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| Autor | Nachricht | Aktionen | ||
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| MilitaryDuckJock Neu 15.09.2007 Samstag, 15. September 2007 22:32 | ||||
MilitaryDuckJock
Iain Hendry Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario Kanada |
Last year on my Florida trip, I got to ride Sheikra - B+M's first North American Dive Machine. When I found out Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, was getting a bigger, better, badder version of Sheikra, of course I had to go ride it! So that was the catalyst of the trip.
I wanted to meet up with Robert and Beverly (friends of mine from the smart car club I'm a part of), but unfortunately the holiday weekend I'd decided to head down coincided with the weekend that they were heading North to HersheyPark to meet up with Diesel Dave and Pam (2 other people from Ontario in the club)! Shoot! So imagine my surprise when my buddy Paul and I spotted a scratch black smart cab coming up behind us in Southern New York!!  It's Dave and Pam!
 Quelle: maj.com dsc01314.jpg  Quelle: maj.com dsc01316.jpg We tracked alongside each other, switching places and turning heads fora good hour or so, before we had to part ways.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01318.jpg I absolutely cherish the drive down Highway 15 toward Washington DC. On our way South, we noticed that Knoebels Grove - a smaller family-style park - was maybe 15 minutes off the highway. We were making good time... and decided to randomly stop in. They have a couple of decent rides here; Phoenix is an ancient wooden coaster, that started out life in Texas IIRC, before being moved up North... and Twister, which was built by park employees. The park is currently building a new wooden coaster, called Flying Turns, which will resemble the old bobsled-style coasters that were popular way back in the 1920's!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01357.jpg Phoenix just glides along, tossing you out of your seat! Perfection.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01353.jpg  Quelle: maj.com dsc01374.jpg It looks good, but Twister is brutally rough.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01348.jpg Construction on Flying Turns. Labour-intensive? Uh, yeah! We had to head out after a couple of hours and keep going, but we had a great time there and were glad we stopped in briefly!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01328.jpg Headin' on down to Virginia. As the hills of B+M track popped up above the treeline I couldn't have been more excited. While I was at Busch Gardens Williamsburg... er... BGE now, I guess it is (they changed the name to Busch Gardens Europe, and Busch Gardens Tampa is now Busch Gardens Africa, I think) just last spring, Griffon was more than enough of an excuse to make a trip down again. Griffon has another inversion over Sheikra, but more importantly, new prototype trains that seat an 10 guests wide, with no floor!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01412.jpg Busch Gardens has been voted consistently the most beautiful theme park on Earth for many years in a row. We met up with Roderick and Kip, two of my other coaster-enthusiast friends, and headed for... Griffon!!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01417.jpg Those massive B+M trains. What were they thinking?! 
 Quelle: maj.com dsc01418.jpg Pushing skyward through the first Immelman.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01425.jpg Easily the smoothest coaster of the 248 I've ever riden.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01427.jpg I wish I could fly... well, I can on Griffon!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01420.jpg Just like Sheikra, the trains have scoops on the back row. When the train dips over the lake, it sends massive plumes of water straight out behind the train, for a visual effect!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01481.jpg That's 90 degrees, straight down, folks. Griffon alone was worth the trip, but there's so much more at Bsuch Gardens. There are 3 B+M coasters here; Griffon, of course, then Alpengeist - a ski-lift gone wrong, and Apollo's Chariot, which is functionally quite close to Wonderland's 2008 coaster, Buhemuff.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01430.jpg Alpengeist twists down into the ravine.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01432.jpg This sign always makes me smile.
 Quelle: maj.com dsc01436.jpg I always have ice cream for breakfast on my trips!!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01457.jpg Alpengeist and Sheikra share the ravine. Best part about Busch Gardens? BEER! Since it's owned by Busch, you can just walk around and drink wherever you want. I resisted the urge to get tanked since I wasn't sure I trusted Paul behind the wheel after the horn incident (just kidding Paul!).
