Cyclonic
Posts: 2636
Registered: 7/19/2002
Rank: Experiment 626
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 8/23/2005 3:58:29 AM
Great Northwest Coaster Tour
Day 1 - August 22, 2005
PNE Playland and Fair
Weather: Sunny - Lower 80's
Complete Photo Gallery:
http://cyclonic.smugmug.com/gallery/752470
I had decided to join the Coaster Zombies Great Northwest Coaster Tour as an opportunity to visit some parks I might not otherwise ever visit, including PNE Playland, Oaks, and Silverwood among others. This is my first trip to the West Coast, and I am pretty excited about it. I got out a day early so that I could do some hiking and get a little bit of the flavor of the area. I unfortunately through my back out on the trip out, just a muscle pull, so I decided to go light on it and do a little bit of lighter hiking down in the Olympia area. On the way to a local park, Priest Point Park, I stopped at the fantastic state capital building in Olympia and took a few pictures outside.
Then I put in about five miles at the park over some moderate terrain, and enjoyed every minute of it. The trees are just amazing here. They seem to reach to the heavens, many of them straight as an arrow. And the backdrop of snow covered mountains is just awe inspiring.
But, enough about that, I am sure most of you want me to get on with the report on the tour.
The bus ride was interesting. This was the bus driver's first trip across the border as well. That being the case, she did not know she had to take the bus through the truck lanes at the crossing (and there were no signs saying so either). When she got to the booth, the Canadians had us turn around and head back the the US, which had more then half an hour wait, only to be able to turn around again to get into the correct lanes. With that done, it was a quick ride to PNE.
The tour was timed so that we would be at Playland when the Pacific National Exposition was going on, which essentially tripled the size of the park. You would not know it though, as the whole park looks like a fairgrounds. It also added some rides, brought in by West Coast Amusements (WCA).
I got into the park and headed for Coaster, only to find it closed, so I hopped on the Crazy Beach Party, a Huss Frisbee. It was being driven, but not very well. When I go off, Tony, who will be my room mate for the week, joined be and we ventured further into the park, where we found WCA Twin Flip, an awesome flat ride.
I am not really sure how to describe Twin Flip. Basically, you sit in a car that is on a pivot attached to a pod of four cars, which is then attached to an arm that reaches out from the center. The arm lifts up, the pod spins, and your car also spins, flipping all over the place. It was a blast.
Check out the video here:
http://www.penncoasters.com/downloads/twinflip.MOV
(14MB)
We next walked around to the Wild Mouse.
I don't know the builder of this ride off hand, but I can say that it looks old. It runs these tinny little cars that are held onto the track y center wheels and a third rail. Operations were painfully slow, but luckily the line was not too long yet (he park had just opened), so within 20 minutes we were on this painful little ride.
Next to the mouse was a Break Dance, also being driven. It was not run too badly, we got some nice spinning action.
After a quick ride, and then headed over to the Sky Scraper.
The were running a special, two riders for $20. Can't beat that, so e got a ticket and hopped on. I l
Message updated 8/23/2005 3:58:50 AM by Cyclonic
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Hulda12
Posts: 11
Registered: 7/10/2023
Rank: Aspiring Critic
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12/6/2023 2:43:06 AM
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