JZ's Rumblin' Kentucky Adventure!

[MaverickManJZ]

I took two days to go down south with my aunt and uncle to Beech Bend, their cabin, a scary cave with bats and cave crickets, and some random farm! With Jennies! I think it's a female donkey...
Anyways! It was about a 3.5 hour drive, leaving at 12:30 to get there before 5....but we forgot about the time zone change and got there at 3PM instead of 4! So to kill some time, we stopped at Godfather's pizza. Eh, I've gotten ahead of myself, I'll tell it with the pictures!
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Mmm.....B&M....always a nice sight.
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Ah, after about 3 miles of country roads, you drive up this little hill to finally see....
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This nice little park with a massive coaster dominating the skyline.
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Dominating, yup. You like it when I say that?
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Beech Bend Park's Holiday of lights. Open until January 5th from 5PM to 10PM CST.
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Mmm...it's taunting me, now.
So we pull up to the gates around 4:15 and ask this woman if we can walk around the park until it opens. She said no it opens at 5. But we had a funny little conversation:
"Sorry, hun the park doesn't open until 5. But...back in town there's some shops and....TWO WALMARTS!" - Woman
"TWO WALMARTS?!" - Me
"Yeah! And you can find a discount coupon in either of 'em!"
"Ah, cool! How crowded will it be?"
"Well, on a week night like this it might be abit crowded. Usually about four or five cars line up!"
"Alright...we'll go get that discount."
And so I drive back into the town and get lost abit. Find this walmart and there is a ONE dollar off coupon. But I had to buy something to get the coupon. So I spend a dollar on candy and 14 for admission. I get lost again looking for the park and eventually find directions.
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Mr. Dallas Jones sure loves his 2 miles of lights.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1011/1000472cc7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
If you found Rudolph, email PKIVortex
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Christmas isn't about presents or friends and family....it's all about little 5 lbs 8 oz baby Jesus.
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Alright, I've gone through the 12 days of Christmas, Random trees, long messages I can't read, and a freaking maze the drive through! Get me outa here!!!!
Se we almost drive out of the park because there is no directions or people telling you where to go. Acually, they told us to turn off the headlights.....so then you wouldn't be able to see the little arrows! Well, eventually you park in the race way and a tram waits for people to get in. TOO LONG. So I bolt off in the park.
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Ah, an empty station! It's been two months without a coaster, and it's great to hear that lift chain runnin'.
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Mmm...Kentucky Rumbler. But wait, the station is still empty. It's 5:15 and there's no one here! No one in the station. Lift chain running. Lights on, I was even able to get the restaint up! There was really NO ONE there! So I walk out and look around the park for a minute, then come back and magically a ride op is there.
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Me and Mike head for the back seat!
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Wow, is that me wiping a tear from my eye? Probably, it was a damn good coaster. Hey, check out the wear-whatever-you-want uniform the ride op is wearing!
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Yup it's dark out. And about 45 degreese. It's one coaster experiance I won't forget!
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The chick on the right asked about my hat. She called it a 'toboggan' and called me a 'Buckeye' because I'm from Ohio. Oh you Kentuckians.
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Did I mention it's dark?
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Hi, I like roller coasters at GCI makes. GIMME MORE WOOD!!!!
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Beech Bend also has lights, music, and movies around the park. It's quite nice.
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And also has other coasters. Isn't it good this one is closed? (The Pinafari)
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Only in Kentucky....
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Over across the pond, they have this amazing ride.
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I've heard some Midwest Trippers claim this to be their new favorite drop ride.....and I had no clue how this could be better than Drop Zone at KI.....
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/9456/1000516qu7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
You may not be able to tell, but I am completely out of my seat. First off, the thing above your head is preventing you to see how high up your are. And second, the drop is so abrupt and the harnesses are so crappy, you can move them 4 inches off you. Your body is really out of that seat. It probably made Terrance made thet WHEEN sounds. BEST drop ride I have been on!!!
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After my awesome Shock Drop rides, I ran into some lost family members!
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Power Surge....oh, how I wanted to ride it. But it was closed. :cry:
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More pretty lights...
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Hell, I'll pay three bucks to wait a few minutes to ride this fantastic coaster! If this was at some other park, the wait would probably be 30-45 minutes easy!
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OMG POV.
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LOL. This awesome nerf rocket launcher. Go ahead, instert your rocket polishing joke in here for me.
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Rumbler Station. Ya'll ready to rumble?