 Quelle: maj.com dsc01460.jpg Drinking in line felt weird. Man I love beer.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01467.jpg Alpengeist screams through the Cobra Roll.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01470.jpg Loch Ness Monster, Alpengeist, and Griffon. I like this area of the park a lot. We said bye to Roderick, headed back to Richmond to our hotel, and settled for the night.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01488.jpg Lonely Nosedive! When we got to the hotel, Paul ran in and got our keys. A family from Jamaica walked by and came right up and peered in my car, babbling something on that I couldn't understand! They couldn't see me because of my heavy tint... when they finally realised "there's someone inside!" they went nuts! The one lady kept talking to me, she was so friendly. I can't remember all of what she said. I love this car hahaha...
Next up, Kings Dominion. On our way to the park we had to pass through some toll booths. I wish I had this whole event on video. As we rolled through the booth, I heard SCREAMING from about 3 booths away... as I pulled away, a giant black woman came running OUT OF THE BOOTH after me yelling "WAITTTTTTTTTTT WAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHERE DID YOU GET that carrrrrr......" - I so wish I could have turned around 
When we got to Kings Dominion we were early, but the park was deserted. Maybe 10 cars in the lot!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01490.jpg We knew it was going to be a great day. The weather was perfect, too! While waiting for the park to open we went through the gift shops. I'm quite surprised that shirts like this and this are selling in the stores! Paul asked me if all the pirate stuff in the stores was because of Volcano. I blinked.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01492.jpg Paul gets the full treatment through the park's metal detectors (stupid).  Quelle: maj.com dsc01493.jpg Kings Dominion has the same Eiffel Tower replica as at Kings Island in Ohio. Kings Dominion has a lot of variety. I think they've also got more launched coasters here (4) than any other park in the world!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01546.jpg Best ride in the park; Drop Zone, freefall for 56 people at 100 m. Bliss.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01528.jpg I like how Avalanche has 2 Canada themed sleds!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01545.jpg Horrible. The launch is fantastic. It's unfortunate that anything happens after that, because it makes you want to kill yourself it's so bad. By mid-afternoon we were starting to actually get bored (with no crowds, we rode everything in the park in just a few hours). We parted ways with Roderick and Paul and I headed up for an evening in Washington DC and Armands Pizza!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01554.jpg On our way North, we stopped in at this Marine Museum.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01559.jpg The real reason I wanted to go back into DC for the evening was of course for Metro. But my buddy Jeff had recommended this awesome pizza place on the North side of the city. So we pulled into the South side and took the Metro all the way under DC.
 Quelle: maj.com dsc01563.jpg Love the new Alstom trains!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01582.jpg The Metro is any brutalist architecture fan's dream.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01568.jpg The lighting is flawless and atmospheric.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01574.jpg Paul enjoys Armands Pizza.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01575.jpg So many menu choices! Funny story; Paul ordered one glass of wine (I had beer, of course, and got drunk off one pint). When they brought it out they brought him half a litre instead. To correct their mistake, they apologized, and brought him another glass. And then on top of that they gave him another glass, for whatever reason. That's a litre. Trying to keep him quiet on the metro during the "events" that occured that night was virtually impossible.
I'm trying to find the words on how carefully to put this but we met some very interesting people that evening; this climaxed with us sharing a car with a woman who brought on a massive poofy pink chair, which her daughter playfully bounced around on during the whole ride!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01579.jpg Waiting for the train.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01588.jpg We started to head back North, via Morgantown, West Virginia. I love crazy transit, and therefore I love the Morgantown PRT. This is the fourth time I've visited, I love it so much! We met up with my friend Bob who runs the PRT and he brought in a car off the guideway for us into the maintenance area and took us remotely on a tour of the system.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01592.jpg Nosedive and a Scion xB!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01594.jpg The maintenance facility.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01598.jpg Cars make intelligent decisions about which route to take based on predetermined station selection.  Quelle: maj.com dsc01616.jpg I <3 PRT!  Quelle: maj.com dsc01621.jpg We packed a ton of stuff into 4 days. The car performed flawlessly over the distance (~3000 km? I can't quite remember). Lots of laughs and waves, thumbs up - only one negative comment the ENTIRE trip! As we drove through a small town somewhere in Pennsylvania, this guy on a bicycle going the other way smiled and yelled "It's ugly!" and Paul without even thinking (he was driving) shouted "Thanks!"
