The Insanity Quest for #400!

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coasterdave
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The Insanity Quest for #400!

Post by coasterdave »

Here I am planning another coaster trip and I can just hear Jon saying guess he will not make that one. Incase some of you do not know what has taken place with me and my coaster planning of late, it does not seem to work. I have had to ax or cancel afew trips this year from work to Delta axing three of my four flights. Yea in other words, you would think I would learn. Guess you can not teach an old dog new tricks.

I have a number of travel vouchers for Delta since they really suck at axing the flights I have with them. I have been trying to use them up so I can go with another airline (Air Tran or Jet Blue), but it seems they like me to much by giving me Delta dollars and upgrading me from coach to First. Well I am a Platinum Member of their miles program. Might as well use that. But since I have a Lear 19 miles from the house now, I do not fly the airlines for work anymore.

I saw where I could fly from CLT to White Plains, New York for 118 round trip. That is right down the road from Rye Playland (Dark ride after Dark Ride) and not to far from a boat load of parks. I decided that July 12-15 was the dates that I wanted and got on the horn with my Personal Executive Assistant to inform her I was going to be out of town those days and not to line any meetings or Dog and Pony Shows (in second week of those as I type).

I sit down and wanted to see what parks had coaster that where worth hitting or park that had more than a Dragon Wagon or Minor Mikes. If I was going to drop some change for a park, then it better have a real coaster, a dark ride , or a Top Spin in it. See it does not take much to make me happy. I came up with a plan to hit 12 parks from the time I land on the 12 till the time I fly back out in the morning on the 15th. I even have 3 in reserve if I get time and everything falls into place.

If everything falls into place than I will hit Coaster #400 sometimes in the evening on the 14th. I might even be abit over 400 if I am lucky. I am just trying to see just how many coasters I can get before I break the passport out and heard overseas. As soon as I fine tune the torture trip I will post it and just might even get a chance to do it.

I am even going to be in the crap hole state called New Jersey and some of you know just how much I love that crap hole. Yes it is true that New Jersey SUCKS!!
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JamminJ
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Post by JamminJ »

Good luck dave, I hope you get it this year! Rye Playland is FABULOUS park.. could spend hours and hours there..
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AMartin777
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Post by AMartin777 »

Yes, good luck on reaching #400 Dave. I have no doubt that you will.

As to trips and all, I hope we can all make it to one, eventually, where we can all meet up at once. I know how that goes... sometimes it's just not in the cards (as they say).
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bgwfreak777
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Post by bgwfreak777 »

:D :lol: I thought driving 1200 miles and hitting 4 (really 3) parks was extreme.

I'm excited that either Griffon might be 150 for me (unless our trip falls through). In that case, I'll make Cliff Hanger 150 since it's a NC "icon".

Good luck.
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Jonathan
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Post by Jonathan »

#50:

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#150:

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#250:

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coasterdave
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Post by coasterdave »

Great thing about having the Lap Top and the AIr Card is that I can check e-mail and stuff while I am on the road. SInce I have abit before I can get into the Concert. I decided I should sit down and figure up what day I am going to all these parks and here is a rough line up.

Thursday July 12th:
Bowcraft
Jenkins Boardwalk
Casino Pier
Funtown Pier
Great Adventure

End Day One Coaster Total: 12 coasters


Friday July 13th:
Trimper's Pier (Maryland)
Jolly Rodger's Pier
Jolly Rodger's Amusement Park
Playland's Castaway Cove (NJ)
Gillian's Wonderland Pier

End Day Two Coaster Count: 11
Total Cont after Day Two: 23

Saturday July 14th:
Sesame Place (PA)
Sports Plus Entertainment Center (NY)
Adventureland
Rye Playland
Day Three Total:8
End of Trip 31

I have a few other parks to work in as time gets closer and need to have afew extra incase I can not get on some coasters. I am sure I will hit 400 at Rye. Will update as the time gets closer.

I saved over 100 bucks on hotels by going with Priceline.

Off to see The Pimp of the Nation since dorrs just opened!!
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coasterdave
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Post by coasterdave »

One word and one word only: Delta!

Yea got axed once again on my flights. That is about the 6th time Delta has done that to me. I am glad I have only one flight left and that is one using all my miles for Texas Trip in September. I am using Air Tran and US Air for my Oct Trip. Scored a first class ticket on Us Air from Orlando to LA for 469. Could not pass that one up and great chance I could by an upgrade to Biz on Air Tran for the CLT to Orlando and the LA to CLT leg.

But this did not cancel my trip at all. I am still going to find #400. I am just using 4 wheels to do it. Going to drive it. I am leaving around 6am in the morning and should get up there to still do every park I had planned. I just need to work the extra parks into the trip.

