dandaman Reloaded: 8/22-9/2

Hiya, folks! I just got back from an awesome trip to the World… and then some! I have school starting tomorrow, so excuse any possible delays on posting. Today, I don’t think I’ll even get to WDW with the updates! I’ll writethe report, then put the pictures with captions in the second half.

On with the show!

Day 1: Virginia Company

My family and I woke up around 5 a.m., though truth be told, I doubt anyone got much sleep. We loaded up the car (I think my dad would do wonders playing Tetris…), and left the house about 8 in the morning.

Gee, after that last paragraph, we’re REALLY off to an interesting start.

Anyway, I don’t suppose there’s much to say about today. A few notes from what I recall:

- For some reason, Mapquest had us cut clear across Ohio’s heartland to West Virginia, instead of taking the Turnpike to I-77 at Cleveland. However, it was actually a lot more interesting to drive that way, as there was a lot of different scenery changes I didn’t expect.

- Ate at “the ol’ standby”, Steak ‘n Shake, just before Columbus. The first time we ate here was just outside WDW almost 6 years ago, and I’ve loved it ever since. P.S. To the servers: Is it really that weird to order a Side-By-Side shake with chocolate mint and orange Freeze?… :lookaroun

- Just before hitting West Virginia, there were some really spectacular clouds overhead. It made the scenery look close to perfect.

- We finally arrived in Beckley, WV, around 4 p.m., and did a bit o’ shopping… well, kinda. The family did shopping, while I played some songs on some $25000 digital piano. I was amused, if not briefly. :D

“Ze Photos”

Either those are the weirdest clouds I’ve ever seen, or a thousand jets streaked across the sky without me knowing.

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If only I’d put the camera settings to 1024x768 instead of the lowest resolution.

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Ooh, the Ohio River… no one’s EVER seen this shot before.
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Welcome to redneck country!
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OMG! They painted the Capitol Building GOLD!

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…And that’s it for the pics today. Not much you can do sitting around in the car for 8 hours.

Tomorrow, we visit North and South Carolina! (*holds cue card* “Ooh, aah!”)​
 

nibblesandbits

Well-Known Member
Danny said:
^I got a picture of the Chip and Dale pair in your avatar.

I thought you were talking to me for a sec...I was like huh???

Oh and if you aren't doing anything right now...get to typing!!! :lookaroun :lol:
 

dandaman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 4: Two in the Busch

As promised, today (August 25 for those of you playing the home game) I went to Busch Gardens Tamprica! (Note: Busch changed it from “Tampa Bay” to “Africa”, but the nickname’s more fun to say.)

We had a free shuttle to the park from our hotel (which is actually named, “Best Western Behind Busch Gardens”). (On a side note, is this enough parentheses for ya?)

It started to rain quite hard before we left for the park, but it just went to a drizzle when we got to the front gates.

I had no idea how spectacularly-themed everything would be. It certainly ties Animal Kingdom for me, but goes one step better by having better thrills. No offense, but despite how insanely awesome Everest is, 7 roller coasters beat out one.

First on my list was Montu, a 150-foot inverted coaster near the front of the park, in Egypt. However, due to the severe weather earlier in the morning, nothing was open yet. So, my dad and I went on this walking tour, of sorts, called “Edge of Africa”. Lots of photos there.

After that, I ended up getting on the first train of the day for Montu, minus test runs. Very intense, but really fun. The best part, though, was when all the rainwater collecting on the train soaked the people in the front rows once we hit the brake run. Heh heh.

I believe I went to the Timbuktu area next, home to Cheetah Chase, a very painful Wild Mouse, especially when you’re as tall as I am (regretfully, no pics); and Scorpion, a very short, yet awesome and smooth coaster (would you believe… no pics?)

Got some lunch, and oddly enough, no photos. It was kind of an American music revue/stage show, but it was a very nice production. FYI, I had a roast beef sandwich, fries and a large orange Fanta.

From what I recall, I was going to meet my dad over by ShieKra after lunch, but the line didn’t look to long for another coaster. I thought, “What the heck, I’ll ride it now.” Turned out to be a good decision, because this is probably now in my Top 10 coaster list: Kumba! A “traditional”, sit-down, multi-looping coaster, this thing was themed like the rest, but had so many elements to it I wouldn’t know where to begin. Perhaps at the station fly-by? Or the pitch-black S-turning tunnel of DOOM?!

By the way, since it was the off-season, lines were virtually non-existent. The longest I waited was 10 minutes, for the next ride on my list, and one that now resides in my Top 5: ShieKra!

