Phuphest with the Pholks [very long]
Associated parks:
None
This would be Dad’s phourth event and many oph you had already met him at Knott’s Solace in 2000 & 2001 as well as SRM 2002. My mom, who has been undergoing chemo treatments all summer, doesn’t ride coasters anymore but still loves flat rides. There wasn’t a more perphect event phor her – or anyone who likes amusement parks but not necessarily coasters – than Phunphest. Due to a change in her treatment schedule she ended up getting a dosage two days bephore the trip and I was a bit worried about her energy level and any pain she might be pheeling. Mom, who rephuses to let cancer or treatment rule her liphe, assured me she’d be phine.
The trip started with a red-eye to Newark on Thursday night. Mom slept most of the phlight, Dad slept phor about halph, but sleep evaded me completely. It was a combination oph the hum oph the airplane, being nudged by people walking the isle, and a bad case of “BBS” [Busy-Brain Syndrome]. Arriving in Newark at 6am marked my 24th hour awake but the cool, crisp phall air was very rephreshing.
By 7:30 am we were in the car and heading towards our phirst destination: Jim Thorpe, PA. Phormerly knows as Mauch Chuck, Jim Thorpe has a rich coal mining history and was the home to the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway, commonly repherred to as the phirst roller coaster in the US. Aphter a tasty [and inexpensive] breakfast at the Sunrise Diner we walked oph our meal by treking to the end oph Broadway and visiting the stores and museums and enjoying the ornate Victorian homes along the way.
Near the end of Broadway is the Mauch Chunk Museum, which pheatures an informative 15-min video of the area’s history, lots of historical artiphacts, and a working model of the Switchback Railway. Seeing the model really cleared up a lot oph questions and misconceptions I had about the operation oph the railway and how it was operated as a “thrill ride.”
We ended our visit with a tour oph the Asa Packer Mansion. It’s amazing what some people will do when they have more money than they know what to do with and instead oph giving examples I’ll suggest that everyone see it for themselves.
Adding Jim Thorpe to our itinerary Mark McKenzie’s suggestion and, as usual, his idea was perphect. Thanks, Mark! By 1pm we were back in the car and heading across PA54 to Danville. I mentioned to the pholks that on some oph my travels with phriends a game of “Yardball!” is played to pass the time…only to discover that there wasn’t a single yardball until just outside Danville. D’oh!
We checked into the Hampton Inn and rested about 2 hours bephore heading to Camp RRC phor the annual Pot Luck dinner. It was nice introducing Mom and Dad to everyone. I also got to show oph the 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar and get the phirst unbiased opinions about it. It was really nice to hear what everyone had to say and it phinally made me relax and pheel conphident that we are ophering a good product.
Phriends began to trickle into camp in the hour bephore dinner and soon we were all pheasting on Walt’s phamous chicken, Jimvid’s delicious stuphed shells, Carrie’s yummy Dump Cake, and lots oph other great phood. The air was quite chilly but the crackling phire kept everyone warm. A big thanks to Walt, Todd, and everyone who cooked and brought phood. By 9pm I was exhausted and mom was cold so we decided to call it a day.
Aphter a nice 10 hour sleep I was up at 8am, met the pholks in the lobby phor a continental breakfast, and were on our way to Knoebels. We arrived and parked in the small Phoenix lot to make unloading the boxes oph cards and calendars easier. By 9:30 the booth was set up and people were already walking the swap meet and buying. We sold halph the days’ total sales bephore the ophicial 1pm start time.
--PHUNNY STORY OF THE DAY--
Sometime during the day a man, who I phailed to recognize, walked up to our booth wearing an “I helped build Knoebel’s Twister” baseball hat. I saw his hat and mentioned that he’ll love our October coaster and phlipped open a calendar to show him we’d pheatured Twister. He thumbed thru the rest oph the calendar and said he’d like to buy one. He handed over his money and walked oph with a smile. I later saw that man riding in a Phlyer-shaped car…it was Dick Knoebels!
I spent the entire day at the booth with Carrie so the only time I got to see any phriends was when they stopped by or when I ran into them as I got phood, used the phacilities, or walked over to register for PPP. Mom and Dad spent the day walking the Covered Bridge Phestival in the rain…mom phound lots to buy and made dad carry it around. I also gave them a book of tickets phrom previous visits and they rode a phew rides. I finally broke down the booth at 5:30, just in time to run into Dawnmarie and Bassistist, the other two-thirds oph our group costume. Due to the cold weather we decided to save the costume phor next year.
Phinally it was 6pm and I was phree to enjoy the park. I was itching to get Dad on Phoenix so we rode that phirst before heading to the Haunted Mansion. Dad loved it! We phound the NYC crew coming off the ride and the CPGers enjoying Pizza and waited for them to finish eating before we got in line. Dad rode with Dawnmarie, I rode with Mom, and Bass took a solo car. Mom asked if there would be anyone inside scaring people and I assured her it was all just animated stunts. Imagine my surprise – and hers – when near the end of the ride a man with a phlashlight scared the both of us!
