As you can see from the location above, we have arrived home. 17,800 miles in the end and 3 and a half months. The rest of the stats - how many parks, how many coasters and how many rides I'll be calculating as I make a database out of the ratings we've given. We skipped around 8-10 parks and added 2 not on the list. Also, we stopped riding 2 types of roller coasters called Vekoma SLCs and Boomerangs about 2 weeks in the trip which will put our final coaster count below 300 (but I assume above 250).
When we left in May a large hole had appeared in the street below our balcony. A fun spectator sport before we left was watching late night cars take the street at 40-50mph, and then see if they hit the gaping hole in the ground. I'm amused to see, arriving back today, that it's just getting fixed. They fixed it, in fact, today, closing the street for our arrival. I love NY. Hehe.
I'm not happy to be back. It's become clear to me that I prefer travelling to stability. But I'm moving on and I realize it was a fantastic trip. I'm very happy Cla and I took it, and it was... well... one of the best time's of my life. Paying the piper, which I always knew would happen when we returned, has arrived. It'll be rough, but I'm sure we'll get through.
Trip reports will now get typed in more frequently. If you've been following, we're up to New Orleans next. I've set a deadline of 7 a week and I generally stick to deadlines, so look forward to seeing many more detailed trip reports arriving soon.
Oh, one more thing. Yesterday I met a friend and returned to SFNE. Superman was open this time. It's absolutely one of the best coasters in America and a fantastic way to conclude the trip, which was a night ride in th front two seats.
Journal
| 09.05.04 | Lake George, NY: |
This will likely be the last journal entry from anywhere other then my home. It's the end of the trip imminently, and I would love to say I'm happy to be returning home, but really I'm quite sad. I love travelling, and I wish the trip could last forever.
Clarisse, on the other hand, I believe is quite ready to return home. She absolutely does not like living out of the car anymore, and the benefit of non-stop roller coasters no longer outweighs the drawbacks.
We're having a lovely weekend in Lake George with some friends, but it's still hard for me not to be upset that it's over. However, it was a fantastic trip, and I'm also ecstatic that we actually accomplished this.
Yesterday we were at Great Escape, today we played mini-golf at a place that actually... made mini-golf kind of fun. I should note, by the way, that this was MY FAVORITE PLACE TO STAY THE ENTIRE TRIP. There, that made Phil happy.
Tomorrow is the last day of the trip. We are meeting up with 2 friends to attend Six Flags New England to get on Superman: Ride of Steel, which is a top of the country steel coaster that we were unable to ride due to a tragedy a few weeks before our scheduled arrival in May. These 2 friends are people who share our interest (and experience) with roller coasters, so there'll be lots of conversations that I can't have with regular people that aren't um... complete freaks like us. After crashing at one of their homes (thanks!), we'll be returning to NYC the next day, Tuesday. It's been fantastic, I wish it could never end.
Journal
| 08.31.04 | Pittsburgh, PA: |
It's my birthday! It's my birthday! I only get just one this year!
32, I am I am.
Kennywood is fantastic. One of my favorite parks of the trip. It's getting to the trip's end, so I'm getting comfy in announcing my favorite parks of the trip. They are (not in any order):
Coney Island
Kennywood
Indiana Beach
Cedar Point
Disneyland/California Adventure
Islands of Adventure
With other exceptional parks (not as good but very good) being:
Knoebels
Hersheypark
Dorney Park
Hmm... there's probably more in the "exceptional" second list that I can't remember just right now.
K; back to birthday celebrating!
Journal
| 08.29.04 | Altoona, Pennsylvania: |
We're in the car in the parking lot of Lakemont amusement park. It's home to a coaster called "Leap the Dips" which is the oldest coaster in the world surviving having been built in 1902. A side friction coaster, Leap the Dips is not a thrill machine, but riding it with my arm around my wife, it's hard for me not to get a very warm and fuzzy feeling about it. The geek in me was also very excited about riding a side frication coaster (this is the only one remaining) after building and crashing so many in the computer game roller coaster tycoon.
The trip is over in a week and 2 days. This is both very sad and quite a relief. Cla is looking forward to sleeping in her own bed again, and yesterday got into a physical alteraction with her seatbelt, which suggests to me she may be getting a little tired of spending time in the car. I wish the trip could last forever, but I'm also looking forward to being able to start creating something out of the trip. "Something" being getting this web site as full with trip reports and as accurate as possible (the overviews are quite inaccurate right now) and whatever else I can create from the trip. There's a whole bunch of stuff I have in mind and it will be a ton of fun to work on it when I get back. In addition to the many trip reports for each park that remain to be put up we also have extensive sidebars for each park of information and stories that didn't easily fit in the trip reports.
Uhoh, battery power at 15%. Time to go. Incidentally, my birthday is in 2 days. HAPPY BDAY TO ME!!!! I will be in Kennywood, which I hear is a pretty damn cool park. So yay!
Oh, one last thing. I wont' necassariily be able to see comments until after the trip is over. We are getting the shit spammed out of us by some folks envious of our slowly-getting-better Google ranking. Bastards. They've hit us with 500 comments and counting, meaning it is very difficult for me to pick up on honest comments froom people. There is a fix for this, but I won't be able to deal with it or install until we are back home. So for this week, iif you need to get a message to me I rec using the guestbook or email. :)
Journal
| 08.26.04 | Sandusky, Ohio: |
Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. Yay! Have I mentioned in this journal recently that I love Cla? Well, now I have and either you're saying "awwww" (if you're like Cla) or you're rushing to close the window and are annoyed that I've written about actual yucky emotion stuff on the interweb (if you're like me). 2 years married and it's been a lovely adventure and, truly, unlike anything I've done before. I look forward to the next 2; I'm sure it will be as interesting and fun as the previous two. I love you sweetie.
Journal
| 08.24.04 | Sandusky, Ohio: |
We've arrived at Sandusky. We've decided to skip Cedar Point tonight and instead catch up on sleep, web stuff, basic personal hygiene like my fingernails and shaving, catch some television and news, excercise. You know, the stuff you do when you're not riding roller coasters or driving 6-7 hours.
It's good the trip is winding down. My patience for parks that aren't very unique has grown thin. Minnesota was lovely due to where we stayed. Wendy and Greg were quite funny, so I got to laugh for 2 days which was good. This offset the two parks there, which we weren't really giant fans of. Mall of America had too much of a "kiddie" park feel, and Valleyfair is the kind of park I would have really enjoyed at the beginning of the trip, but now is a bit too unexceptional and has coasters that are far too braked for me to get excited about any of it.
Cedar Point will be lovely. While there's nothing here I haven't ridden a few times already as this is my fourth visit, I'm looking forward to rating these coasters now against all the others I've been on so far. I'm most curious about the Magnum hypercoaster, which I positively loved and was my favorite coaster 3 or 4 years ago. Last year the rides it gave were a bit sub par, and the friends I was with (and myself) were too busy trying to get on as many coasters as possible and as many rerides on Millenium Force and Dragster to get many Magnum rides. I'm especially curious as to how it's going to rate against all the other hypercoasters I've ridden this summer.
Fun fun!
Journal
| 08.24.04 | Lansing, Michigan: |
In a fairly divey Super 8 motel. We've become near Super 8 converts due to their consistency and the lack of consistency in the other cheap chains. This is the first Super 8 that's a bit of an exception and a bit of a shithole. The other Super 8 exception was the one that appeared to be colluding with a pimp to run a prostitution ring out of it near Atlanta, but that one actually wasn't that scrungy; there was just a lot of hookers everywhere.
Shivering Timbers, which we've bent over backwards to ride, and in the end had to cut 2 other parks to experience, ended up being worth it. It's one of the best wood coasters of this trip, if not the best. Really great stuff and the 3 hours spent riding it I will absolutely remember as a coaster high point of the trip.
Tomorrow is the 3 month anniversary of our trip. 3 months on the road riding coasters. When I first planned this trip I never really thought I would pull it off. Now that I'm sitting here at 3 months (and with only 2 weeks left) I can't believe we got this far without brain damage, killing each other, any accidents, etc. Shit, I am so jinxing myself writing this.
In 2 days is our 2nd wedding anniversary. We will be spending it at Cedar Point, where we first went when we first hooked up on a cross country trip, and then later where we got married; on the beach under Magnum. I'm looking forward to going back to Cedar Point for my fourth visit. I believe it is my favorite park in America, and this trip has not changed my opinion.
Time for falling asleep while watching tons of X Files on TNT.
Journal
| 08.20.04 | Wisconsin Dells, WI: |
Just waking up. It's Mall of America time today. I'm thinking I'm going to see a movie while Cla shops. I didn't realize how much I would miss seeing movies while I was on this trip. In Monticello, Indiana (near Indiana Beach) we had the distinct pleasure of being able to see a drive in movie double feature. While it definitely made me happy, I could easily see more movies still.
Wisconsin Dells was great. We've really hit a high point on the trip, with Indiana Beach, Holiday World and the Wisconsin Dells all offering really fantastic park days.
It's offcial now that we're cutting Adventureland and Arnolds Park. Oh well. I think this makes about 11 parks we've skipped. Not so bad out of 81 or so.
Journal
| 08.19.04 | Wisconsin Dells, WI: |
Typing up this journal entry at our camp site while I research ways to get our car across Lake Michigan (there's only one way, a 4 hour carferry and I'm researching cost right now). Today, we go to a park I'm most looking forward to - Big Chief's Karts n Coasters (um... Mt. Olympus Theme Park, I mean). Looking at the construction of what will become Hades, I realize I need to start saving once I get back to show up here next year. Their new coaster looks simply fantastic.
I've never driven go "karts" before so this will be an intersting day. Hopefully I will enjoy them as Big Chiefs pretty much only has wood coasters and go karts. I swore I wouldn't get on any go karts on this trip until Big Chief's, as I thought it would be cool as hell for my first go karts to be here. Well, here I am - WHOOHOO!
PS: I thought I would pay any amount of money to get around driving around Lake Michigan AGAIN. I was wrong. It's $150. I'm sorry, but that's way too much money.