As you probably saw last update, that was the coaster I could see from my hotel window. It takes you up 200 feet, you float around a curve, creep up to the 90-degree drop, when… it holds you over the precipice, for some of the 3 most taunting seconds of your life. All of a sudden… *KERCHUNK*, and down we go, into a huge inversion, and over to a mid-course brake. Is it over? Not even close. At the end of the brakes lies a chasm in the Earth’s crust… 140 feet straight down again. We plunge down, curve around in the darkness, and come to the most impressive water elemnt on a coaster I’ve ever seen. Once I post VIDEO (Yes, VIDEO) of it, you’ll understand.

After riding ShieKra three times in a half-hour or so, we decided to head to Lory’s Landing, an aviary of sorts where there were a LOT of exotic birds landing on your shoulders, provided you had the right… “persuasion”, a.k.a. FOOD.

The last coaster on my list was one that many have revered to be among the roughest roller coasters on Earth: Gwazi, a dueling wooden monster. As it were, because it’s the off-season, only one side was running. Whatever. Anyway, despite the horror stories, I actually found it to be quite fun, in a sadistic, insane type of way. Rough, yes, but Mean Streak at Cedar Point’s been worse many times over, and was a lot less fun. Gwazi, on the other hand, has a whole mess of track that’s a lot more fun than “hill… curve… ‘nother curve… *yawn*”.

The final thing that day was the Festival of the Lion King-type show, Katonga. To be honest, I liked that show even better than LK. Indoor theatre, so no pics allowed.

Now, finally, “taswira”! (Swahili for “photos”)

Before the shuttle arrived, I went to the parking lot and took some random pictures… thought this was a bad omen.

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Funny thing is, immediately after I snapped that photo, I felt a raindrop. Now, you Florida residents can probably attest to the fact that normally, with a drop, a downpour isn’t far behind. Lo and behold, right when I got back to the room…

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The shuttle came at 10:00, and I managed to shoot this from the BG parking lot. (Montu)

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“Bud.”

“Weis.”

“Er.”

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Ooh, aah.

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Heh, found this pretty funny.

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Aww.

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AWWWWWW

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“We’ve got your laughing place, right up here…”

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“Lemme see… am I white with black stripes, or black with white stripes?”

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dandaman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Aah… nature.

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Who’s retiring?

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So at this point, I gave the camera to my dad. I never told him how to operate the camera, and for that, the following pictures turned out surprisingly well.

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Where are the pink ones?

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MINE! ALL MINE! AHAHAHAHA!!!

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Hey you two! Get a room!

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“In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki… Cage…”

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dandaman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
rawr

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Great, now the retirement party’s got sky rats all over it!

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BUTTERFLIES ON A HEDGE!

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Oh, yeah. We went to this pretty good bird show, though the name escapes me at the moment.

GAH!

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Go ahead and smirk, you winged devil! At least I have a job! Yeah, I said it!

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Owwwwww.

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So… where are you hiding the yo-yo’s?

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Baby

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I’m a duck, now GIMME SOME FOOD!

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Here’s a llama, there’s a llama, llama llama duck.

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dandaman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I don’t quite know why I took this photo.

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Obligatory train shot.

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Kumba… THROUGH THE TREES!

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Oh, and Rhino Rally was awesome. Like Kilimanjaro Safaris, but they had a bridge “break” and you rode DOWN THE RIVER! Great use of technology. And, wouldn’t you know it… not having pics seems to be part of my idiom.

Where I live, that whole tank would go for about 5 grand.

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Grease and parts… is it just coincidence that Rhino Rally’s main sponsor is Wendy’s?

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Tomorrow… Orlando malls, and half-Disney!
 

dandaman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5: Man about Downtown

All righty, today we finally headed to the angriest city in America, Orlando! First off, though, we just HAD to go shopping. Eh, at least I like the first mall: Festival Bay. Partially because it has a skate park, glow-in-the-dark mini golf, a big Hawaiian store, Bass Pro Shops, Steve & Barry’s, Ron Jon, etc. I suppose I’ll let the captions talk for most of this update, actually.

After FB, we hit the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Belz!” Factory Outlets, better known as Prime 1. The only thing I find there is the discount World of Disney store, which is worth the ½ mile trip down I-Drive from Festival Bay.

Went to our temporary hotel after that, the Buena Vista Suites. We stayed here last year, and I absolutely love it… particularly because I can sleep on an actual bed in my own room, as opposed to my usual vacation living quarters of a cushion.

Stayed at the hotel for a couple of hours, and waited ‘till the usual storms died down. Though it was still kind of rainy, we made it (finally!) to Downtown Disney Marketplace.

Like I said, the captions would probably tell a better story. That said, onto the photos!

Tampa… THROUGH THE TREES!

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The following is a collection of seemingly random pictures, yet they all have an order. Watch the numbers.

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Whoo!

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WHOOOOOOOO!!!

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Always wanted to visit, probably never will…

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On a day like this, maybe it’s just as well!

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