Photo courtesy of RideZone

Dear Diary, I cannot believe the luck we've had with weather. There've been several days where the forecast called for rain, and other than Dutch Wonderland having to close earlier than expected, the rain has managed to elude us. On this day I checked weather.com and the forecast called for a 100% chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms throughout central Pennsylvania. One look at radar showed a huge blotch of green covering the entire central part of the state. Will our day at Knoebels be ruined? First, Cindy and I drove to Catawissa. Tonight we are staying in a caboose, and the proprietors asked us to check in early before going to Knoebels. Catawissa is just off I-80, one exit east of Danville. The drive is absolutely beautiful, and a train track follows our path into town. The Catawissa Railroad has 5 cabooses completely refurbished and converted into sleeping quarters. There are several other cabooses in various stages of renovation. They are arranged street like, creating a sort of caboose community. A small gift shop sells conductor's hats, train whistles and various train related items. Of course we bought some for authentic photo taking! We stayed in the New Haven line caboose. It's adorable! The owners have done a remarkable job of refurbishing them. The wood is refinished, there are nice little antique lamps, tables and chairs, and the atmosphere is warm and inviting. Each caboose has heat and air conditioning, TV with video cassette player, no phone, a refrigerator and microwave, a twin bed up front, and another twin bed and bunk bed in back. In the middle is a cupola, where the conductor would climb up to look out and check the tracks to make sure they were clear. Cindy and I took some great photos and had a lot of fun playing conductor. The only slight drawback is that it has no bathroom. A separate building houses a men's and women's bathroom, but they are very nice and private, one person per bathroom, so it's not like a community shower. The owners told us we'd have the place all to ourselves tonight, so we would not have to worry about being inconvenienced. So other than having to get up and get dressed each time you use the bathroom, the experience was perfect. Sleeping in a caboose is fun! And a word to Locoboy: Eliott, you *must* go to Mauk Chunk! It is a railroad lover's paradise! And afterward you can come to Catawissa and sleep in a caboose! We both agree on what we want to do for our next overnight adventure - sleep in a jail. Cindy wants to be put in solitary confinement, while I would like to be sentenced to death row. On to Knoebels. The weather on this day constantly threatened to go sour, but somehow the rain clouds always managed to move just far enough away to keep the park relatively dry, other than a few sprinkles. The skies remained cloudy for which I was grateful, as my arms needed a break from the sun. It was so cool getting to see RRCers experience Knoebels for the first time. Greg Galley and Andrew Hartman really got caught up in the atmosphere. Greg really loved the Haunted House! Cindy and I loved travelling with him because he likes to do all the cool flat rides and dark rides. And it was funny seeing Andrew - he kept coming over and telling me what he was going to do and eat next. It is impossible to visit Knoebels and not eat your way through the park. One of the most interesting new foods I tried was a beef sizzler with cheese. It is two slabs of chipped steak wrapped around a hamburger! Now why the inventor felt the need to combine both a steak and a hamburger is beyond me, but it was a *very* tasty burger! After I got it, the lady at the concession stand said "you want anything else?" I looked down at the candy counter. "Are those candy cigarettes?" I asked. "Yes." "Give me the Kings." "Okay," she said. "Anything else?" "Yeah, give me that candy necklace!" Well!" she said, "You're just gonna go to hell with all that stuff!" My Knoebels food consumption total (please hold your disgust until the end): BBQ pork sandwich, 3 tri taters, 2 perogies w/ sour cream, white broccoli pizza, 1 pint hand dipped bittersweet ice cream, Cindy's chicken pretzel, corn nuggets, red cream soda, sizzle beef burger w/cheese, kettle cooked potato chips, butterscotch sundae w/ krunch kote topping, coconut cookie and caramel apple chips w/nuts. Thank you. (user bows). The flyers this year are slower than other years! Apparently a new motor was purchased over the winter and needs some time to break in. The result is that more skill is required to achieve good snapping. A guy I've never seen before, his name is Jack, blew everyone away with his impressive display of cable snapping and flyer mayhem, outdoing even the old timers. He sets a new standard for flyer snappage! There was this woman, an ACEer in her forties, who we saw throughout the Con. This woman was like a pandora's box to anyone who made the fatal mistake of standing next to her. While standing in line for the flyers, a local man asked her a simple question about being an enthusiast. It was the biggest mistake of that poor man's life. This woman proceeded to tell the man about Pennsylvania as though he didn't live there and then segued into story and story about her entire life, all at a decibel level so loud she managed to drown out the flyers. She moved from one train of thought to the next without even allowing the man to comment. On the few times that he *did* attempt to share in the conversation by making a comment, she rudely cut him off with yet another incessant stream of consciousness thought. She went through the entire state of Pennsylvania and all of her experiences, only half of which had to do with coasters, so thoroughly that we were tempted to run up to her and go "Okay! Now do Ohio!" Later that night she was in line for the flyers again when one of her friends asked her yet another question. She continued to talk even as she got on the ride and as the flyers made their first few passes. She was such a busy person she literally travelled all over the world she'd ridden 436 roller-coasters she'd just bought a house oh that was a lot of work she went to wal-mart just the other day to get... OH MY GOD!!! Do ya HEAR what you're saying? SHUUUUUUT UUUUUUP!!! The new ride at Knoebels this year is called Downdraft. It *looks* like a lot of fun but I didn't like it. It's a little bit like the Swingaround at Kennywood, only there's no padding on the sides. Consequently my right shoulder kept being thrown into a hard steel bar and the experience was very painful. I think shorter people or those sitting on an outside