Journal
| 08.18.04 | Gurnee (kind of), Illinois: |
It's 10:15AM and, as always, we've barely begun packing up our shit to get out of the motel. We are headed to the Wisconsin Dells today, which has some parks and rollercoasters that I've been excited to visit since I started planning this trip. "Big Chief's Karts 'N Coasters" is up next. Unfortunately they've changed their name this year to the much classier and much less fun "Mt. Olympus Theme Park" which unfortunately has many more actual words in the english language then it's previous title.
Six Flags Great America was... very, very crowded. Most disturbing was to hear from various people around us on line exclaiming how the park wasn't crowded at all, compared to what it's usually like. My response to that is "HOLY SHIT! What the fuck defines crowded, then???!!!" The park had lines of 15-20 minutes for it's minor coasters, and 45-90 minutes for it's larger coasters, while it's flats were either 1 cycle waits or walk ons. Apparently, the larger coasters boast 2-3 hour lines on regular operating days (according to the people on line.) Again, my response to this is, HOLY SHIT. Hey, all you investors out there! Apparently, the Chicago area could use a second park! The one they got is full!
Ok, enough time spent on this cell phone during non-free nights and minutes.
Oh, one other thing, due to Shivering Timbers being closed, we now have to cut Adventureland and Arnolds Park to make room to return to Michigans Adventure. This coaster better be good! I'm cutting 2 amusement parks for it! Hopefully, I'm making the right decision...
Journal
| 08.17.04 | Gurnee, Illinois: |
Staying near Six Flags Great America at a Super 8. The actual name of this town isn't Gurnee, it starts with a W and is impossible to remember or spell.
We drove 3-4 hours yesterday to discover Shivering Timbers was closed, then drove another 3-4 hours to Chicago, which became 5 hours due to a truck accident. So yesterday sucked.
Today I'm up early. It's always very nice to stay in a motel after camping, mainly because I'm reluctant to shower in public campgrounds. I just don't like bathing around strangers. Um, I don't really like bathing around friends or family either. I guess just classify me as a "private" bathing kinda guy.
Interesting and semi-excited to visit Great America. At this point it's difficult to get too excited about any Six Flags, as I'm beginning to associate all Six Flags parks with standing in line for 2 hours to ride coasters I've ridden already. Great America, however, is often lauded as being the standout Six Flags park. I LOVED Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Fiesta Texas, so maybe this will be an exception like those 2 and I'll have a fabulous day. Also, it apparently rained last night and this morning which is good news for an amusement park fan, it normally means minimal crowds.
I've been very bad on posting trip reports and photos. It's because I just haven't had time as each night I've either come in exhausted, or the laptop batteries been dead, or the cell phone batteries been dead while we don't have electricity. It's all written up, it just has to get typed in and posted. There's some amusing stuff in there.
Though I'm tired, I'm still very sad that this trip will be over in under 3 weeks now. It's been um.... well, it's been truly fucking massive.
Journal
| 08.14.04 | Shelbyville, Indiana: |
Where do I know Shelbyville from? For some reason this town is in my head, as if it were the setting for a book or movie I liked or something. But I can't place it in my head....
Well, it's 10AM and Cla's getting ready behind me so I have a little more time to babble about how the trip is going. Here are some highlights:
At Six Flags St. Louis, I decided I hated amusement parks and never wanted to enter one again. Cla and I also got into a massive fight and we left the park early.
At Holiday World the next day, I quickly changed my mind and decided that, in fact, I love amusement parks. However, I may really, really hate Six Flags parks. Cla and I got along smashingly, as we still are (crosses fingers). It's hard to be on the road for 3 and a half months with anyone, even your wife.
At the Silver Dollar City campground, someone yelled "NIGGER!" at my wife. The bastard did it from a distance and hid himself, so we couldn't figure out who it was or confront them. More on this when our SDC trip report gets typed in.
I needed to borrow money from my brother to continue the trip. It was also to make peace with my wife over money I've blown in New Orleans and Las Vegas. He very nicely agreed, and we are now able to stay financially afloat for a small while longer.
Paramount Kings Island is a neat park, but was very, very, very, very, very, very, very crowded when we were there the past 2 days. Also, we discovered that the Beast wood roller coaster is incredibly overrated. Son of Beast is so violent it's almost a surreal experience unto itself, and I'm very confused as to how to rate this surreal, orginal, painful and beautiful monstrosity to coasters.
Which brings us to now. It's free nights and weekends! So lots of cell phone calls will ensue. Hopefully I'll have some time tonight while at the Indiana Beach campground to put up some more trip reports and photos.
Journal
| 08.14.04 | Trouble updating - Shelbyville, Indiana: |
It's 1am. Just drove a bunch and spent about 10 hours at Kings Island. We've had trouble updating the site, mainly because we've been out of our cell phone range while camping. Hopefully it will be back to Verizon's usual extensive coverage from now on. Still, the trip is rather breakneck now. I don't expect to have a lot of time to update from here on in, but will of course have lots to time to bring in the tons we've hand written and photographed come september.
Gotta sleep. Very tired.
Journal
| 08.07.04 | Sarasota, FL: |
Staying with Al was a nice break from our stint of Motel and roadside culture. Sarasota was a continuation of that. Mr. Weisblatt was kind enough to let us, his kids and Pat take over the house for the weekend. We got to stay in Dave’s room which was quite comfy! Dave enlightened us to Sarasota culture and took us out to the local club. Michele made us some yummy food! And its always nice to hang with Pat!
Its interesting that there are certain places where, if I was airlifted there while blindfolded I would be able to tell where I was. Sarasota and its nightclub are those places. There was just a vibe of ‘Florida’ there. The hair clothes and mannerisms of everyone in the club screamed it. At any moment I expected to see some guy who was shooting to be like Eminem but ended up more like a modern Vanilla Ice. Almost all of the buildings and houses would be ridiculously out of place anywhere but…Florida. I could almost exclaim that the air tastes different in Florida!
I like Florida! I really wish I had gone to college down here! There are a lot of things that charm me to Florida. Like to be able to go to the beach every day, be body conscious around other body conscious people, wear cheesy but fun revealing clothes and then cruise around in a cute car while listening to cheesy but fun dance music, and then later go to the club in some more cheesy clothes to dance to more cheesy dance music! I really grew up in the wrong place.
I’d even live in Florida now, but not in Sarasota. The Sarasota atmosphere reminds me a lot of what Westchester county would be like if was warm and by the beach. Miami beach is where its at, I could do all of the above fun things without feeling like I was living with mom and dad. I actually got to go to Miami beach, where the water was almost body temperature and you can wade for yards and yards without a slope down (which I like). I would definitely move to Miami.
(more about Miami l8r…)
Journal
| 08.07.04 | Kansas City, MS: |
At Jason's house in Kansas City. We had a lovely day today plus had the bonus of a very, very good home cooked meal. Mmmmm, yummy yummy lasagna.
Drinking coffee and chain smoking in the back yard with 6 others. Fun stuff, good conversation.
Today we are off to Branson, Missouri for Celebration City and Silver Dollar City. I'm slightly nervous as these are Christian owned parks and I'm a rather hateful Catholic. I'm sure it won't be too uncomfortable, but I expect a slight amount of discomfort. 5 of the people here are from Missouri. I asked about any reccomendations they might have for Branson and the unanimous reply was "don't go." Hehe. Someone else said "It's like Las Vegas if Vegas replaced casinos with churches. Of course, we're not there for the churches but for a wood roller coaster that's supposed to be one of the best in the country. I'm looking forward to it.
Journal
| 08.06.04 | Kansas City, KS: |
I'm a little frustrated.
The car is oficially disgusting. Our cute little new Hyundai is full of garbage, in every corner theres trash, dirty tissues, empty drink bottles, straw wrappers empty packs of cigarettes and half eaten bags of chips or trailmix with chip clips. The center of the car is sticky with the residue of cups which escaped from the cup holders. The power of this accumulated goo stuck 5 pennies together (i should have tried to buy something with them). Not surprisingly , the car is stinky too. We really dont have the time to clean it. Not between going to parks, writing up attractions, foraging for logdging, sleeping, foraging for food, eating and laundry. When we're not drving with the windows all that can be done on this trip is to pull the plastic bag down on the bubblegum Hello Kitty air freshener. The bubblegum scent is really strong. The heat plus the scent in the car makes it seem like your gonna find a squishy wad of gum, but its better than the stink.
And think i lost my glasses which really sucks.
Journal
| 08.03.04 | Denver, CO: |
Today we drove from Salt Lake City, Utah to Denver. Between the scenic route through the mountains, the inttermittant rain and the mini tour of Denver the drive took 12 hours.
We'd just checked into the budget inn, when two women piled into the car parked next to ours. They did so with great difficulty because one of the women was very intoxicated and had moderate body control issues. Just when it looked like the woman who was high was going to drive, a guy came out and drove them away.
Unpacking the car, we also saw some sort of breakup between two people. This happened at the window in front of the motel, with the woman in bare feet and the guy shirtless.
This motel had character, it also had roaches. So I whipped out the emergency credit card and got us a room the residence inn. Ahhhh, the residence inn is very comfy, I could live here.
Journal
| 08.02.04 | Farmington, Utah: |
I threw my back out yesterday. This is just as we hit some of the best wood coasters on the trip. In fact, this next month is almost not about steel coasters at all (save for maybe Cedar Point and Great America (Chicago)), it's all about rough and crazy wood coasters. Bad time to mess up my back, which, incidentally, has never happened to me before. Let's hope it gets better really soon. My rides on a 1922 Utah coasters, originally called "Roller Coaster," did not seem to help. hehe.
Gigantic drive today to Denver Colorado. I didn't get a chance to call the person we were staying with (a friend of a friend; and aquaintence, basically) until yesterday and they didn't answer their phone and didn't call back. Uhoh.
Journal
| 08.02.04 | Parks We've Skipped: |
Parks we’ve skipped
We’re well past the halfway mark for the trip with 1 month and 1 week left, and I thought it might be a good time at this point to go over the parks we’ve skipped.
