A look back at my Passport...?

So back in the fall of 2013 I started the fun process of renewing my passport because somehow it had been ten years since I got my first one and I was getting everything ready for my upcoming cruise in January of 2014 (yeah) and I also may need one for future adventures....

Looking back at all the stamps I had gotten (and wishing I hadn't missed out on others) I took a few photos and well, now I'm making a rambly blog post about it. Yaayyy

So back in 2003 I tried to plan a trip to Russia, for the spring of 2004.... Things didn't work out with Russia but I ended up going on a whirlwind trip across Central Europe with one of my best friends on one of those "trip of a lifetime" sort of adventure. Two years later I got the chance to visit England with a side trip Scandinavia and the year after, Spain...... with a whole bunch of trips to Canada in-between. So uh, lets look at stamps and stuff from the past 10 years.

 As lame as it sounds... I always felt so cool using my passport as my ID when at airports vs using a state ID or something (lame, I know.. but it was neat to me)

Ah, me... from 10 years ago.
It was super fun having green-ish hair on my passport (and blue on my license and in-person having a third, different color!) made for some interesting looks by officials (and the piercings didn't help either)

So I didn't realize not everyone stamps... and was kinda bummed to only get a few in passing... but here's the ones I did have.

(in fact, on my last trip, none of the countries stamped :( ) 

2004

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Luchthaven Schiphol) was the first stamp I ever got.

Having flown in from Detroit, MI.... red-eye. 

Nickelsdorf road crossing stamp from Austria into Hegyeshalom, Hungary

Munich Airport (Flughafen München) flying to Zürich, Switzerland

2006

London Heathrow Airport, coming in non-stop from Boston <3

Entering and Exiting stamps from Göteborg City Airport

 (Säve Flygplats)

Yup... just there for a day (and I visited Norway as well!)

London Stansted Airport stamp from my Sweden return.

(Hm, Stansted and Heathrow? I should work on getting Gatwick...)

Oh hey look, I even got the America stamp! Woo, America!

2007

I was super amused the the Ireland stamp... was in fact, green.

<3

Although the process in getting to and from Dublin Airport (Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath) was awful

Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport 

(Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas)

Uh, entering and exiting Spain.

And... another US stamp, returning to the states from Düsseldorf by way of Madrid again.

yaayyy... So after 10 years of service it was time to replace my passport with a new one... Now I should add some lame phrase like "I wonder where it'll take me".. but that would be stupid. 

and for what its worth, I visited Canada, The Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, England, Wales, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and Spain with it as well as reentering the US. (a bunch) 

((and my now current passport as taken me to Haiti, Jamaica, British Overseas Territories, and Mexico so far!))

Adventures <3

The disaster that is Flea World (and the loss that was Fun World)

Intro: So... Since I moved to Florida in the fall of 2009 I've always been intrigued with this place in Sanford named Flea World, "the world's largest flea market". What makes the place interesting is it featured a small amusement park area known as Fun World. At the time I moved, I was living at Jeff and Brian's house and they kinda laughed at me for wanting to check it out and pretty much talked me out of going...although they themselves had never even been. They also were fairly certain the rides were long gone. Jump ahead nearly four years and I'm sitting at home watching random videos on YouTube during a thunderstorm and an ad for Flea World plays showing rides..... Without any real hesitation I called Travis (who used to work in Rails with me) up and asked if he wanted to go on a random adventure... and off to Sanford we went....

woo

FLEA WORLD!

 The world's largest flea market, home to over 1000 booths and restaurants

This place is a beast.

With rows and rows of... well... crap.

And more crap

And also, stuff?

And more stuff too!

Yeah, its a beast....

Shout out to South of The Border in Dillon, South Carolina

Oddly enough a place I've visited some 6 or 7 times now

After searching and searching.... there is (was) an amusement park hidden within

Fun World, the place was Ghetto-Lovely. An odd mix of run down rides...but in a well kept sort of way... and something I'd even say would have been worth a revisit based on one of the rides within, sadly after the 2013 summer season the amusement area of Flea World was closed and removed once and for all but at least I made the trek once and got out there.

$5 was enough to go on six rides although I only rode four 

(Travis rode two with me but got sick after the first one...)

Walking up to the park you only see the kid rides, most of them being things I'd never seen before....

Some looking almost... homemade......

Or right out of Roller Coaster Tycoon!

But outside and around the back were some full sized rides.

Once the rain cleared they slowly started opening but run on a rotation cycle where some rides are open while others stay closed and then they switch?

The Eli Scrambler was in far better condition than the one at Old Town! It amused me a Flea Market could keep a ride better looking than a so-called "amusement park" could.

It also gave a long cycle at a pretty good pace!

 The Tilt-a-Whril looked pretty OK as well, it gave a good ride too. Travis managed to stomach it out with me.

