Indiana Beach 5/17/2002

Hi. just got back from the media day at IB. The LoCoSuMo is still lost. Actually with all the bad weather lately the construction fell behind. We got to the park at 9:00 A.M. and headed to the ballroom where the media day took place. All I can say is this was a very nice and in some parts a moving ceremony. The director of marketing was the first to speak and welcome the crowd of friends, family, media and Acers. I didn't really get to meet too many Acers. I got to see Scott and Carol, the Indiana region reps. Any how, at the ceremony, they annouced that the lost coaster was still lost and that got a laugh out of the crowd. As we walked in to the ball room tho there was an old car off of the original ride and had the couple from the Lost Coaster commercial and they were the cutest couple.

They announced that Tom Spackman Sr. was in the hospital and we would we him walking around and greeting everyone as soon as he got released. This man is one of the nicest most personable people I have ever met. They had the stage decorated in flowers and had all of the critters from the Locosumo up on the stage. during the ceremony Tom Sr.'s grand kids led the crowd in a fantastic renditon of "God Bless America" in tribute to the 9-11 attacks .

After the ceremony we were invited to take a "cut" of the wood form the new ride and it had the logo for the Locosumo burned into each piece, alond with a Bag of golden nugget bubblegum. After the ceremony was over there was a really good buffet served to all in attendence and it even had brisket cut prime rib on the buffet. I was in heaven..lol. When my fiance and I went out to the truck and came back, Denise was telling the crew to go and rest. They had been working day and night on the new ride trying to get it ready for the opening.

After all that we were told the whole park was open to us on IB. We proceded to the Cornball Express and sat row 2. This ride is so much fun! We got to see our good friend IB Dave as he was loading. This ride is running fast and ferious! Everytime I ride it I can't help but laugh hard as it is relentless! After that we went to the Tigr' coaster and it had 2 cars stalled on the breaks. We left there and went to go warm up. It was really cold with a temp of 42 degrees and cloudy. What was really cool tho is that during the media ceremony the sun was out! We went to the Frankenstien's Castle and had a blast in it. If you go to IB, you have to go thru this cool walkthru. It's worth the $3.00

After that we went to the Galaxie coaster and they have moved the sign over the ramp leading to the ride. It's not connected yet but hopefully soon. we got on the coaster, front seat of a 1 car train as they are not running the tandem trains yet and there was this woman over dramtising her screams. I'm really surprised i have my ear drums. After that we went to The Den of Lost Theves and I creamed my fiance 310 to 170..lol. After that it started to rain and got colder and we decided to take 1 more spin on the Cornball and bid IBDave good bye. All I in all I have to say I had a great time at IB today.

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Beer, my soon to be wife, coasters, and the FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Is this a great country or what!!
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stoogemanmoe

Yup, we had a ball at IB today! It was cold, It was wet it was fun!

I kinda had the feeling that it might not be ready but I do know they tried thier darndest. Mrs. Dinn-Larrick said she hopes next weekend but is almost possitive it will be ready for June1 but no guarantees. Besides weather there were many shipping problems by suppliers sending something other than what they had ordered.

The Trains for this coaster are absolutely supurb. Anyone over 44 inches from 80-300pds will be able to ride comfortably, Sitting in the cars you are surrounded by thick padding and are seated in the cars deeply, They look like a very nice looking MINE CAR. The coaster will utilize new technology in several places such as Fully articulated wheels front and rear on each car, A specially designed hitch to connect the cars that can move in any dirrection and it will also utilize magnetic braking.

Just looking at this thing if fun, There is no way I am not going back to ride it! WOW! The steepest little bunny hops all over the ride with very sharp turns followed by steep short drops are all over this ride inside and out!

One last note, LoCoSuMo was not supposed to be built till 2003 but these great people decided to move it up a year partially because of 9/11 To help people enjoy a bit of americana when it is needed most.

Chuck, who flat out had a blast today, Thank you Spackman Family.

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Charles Nungester
Americana (Now called The great americana amusement park at Lesourdsville Lake) is opening in 2002. Indivdual visits are very improtant to the parks survival.