Eastern US Coaster Tour

This summer I took one massive trip and visit 42 parks across the eastern half of the US. If anyone has any specific questions I'd be glad to answer them! But for now, here are some fun stats I worked out:

SEASON STATS:
Time spent within a theme park: 690 hours 4 minutes
Parks visited: 42
Different coasters ridden: 246
Total coaster laps: 2381
Feet of coaster track traveled: 8,315,350
Miles of coaster track traveled: 1574.9
Equivalent distance: NYC to the Nebraska-Colorado border via I-80
Times inverted on a coaster: 2811

CAREER STATS:
Parks visited: 52
Coasters ridden:303

PERSONAL RECORDS:
Most laps on one coaster in a single day:
1. Skyliner @ Lakemont park - 200 laps
2. Afterburn @ Carowinds - 126 laps
3. Excalibur @ Funtown Splashtown USA - 60 laps
4. Voyage @ Holiday World - 57 laps
5 (tie). Comet @ The Great Escape - 52 laps
5 (tie). Voyage @ Holiday World - 52 laps

Most total coaster laps in a single day:
1. August 6 @ Lakemont Park - 205 laps
2. July 3 @ Carowinds - 137 laps
3. June 20 @ Michigan's Adventure - 72 laps
4 (tie). July 31 @ Dorney Park - 70 laps
4 (tie). July 2 @ Carowinds - 70 laps

Coaster with most total laps:
1. Skyliner @ Lakemont Park - 200 laps
2. Afterburn @ Carowinds - 176 laps
3. Voyage @ Holiday World - 160 laps
4. Shivering Timbers @ Michigan's Adventure - 92 laps
5. Comet @ The Great Escape - 81 laps

Park with most total laps:
1. Carowinds - 207
2. Lakemont Park - 205
3. Holiday World - 181
4. Cedar Point - 170
5. Michigan's Adventure - 136

SIX FLAGS VS. CEDAR FAIR
Parks visited:
1. Six Flags: 9
2. Cedar Fair: 8

Different coasters ridden:
1. Cedar Fair - 88
2. Six Flags - 81

Total coaster laps:
1. Cedar Fair - 739
2. Six Flags - 436

How freakin' cow Chance!!!!!

Did you count how many times you went trhough your entire CD/iPod catalog while driving?

As I see you got as far north as Funtown in Maine., did you have a chance to swing into Canobie Lake and hit the Yankee Cannonball?

How many miles did you put on your car?

And... did I run into you on 7/5 at SFNE wearing a "geekie" t-shirt?

Yeah, I suppose I'll list the parks I went to:

Worlds of Fun
Valleyfair
Silver Dollar City
Beech Bend
Holiday World
SFKK
Kings Island
Indiana Beach
SFGAm
Mt. Olympus
Timber Falls
Little Amerricka
Six Flags St. Louis
Dollywood
SFoG
Carowinds
Freestyle MusicPark
BGE
Kings Dominion
SFA
Morey's Piers
SFGAdv
Coney Island
Adventureland
SFNE
Funtown Splashtown USA
Canobie Lake Park
Lake Compounce
Playland Park
La Ronde
The Great Escape
Dorney Park
Knoebels
Hersheypark
Lakemont Park
Kennywood
Canada's Wonderland
Seabreeze
Darien Lake
Martin's Fantasy Island
Waldameer
Cedar Point

So yes, I got a few laps on the Cannonball.

I logged about 12,000 miles this summer.... I'm doing my best to fuel the economy! haha

And nope, I was at SFNE on 7/17

How many oil changes on your car?

How many times did you cycle through your music collection, CD's iPod, ect?

Wow! That is an absolutely crazy trip. Who did you make the trip with? Got room in your car for the next coaster tour, my count could totally use a boost like 246 more.

I think that may be the biggest coaster trip I've ever heard of, including some overseas journeys.

Is this a trip report or are you bragging?

So tell us, where did you stay on your trip? Campgrounds, hotels, or in your car? Any new favorite coasters? Any disappointments? What about observations about individual parks? What did you do on "off days?" Or were they just travel days in between parks? Any weather issues?

