Same Planet/Different Worlds
 The WTC's massive pile of rubble 3 weeks after 9-11 |
 The Addams Family (minus Gomez) at Knoebels Phall Phunphest |
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Phall Phunphest is my favorite event of the year. This year I went to
the same places I've been going to every year. Only this year,
everything felt different. This year, everything WAS different! For starters, I almost didn't go. The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington put me out of the mood for frivolity. Only until I decided to go to New York City and see the damage for myself did I feel this trip had a purpose and meaning. So I went, and I'm glad I did. I parked my car in Newark, New Jersey so as not to add to the NYC traffic problems, and took the PATH train into the city. Newark, New Jersey was an awful place! I drove through quite a bit of it and it was shockingly nasty, one of the worst cities I've ever been to (along with Camden, also in New Jersey, and East St. Louis, IL). NYC, on the otherhand, was lovely, which came as a complete surprise! I had never been to New York before, and I was struck first and foremost by how charming the city is. So many of the neighborhoods are filled with beautiful trees, brick-lined streets, and cafes, bookstores or other charming businesses on nearly every street! Wonderful, charming neighborhoods - I walked through SoHo, Greenwich Village, TriBeCa, Broadway, and of course the Battery Park area. It was much prettier and much more liveable than I expected. I was also amazed by the sheer size of the city. I got off at 9th Street and confined myself to that area south. I walked for two and a half hours and felt like I had a seen so much, and yet when I got back to my hotel room and saw on the map how little of the city I had actually seen, it was pretty amazing. I never even caught a glimpse of the Empire State Building. New York is huge! Ground Zero was devastating to see. I was shocked to note the difference between the images I'd seen on TV compared with the unimaginably massive scale of damage in person. I noticed a terrible, awful smell long before I reached the damage site, and it became progressively worse the closer I got to it. A horrible, metallic burning smell, and of course the knowledge of all those people being buried under all that carnage played havoc with my senses. Whether or not it was actually the smell of human remains I don't know, but I do know it was a very distinctive, haunting smell and I will never forget it. I was struck by the number of people walking around with facemasks, and by the huge trucks carrying twisted piles of metal and debris off to be sorted through for evidence or human remains. I stood at Greenwich and Chambers street, two blocks from where the World Trade Center towers once stood. Directly in front me was a seemingly insurmountable mountain of rubble at least four or five stories high. A very nice gentleman I spoke to, a local man who helped orientate me to the area, explained that I was only seeing the top layer of debris, that it was sitting on top of an additional seven floors of rubble buried underground. I think television has done a good job of conveying how terrible it is, but I don't think you can begin to grasp the enormity of the devastation until you see it on a human scale and walk those long blocks and actually put yourself below that enormous pile and look up at those mountains of ash and debris and human remains. I'm glad I went. It was an important event in history and I'm glad I had the opportunity to witness the devastation up close and in person. But I'm also glad I got to experience the dichotomy of New York City's charm and the resiliency of its people. It was an affirmation that beauty surrounds us and life goes on, even in the midst of tragedy.
I ate at two fantastic diners in Philadelphia.
I also went to The food there is fantastic, including the best bowl of chili I've ever had. They also had french fries with gravy and melted cheddar cheese, and I've had this before but never this good. Their desserts were amazing looking as well - I've never seen such tall cakes and pies. The coconut cake I had was perfect. This is a diner I highly recommend! Friday was different as well. For one thing, I got drunk before going to Dorney Park on Friday night. I made the huge and wonderful mistake of meeting Matthew Sullivan, Mike (surprise!) Miller and Tony Milano for lunch at the Tom Sawyer Diner in Allentown. We then spent the rest of the afternoon joined by Dave Fraser, Jim McDonnell and Jim's brother Andrew at their hotel across the street from the park. We had a great time, everybody was laughing and doing their thing, with some doing more things than others (I'll never tell). I love mimosas, and I had at least six of them, so I was well lit by the time we walked across the street. It was very weird to be drunk at an amusement park! Not as bad as I would have thought - fortunately I was able to keep it together. Unfortunately one in our group was not, so a couple of us spent most of the night helping take care of him in his room. Not the way I planned to spend the evening but with one train operation on Talon and Steel Force I wasn't too upset about missing them. I did finally get a backseat ride on Lazer at Dorney Park, my first siince 1998. Mike Miller got the same introduction to it that I did - once you've ridden the backseat