Skipping parks sucks. I spent 2 years planning this thing and I did a fair amount of research on every park I placed in the itinerary. If the park was on the schedule, then I really wanted to go to it, and I’m sad now that I missed it.
That being said, there came a point (and it may come again) when we needed to prioritize. Whether it was money, time, or just sheer exhaustion, at certain points we had to make the hard decision to skip a park. Here is a list of the parks we skipped and why:
Ocean City, NJ (2 parks)
Wild Adventures, Valdosta, GA
Magic Kingdom (Disneyworld)/MGM Studios/Epcot
Scandia Park (CA)
Castle Park (CA)
Pacific Park (Santa Monica, CA)
1) Ocean City, NJ (2 parks) – Even though we were only a week and a half into the trip, I already knew money was going to be a huge concern. In the two weeks before the trip started, we managed money very poorly. The end result was we were $1,000 in the hole at the beginning of our trip. That was basically the entire contingency of our budget. The 2 parks in Seaside Heights, on the Jersey Shore, were incredibly expensive with not that many attractions. Though I’m happy we visited Seaside Heights, we spent a lot of money for 2 micro parks.
The schedule that day called for us to hit the 2 parks in Seaside Heights in the daytime, then go to Ocean City and their 2 parks that night. After our first week of going to 4 parks in 5 days (and camping 2 of those days) we were exhausted. What we needed that Saturday was a day away from parks. Instead, we found ourselves at Seaside Heights. I was basically wandering around the beach in pajamas, and Cla didn’t look much better. Wandering around people dressed up to party on the beach all weekend didn’t help matters much. I felt like I stuck out, though Cla didn’t feel this way at all. I think she just feels very comfortable in all beach towns.
We took longer at Seaside Heights then we probably should have, mostly because we were both so punchy. At 6:30PM, we had finished Seaside Heights and had to decide if we were going to rush over to Ocean City to grab the last 2 parks. It would have been a race with time with Ocean City at least one hour away. Then, after that, we’d still have to get “home” to Dave P, who we were staying with. Dave needed to get up in the morning, and we didn’t have keys, so staying in Ocean City would mean waking up Dave after he was asleep to get back in. Rescheduling Ocean City was not an option. The next day we had Morey’s Piers and the day following we had a Priceline (non-changeable) reservation in Washington DC.
We decided to skip it. Maybe next summer we’ll make it down there.
2) Wild Adventures (Valdosta, GA) – Wild Adventures was headed for the chopping block during a reschedule I made in April, though of course I didn’t realize it at the time. I needed to rearrange the schedule so I could meet up with some friends in Sarasota, Florida over a weekend. I was faced with a choice of either crushing the first 3 and a half weeks of the schedule to 3 weeks or expanding it to 4 weeks. I decided to crush 3 and a half weeks to 3 weeks, making our arrival in Sarasota the end of a whirlwind of parks the week before. During this shifting, I was forced to move Wild Adventures from before Sarasota to after Sarasota. In other words, we’d literally drive by Wild Adventures on our way to Sarasota, then pick it up when we were leaving Florida a week later, before we turned west to head to Panama City Beach, Florida and Miracle Strip Amusement Park.
Well, that went to shit. Our first month was truly gruelling with parks packed in one after the other. We arrived in Miami, Florida completely wrecked. Gilbert, Cla’s cousin, lived in a beautiful apartment with a patio over the bay in South Beach. There were 2 pools, a high speed internet/computer room, a gym, and a Starbucks on our corner. We hadn’t had any of these kinds of services since the trip started. Better still, Gilbert and his girlfriend Alex were wonderful hosts, very accommodating and making us feel incredibly welcome. As an added bonus, they were also really cool to hang out with.
Our original plan was to hit the Dania Beach Hurricane, drive the hour to South Beach, sleep at Gilbert’s, then take off the next day for Wild Adventures. Well, that just didn’t happen. It was still theoretically possible to hit Wild Adventures even after we delayed one day. But we decided to delay 2 days and skip Wild Adventures entirely. We really needed the rest.
How much I regret missing Wild Adventures is almost entirely dependent on how good Cheetah (their wood coaster) is. The rest of their coaster and ride collection isn’t really anything we wouldn’t be doing a million times other places during the trip (a boomerang AND an SLC – whoohoo!). Unlike Ocean City, I couldn’t really tell you when I’ll ever be anywhere near Valdosta, GA. I may never hit Wild Adventures. I can live with that.
(Part 2 of parks we've skipped coming... when I get to it)
Journal
| 08.01.04 | Farmingdale, Utah: |
Camping next to Lagoon amusement park near Salt Lake City, Utah. It's always interesting to go to sleep hearing people screaming on rides across the way. If you're me, it's kind of nice. You can see the lights of the Enterprise (they call it something else) spinning through the trees.
Our laptop battery works again! Whoohoo! So updates on the website can continue through camping, at least until the battery decides it wants to be a pain again.
We want to get going on the trip reports again, but Cla had a lot to say about Seaworld Orlando so it's taking her a while to type it in. Cla, incidentaly, is the only black person I've seen in 2 days now. There's not a single African-American at this campsite, nor have we seen one today or yesterday. We did, however, see a white power skinhead at a gas station 3 hours west of here in Nevada. How did I know he was white power? Well, because he was considerate enough to tatoo those precise words on his arm, allowing for easy and quick identification. Cla was a bit freaked out by this, and there being no black people at the campsite has only strengthened her paranoia. I'm as comforting as I can be but well... she's got a point this is kinda weird. Still, it's not like anyone hasn't been nice to us. They stare a little sometimes but that's about it.
Alright, the mosquitoes are starting to eat me so it's time to run into the tent. Lagoon looks like a cute, small, regional park. The kind I really like. So tomorrow should be fun.
Journal
| 07.30.04 | San Francisco: |
Yesterday was a "day off." (i.e: no parks no coasters). We did laundry for the first half of the day, then dragged Yassi all over San Francisco doing tourist things. It's fun to drag around people from San Francisco on tourist stuff, as they seem to all really hate the tourists, so making them do this stuff is kinda like Chinese water torture for them. We did the Golden Gate Bridge, went to the top of Twin Peaks, drove around Castro and Haight, went to the Exploratorium, and ate dinner at the Stinking Rose (a tourist type restaurant). It was all quite fun.
Today was Six Flags Marine World. Marine World is a well run Six Flags park with roller coasters that are... average (most are clones that we have ridden at some other point along the trip). All in all it was an ok day. Marine world is a park that borders between average and above average. I think we are a little burnt out right now or we would have liked it more.
Tomorrow, in a way, we start the drive home. It's been 2 months and 2 days so far, I believe, and we now officially turn our car East, heading towards NYC. Of course, we still have a month and a half of parks and coasters left, most of which are located in the Midwest. It's been a lot of fun so far, and there are still a ton of parks we are looking forward to.
Journal
| 07.28.04 | San Francisco, CA: |
In San Francisco at our friend Yassi's apartment in North Beach. It's interesting to stay in such a popular area but parking is a horrid bitch.
We had a great night at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk last night, 3 days of really nice and relaxing camping at Big Basin State park, and an pretty ok day today at Paramount's Great America.
The big last month of our trip is edging closer. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to update this site as our laptop battery is dead and we're doing a lot of primitive camping. One option is to upgrade to sites with electric, but that puts us next to the fucking RV people. I don't really mind RVs, per se, but as a tent camper I simply prefer to be next to other tent campers in a wooded area, not wedged between two gigantic vehicles in my tiny tent.
We'll see. I want to keep updating.
Day off tomorrow. Laundry is way overdue, as is just fucking relaxing with some coffee in North Beach. Oh, and of course the seals. I always like to visit the pier seals when in San Francisco, even if I have to brave the tourist trap Wharf to do it. The seals ROCK!
Journal
| 07.21.04 | Los Angeles: |
Groggy. We woke up late for Knott's Berry Farm, we might not get there until Noon or maybe even later. Knotts doesn't have that many attractions, so it normally wouldn't be that big a deal, except that Knotts was SO FUCKING CROWDED on Saturday. If it's not dropped off by at least 25% today we'll actually have trouble getting on the few attractions they have with that many people. That place is CRAZY in mid summer, man. They really need that new coaster to help out with all the people coming.
We've failed the war on park food again going into today. We're going into 3 days straight of parks and haven't had time to get to a supermarket to stock up on food in the cooler. Which means park food. Which means upset stomachs and spending a lot of money we don't have. Shit.
Regardless, I'm in an ok mood. I think I've been a little depressed the last few days and I'm finally, but slowly, starting to come out of it. Which is good, I'll definitely need to get out of it before August, which is going to be a crazy month on the trip for us.
Journal
| 07.20.04 | Los Angeles: |
Going out to dinner with Aza and Sarah. Today is a day off. Thank christ. We need some more days off right now. We are both a bit homesick, both tired, and we are becoming very broke very fast. So we need to recollect. Or reenergize. Or find some money. Or something.
Did Disneyland and California Adventure yesterday. Very fun stuff.
Journal
| 07.18.04 | Overbooked: |
We're just way overbooked right now. Wah. Stop this train I wanna get off.
Ok, no I don't. I just feel that way right now because I'm a little under the weather but the trip must march on. Also, the weather is brutal here and I think we're both a bit road weary.
Well, I knew this was going to be crazy. And what do you know, it is.
Journal
| 07.17.04 | Updating: |
Realize we've been short on updates. Will work on it this week. We've fallen pretty behind on this stuff. We were camping in Sedona for 3 days and with no working computer battery we weren't able to really work on the site. Then we've gone to Vegas, where we met my family for a week. That was very fun but also totally exhausting and there was no room to do anything other then hang out with our family in Vegas and sleep.
So... now we're in Los Angeles. I'm a bit broken, and we're tight on time. We will likely have to skip parks here, maybe even skip one today. At our friend Aza's who as always is being a lovely host and is lovely to see. Argh. Need coffee and breakfast badly.
Oh, and we really need to do laundry. The laundry bell has been going off for some time now. But again, no time or we have to cut parks. This sucks but I guess is exciting. I just wish I didn't feel like I was getting really sick at the exact point when the trip seems to be picking up in needed energy and momentum again.