It sounds like you kept some meticulous records about the parks and coasters you visited.

That may bee coaster road trip to end all road trips.

I think Chance may have the white lines from the highway PERMINANTLY burned into hit retinas.

Plus, his car seat will be forver matched to the shape of his butt.

Valleyfair, by any chance are you a CPA? I sense a fondness for spreadsheets...

I ask the bragging question because you associate this TR with all of those parks, but if someone follows the links from the park pages, they won't learn anything about the parks.

Yea I have a question? How in the world did you pull this whole thing off? According to your profile your not even 21! You need to be 21 to get into most hotels. Did you win the lottery or something?

I, like GIGA, am just curious how much this trip cost you??? Sounds pretty amazing but I bet it cost you a pretty penny to do it all.

Hopman, I changed my oil 4 times, and fortunately I could hook my iPod up so I had a few thousand songs at my disposal along with all of the different radio stations along my route.

RGB: I slept out of the back of my station wagon. I put a LuvSac bean bag in the back and used PVC piping to build a curtain system. I essentially converted it into a small RV. I was VERY impressed with Behemoth up in Canada, and that easily became my favorite Beemer. And Afterburn at Carowinds easily became my favorite Invert. I was probably the most surprised by Griffon. I thought it would be sort of dull to enthusiasts who have been on much taller rides, but boy was I wrong! That ride is a blast! I was also pleasantly surprised by Hersheypark and loved my time there, although I thought Fahrenheit was a bit mild. I really liked Storm Runner though. One of the most disappointing parks would have to be La Ronde. It was dirty, packed, terrible capacity on rides, and only a couple rides worth waiting for. Plus the staff just seemed upset that people had come to the park. And I don't speak French, so that made navigating a bit tricky, although not too difficult.

I was amazed by how fortunate I was with weather... I never lost a full day to it! of course there were some showers every here and there, but nothing big. I had a few off days where I would visit friends along the route or just relax, but not many. I believe the longest streak I had was 23 consecutive days in a park.

Mike: No, I am not. Just an engineering student who wanted to do some math along the way! Plus it gives me something to do to remain relatively sane now that I'm back in school.

Jeff: While I am proud of this trip, I am simply far too lazy to type up a report for each park I visited. I simply figured that anyone interested in a specific park or ride could ask and I would elaborate. I was interviewed by Doug Barnes of The Season Pass Podcast who I met at Holiwood Nights. I believe it will be up tomorrow and that would be an easy way to hear more details about the first half of the trip.

GIGAFORCE: I just worked my butt off, made a lot of money, and saved it until it was time to purchase passes. I slept out of my car, or with friends along the way. There was no way I could pay $50 a night for 3 months. All said and done the trip cost about $3000. Not too shabby for what was basically a 3 month vacation.

Oh, I also lost about 30 pounds on the trip, so I think I need to write a book about this new wave diet method!

lol, your absolutely right. I lost 5 pounds on my SFA and SFGADV trip this year. And I'm not over wieght!

So how was Le Monstre. I'm seeing that 3 out of every 4 people think its better than X2. :)

How one would even compare coasters that are that different is beyond me, but it was a fun ride. I wish they would upgrade beyond Morgan trains, but I was able to cope. I, personally, wouldn't rank it too high amongst my list because it doesn't have much in the way of airtime.

So, what type of engineering student are you? If you happen to be an arcetectual or mechanical one, you're gonna have enough fodder for papers until you finish your PhD!

Haha, I am in mechanical engineering so yes, I now know the topic of every report I do from here on out.

Well, I guess we know what Chance wants to be when he grows up (if he ever does!)

So, after 12,000 miles of driving, and 1,500 miles of coaster riding, what was your favorite park and/or coaster?

And, on a personal level, how did you like Canobie?

While that is what I would absolutely love to do, I have no rush to enter the real world any time soon. haha

I know that I will catch a lot of flack about this, but Cedar Point is still my favorite park with Holiday World a VERY close second.

My favorite coaster is EASILY Voyage. I could ride that thing until it killed me and I would be very content with my life. :)