.... it didn't turn out to well for me. Oh well.

Heading back down the hill to make my way over to the final new-for-me coaster in the park I stopped over at the parks duel log flume... I think just called... Log Flume?

I only planned to ride one side but due to lack of any sort of line for the ride ended up riding both sides. Both were rather fun but I think the "left" station was the better of the two and I'm kinda surprised the park still has them. 

(seeing how SF has been removing flumes chain wide)

I also grabbed myself a quick lunch...

$14 later.....

I walked over to American Thunder

I wasn't sure what to think walking up to the ride. When it first opened, people who made their way out to the park for it seemed to love it but then nothing was ever heard of it ever again.

It was rather good! But Six Flags' lack of maintenance for it is slowly showing. The trains pretty much shuffle the whole ride... but its not rough, yet.

I was making my way back up the hill to see if River King had any sort of line... but at this point the sky opened worse than before and most rides closed. I ended up leaving the park myself and just kind... chilled in my car, seeing if the weather would let up or not. After maybe an hour the rain was slowly letting up (although not stopping) I made my way back into the park... I was about ready to just leave... but I hadn't ridden Batman yet and I kinda wanted to before leaving.

Not really sure what I was thinking here.. but....

I made my way over to Ninja, with a lovely sign stating it would only have one train running (ahahahahah, if this was SFNE, every coaster would need this!)

One train ops, or not, there was no line.. even for row one.

After quickly regretting getting in line for it at all, I was off... and making my way over to Batman.

Pretty surprised to find it a walk-on as well. But I guess at this point there were only like 1000 people in the park.... I also rode the parks swinging ship, located next to Batman before heading back uphill.

Uh.... River King Mine Train

Back in 2005 I rode this ride, I only knew I had ridden it because I had taken an on-ride photo. If not for that photo I wouldn't have even known I had ridden it at all! (shows how...good.. the ride is)

So I hopped on, just to see if it would jog my memory... nope! Magic Springs definitely got the better of the two sides (if you can call theirs... better)

After a few more rides on Freeze, and an attempted second ride on a now closed SkyScreamer, I headed over to Thunder River.

I mean at this point... I was already completely soaked and it was raining.... so there wasn't much more damage to be had... The ride turned out to be pretty good, although on the shorter side for a raft ride. After exiting, I rode the parks Scooby-Doo dark ride shooter and a final two more rides on Mr. Freeze before heading out to my new luxurious hotel and a num-nums stop at a Denny's on the way.

uugghhhhh...... at least it didn't say YOLO.

So um, that's it. Six Flags St. Louis was better this time around than my last time... although still pretty craptastic. Maybe the third time will be the charm... Once they get their long awaited hyper (aaahhhhahahaha) and maybe if the sun could stay out when I'm here for once.. that would be nice too (maybe I could even try the water park..) I don't know.. Freeze is great, so is America Thunder. Batman and Eagle are good and so are SkyScreamer and Xcalibur (although both not run as they could be) I guess I *would* visit the park again... I just don't see myself going out of my way for it. And if I do come back... that damn Ferris Wheel better be open!

Uh, yeah.

Bonus photos via twitter -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363349872356769792
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363374771498528769

Bonus random tweets -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363304629196427265
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363333277236465664
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363342395800170496

https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363450414475124737

Woo, part seven? ... Just two more to go!