The SPACE ROUND-UP ran well too

I tried to get Travis to ride it with me.. but he sat out while I took a spin.

Maybe I should have had him ride this instead.

There was an odd looking Himalaya style ride next to the round up.. but it was closed 

Um.. and missing a car

Now... the real reason I pretty much dropped everything and ran out to Sanford was for this..... the second I saw it on YouTube I HAD to ride it.... right now

The extremely rare Loop-O-Plane

Since Miracle Strip closed in 2004 I was unaware of any in the state, let alone one 30 minutes from my house.

It might not look like much... but if run well it can be very intense and Fun World didn't disappoint... In fact, they ran it 3 times longer than the only other one I've ever come across, at Keansburg in New Jersey...

(where I had an interesting ride... pretty much... the door opened as the cycle began and the door opening leads to the lapbar unlatching and also opening.....)

But nothing happened on the Fun World ride, well, to me at least... After going around and around some 20 times with at least 3 direction changes and 2 inverted holds...Travis needed some BENCH: The Ride.... <3

So while the overall loss of Fun World isn't the end of the universe... its still pretty sad to lose such an odd place with some classic and fun rides and I'm pretty bummed about the Loop-O being gone (luckily the *new* Miracle Strip opening this week picked up one.... just some 360 miles away from here, but hey... it's still in Florida)

Also...

BONUS HIPPO!

Space Coast State Fair, er...DISAPPOINTMENT

My first North American Midway Entertainment/NAME fair in years.... and it was pretty awful.

So in early 2013 I found out about a fair called the Space Coast State Fair taking place in the fall and that it was gonna be their 25th anniversary, Jeff had never heard of it and looking at their website it seemed like it should be pretty major. After some research and finding out NAME was the midway provider we were both pretty excited for this fair.... Well, uh, that quickly ended once showing up at the fair grounds........

Ok, to be fair... what we got wasn't that bad of a midway... but far from what we were promised.

Add on top of that more than half the rides being closed when we got there... Some were still being setup in fact! (oh, and almost every major ride had a sign saying no singles... how odd) Oh... and we can add the massive letdown of Vortex being a no-show due to the indecent that happened in North Carolina, that could have been the fairs saving grace.

So here we go, Space Coast State Fair ((never again :P))

Hey look, tickets booths not open on time.. or even at all!

Once in the fair... the first SIX rides we walked up to, were closed / broken / not fully setup yet

the Afterburn, Ferris Wheel, Himalaya. Spider, Power Surge, and Speed. In fact, the Himalaya never managed to open (I don't think the Tilt did either)

off to a fantastic start.....

The (nice looking) KMG Speed was the first to open and even with just the two of us riding... and no line, the cycle was embarrassingly short and worse yet, we were forced to walk around the massive empty queue for a reride... they wouldn't let use just stay on... or give a cycle worth riding (maybe 3 times around and no direction change)

After our two pointless rides on Speed we took a ride on the now open Spider.

<3 Spider

Power Surge eventually opened as well.. but ran pretty craptastic.

But it was nice see one of my favorite Zamp rides again.

ZzZzz, after checking like four different times, the Chance Wheel opened as well.. but only went around twice before our ride was over. I'd understand short cycles if there was a line.. But the entire fair couldn't have had more than 20 people attending!

(This photo proves that 20 people wasn't an exaggeration :P)

Overview of most of the midway.... Like I said, not really a bad lineup but definitely a poor lineup for something claiming to be a "STATE FAIR" and rather on the small side based on photos of years past.

China Dragon, NAME's Wisdom Orient Express.

I tend to skip kiddie coasters at fairs..... but

I was pretty annoyed... And the operator on it made me laugh.. So I took a spin

(and I guess it's a +1 for me?... Credit!)

In the back we found a Chance Yo-Yo and took it for a spin as well... But its a far cry from the Wave Swinger shown online and therefore somewhat expected....

The pretty sunset in Viera might have been better than the fair itself :P

((never again...))

Yup... Not worth a reride.

Although we did ride the Cliff Hanger, a ride I tend to skip elsewhere.

 Woo, but there was a Re-Mix and it was run pretty fast <3

Uh, Starship?

Yeah... So that's it. We left after less than maybe two hours and felt pretty stupid for picking Space Coast over a trip to the Volusia County Fair also happening at the same time... In fact, the day was so poor we ended up going to Volusia later that week having agreed to just do one or the other!

I don't know... Had we gone to the fair knowing what the lineup was gonna be we would have been less pissy about it.. but when you show yourself as being this massive big fair with lots of big pieces and you show up to find Speed and not much else its kind of a big letdown.

So next time, you might not wanna show a Zipper, Log Flume, Wave Swinger, Spin Mouse, Kamikaze, Tornado, Zyklon, Drop Tower, or Flying Bob's if you aren't gonna have them....

ZzZzz