And so that concludes the theme park part of my TR. Now is the "Kentucky Adventure" part. So if you're here for the coaster pics....you can go back now.

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It's the end of that world as we know it....it's the end of the....
Hah, no. It was really fun shooting this gun. It's a .22 or something like that for all the gun enthusiasts. I shot the Mtn. Dew can 34 ft.! Mike was impressed.
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/3103/1000541zh0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
So this is the creek you need to cross to get to the cabin. It's rained alot since last night.
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Here we are...in the middle of a rising creek...
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So...my uncle decided it would be fun to drive the two wheel drive Mercury Mariner through it. Until we went to deep and had to go back. Kinda stupid but fun. Only he would do that...

Well, we went into the woods and to a friend's private property because there is a cave. Not a touristy stt up, already cleared path guide, lit up cave. We spelunked for about 10 minutes. There were bats, spiders....and....CAVE CRICKETS! One jumped on my head and that was the point to turn around and head out.
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Farm across the street.
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2417/1000547ng2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
A female donkey called a Jenny! They HATE 'yotes and keep the cows safe! DONKEYS SAVE LIVES PEOPLE!
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They looked abit angry.
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A group of nice horsies!
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And a nice country side picture to end this TR. Thanks for reading!

[Michael]

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5839/1000507fz7.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)
Only in Kentucky....

I will PAY YOU to put this photo and caption on a T-shirt and deliver it to my house (there will be $20 on the front step for you ;))

Great update, absolutley loved the Kentucky jokes :p (no offense to any of my southernly neighbors)

Rumbler looks fantastic, and it sounds like it lives up to the hype (which it needs more of). Thanks for the update! :D

[MaverickManJZ]

Oh boy, that woman was getting all excited just talking about those Walmarts!

[Thrill Reconnoiter]

Wow, you're pictures bring back such amazing memories! My college was about 1 1/2hrs due East of there in the mountains (Barbourville, KY). I used to do my training rides (cycling) every day on roads that look just like this...
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/663/1000555hi8.jpg
...just with more mountainous terrain. Yeah, those 20 degree days in winter go old real fast.

I've got to say though, it is a totally different lifestyle up there. We didn't even have a Super Wal-mart in our town. Only one Burger King and one McDonalds, no Taco Bell. McDonalds was the latest place open (the extremely late 11pm) and only one place-a local gas station-was open 24/7. It was nicknamed the "Cock Mart" (okay, dirty jokes galore) because it had a giant Rooster on a trailer outside the front of it. We were going to have rivalries with the "next town over" and tow that thing back and forth. But munchies at 3am, they had amazing chiliedogs.

Sorry, just one of my many rants about the amazing life in Southern KY.


Looks like you had a great time at BeechBend! What was the temperature when you were there? Is that A.R.M. SuperShot a portable (looks it) or park model? Never been on a portable one before, so I'd love to see what the rave is about.

[MaverickManJZ]

I agree about the South. I go down every year to Hilton Head, SC and stop along Carowinds and other little places along the way. I think people down south are friendlier. And I loved where I was it, it was pitch black at night and you could actually see the stars! It was great and I can't wait to go back.

The temperature was about 40 degreese, I think.

Ohh yes Ryan, Shock Drop is portable! They op was telling me all about how they can lay it down and transport it easily ;) Haha. Just for my comfort.

I felt the same, I didn't really see what was so great about it! Well, I got on and was a little nervous because of the low safety standards. Well, you get to the top and it drops without any notice! And holy crap, your WHOLE BODY is out of the seat for about 2 seconds. It was an amazing ride. It scared me! And that's pretty darn hard to do.

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[vedved82491]

Ah damn. We have basically the exact same ride as Shock Drop at my local park (except ours is green and called skydiver ;)) and I always though a drop tower such as Drop Zone would dominate a measly 120 foot drop tower...I guess good things come from small towers.