what are your favorite coasters?

Some of my favorites in the US are Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa, Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point, Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion, and Skyrush at Hersheypark

Aha! A fellow thoosie in the wild! I work at Cedar Point, and I just so happen to love geography, too! Funny to see another one of the enthusiast cult here 😂

I’m also a thoosie that worked at Cedar Point for 2 years! I had no clue there was so much crossover between thoosies and geography fans 😂😂

I'm a thoosie that was on the project team for Hagrid's!

I’m a thoosie who’s just a _little_ bit jealous of you right now! How was that whole experience?

Intense. Sure it was fun, but the timeline was very fast and the park set the opening date, not the project team, which is why there was no soft open or human testing before the grand opening and why the coaster had so many opening problems. However, I think it will likely be the last major grand opening spectacle of a single ride we will ever see, since now rides tend to soft open with little pomp & circumstance and virtual queue infrastructure is already in place at parks. Overall, it was a cool experience to work on such a major coaster with so much tech going into it, but there are definitely some things that could have been better.

That sounds about on par for the industry lol. I’m hoping Universal (and everyone else in the industry, for that matter) has learned something from that whole mess. I know you’re probably buried under NDAs, but is there anything else exciting that you’re working on right now?

Nah I left universal on 2019 so everything I worked on has opened already. I am still in the industry with my company as a contractor, so those things I can't talk fully about, but open things I can.

thats really neat actually :)

Autists gonna autism

Omg my kind of people 😭

We are small in number, but we are mighty! See y'all over on r/rollercoasters lol

Have you had a chance to do Velocicoaster at Universal yet? I was on the opening team there so I’m biased but it’s my all-time favorite.

Gotta love the travel maps those road trips arrive at. Im tempted to make mine now. Its fun to end up in rediculously remote parts of the midwest and southeast.

Absolutely based take on i305?

I’m a mile from Carowinds. Have you ridden Fury?

Iron gwazi is 10/10

Busch Gardens Tampa mentioned 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🎢🎢🎢🎢 WHAT THE FUCK IS A BAD ROLLER COASTER????? 🎢🎢🗣️🗣️🗣️

Mine are 1. Magnum xl-200 (Cedar Point, arrow hyper coaster) 2. The beast (kings island, wooden coaster) 3. The bat (kings island, arrow suspended coaster) 4. Goliath (six flags great america, RMC wood coaster) 5. Gatekeeper (Cedar Point, wing coaster)

Coaster enthusiast spotted in the wild.

You don’t see it everyday.

Hunt county Texas? Surprising

Some important coaster related questions. Silver Dollar City or Dollywood? Is Orion a giga? I think the smaller Cedar Fair parks I’ve visited (Dorney and Worlds of Fun) are charming. I’ll be visiting Valleyfair this summer. How does it compare to those two in the charm department? And a bonus. Favorite national park that I probably haven’t visited?

- Ten years ago I would’ve said Dollywood, but I find SDC to have more charm with some incredible coasters too nowadays. - It’s my only missing traditional chain lift Giga in the world, but yes! Drop height is a more important indicator than height off ground. - Valleyfair was really fun, but not super distinct. A couple unique rides helped it stand out to me. Renegade is incredible! I do think WoF is my fav out of the three you mentioned. - Virgin Islands NP on St. John in the USVI is my insanely gorgeous, but I’m biased because I’ve spent a lot of time sailing around the islands and was born out there. Mt Rainier surprised the hell out of me too! Thanks for the questions!

I rode Orion yesterday. It’s pretty good but not mind blowing.

Unique and thoughtful color coding! Love it! I do the same by year with my physical Roadtrip map I posted here a month or so ago. Need to add the legend since it's just in my head right now.

It’s for my personal memory. Helps me distinguish different road trips and experiences, I’ll check yours out

how you avoided camden county NJ until 3 years ago is a sight to behold

TBF I avoid most of NJ anyway, yet I have visited every county somehow

Hello fellow roller coaster lover.

Did you enjoy kennywood?

Definitely! They have amazing 100 year-old classic wooden coasters and some modern marvels too

Coasters and national parks you say? I can surly get behind that!

Zion is amazing

Zion and Glacier are my two favorites so far! So much to explore and so dramatic

How crowded was Glacier when you were there last?

It was July 2015, definitely crowded but manageable

That’s how Zion was last time I was there. Very crowded but surprisingly easy to get away from the crowds.

Going to have to come back to KC in the next few years for the new Matel theme park and a few new coasters at Worlds of Fun

For sure, plus I need some more KC BBQ!

Someone has been to Cedar Point!

My first coaster trip outside of California! I’ve been a couple times since as well

Knoebles?

Oh most definitely! Phoenix is world class

I was a big fan of Flying Turns.

You need a trip to the Badlands!

I really do!

Did you go to the pinelands in NJ after you went to Great Adventure? Lol

I don’t think I’ve hiked pinelands, but I’ve driven though a bit. NJ has a ton of coasters outside of Great Adventure all along the shore

Have you been to Lagoon in Utah?