Journal
| 07.10.04 | Flagstaff, AZ: |
Getting drunk in Flagstaff, AZ at a microbrewery. Either the beers are really strong, or I'm not acclimated to the altitude, or both cuz I'm pretty buzzed after 1 and 1/4 beers. Cla is off with 2 old friends from high school. Um, I think. She'll be meeting me here later.
We're camping at a place with no showers. This is interesting, because we didn't shower in Albuerquerque either due to the shower at the cute country house we were at being totally putrid and both of us having lost our flip flops. So, this means we haven't showered in more then 3 days, and won't be showering for another 2. When we hit Vegas on Monday we're going to be a regular fucking sight and smell, that's for sure.
The New Mexico Rattler, the coaster we rode in Alberquerque, is fantastic. 5 out of 5. I'm happy if we one day move to the southwest I have a great wood coaster at least somewhere in the vicinity.
Time to go. You should see me in this bar. I've got Cla's girly Macintosh ibook up on the bar, the cell phone connected to the internet next to it, and my beer next to that. Come to think of it, this is a hell of a lot better then getting drunk watching the stupid television above. I should do this more often!!
Journal
| 07.08.04 | New Mexico: |
7/7
I'm sitting in the kitchen of our hostel in New Mexico. I got to cook and eat real food! YAY! We've had a stressful past couple of days. Today we drove from Amarillo to Albequerque. It was in the 90's and as a rule we don't use the air condiditoning in the car (cause it eats up too much gas and theres a noticable drop in performance of the car - at least with the inverter on to power the computer). All throughout Texas and so far New Mexico its been fucking HOT! The amount of sweat that's been soaked up by the car seat could probably fill our little hyundai if it didnt evaporate.
We drove to Amarillo to go to a tiny local park. We missed operating hours by one minute. ONE! The reason for this goes back to 7/5, I didnt get much sleep the night before, so i was slightly grumpy. Mike was hungry so he was grumpy. We ended up getting into a fight about which way to go to get out of the park. Mike stormed off saying meet me at the car. I stood there defiant and thought, no way am I following you! So I got on line for Mr. Freeze (which is phenomenal).
When i got off the ride, i figured there was no way Mike was still at the car. So I wandered around the park keeping an eye out for him, and riding rides. Little did i know that Mike WAS at the car, worried about me. He knew i had no money and no food, so he assumed that i would be coming back to the car. Which i never did. Instead I wandered around the park, riding rides by myself, getting alternately excited and despondant when i thought i saw him but didn't. I ended up seeing the same notable people 2, 3 and 4 times but no Mike. So I lacked sleep & I was hungry, these two things together make for a very unstable and irrational Cla. So while I rode lots and lots of rides, i was pretty sad and depressed; the only time i had a smile on my face was on the rides.
Mike on the other hand, went to a bar outside the park, and kept checking on the car. He checked at the entry gates too, he also did a circut of the park and didn't find me. When he decided to start riding rides, I saw him walking down a crowded path. We lost each other for 7 hours.
Since he didnt get to ride many of the rides, we went back to Six Flags Over Texas the next day and decided to sacrifice the park in Amarillo. As we were driving, it looked like we were going to be able to make it to the park. at least for one ride. We followed the sign for the amusement park off of the interstate, and then there was a fork in the road with no sign...yes, then we got lost for a half an hour in Amarillo. When we finally got to the park, I could tell the rides were still moving cause of the lights on them. I was very very excited, for this apparently shit park, but you know we tried hard to get there. So i run up to the gate, which is blocked by a garbage can. Mike is standing in front of a sign shaking his head, cause we missed closing by one minute! Basically, if we hadn't gotten lost we would have made it there. I was so upset i needed time alone. POUT! I'm still upset!
But on the bright side, there are 4 friendly donkeys that live at the hostel. They come right up to you! Theres also a horse and a dog. Its a cute laid back place with lots of old cars in the yard...Including a green schoolbus! I want a schoolbus to live in for our next cross country trip!
Journal
| 07.08.04 | Georgia: |
I’d become weary of the Southeast by the time we hit Georgia. I was charmed by the southern hospitality that began just outside of D.C and I was thoroughly sick it by North Carolina. It’s just totally fake. No one is nice all of the time like that, let alone an entire culture. Whenever someone was just a little too nice to me I couldn’t help wonder what they were really thinking, or what they were going to say about us after we left… Not to mention, I was stared at like I was an alien in Tennessee. I was also tired of walking proud and projecting a non-verbal fuck you. Alabama was just surreal. I had chalked up my experience in Tennessee to prejudice; but in Alabama, there was no way either black or white people could relate to me or me to them.
I experienced none of this in Georgia. Being close to a major city was more comforting than I ever thought it would be. The people were normal, as in not as standoffish as New York but they weren’t sticking their nose up my ass to smell what I was all about neither. The southern accent was still present, but I could understand people without trying. We also had really good company. I got to meet Al for the first time, and he’s a pretty nice guy! He thankfully took us out to dinner (our first real meal in a while, and our first non fast food restaurant since we left New York). He and Syd (although I never got to meet her) also opened up their home to us, which after being on the road and staying in some pretty skanky places was nicer than they’ll ever know (unless they follow us in our tire tracks).
So yeah, I had a good time in Georgia, with Al and his furry companions.
I do have a favor to ask of him though: Hey, can you ask your friend who goes to Six Flags Over Georgia all the time to pick me up a pressed penny? I forgot to get one there…you can give it to me when you come visit us in New York! You’re welcome anytime!
Journal
| 07.03.04 | Humor: |
At least my humor is appreciated in Austin.
Yesterday, in New Braunfels at a Taco Bell, the very overweight patron in front of me argued with the clerk. It seems he had ordered chicken on top of his tacos and burritos because the clerk said he could make it the way he wanted it. Upon looking at his receipt, however, the patron was upset to discover that the chicken also cost extra money. He argued for a time, then grumpily gave up. Now it was my turn to order.
"Hi, welcome to Taco Bell may I take your order."
"Hey, I'd like some nachos."
"Just nachos, nothing else."
"Yes, but with chicken on top."
"Really?"
"No, I'm kidding." I said, and smiled. No response.
And that's the way it goes. I'm unbearably shy everywhere. But I occasionally make a dry, surreal joke at various places to absolutely no resoponse. At least later, when I tell Cla, she laughs. I love Cla.
However, Austin seems to appreciate my humor. At the coffee shop this morning, I entered by myself, and ordered one tall coffee with milk and sugar and on small coffee with soy milk. The clerk's response:
"I assume this is to go."
"No, to stay. I'll be drinking both here."
The clerk LAUGHED. Actually lauged, and replied, "Oh don't think you would be original if you did that. Well, unless you copied it from someone else."
Yay! I like Austin.
Journal
| 07.03.04 | Busch Gardens Redux: |
Busch Gardens Redux
Busch Gardens has cool theming, decent rides and captive animals. I generally disagree with the idea of captive animals but I think Busch Gardens tries to make it ok. They try to make the animal exhibits educational but they fall short to my standards. There are a few eagles in the park that can’t fly or survive in the wild so they hop around flapping their wings. That’s a bit disconcerting to watch. They have grey wolves that they train in a show. The wolf show wasn’t that bad cause they try to educate people about them and how they train them (without punishment). They also have a screened in, walk through aviary. Which was pretty cool. We walked through and got to see all kinds of neato birds. You can buy nectar for the birds to land on you and feed, but we didn’t get any. At one point a bird landed on my back! I watched as a bird landed on Mike’s head, peed and then flew away! Mike was quite upset at his head being used as a toilet, but I thought it was pretty funny!
Having been to Busch Gardens, I understand what a theme park is all about. Busch Gardens is a theme park with rollercoasters. Most amusement parks have themed rollercoasters. They make all of the shopkeepers and ride pos wear cute, but moderately ridiculous costumes. They’re also quaintly known as cast members and not employees.
One really nice thing about Busch Gardens is that it’s really clean. At one point I saw a cast member cleaning a bench, with cleaner! I gasped in shock. Maybe they even clean the ride seats (what a novel idea!).
The food here gets props by many visitors, but its not really all that. They do offer more selections than most parks, which is nice. Unfortunately, I overpaid for overcooked spaghetti in tasteless tomato sauce; it satisfied me but I would have been happier with a soft pretzel. Mike opted for the German food. If the food is authentic, then I came away with the conclusion that Germans eat weird stuff. I had my first taste of sauerkraut, which tastes exactly like I thought it would – weird. I didn’t hate it but I’m not gonna seek it out. All of the veggies are shiny and slimy and sour and the meat looks like cooked penises.
Journal
| 07.03.04 | Austin, TX: |
Our second day at Schlitterbahn and our third day of parks consecutively has concluded and boy am I exhausted. But... I can't sleep. Drats. I can hear screaming dormitory kids next to me, but that's not really why. I'm just strangely wired.
Schlitterbahn was very pretty, at least one half of it was, but water parks aren't my thing. Even if it's the best water park around, which this apparently was. Cla, however, was happy as a Cla can be, and that makes me happy, so all is well.
Tomorrow we can just loaf around in Austin, check out some restaurants a friend rec'ed, and I can burn some of these photos cluttering this hard drive to CD to make some room in this dormitory's computer lab. I'm kind of dreading using the computers next to a bunch of 20 year olds stuck here during summer for some reason but oh well.
Almost got killed on the expressway tonight. Texas has some weird highway issues. Very weird. I feel like I'm driving in another country at some points in terms of just not understanding what the hell is going on.
Journal
| 07.02.04 | Austin, TX: |
Another exhausted night in Austin, Texas. Every night after a park we arrive home exhausted and barely conscious. But we also usually have more things we have to do. For me, it's often updating this website a little (like I'm doing right now) so there's some daily content. Cla, I see, is on the bed, checking out which rides we rode at Schlitterbahn so she can write them up. Normally, we have little, gay, books we keep in little, gay, fanny packs to write our reviews as the park day goes on. However, Schlitterbahn is a water park, so our books were in a locker all day while we slid a rode on tubes or our asses all over the "East" section of the park.