seat probably won't have a problem with it but unless they add padding to the right side I don't care to ride it ever again. One local man I talked to really amazed me. He said he lived three blocks from Knoebels and had been coming to the park since he was 9 years old. He seemed truly shocked to learn that Knoebels was both my and Cindy's favorite park in the world. He said he'd just come from a vacation in Walt Disney World and that he much preferred that, in fact he'd already booked another trip two years from now. He said he liked the newer rides, they were more exciting, the park was cleaner and it looked prettier. He seemed to acknowledge some of the more positive things I named about Knoebels, but he really seemed to have something against older rides. He said he thought Knoebels should get rid of the old rides, get some newer rides and steel coasters - basically he wanted it to be like Disney World. Yuck. I mean, I love Disney World, but yuck. I wonder if something were to happen to Knoebels would that man be one of the ones most deeply affected. After we finished talking he turned to his son and told him he'd never ridden the flyers and had no idea they were so bumpy and they left the line. The add on day to the Con was great in that our all day pass was good for every ride, even the extra pay attractions. I did the Haunted House twice and rode the boats for the very first time. Cindy actually managed to pass the people in front of her - I had no idea this was a boat race! The second time we did the Haunted House there was a little girl crying at the exit. Cindy commented that it would have scared her as a little girl and that she would have been crying, too. I can totally see how a little girl would be frightened in there! The Phoenix was flying. This coaster has never disappointed me, it is consistently fun. To me it is the definition of coaster fun. That's the reason I have it ranked so highly in my top ten coaster list. Every coaster should strive to be so consistently fun. One of the things I like so much about Phall Phunphest is the chance to mingle with so many people I rarely get to see. This day was very similar to that, perhaps even better in that attendance was less than half that of Phall Phunphest. The result was that I got to ride and hang out with a lot of good people, some for a longer time than others, but even getting to see someone for only one ride was better than not seeing them at all. We finally hooked up with Tim Melago, Adam Revesz, Mike Saunders and Greg Legowski. Adam led me to the caramel apple chips - thanks Adam! It was also nice getting to meet, talk, and ride with Miles Ketchum. Miles is a nice man and one of the few people I know from California who came out to the Con. Also, a man from Minneapolis I'd never met before came up and introduced himself to me. I'm sorry I forgot his name, so if you're reading this, please email me! I *love* talking to Ted Ansley (even though he does all the talking!) and I wish I'd gotten to ride with him, but I did enjoy the time we spent together and he cracks me up whenever he's around - like Sanbo and Chris Lucht, no coaster event would seem the same without him! Dave Hamburger's another one - I never got to ride with him, either, but he's always so happy and excited and so fun to talk to, although like Ted he does all of the talking! And of course it was fun getting to hang out with Sean, Chris Murray, Jon, Neil, Phyllis, Barry and Scott again. I think we ran into Kim and Dave Thomas more than anyone and I am SO MAD that I didn't ride the Phoenix with Kim (the last time was a disaster!). We spent more time with Greg Galley than anyone else, and it was a blast. Greg made some wonderfully astute and funny observations, particularly the paratrooper population in Pennsylvania (a lot of alliteration!) and his suggestion that someone draw a circle around Holiday World and annex it as part of Pennsylvania. I am so glad he enjoyed his Pennsylvania parks experience and it was really my pleasure getting to share it with him. And to the other friends I saw on this trip, however briefly - Aunt Rose, Rob Vacarro, Robert and Sam Ulrich, Dave Sandborg, Dave Johnson, James Draeger, Jeff Cook, Tom Kelley, Curt Hassinger, Brian Peters, Marlon Scott, the Westlands, Scott Connor, Mike and Dawn Robinson, Dave Escalante, Eric Stehmer, Chris Johnson and his Mom, Mike Parker, Andrew Hartman, ACEREPMark, Rus Ozana, Mike Thompson, Mark Fluharty, Jeff Cook, Dana and Joe, Chris Trotter, Larry (I don't know his last name), Jason Pytka (your article was wonderful!) and Brad Haller. Hope I didn't forget anyone! Oh yeah, Cindy. Well, Mike Robinson said to me "She's kind of quiet, isn't she?" HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Cindy is one of the funniest people I know! Once she gets to know a person and feels comfortable enough to be herself she is a blast, and anybody who knows her well will testify to that. Cindy is the easiest person for me to travel with - we feel the same way about matters involving travel, and that really frees a person from some of the hassles involved in travelling with friends who are probably better suited to being friends at the park than in the car. Cindy's not a pain - she doesn't impose on people, she isn't demanding or moody, and she honestly doesn't care what other people think or do. She knows what she likes and doesn't like, and she has no tolerance for anyone who would try to tell her what to do on her vacation. She only cares about one thing and that's having a good time, and that's the best thing a friend could ask for. The Coaster Con was, I think, a huge success. Hersheypark did a great job with nighttime ERTs (that Tuesday night ERT on Lightning Racer will be hard to beat for pure fun), park operations and the one meal I had was very good. I'll leave details on the other things I chose not to participate in to others. Williams Grove was, I think, *OUTSTANDING* in every way. There is nothing they could have done any better! And Dorney was okay. I think it would have been nice if they had run their coasters brakeless during ERT, but perhaps that requires some negotiation between ACE and the park. And Knoebels was great as well. The $12 admission, extra pay attractions included, and ERT was fantastic. My final ride of Coaster Con was on the Phoenix. It was unlike any ride I've had on it before. All the lights were turned off and it was the darkest ride I've ever had on it - as dark as the Raven during SRM. It was scary and fun and exciting and wonderful. Much like Coaster Con itself. Thanks to ACE and to all the volunteers who made it happen!