no other seat will do! I also rode the log flume for the first time - never again! I was wet all night! And the Krazy Kars remain the best flat ride in the park. It was the most fun I had that evening. But I don't understand Dorney Park's poor operational decisions lately. I want desperately to like this park, but they keep crummying it up by not caring about their customers! Saturday morning I ran in the Knoebels 5K Race. This was my first time participating in a 5K run and I did really well. I knocked 12 minutes off my normal jogging time and ran it in 30:45 and finished 85th out of 125 runners. Unfortunately I made the mistake of putting on my sweat pants and sweat shirt after stepping out into the bitter morning cold, and things quickly warmed up after the first five minutes. I also endured catcalls from otherwise cheering RRCers for not wearing what they deemed a suitable shade of lavendar. PPP could not have been better. I got a kick out of everyone heading over to the far side of High Speed Thrill Coaster to high five riders as they came around. After each group finished riding, they in turn would join the others. Being in one of the last groups to ride, I got to high five about 25 different people (although one time they all pulled their hands away and faked me out!). I did not enjoy the Flyers Fest. Some people in our group have taken it upon themselves to annoint themselves as the experts, and it kind of took the fun out of it for the rest of us who were there to have a good time. It turned what used to be a fun ITOT into something competitive, and it was the only time I saw RRCers being exclusive. I do not understand why everybody eats their pizza in that drab, depressing food shelter! I hate it! It's the worst atmosphere in the entire park. From now on I'm eating at the Round Stand and enjoying an actual view. I kind of drifted in and out of various groups during the day but spent the actual evening portion of the event with a group of six. Julie Stone, Dave Sandborg and Tim Melago all came in what I thought was the most clever costume of the evening, Three Blind Coaster Mice (one Mad, one Wild, and one Crazy). Dave Hamburger was also in our group and was a huge as Sister Mary Hamburger. And Fred Biedermann came dressed as a person suffering from nervous anxiety. I was disappointed the Coaster Chicks of New England didn't win first place in the costume awards. It's too bad they always award the persons who spend the entire night sucking up to the judges. It's no wonder fewer people bother to dress up each year! Did anybody see Cindy in her Morticia costume? Va-va-voom! I know we're just friends and all and I'm not supposed to see her that way but holy cow I felt like a real horndog! I know a couple of other guys that needed drool buckets, too. Of course she played it to the hilt by vamping and doing the hair toss all evening. Other costumes I liked: Adam Revesz' Vekoma Coaster Designer (freaking hilarious), Sam Marks love child, the Phunphest Phairies in 50's bathroom drag, Cyrus Cyclone, the Coaster Con (did you see his nasty placement of XL-200? Woof!), and the Enthusiast or Not Voting Poll. My absolute favorites though were the Coaster Chicks of New England, the three blind coaster mice and Sister Mary Hamburger. Lamest costume: the Knoebels Cowboys. The only thing I don't like about Phunphest is there are so many people you want to see and hang out with and there just isn't time. It's funny, this is the one event I usually *don't* hang out with Cindy, but she says everybody always asks "where's Mark?" Anyway, I really had a lot of fun getting to hang out with different people. First timers: It was so nice meeting and getting a chance to talk to Keith Hopkins, Alan Smith, CP Irvine, Tony Milano, Jason, Justin Adams, Robert Mack, Kyle Mackey and another guy from the Twin Cities whose name starts with a B but I just can't remember right now! Please e-mail me! Never did meet Conneaut Kelly or SurfDanceChris or Chris Clark or that Andrea lady who always posts here or a lot of other people who've started posting. There were a TON of first timers this year! In addition to the above mentioned, I know it was the first Phunphest for Mike Miller, all the boys from Chicago, Fred Biedermann and many others I'm sure. I think everybody had a GREAT time! Hangover Day was wonderful. There were far fewer people in the park than last year, and the pace was just perfect. I had a great lunch with the Drabeks, Aunt Rose, Cindy and her sister, Mike Kallay and Kyle Mackey, and in the afternoon a bunch of us played mini-golf (poor Rob Vacarro, he REALLY sucks at mini-golf). Finally, we ended the day with multiple rides on the Phoenix. I want to apologize if I didn't say goodbye to everyone. Impatience is without a doubt my worst flaw, and I took off if I saw people standing around watching video or taking too long in line. There were a couple of times I should have waited around because who knows how long it'll be before I see some of you again. PPP is easily the most social coaster event of the year. It has an atmosphere that puts an exclamation point on what makes coastering so much fun! It's become an annual ritual for many enthusiasts and if you live in an where your local park shuts down sometime after Labor Day, there is no better way to end the coaster season. Mark
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Email: MarkinArk@earthlink.net