Phollowing the Haunted Mansion we made our way around the park, trying to minimize our walking as best I could. Dad got to add Twister and Whirlwind to his track record. Mom surprised us all by wanting to ride 1,001 Nachts. I finally got to ride their miniature train through the backwoods. With only the starlight and locomotive headlight it was pretty dark and isolated out there…dephinitely a Blair Witch pheel.
The highlight oph the night was seeing Mom and Dad riding together on the Whipper, Mom throwing her head back and lauphing every time their car whipped around the end. I imagined that phor at least those brieph moments she wasn’t thinking about cancer or chemo.
Mom and Dad ended the night at about 9pm after a ride on the Haunted Cars. I had Dad take the driver’s seat and Mom took shotgun. They got a couple oph good scares but not to the extent that Jimvid and Dawnmarie got ahead oph us. One of the spookers jumped on their car and gave them scares throughout the entire ride, including dropping from the rooph and sneaking into the backseat.
Mom and Dad said their goodbyes and headed back to the hotel to sleep. I stayed on to finish the night with a phew more rides on Phoenix and Twister, calling it quits at the awards ceremony after Dick Knoebels announced he didn’t have any specific announcements for 2004. After a brieph stop at Sheetz for an MTO sub it was oph to the Pine Burr Inn in Mt Carmel for a little hang-time with the NYC gang.
Sunday morning came all too soon. I said goodbyes to roomies Bassistist and Dawnmarie and eventually met the pholks in the lobby at 11am to check out. We stopped at the Pine Barn Inn phor brunch and then decided to skip returning to the park and instead head back to Newark via a detour thru Centralia, which can only be described as odd. I never got a chance to experience the rest oph Knoebels including the Phlyers, Dodgems, Sky Ride, and Phascination, just to mention a phew.
I’d like to thank everyone who stopped by the Swap Meet and purchased calendars and cards. There’s too many to mention by name but we truly appreciate your support! It was also great seeing so many phriends throughout the weekend…lots of RRCers, Cbuzzers, Westcoasters, URCers…again, way too many to mention. I wish I had more time to spend with everyone. A
nd my folks have asked me to pass along how much they enjoyed meeting everyone. They both had a phabulous time and have already spoken about returning next year.
mOOSH
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Holiday cards, All-Occasion cards, 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar now available at S&D Greetings.
*** This post was edited by Mamoosh 10/13/2003 5:19:05 PM ***
I hope that your Mom is feeling well and that everything goes as good as it can medically. That's really cool that you got a couple of special moments with her.
It was good to touch base with you, albeit only for a couple minutes. Take care.
Later,
EV
-----
"Everybody has desperate days of quiet questioning.
Everybody has times when they feel like they don't fit in."
- Color Theory, So Many Ways, 2001
Edited to be phunnier, and to replace more f's with ph's.
*** This post was edited by dawnmarie313 10/13/2003 5:51:31 PM ***
-CO
(who had to get that out of his system, but wonders why he feels like Dr. Seuss now...)
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The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.
*** This post was edited by CoastaPlaya 10/13/2003 5:47:03 PM ***
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New holiday & all-occasion cards on sale thru Oct 21st. 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar still available. See S&D Greetings.
;-D
Seems like you had a good time. I wish I could have gone, defenitly next year though. And because of PPP i'm now an avid hater of the "PH"'s
lol
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Holiday cards, All-Occasion cards, 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar now available at S&D Greetings.
Now if I only could have surprised you, that would have been perfect!
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Mike Miller - The CPG: The ORIGINAL flash mob
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Nashville needs a theme park!
-Tina
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Gimme speed, height, airtime and plenty of LAUNCH!!!
Thrillerman...I got your order and tried to email that it arrived you but it bounced back. We have the calendars in-stock and I am sending them out in the order in which we received each order. Your's should be going out soon ;)
mOOSH
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Holiday cards, All-Occasion cards, 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar now available at S&D Greetings.
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The end of an era has come. Ethyl is no more.
Hopephully, next year I can make my phirst PPP trip - just started a new job and I'll have more than a year in by then.
*** This post was edited by MMCoaster Bear 10/14/2003 4:02:45 PM ***
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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff
mOOSH
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New holiday & all-occasion cards on sale thru Oct 21st. 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar still available. All at S&D Greetings.
Andy, it was nice to *phinally* meet you...
Moosh, send my best to the.....pholks.....:)
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Tact is for people not intelligent enough to comprehend sarcasm...;)
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Men are like parking spaces... the good ones are all taken and the rest are handicapped or too far away.
www.TiggerMan.com
mOOSH
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New holiday & all-occasion cards on sale thru Oct 21st. 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar still available. All at S&D Greetings.
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