And not the "West" section. Due to our late arrival and Cla being very, very grumpy that we arrived so late to the park she was most looking forward to on the trip, we purchased 2 day passes to Schlitterbahn, so we will be returning again tomorrow to ride the "West" section of the park, which actually is in a totally different place you have to take a tram to. There's an interesting way for a park to expand once they've run out of land - just buy some land a few blocks away, build a park part 2 there, and run trams! Pretty cool, as is all of Schlitterbahn. Tomorrow will be fun as well I'm sure.
We are much more relaxed in Texas then we thought we would be. Panama City Beach and Pigeon Forge, Tennesse were both very uncomfortable places. Texas has not been at all. It's a pretty cool state, I'm almost sorry I've made fun of it all these years. Politically, almost everything about Texas is not my cup of tea. But what's good about Texas is quite good, they do what they do very well. And what they do well it seems is make shit really big. They drive gigantic fucking cars, for example. My Japanese Hyundai shivers on the highways as these gigantic fucking monster trucks whiz and dash by me. At their fast food places, you can get TRIPLE MEAT BURGERS. Yes, three patties. There's more examples but I'm almost too tired to breathe. Time to sleep.
Journal
| 07.01.04 | Austin, TX: |
Sitting in our rented off campus dormitory room in Austin, Texas. We can hear the sounds of college students talking and laughing in the rooms next to us with music playing. College. Staying in a college dorm is pretty amusing, costs about as much as a Motel 6 (actually a little cheaper as there is no tax), and sadly is much nicer in many ways then a Motel 6.
We had a great day today at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Great park, but also we were both in fairly chipper moods and everything just kind of worked out how we wanted it to. We both have coaster head from riding their launched coaster 8 times, and we'll be drifting off to a sound sleep very soon.
Schlitterbahn is tomorrow. A water park, I'm a bit worried as I'm not very happy with the upper half of my body being seen by norms. Cla has solved this by purchasing me a long sleeved, black clingy thing but I feel I look... well, ridiculous in it. So... I haven't worked this out in my head yet but Schlitterbahn is coming in just a few hours now so I'll have to do something come morning. Cla has some trepidation about the park and tomorrow as well, but this has to do with her swimming ability and her attraction/fear of water rides as opposed to my issues of body image. Tomorrow should be an interesting day. Time for sleep.
Journal
| 06.29.04 | Stuff that broke, got lost, or ran out in our first month: |
-- our back windshield wiper (broke 1st week - fuse blew)
-- portable CD player for car (broke 1st week - just too damn old, won't play without skipping anymore)
-- our laptop computer battery (broke 2nd week - this is a gigantic pain in my ass and seems OS related. thanks a fucking lot macintosh)
-- my flip flops (3rd week - left in Miami)
-- my patience (1st week - lost with our contingency money)
-- Cla's resolve to cook all trip (1st week - lost due to lack of time)
-- our external hard drive (1st week - turns out we can't write to it with a macintosh, can only read)
-- all fresh conversation (3rd week - we have developed a new language of grunts and motions during the long car rides)
-- our alarm clock (left in bed at Daytona Beach, 3rd week)
-- my earing (lost camping in Panama City Beach)
Journal
| 06.29.04 | One month anniversary: |
In honor of our one month on the road going to parks anniversary, here's some answers to the question we've been asked the most often on lines, by strangers, family, etc.
What's your favorite park so far?
Mike: Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida and/or Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, Pennsylvania. Cla reminds me I forgot Coney Island. Does my home park count cuz of course that's my favorite! It's my home park!
Cla: Knoebels (Islands of Adventure would be in there too if there were half as many people there) oh and i must give Coney island a shout out for character.
What's your favorite ride so far?
Mike: I've given a bunch of coasters a 5 out of 5. They include Boulder Dash (Lake Compounce, CT), Break Dance (Coney Island, NYC), Nitro (Great Adventure, NJ), Phoenix (Knoebels, PA), Twister (Knoebels, PA), Talon (Dorney ark, PA), Superman (Six Flags America, Washington DC), Volcano (Kings Dominion, VA), Thunderhead (Dollywood, TN), Rampage (Visionland, AL), Duelling Dragons (IOA, FL), Montu (Busch Gardens Tampa, FL), Kumba (Busch Gardens Tampa, FL), Biggest Skycoaster (Old Town, FL).
It would be very difficult to pick a favorite out of that list, they are all fantastic.
Cla: hmmm, the coaster i've rated highest so far is Talon at Dorney . But these others rocked my world too (in no specific order except the order that i remembered them in): Lazer (Dorney Park), Montu (busch gardens tampa), Rampage (Visionland) (does the Kissimmee skycoaster count?), Volcano (Kings Dominon), Thunderhead (Dollywood), Mountain SideWinder (dollywood), Hypersonic XLC (Kings Dominion), Stormrunner (Hershey), Phoenix (Knoebles), Bolderdash (Lake Compounce) (ok i had to look at my list, there was no way i was remembering all that)
Journal
| 06.27.04 | New Orleans, LA: |
Early morning and we are to head out today to spend the next week or so in Texas. Camping tonight, then a night in Houston, about 4-5 days in Austin, 2 days in Dallas, then an overnight in Amarillo.
New Orleans has been very fun but expensive. We went out Friday night after the park, and spent Saturday recovering. We had a very good and nice dinner, Cla got a lot of beads (cough) and I bought her a table dance at a "Unisex strip club." Lots of other fun stuff happened as well that I'll choose to skip writing about.
New Orleans is cute, but I wouldn't actually want to live here. I'd like to return and check out some non-Bourbon Street activities at some point.
We need to do at least one load of laundry this morning. Wah!
Journal
| 06.25.04 | New Orleans: |
This entry is by Mike, not Cla, by the way.
I'm awake at 7AM, I think because it's New Orleans. I'm not that excited by the park, which is a new Six Flags aquisition taking over a regional indie park, but I am excited by the city of New Orleans, which I've always wanted to visit.
We're leaving Sunday, and I already feel we don't have enough time left here. We' haven't seen or experienced the city at all, as we pulled in late and went right to bed. We are staying in the downtown section, which is basically filled with buildings and hotels and tourists, it seems.
Urgh. Need coffee.
Journal
| 06.23.04 | Seaside Stephanie: |
So were leaving Seaside Heights, we’re tired, hungry and grumpy. We stop at Subway, where I was utterly amazed at how nice everyone was there. From the person who made my sandwich, to the manager and the slightly odd woman standing next to me on line.
She was a bedraggled middle aged woman whose was missing a few teeth. As I talked to her, I imagined that she was someone who has partied hard for the past 35 years. Her name is Stephanie. She had just gone shopping and was carrying a lot of bags. 2/3 of her last paycheck had been spent at the dollar store to buy supplies for a party she was having. Her ex-husband has been bothering her these days and she hopes he doesn’t show up to the party. In fact, she told me she hopes he will take a high jump off of a low bridge. Subway was a treat for her, since she doesn’t go that often. She thought she deserved it since she was tired from all of her shopping and hot cause she’s not driving these days. She asked if we could give her a ride home. Luckily, our car is full and is not accepting passengers other than us these days.
I hope her party was a success. It seems that she’s overdue for some happiness.
We left the Subway satisfied, I was full of food and other stuff that amusement attractions lack.
Moral: There is no end to the things you can hear and experience if you’re open and friendly back.
Journal
| 06.22.04 | Washington DC: |
We arrived in Washington DC on Memorial day. This was very appropriate, but it was a serendipitous or a tragic accident, depending on how you look at it. We wandered along the mall & we saw the house where the monkey that (apparently) leads our country lives. We also visited the Vietnam memorial. War memorial + memorial day = emotion emotion emotion. I didn’t really look at the names much, instead I focused on the remembrances people left. There were poems, letters from family, friends, and strange 3rd graders. There were also stuffed animals, flowers and photos left against the wall. We also noticed valuable personal sentimental items such as a uniform, burial flags and medals. Mike seemed to find this most tragic because as he stated, someone evenutally is just going to come along, clean it all up and throw it all away. The items that really got to me were the esoteric ones; I saw a single Marlboro Light in a Ziploc bag, and a whole watermelon.
At the end of our walk along the wall, there was a letter asking us to also remember those whose names are not along the wall-the people who never left the jungle mentally, those who suffered debilitating injury but survived, and those the suffered and died slowly from the effects of agent orange. The letter was appropriate, well written and well placed.
Journal
| 06.21.04 | Miami Beach, FL: |
Drinking Coronas with Cla, Gil, Alex and Shaioa. The view here is fantastic, the water and skyline of Miami on one side, the beach on the other. We were supposed to drive 8 hours to Valdosta, Georgia today to go to Wild Adventures. We decided to skip Wild Adventures entirely. There is one wood coaster there I'd like to go on, called the Cheetah, but I've heard for the most part that it's not that exceptional, and Wild Adventures otherwise promises to be depressing, a park trying to lure tourists on the way to Orlando with abused, caged animals and cookie cutter coasters like SLCs and Boomerangs. I'll definitely get there one day, but not this trip.
It's nice to relax and catch up a little. A week solid of roller coasters and parks, I'm discovering, requires a bit of catchup on the weekend. We really need this.
Miami is impressive. It's a city that has a real personality, like Los Angeles, or San Francisco or New York. Too many cities are just a collection of buildings with sprawling suburbs with no culture outside of a constant array of strip malls with the usual suspects of chain stores. Miami escapes this trap and has quite the unique aesthetic and identity which I appreciate. It's local coaster, the Dania Beach Hurricane, has turned out to be not top tier, but it's solid.
Tomorrow, I'll be spending time in the computer area here, rebudgeting the trip. We'll be leaving the day after tomorrow for Panama City Beach, Florida and Miracle Strip park, which will be having it's last season open this year. The trip will resume, but we'll be refereshed and ready for the slight wear and tear that is the hard fun we've created for ourselves with this trip. It's quite fun, and an amazing experience, but it's also harsh, and a vacation from our vacation seems necassary when we can grab it.