I will upload pics each night for your viewing pleasure. Off to sleep to rest for the 700 mile trek in the morning. I might even come close to the 4 day record driving record when I did 3216 miles for my first ever Texas trip.

Later and welcome home J!!!!
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Jonathan
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Post by Jonathan »

Be safe
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AMartin777
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Post by AMartin777 »

Awesomfied adventure coming up for you Dave! Have a safe and great trip. I look forward to seeing the pics.

Is Jay back? Hey J, let's see a TR and pics! :P
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coasterdave
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Post by coasterdave »

Here is low down on this past weekend. I had to scrap all the parks for Thursday due to the 764 miles of Blacktop and getting in at 9:30 that night. Was going great till I hit Baltimore and that is where it was a parking lot. I had plans on trying to hit atleast two parks but time was not in my favor so I had some wings and planned Friday's stops.

Friday morning was a trip up to Adventureland to start the day off. I was abit ticked that I was only there to hit the two coasters and off I went. The park looked like it would be great to spend afew hours or two there.

Then it was onto Rye Playland and the quest for #400 went to the wayside. This is without a doubt a great park. I could have spent the whole day there. I would say if you are in the area it is well worth a stop. The dark rides where great, then it was off to what I call the Great Tour De Manhattan or when Dave takes the wrong exit.

I got an extensive self guided tour of Manhattan for about two plus hours. It seemed the GPS did not like the buildings or I was not paying attention. I will say that I saw some interesting sights and figured out that I hate the sorry drivers of New York City more than anything in the world.

After my tour I headed to Bowcraft for another park with two coasters in it. It seemed to be a theme for the rest of the day since I hit Keansburg for their two to close out the day.

Then came the day I like to call the day I found the thrill of riding. I started out at Great Adventure with some other parks planned but was keeping tabs on something that was brewing at work in one of the Texas offices, but was hitting the coaster that this trip was planned around and that is El Toro.

Everyone ran to Kingda Ka when the park opened. I have no idea why for I veered off to the right as I entered the Golden Kingdom and there it was waiting for me to ride the bull. I walked right on to the front seat and waited as the train was let loose. It was just the start to one of the wildest and one of the air time filled coaster I had ever rode.

El Toro is without the doubt the best damn coaster I have been on. It filler with ejector air everywhere. The first two hills are insane. I do not think my back side hit the seat till going through the first turn around. Only words that I can think off is go now and ride it. I enjoyed 7 rides on it before I packed my toys and went to the house.

I got the other side of Rolling Thunder and Kingda Ka before leaving at noon. I had to ax the rest of my trip due to work related. I ended up getting home at 1:30 Sunday morning with a ride count of 383. !7 short but never fear, I will hit it before you know.

Will post the pics in abit.
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AMartin777
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Post by AMartin777 »

Can't wait to see the pics Dave!

Did you see any of the issues that Rye has been getting bad press for lately? Sounds like they have some serious safety issues going on there.
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bgwfreak777
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Post by bgwfreak777 »

Dave, i am never, ever going on a trip with you. :lol: Just kidding.

El Toro sounds amazing. I know your'e thinner than me, but how are the restraints? If I fit on Millennium and Dragster, should I fit on the bull ok?
coasterdave
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Post by coasterdave »

You should not have any problems with the seat belts Wes. They have a good amount left over. I would say I had a good 6 plus inches left over. I will warn you that they will pull on the belts with a good tug and press down on the lap bar. You will see why going over the first drop.

Please note that all pics where took with the new camera. I did not bring the big one on this trip since I knew I would be on the go. Still need some fine tuning with it.

As for Rye Playland, I found it pretty safe and hope to visit it again in the near future. Nice park that is worth the trip if you ask me.

Pics:

Adventureland: http://flickr.com/photos/coasterdave/se ... 25/detail/
Rye Playland: http://flickr.com/photos/coasterdave/se ... 95/detail/
Bowcraft: http://flickr.com/photos/coasterdave/se ... 843896771/
Great Adventure: http://flickr.com/photos/coasterdave/se ... 92/detail/

Enjoy!
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bgwfreak777
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Post by bgwfreak777 »

coasterdave wrote:I will warn you that they will pull on the belts with a good tug and press down on the lap bar. You will see why going over the first drop.
Yeah, I knew they stapled you...but for good reason. I don't want to be the first one to fly off the ride into rolling thunder. :lol:

Good luck on getting to 400. I'm sure you'll make it there soon with only 17 to go. Too bad you've already ridden Son of Beast, that could have been #400. :lol:
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