Phoenix Phall Phunfest in the rain, October 8, 2005.

I threw the essentials and some breakfast in the car at 5:55 am and was on the road by 6:00. Toll booth, customs, gas station, campground -- 12:20 pm. Not bad. I watched the Twister dive into the tunnel as I pictched my tent in the rain. I wasn't quite against the fence, but close enough (North Carolina 7).
By 12:45 I was heading into the park to register for Phunfest. Breakfast was long since worn off and my brain was fried -- I circled most of the park before finding the hand-stamp booth near the campground entrance. <doh!> But the Phunfest combo included pizza -- I was saved by Cesaris! :)

Phoenix - I can't count the number of laps I did on this beauty. It was definitely a bit slow when I did three laps early in the afternoon. By 5:00 it was running smooth and pretty fast (not as fast as it flies on a hot summer day, but still flying). The night rides were amazing, especially when the fog was billowing out the tunnel. Middle of train - nice airtime, smoothest ride. Front of train - nice punchy airtime, especially on the double-up-double-down, rain had a presure-washer-like effect on first two rows. Back of train - crazy ejector airtime on virtually every hill and wicked laterals on every curve - not many back-seat riders kept their hands up throughout the course.

Twister – I also lost count of my rides on this coaster. Unlike Phoenix, the speed difference between early afternoon and late afternoon / evening was unnoticeable. But Twister is definitely faster. I loved it. My favorite element is the banked curved hill after the second drop. Sitting on the left side, the curve pushed me up to my lapbar and to the right as the train rolled the hill. (The right side seat wasn’t as thrilling since riders are thrust to the side of the train making the vertical forces were less noticeable.) Middle of train, front of train, back of train – the differences were less intense than Phoenix. Darkness made the ride more intense and the head-choppers downright frightening.

Flyers – I wish more parks ran their flyers like this. It was intense. It was also cute to see all the enthusiasts lined up and excited to ride. Little kids love the ride, but at night, it belonged to the whipping adults. I figured out how to whip my car a bit, but others had their cars bucking like a rodeo bull. I’ll have to come back to practice. :)

High Speed Thrill Coaster – Another ride with more adult enthusiasts than little kids. It’s always fun, but sitting in the very back or very front would give me whiplash, especially since we did so many laps, I lost count.

Antique Cars – With all the theming, it was incredible at night. Halloween fans, do not miss this.

Bumper Cars - we crashed so hard, you could see them lift off the floor. They don’t make them like this anymore. :(

The Whip is another one of my favorites. A well-maintained classic.

Skyway was new to me. It was a nice relaxing night-ride. I used my digital camera to take some cool video of the foggy theme park. It looks eerie with darkness where Twister and Phoenix should be.

Brian the anti-social. Sorry C-buzzers, I didn’t make much of an attempt to locate y’all in the campground. I did chat up a few enthusiasts on the rides. All were friendly and nice, but after the ERT, I was to hypothermic to think about sharing beer and stories. I wandered by the bonfire, but quickly headed back to my tent and crashed. Pathetic. :(

The next morning, I was feeling great and the rain had stopped. After a big breakfast by the log flume, I walked through all the Covered Bridge Festival stuff I avoided the previous day. I do not need to see all that crafty stuff again, but I might come back for the carny-food throughout the booths. Wow, variety! Everything from apple butter to venison jerky to deep fried broccoli to Crabby Dan’s shrimp to fresh apple cider. Knoebels’ food is always top-notch, so it was interesting to see that they welcome so much competition for the festival. You could feast for days and never eat the same thing twice.

And after all that, I was craving more coasters… another good woodie... I'm off to the Great Escape to ride the Comet! Click here to read the SFGE / Comet comparison TR.

*** Edited 10/11/2005 11:19:09 PM UTC by greatwhitenorth*** *** Edited 10/11/2005 11:23:33 PM UTC by greatwhitenorth***

GWN-camping in that rain? You're a trooper. Twister was running reallllllllllly fantastically this weekend, eh? Glad you checked out the Festival food, too. My crew also sampled some of the offerings there. The freshly baked apple dumpling with cinnamon-carmel ice cream was good enough to eat on Saturday and Sunday. Yum. :)

I may have sat in front of you on Phoenix in the early evening.

I don't remember what seat it was, but it was definatly the left side of the train going into the helix, my seat pad actually lifted up with my arse at that exact point you speak of.

I was the dude with the blond pony-tail, wearing a Knoebels poncho, cargo pants, and rain-splattered glasses. It was a terrible day to discover I was out of disposable contact lenses. :(

The festival was the hang place for my group before we had to check out of the campground at 2PM (site c-4 insert explosive device joke all weekend). The apple dumplings were definitely a hit.

Twister had me all weekend for it's improved ride. I did take a few token laps on Phoenix since I really love to PHLY!

Glad to see those who went to PPP had a great time even though Mother Nature tried to dampen our spirits and our bodies.

edit for clarity *** Edited 10/12/2005 4:59:33 PM UTC by dragonoffrost***

My glasses allowed me to keep my eyes open on the rides!

^Same here, well, sunglasses (even at night....lol.) I wear disposable contacts as well, but I wasn't about the risk it.

Twister WAS running awesome this year, better than ever. :-)

-Tina