Journal
| 06.20.04 | Defense: |
I need to defend myself against mikes previous entry. First and foremost, HOW CAN YOU NOT NOTICE FUNGUS GROWING ON FOOD!!! Any way you look at it, fungus looks NOTHING like onion. Nothing at all. He was eating his sandwich already with the tomato on it, i looked at the tomatoes, declared that i wouldnt be eating it. He asked why rather annoyed like, and i refused to respond cause of his tone. As i stated before, how could you not notice fungus, so i thought he was being stupid and defiant...and who am i to argue with that. Hes a grown man, eat what you wanna.
And speaking of eating what you wanna, I CHOOSE to eat vegan, i dont have to. I CHOOSE to eat healthy; restaurants and fast food joints are not healthy. They load their food with sugar, fat and chemicals masquerading as 'flavor', to make you crave it. i would have never agreed to the trip if it meant eating fast food for 3.5 months. On a 3.5 month trip, a majority of supermarket shopping and cooking seems natural for financial as well as health reasons.
Cleanliness...I'm not bathing anywhere that potentially makes me dirtier. A place that i'm paying to sleep in should not have roaches, hair from the previous occupant or visible mold and mildew. The faucet should be clean and shiny, not dull with toothpaste spit when neither of us have brushed our teeth. The toilet seat should also not be stained, i shouldnt have to wonder if the stains are shit or pussy blood. I'd rather sleep in my tent or the car, where at least i know the filth there is mine.
Journal
| 06.20.04 | Kissimmee, FL: |
I ate fungus 2 days ago.
Not just a little, I ate tomatoes with visible pieces of fungus growing off of them... unwittingly. How this happened is an interesting example of how communication between my wife and I has slightly broken down a bit too much into assumption and stuff that's unspoken. She thought at the time, it seems, that I was aware of the fungus and choosing to eat the tomatoes anyway. I, however, thought they were pieces of onion.
Regardless, I'm fine. No side effects so far except for being a little upset upon figuring it all out.
We're both a bit broken. Trying to keep this website going, trying to feed Cla on a vegan diet, our breakneck pace of parks, and the fact that we have been behind budget from before we left is taking it's toll. We just don't have enough time to do anything. Yesterday, the battery for the laptop refused to show up anymore, making updating this site even more of a herculean task. We have 300mb of space left with about 100mb of photos coming in after every 2 parks. I have no clue how we are going to create more space. Meanwhile, going through the photos to put them up on the site is just too much to do - it takes way to much time to weed through them, classify them, and take out the bad ones and the duplicates.
Our Verizon wireless bill from the month before the trip was $300. We weren't aware of this because the bills weren't coming to our new address. We found out when they called us a few weeks ago. I'm still flabbergasted as to how our bill could have been $300 but have no real way of finding out. I think I have an online account with them but have no clue what the password is.
Cla will no longer stay at places where she feels the bathing areas are dirty. One way to fix this is to go through the schedule and try to Priceline anything I see that's an under 3 star hotel (which is lots of shit). She's still cool with camping, and still cool with the trip in general, she just won't stay at any more Motel 6's or Knights Inns, it seems. But when do I have time to do this? I don't.
There's tons of things costing money I didn't plan, and all of our contingency money was spent in the 2 weeks before the trip. This week, partly because of money, partly because of scheduling, we cancelled all 3 Disney parks. I doubt even this savings put us on budget. I worry we will just run out of money and have to end the trip early, which would be crushing to me.
Finally, the food. Cla basically can't eat anything that anywhere in America serves except for food purchased from a supermarket, kept chilled in a cooler, and often prepared with heat. The schedule often does not offer the time for any of these things. As such different things suffer. Either we don't get to parks on time, or we don't update this site, or other things go to hell.
Basically, we don't have time for everything. We have to take some things off the table. Either less parks. Or not update this site. Or Cla starts eating bacon cheeseburgers (giggle). Or we get a lot of money from God. One of these things or more has to happen. The stress is starting to eat at me and that's not fun at all.
Sarasota was not a good thing for out trip. We missed 2 parks during our stay there, updated nothing, and had conflicts between each other. It's taught us a lesson that next time we meet up with friends I need to stay focused on what we are supposed to do at the location, not what the majority of our friends want to do. I tend to be very malleable to others needs, which was a problem for us in Sarasota. Also, I wanted to get drunk for 3 days after being sober for 3 weeks. Well, mine as well be honest.
Today, we are doing a 4 hour drive to Miami, riding a wood roller coaster there, then the next day doing an 8 hour drive to Valdosta, GA. I tried to cut out Valdosta, but just didn't have the time yesterday to find an alternative place to stay during those 2 days, so to Valdosta and Wild Adventures we go.
On the bright side, we've been to some really good parks and on some really good coasters recently. That part of the trip is still doing great. It's just physicalizing the rest that's really tearing us down.
Journal
| 06.17.04 | Bleeding money and Orlando: |
We're bleeding money. There's a few reasons for this and it's both my fault and Cla's fault. As such I'm deciding we need to save money this week by only going to those attractions for which we've already owned tickets. That means Seaworld Orlando, BG Tampa Bay, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. No Disney parks, though we will be doing both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure in Los Angeles so it's not like Disney won't be in our trip or this site at all.
Cla and I are both a bit grumpy this week, and snapping and arguing with each other on occasion. It's ok, we're still having fun, but it's a bit tenser and a bit strained. Still, we're coming back around and getting back into it slowly. Sarasota seemed to throw us off a bit, but with each park and location things snap back together more and more.
I'd like to get to the Disney Orlando parks one day, but it won't be this trip.
Journal
| 06.13.04 | Sarasota, FL: |
We're taking a very needed break from constant travel for a few days here at Dave's place. Michele and Pat have come to visit as well and we are spending our time at the pool, going to a club and, today, going to somewhere called Daquiri Land or something.
Relaxing. We canceled doing the SkyCoaster today and will do it later this week. We will also very likely cancel Epcot and MGM Studios this week. The reason is simple: the ticket price is too expensive while the parks offer not enough attractions. Another factor strongly influencing my decision is the Tower of Terror ride being recreated at Disney's California Adventure.
We're still likely doing Magic Kingdom. I'd rather cancel that as well and only do Disneyland but Cla really wants to go so we will. :)
That's about it for now, I'll try to get more photos up when I can but I can't really say when. We're doing a great job covering the parks and attractions with our photographs, it's just a bit too time consuming to get them up on the web site.
Journal
| 06.07.04 | Charlotte, NC - 3 times a charm: |
Updating the website while Cla excercises in Knights Inn. It's a trashy but cheap place.
I may need to cancel every Motel 6 reservation for the future of this trip.
Here's what happened on our 3 Motel 6 stays so far:
Motel 6 stay #1 - Pre-trip. I change the reservation a few nights before over the phone. We arrive at the Motel 6 at 3am to discover our reservation was somehow not changed and the motel is now sold out. The annoyed night clerk shrugs when we ask what we should do. We then directly ask him to find us another room at the least. He finds us a place down the block for double the rate.
The next day the manager admits it was the motels fault, but offers us no help other then an apology. When Cla threatens to call the national chain, she offers a free nights stay, therebye offsetting the doubled rate on the first night.
Motel 6 stay #2 - Roach motel. Cla blogged it already. We run away to a Super 8.
Motel 6 stay #3 - Yesterday. We leave our bags in the room given to us. When we return, SEWAGE is soaked into the rug and the room reeks of piss. It is coming from the bathroom roof. I put my bare foot in it before discovering what's going on. Our cloting bags are within inches of the sewage and are just barely saved. We are given a new room with a laugh and "Oh yeah, we knew we h ad to get someone out of that room."
That's it Motel 6. Please leave the light on for someone else. 3 out of 3. Avoid Motel 6 unless you have a personal, previous experience with the establishment.
Journal
| 06.06.04 | Greensboro, North Carolina: |
I'm sitting at a picnic bench in a waterpark in the south. Cla is racing around doing water slides. I was quite sick the last day so I'm taking it easy and avoiding water - not the best weather for it either but Cla has had her heart set on a water park for a while so the slight chill in the air isn't stopping her.
Getting sick while camping was very scary. I pretty much had a fever all day. Having a fever in a tent sucks ass. I don't reccomend it. Here's to the idea that this will be the only time I get sick this summer. :)
Journal
| 06.05.04 | 1st illness and VA camping: |
First illness for us! First illness with no health insurance! First illness in Virginia (well for the two of us). Surprisingly it’s Mike and not me!
We arrived in Ochineechee (I’m spelling that wrong) state park in Virginia during a storm. Is it going to rain every time we go camping? We spent most of the day in the car sleeping (well at least I slept) and I set up the tent once the rain let up a bit. We also went to Hardee’s (yes I know they’re stuff isn’t vegan and probably not vegetarian, but it was one of those days…I’m doing my best here). The weirdest thing about Hardee's is that I smelled cigarette smoke upon entering. YES, they allow smoking inside restaurants in Virginia! As a matter of fact, the non-smoking section was much smaller than the smoking section, and they shoved it in the corner without windows…its like they’re encouraging you to smoke! Back at the campsite, we went to sleep in the cold and the damp. I woke up alone, which isn’t unusual, since I tend to sleep later than mike. Once I got up to investigate, I found him huddled across the front seats of the car nauseous with a fever. L I did my best to be nurse Cla. I took a photo of him all huddled under blankets in the tent. He looks really cute, id have posted it too but I don’t’ know how, and mike is sleeping.
Its really nice here though, theres a lake lapping behind our tent, and if mike is well enough to be left alone, i'm going to go on a (ranger directed) night nature walk.
Journal
| 06.04.04 | A vacation from our vacation: |
Today and tomorrow we have not parks. We are driving to a state park and camping until Sunday morning. No roller coasters, no rides, no screaming, no extreme acceleration in open aired vehicles outside of our Hyundai.
I think Cla and I both appreciate the break. Yesterday, though we both felt Busch Gardens Williamsburg was a little lacking as a thrill seekers' park, we both also were slightly relieved to be in a park where we weren't racing to get on every attraction.