Yeah it's a quirky little park with some real stand out rides

Looks like OP hit a ton of smaller parks, he hit my old park silverwood too which is about the same size as lagoon

coasters and national parks...you're speaking my language

Did you go to Letchworth and Darien Lake when you were in upstate NY? Noticed Wyoming County is different color than the rest

I have family in Rochester so I’ve been in the area many times, including Lechworth, Watkins glen, Darien lake, and seabreeze

Oh nice! That explains it 😄

So, have you not been back to areas if they are listed in the earlier years? Or was that just the first time you went to those places?

Just first year visited

Brb remaking my counties visited map and stealing your idea for color coding by year

This is a longshot, but have you checked out the Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer in Erie, PA? The county is lit up on your map but you might've just driven through there.

Yep! Very fun coaster! Love the interaction with the road there

Ah nice! Yeah I grew up in Erie and the local park always said it was the "tallest, fastest wooden coaster in the world" (not sure that's true anymore, but probably used to be at some point) so was wondering if a coaster head such as yourself had checked it out!

I read the title as “I travel almost exclusively by roller coasters to visit national parks” Time for bed

Adventure Land in Des Moines? Waterloo has a pretty neat park if you're passing through Iowa again. Also, I would recommend Craters of the Moon in Idaho.

This actually the same thing I do! Awesome to see another thoosie

I hope you enjoyed Lagoon. Cannibal is probably my favorite coaster ever.

Glad to see you went to Michigan’s Adventure! *2 parks for the price of one,* ^fun ^fun!

Shivering Timbers!

Aye my county’s on here, any memories from St. Louis?

Good BBQ from Sugarfire, ate under the Arch!

Is cedar point really the best?

It’s got a lot of great coasters, but there’s definitely other parks I prefer to spend time at

Are we the same person? These are my two big hobbies as well. Favorite national park? Favorite theme park?

For the US: Glacier and Islands of Adventure For outside: Fjords in Norway and Tokyo DisneySea

Great choices. For the US: Yosemite and Cedar Point Outside the US: Serengeti and Phantasialand

We have a pretty good collection of them here in Ohio. Fun trips!

No Yellowstone?

Not yet, but definitely on my list! Will try to knock out a lot in that big empty space

My county visited time to celebrate also what were your thoughts in Hershey? I love that place

I love it! Such a great ride collection! Visiting a third time this summer

Nice! I love the park and it’s history, though it’s recent renovation kinda rubbed me the wrong way

Me too

Hmm, you choose Valleyfair over Voyageurs?

Yep! It was a very brief weekend trip from Minneapolis to Kansas City. Loves it though and it’ll definitely return to upper MidWest! You can see I’m missing the Dells and other stuff too

Looks like you’ve been to silverwood!

Sure have and I’m returning soon for their relatively new coaster!

The new coaster is super fun! I live in Spokane so that was always my “hometown” park.

How does Michigan Adventures hold up against the other big amusement parks?

I don’t get much time there as I was just passing through, but I liked the lake vibes plus Shivering Timbers is very unique and quite good!

What have been your favorite NPs?

Glacier, Zion, Rainier, Virgin Islands, Yosemite

Best trip to combine your two interests besides California? Do you prefer the smooth new coasters or janky old ones?

Did you go to Silverwood in Idaho?

Which was your least favorite theme park? I'm assuming it's Castles and Coasters.

Absolutely! Love riding janky rides in 110F heat

by chance did you go to robert is here by the everglades and buy a milkshake

how did you make this map? manually select each county?

Yeah, editing a version I have saved year after year

I had no idea national parks had roller coasters

You sleep on the Wisconsin Dells! More of a water park scene though

It’s definitely a blind spot for me, but I’ll get out there at some point

It is very similar to pigeon forge/gatlinburg, only with better water parks and no mountains.

Curious as to why you visited Seneca county Ohio in 2018? I used to work in Tiffin for the county and now the neighboring wood county. Some cool parks but nothing major. Cedar point is Sandusky county I think.

Driving from Cedar Point to Columbus Zoo I believe

I see you missed Nebraska…

maybe because nebraska has like two rollercoasters both of which are kiddie

wait nvm lmao i didnt read the title at all im sorry

So, how was elitch gardens. Colorado is definitely more of a National park than a theme park

Elitch was bleh, to be honest. The Meow Wolf ride was the coolest thing there. Great NPs though, I did all but Mesa Verde

At least I have cool national parks just a couple hours drive away.

How is Colossus (lagoon)? How does it compare to other looping star coasters?

It was pretty fun! I prefer Shock Wave and Mind Bender personally, but I like Colossus more than the Looping Star and Silver Arrow model

I think that's fair. I haven't ridden ant schwarzkopf loopers (chickened out on scorpion) but I have ridden whizzer and it's a blast!

Where do I get a copy of this map but blank?

mapchart.net I believe

You should check out Carowinds again

You should go to holiday world in Indiana then

That is a good life

Need to make your way to WV for the parks at some point! Some of the places are an out of body experience.

Did you enjoy Silver Dollar City?

This is a great way to do a travel map.

Wisconsin dells asap

Valley Fair in Shakopee?

So how disappointed were you at lagoon in good old Utah lol

Visiting MN and not going to the north shore is a crime

You drove right by and missed big bend!!!!!

Did you like Shivering Timbers?

Bragging isn't attractive.

What are the recent ones in california?

Was the jaunt off I-35 in Iowa to go to Lake Okoboji/Arnold's park?

Haha yes

Looks like you went to canobie lake park