 Quelle: maj.com dsc01626.jpg I love the PRT so much I bought a WVU hat! Thanks for reading! -Iain |
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| dj-erik Neu 15.09.2007 Samstag, 15. September 2007 22:38 | ||||
dj-erik
Erik Nickel Alsbach-Hähnlein Deutschland . HE |
Hi Iain
Thanks for this nice trip report. German Cars are nice? greetings Erik |
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| Tejay Neu 16.09.2007 Sonntag, 16. September 2007 08:10 | ||||
Tejay
Thorsten Janke Bochum Deutschland . NW |
Hi, Iain,
thanks for the full story report with the pictures of some perfect picture days. Seems to me, that your looks have been inspired a little bit by the pirate themes you encountered. 
Always great, to read your reviews and see your pictures! Thanks for sharing! Greetings, Thorsten. |
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| Cyrotech Neu 16.09.2007 Sonntag, 16. September 2007 08:42 | ||||
Cyrotech
Deutschland . NW |
Very nice and bulky report, was a pleasure to read it, nice photos as well -> thx . |
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| schrottt Neu 16.09.2007 Sonntag, 16. September 2007 10:58 | ||||
schrottt
Sven Lakemeier Deutschland . BY |
Nice trip report.
That PRT looks interesting. Do you have more informations about that system? |
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| MilitaryDuckJock Neu 16.09.2007 Sonntag, 16. September 2007 14:00 | ||||
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MilitaryDuckJock
Iain Hendry Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario Kanada |
Sure! It's called the Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit. It was built in the mid 1970's. It has 5 stations and covers about 7 km. Each car goes about 40 km/h. When you enter a station, you pick where you want to go by pushing a button:
 Quelle: maj.com dsc05615.jpg Then you watch for the LED sign to tell you which car to get into:  Quelle: maj.com dsc05652.jpg When that happens, you get in and the car leaves - and goes directly to the destination with no intermediate stops. This is because every station has a bypass track. It is the only PRT system in the world! It was built by Boeing, the aerospace company. Each car has 4-wheel steer and makes decisions at switches by pressing against either the left wall or the right wall. There is a big preload spring that decides which wall the car will follow, this is shunted by a hydraulic cylinder (bistable mechanism). You can see pictures from my first visit in 2006 by clicking this link. You can read more about it at Jerry Schneider's Innovative Transportation Technologies page. Such a wonderful system!! But my favourite is still Germany's Cabinentaxi... I so wish it was a reality.
 Quelle: faculty.washington.edu cab1.jpg  Quelle: faculty.washington.edu Rstation.jpg It's really perfection.... -Iain |
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| joachim Neu 26.10.2007 Freitag, 26. Oktober 2007 23:09 | ||||
joachim
Deutschland . RP |
Hey Ian,
nice report. I can`t believe it that anyone outside Europe is driving such a small car,and is even driving such a distance with it. I was fed up after 150 miles.
Joachim |
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| MilitaryDuckJock Neu 27.10.2007 Samstag, 27. Oktober 2007 02:42 | ||||
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MilitaryDuckJock
Iain Hendry Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario Kanada |
Well, I love it so much In Canada, there are about 10 000 fortwo's (that's a lot, for a country with only about 30 million people). They're very popular here!
I've had mine for less than 2 years and have over 150 000 km on it, it's such a fantastic car! I don't think anything about driving 2 or 3 thousand km in a weekend with it. -Iain |
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