Hopefully, we'll catch up on some trip reports this weekend too.
Journal
| 06.03.04 | roach motel: |
I'm sitting in a Super 8 motel, awake at 1:45am. Why would i be doing such a silly thing, when i'm getting up at 7:30 to go to Busch Gardens? Well its because after unpacking the car and settling into our room, we find that we're not the only residents. Mike was kind enough to tell me that he saw a roach by the phone, he knew i would be upset and may freak out. But i was good, i didn't freak. We were tired and wanted to have a relaxing evening together, and get some work done on the site. About 20 minutes later he sees another one, this time on the pillow. I quickly became irrational and wouldn't even discuss a plan of action until I demanded our money back (which was no problem, I'm sure the desk clerk is aware of the issue). We checked in at 7 and it was just after 10 by this point. And now we're homeless for the night. As I packed the car, mike found us another room, of course it was more expensive. As we were checking to make sure we didnt forget anything, another one was spotted in the shower. So thats 3 roach sightings in 3 hours with 2 people awake and moving around. That room would have been a scary place with the lights out! You can bet i'm going to harass the manager and insist on a free nights stay at another (insert crappy national motel chain here) as repayment for the inconvenience.
By the time we settled into our new room, it was well after midnight and we were pretty keyed up, and itchy. Everything that brushed against my skin for the next hour was potentially a roach.
If they infested the car, i will have a minor nervous breakdown.
Roach Motel: They check in, but they don't check out, because they live there.
Oh and for the curious: expect an entry chronicaling the food choices a vegan has on the road (i'll either gain or lose 30 pounds on this trip)!
Journal
| 06.03.04 | situation elimination: |
By the end of the trip, I’m sure I’ll be an expert at shitting standing up. We’ll definitely be crapping in some inopportune places. I don’t mind using half a roll of toilet paper to line the seat; I also thank my mom for teaching me the trick of folding a newspaper into fourths and ripping the corner, making a protective seat cover. However, after holding your business in for 45 minutes (which tends to happen on road trips) you need to go immediately. Now, I’m not about to catch crabs or genital herpes from an innocent piss (can you catch genital warts from a toilet seat?) therefore I REFUSE to sit on heavily frequented toilet ring. When you gotta go, you gotta go, and sometimes you just don’t have time to be hygienic, hence eliminating standing up.
I’ve read articles on websites how women can pee standing up, not squatting but really standing. You can learn how by clicking here. There’s a technique to it, which I didn’t have the foresight to practice. oh well, there’s always the next road trip.
ps sorry the website is not a link, it will be soon!
Journal
| 05.31.04 | Quick update: |
Just checked in to a Marriott Residence Inn located in downtown Washington DC (thank you Priceline!!!). We've got broadband, a kitchen, a fridge, a dishwasher and a laundry and excercise room. Cla and I are very, very happy with this turn of events.
So there's a lot on the table tonight. We need to get laundry done, and we need to take advantage of the broadband to upload all the pictures so far, which will take a good couple of hours.
Plus shopping for food, cooking and relaxing in our 1 night only luxury, of course.
Busy busy busy!!!
Journal
| 05.30.04 | Knoebels Camping: |
Camping at Knoble’s was an experience! It was our first day of camping. The tent was easy to set up, despite not having the practice run I had wanted. When we first got the tent, I tried to set it up in the living room, which was a little too small. After having a mini freakout about how to work the propane stove (which we weren’t able to test either), we had ramen soup for dinner along with we gotta eat this, its gonna go bad stuff. So we settled into our little nylon house, when it promptly started to rain. We went to sleep with a gentle pitter-patter and woke up in the middle of the night terrified at the thunder and lightning. Lightning hits tall trees no, so it’s probably not safe to be sleeping under them in a lightning storm. I finally chilled out enough to realize that if I was going to get struck by lightning, it’s probably more pleasant to be sleeping at the time.
Day 2 of camping: We were damp and cold from having ridden the Phoenix 5 times in a row in the rain. I was also paranoid about getting sick in the first week when we have to go at least 3 more months without health insurance (thanks America, I love ya). I came out of the tent after changing into dry clothes and went into the car to talk to Mike when it REALLY started to rain. Rain HARD. The rain turned into hail, and we were sitting in the car, that kind of scared where you feel like an idiot for being scared but you cant help yourself. Hail hitting the roof and windshield of a car is really loud. So loud one begins to worry about the windshield. So loud that one really begins to worry about the tent behind the car. The tent survived ok, I’m just really glad, I got in the car when I did. I’m no pussy, but if I was in the tent by myself I think I might of cried out of fear/frustration.
The tent stayed standing but inside the top layer of everything was nice and damp.
The next day we spread the sleeping bag over our shit in the car so it could dry. But really, what are you supposed to do with a wet tent when you need to pack up and go. I’m not looking forward to what it smells like when we pitch it again, especially cause I think I left a dirty sock in it.
Journal
| 05.29.04 | Sicklerville New Jersey: |
Today we are doing small Jersey Shore parks. As we are leaving at 9am and will be gone until late afternoon, we will hopefully have lots of time to get some meaty updates on this website. Maybe even photos!
Dave P. took some very cool Knoebels photos which I will try to get up today. Taking photos with humans in them makes the photos a bit more entertaining, it seems. But Jesus I hate looking at myself.
Dorney Park was phenomonal. The end of the night we owned the park, and multiple rides on 4 really, really good coasters made for a great day.
Slurping down instant coffee with Dave and Anabelle. Whoohoo! Only in the seventies today, which kind of sucks as we'll be on the beach all day. Not quite beach weather. Off we go!
Journal
| 05.28.04 | 6:43AM Harrisburg, PA: |
Ok, getting ready for the third straight park in 3 days, Dorney Park.
Hersheypark was so good yesterday it washed away the slightly grumpy mood I was in. We got a late start yesterday, plus had so much to do in their limited operating hours that I felt a bit stressed. Plus, we had trouble eating as we didn't have time to cook and Cla couldn't find any park food that she could eat for the longest time. What we ended up getting was a combination of too expensive and sub-standard. Being a vegan in an amusement park is not easy, hehe.
By the second half of the day, however, despite being tired, rushed and hungry, was all fun. That park is just too good to stay in a bad mood.
Complete trip reports are slow moving (we just got Great Adventure up) while photos seem impossible to get up on the site under our schedule. It's looking like we'll be putting all our energy into the trip reports and getting the photos up well... when we have the time, which might be when the trip is over. We'll see.
Hoping Dorney Park will be a more relaxing day. They are open regular hours (10AM-10PM and are a small park so really we'll have time to cover everything slowly, cook our own lunch, etc.
Journal
| 05.26.04 | Elysburg, PA: |
Sitting here in the dark typing this in the passenger seat of the car while Cla eats um... some vegan stuff behind me. We're camping at Knoebels, having just been at the park all day. We rode Phoenix at the end of the day multiple times in the pouring rain, Very, very fun. Later, after the park closed, we were inside the parked car for our first hailstorm. Rather frightening. Hail is frigging large, man. We were both rather scared for the front windsheild and, well, rather scared period. Interesting stuff.
Dave Pancake and Annabelle were cool enough to drive up to Knoebels to play with us today. Made for even more fun.
Time to wash dishes and sleep. Hersheypark tomorrow.
This from Cla:
Yes, the hail was rather scary. Its been raining off and on for about 24 hours, and while the tent is holding up well, i wouldnt say its dry in there. Oh and being a vegan on the road will prove rather interesting, we're only in Pennsylvania and the choices have been reduced dravatically. off to sleep with the spiders!
Journal
| 05.25.04 | Sicklerville New Jersey: |
In New Jersey, listening to Kimya Dawson sing with TMBG on their childrens' book album thingie. Interesting stuff.
Going to visit Dave at work today (Dave jumps out of airplanes as a job), then we're off to navigate what looks to be the maze-like twisting that is the local roads we'll be taking to get to Elysburg and Knoebels to camp there that night.
Great Adventure was yesterday. I don't know when we'll have time to write out full trip reports and photos, hopefully soon. Great Adventure was essentially a school trip day and even as that the park was pretty empty. On the down side many attractions were closed, including both sides of the Chiller. However, near ERT (walk-on, geek speak for exclusive ride time) conditions on Medusa, Nitro and Superman from 6PM-8PM made this quite the worthwhile day.
Good first day.
Thanks a bunch for guestbooking, Lia and Linda! Lia, thx much for linking us around. We'll try our hardest to make the site worth it. :) :) :)
Journal
| 05.21.04 | New budget: |
I revised the budget for the final time and not so good news.
We're kinda down 1,200 dollars. I say kinda because I had made a contigency fund for precisely that amount. However, starting the trip off with no contingency is insane. This means the only cash we have to spend is the $25 a day we've alloted for food.
There are tons of small contigencies that will come up on the trip (I figured about $1,200 worth). We have a credit card we can use in an emergency, but it's of course bad news to go into that world. Also, the notion that we are going to do this trip with only $25 in cash a day is a bit daunting.
We got into this mess due to the last two weeks. We basically over-spent while preparing for the trip on things we don't absolutely need. We also weren't as careful about money in the last 3 weeks as maybe we should have been.
I can't change any of this now. The financial end is going to make this tough, but not impossible. What I worry will suffer most is the website. If accomplish the trip itself becomes a full time strategy (and with only $25 a day in spending it very well will), what room is there for a web site with photos and trip reviews?
Journal
| 05.15.04 | New Windsor/Bradley International Airport: |
Holy shit I'm tired. For both health and financial reasons, we have to cook. But on this, a night after a park, we are SO exhausted. The only solution seems to be very prepared beforehand, which we haven't been yet.
Cla cooked tonight and it was yummy, but that will probably be the only non-restaurant meal of the weekend. The site of us cooking food in a Motel 6 makes me feel like we should also be cooking methamphetamine in the bathtub while having sex with immediate family members but what am I gonna do? If the price of doing this trip without getting fat means we have to come off a little white trash then so be it.
We're going to do a large amount of grocery shopping this Thursday before we leave. The problem seems to be we are not prepared with food already, so hopefully this will solve that.
Journal
| 05.11.04 | Rye Playland and Our Trip: |
We did Rye last weekend as a test to see how the big trip would go. Rye was the first test at a single day, and next weekend is our second test when we spend a full weekend away.
So what did I learn? Aside from a myriad of small things involving items we need, what we forgot to pack, etc, I learned that updating this web site with photos and trip reports IS A LOT OF WORK. Possibly too much work.
We're trying to walk a fine line. I know that forcing us to review and take photos of the coasters and attractions will make the trip MORE fun, by forcing us to stay active and interactive with the parks and people. However, it can't be so much work to update on this site that we completely cease having fun, and it becomes some sort of hellish job that we are not getting paid for.
I haven't worked out a compromise yet. I know at the least that at the end of the day, we'll be able to either do the photos or the trip report, not both. If I had to guess I imagine we'll focus on the trip report, saving the photos for a day or 2 off later in the week.
For now, another complaint I have is that my trip reports have been very dry. Hopefully they will lossen up as the trip progresses.
Journal
| 05.10.04 | Cla entry - Rye Playland 5/8: |
SIDEBAR - JOURNAL ENTRY BY CLA
Playland Rye - 5/8
There's a Beatles cover band playing to no audience. They suck and should stop playing.
Out of all the parks I've been to I've never seen a happy cotton candy machine op and Playland is no exception. No wonder, their job sucks. Their clothes and hair are always covered in tufts of cotton candy fluff. I imagine their skin is too, but I can't see it because the fluffy sugar has most likley melted into their skin and liquified with their sweat. The ops here are black girls with relaxers. When you relax your hair it gets damaged when you wash it too often. I'm sure this fact makes them like their jobs even more. Speaking of which, a surprising percentage of the employees here are black. Does Rye really have this many black people? The city of Rye owns the park...this speaks subsidised jobs to me.
It's hard to be a emetophobe in an amusement park. Especially on our trip. I hope I don't get thrown up on this summer. If I do, I'm gonna be really, really upset.
Journal
| 05.06.04 | Ok, I'm Ready: |
I'm sitting here doing absolutely nothing at work. I mean, nothing. If I'm doing anything actively it's trying not to fall asleep at my desk. I'd leave early except I very need these next 2.5 weeks paychecks. Theoretically, if I just walked out and never came back we'd still have enough money for the trip. However, these checks will be getting us through when we get back in September, which is pretty important, though not very exciting.
Reservations are almost finished. I'm making a large book which contains reservation information and addresses/directions to all parks and places we are staying. It's large. I've only finished May/June so far.
I've printed business cards to give to people we meet on the road that promote the site, and little books for each of us to review the coasters and rides in (due to my being a gigantic geek). I still have to get... fanny packs for the 2 of us to keep this stuff and the camera in. Though I find the idea of my wearing a "fanny pack" kind of revolting, I haven't thought of any other way to do it.
I'm retraining myself on Macintosh the last few days. I'm a hardcore PC user and this is a slightly painful process. Worse, some of the boutique type software I need for this trip has such a small user base noone's bothered to crack it, at least as far as my searches have found. I may, God help me, have to pay for software for the first time in my life unless I can figure out a way to snatch a serial or simply automate the tasks myself.
Wow. 2 and a half weeks. This is so f*cking cool.
Journal
| 04.28.04 | Site is finished!!!: |
The site is finally finished. Jesus Christ it took me months. What took so long was creating a seperate section for each park with an overview of basic information. It was sometimes agonizing figuring out details for some parks, or trying to discern what the "must do" attractions and rides were from the many, many trip reports I poured over.
The advantages are numerous. For one, I know all the important stuff I should document and review in each park. This will very likely make the trip more fun. Second, the whole site is now self-navigating as I update. I update a review, a group of photos, a trip report and boom it goes into it's own category and gets linked and updated automatically, no writing html, no organzing files no nothing.
Otherwise, we are now car owners. We purchased a 2004 Hyundai something last week. If you are really curious as to what model it is, find the cheapest model Hyundai with an automatic transmission on the market and that's the one we have. I have already been exploring the wonders of alternate side of the street parking in New York. Whoohoo!
What makes me very uncomfortable is that now that the site is finished, I have to offer people to see it. I hate that part of web sites and it makes me cringe with discomfort. Still, the trip will be better if I get as much feedback and dialogue here as I can so.... I have to.
Being the busy "about to go on a trip in less then a month" boy that I am, I've also been spending as much time when not working at my job researching and making the cheapest motel/hotel/hostel/camping reservations humanly possible. That's not entirely true. I just got a place for $40 a night on Priceline about 6 blocks from the French Quarter when I could have gotten a youth hostel about 2.5 miles away for $35 a night. In other words, I'm spending a little extra when it's clearly worth it.
I'm officially excited. There are butterflies all the hell over my stomach.
Journal
| 04.10.04 | Holy Shit: |
It's really happening.
I've spent all night revising the budget. I revised parking fees last night (nearly $500 to park!) and revised lodging tonight. It takes a long time to go through the trip because... well, it's massive.
Now it's 3am and I can't sleep because I'm excited. What if after a month we hate amusement parks and roller coasters? This thought makes me giggle. Whenever I reach planning toward the end of the trip I wonder what we'll be thinking when we are on the actual trip at that point. Will we still be having fun? Will it feel like a job? Will we never want to ride another roller coaster again or will it still feel exciting?
I've always loved intense, borderline insane experiences and I've created one. I can't wait.
Journal
| 03.10.04 | Counting down...: |
I've handwritten the notable rides we are going to cover at the least. I still have to transfer them fully to this site.
We're getting evicted at the end of this month. The plan was to spend this month buying a car and making reservations, but instead we've been scrambling looking for an apartment. Looks like getting a car and making reservations will have to wait until April.
I'm working on a book proposal with sample chapters that will cover this trip. Hopefully it will be in a state close enough that I can post it here by the end of this week.
Wow, am I really going to do this?
Journal
| 01.28.04 | Cars and Help: |
Not much to report. I'd like to get this journal going for the trip but really there's not much to write with the trip so many months away.
I'm contacting a new roller coaster magazine to see if they will be interested in working with us while we do the trip in whatever way. Otherwise I'm trying to figure out whether we will be leasing or renting a car. There are some major pros and cons to both.
I feel the schedule is pretty much finalized. I've gotten the 3 season passes for the major park chains (Paramount, Six Flags and Cedar Fair) and will begin making camping reservations come February.
I need to finish out the overviews of all the parks we're going to visit, if only just to know what rides we need to get on and photograph. I've been putting that off lately and will have to get back on it again.
Hohum. These damn entries are pretty boring until the trip starts.
Journal
| 01.06.04 | Why this website?: |
A friend who read a previous journal entry asked me this question:
You declaim any want for attention or fame and yet you are putting this thing on a website? It's like you are pissing on other people's dreams but you want people to embrace yours.
That's a pretty good question. And it merges with my general confusion about this website. Am I working on this site as a guide? What about park opinions? Do I write funny pieces complaining about various parks or do I only accentuate the positive?
It also boils down to what the point is. Am I look to write magazine style pieces on roller coasters? Am I looking to turn this into a book? Am I looking to turn this into a strict guide site with photos? And why a website anyways?
I know, at least, the answer to the last question. Why a website is because everything in my life is more fun when I'm working with an objective. So yes, it will be fun to go to all these parks, but it will be even more fun if I go with an objective to photograph them very well and review them. The more it is a challenge for me, the more interesting and fun an adventure it is.
But that doesn't change the issue of what is the point of the site. This, I still haven't figured out yet.
I figure this will take shape as the trip takes shape. At least I hope it will.
Journal
| 12.11.03 | I have to do this trip: |
I have to do this trip.
Though I haven't updated the "how much" screen, I've got $3,700 right now for the trip. Basically, that's really not enough.
This site is going to "open" soon, in the sense that I imagine I wil link it on a newsgroup, submit it to dmoz/google, yahoo, etc. I'm a bit nervous about that.
I've gotten better and more streamlined at the park write ups, but I still have to fix the early write ups where I wasn't as clear as to what I was doing or focusing on, or what my writing style would be like. Also, I need to integrate the photos I've taken so far into the park writings. But still, I'm farily close to letting people see this and I have to admit to being fairly nervous.
I can't spend another year in a cubicle. And I have to feel I've done the time I've done so far for a purpose. I simply can't do this for another year.
Journal
| 11.18.03 | Why this trip: |
It seems like when my friends and I got out of college a large vacuum was created between our dreams; what we expected of ourselves; and our present reality. This difference between the "potential me" (a term a friend coined) and self was incredibly large for many of us - the price of going to art school, I imagine. Likewise, the energy spent, intentionally or not, to somehow fill or counter this imbalance was quite large. Many of my friends (and myself) used drugs in an attempt to fill this or at least help blind us to it, if only for a short while before the inevitable fierce crashes that would occur. Others I watched burn through relationships because of their failure to fill this hole. Two aquaintences killed themselves and I associate both of their suicides with this problem of identity. Only one person I knew made an overt and dedicated quest to become his dream, and I'm unsure of his happiness at this point.
And so went our twenties. What about now? For myself, I'm rather happily married but still wrestling with these problems. But I've figured out a little...
I want to be happy. It's a simple statement, so essentially basic it's quite deceptive. However for me at least, being happy meant shedding a lot of desires that I thought were the only road to happines for me. I wanted to be famous. Maybe not global famous, or even celebrity famous, but I wanted to create work that a large group of people accepted. For me, this would somehow fulfill a emptiness in my ego that I could never truly fill with relationships or drugs. I felt that by making something that others appreciated, I would become fulfilled, I would be whole, and, maybe most importantly, I would have proof that I was special, and so I would finally know and believe inside of me that I truly was special, and the hole of emptiness and longing that has existed inside me for as long as I can remember would disappear.
I gave up on that philosophy. What I had forgotten, completely lost in fact, was any feeling or sense of happiness whatsoever. And by happiness, I don't mean spiritual happiness, or career fulfillment, or financial security, or living some idealized Americana vision, I just mean waking up and being in a good mood.