 The best ride for social distancing is surely an RMC Raptor model. Enjoy this image of Railblazer at California's Great America. When you have to go alone the unique riding position on these single rails offer a single seat to keep you germ free from other riders. When the parks reopen the extra elbow room and solitary seating are sure to be the place to be, or you can squeeze in between two possibly contaminated riders on a germ infested B&M. ::sprays lysol:: With two raptor models out there ready to go and two more on the way, claim the full row, RMC is way ahead of their time again.
Author Jeff Goodman  EDITOR'S NOTE: The author of this article is a community member and not a member of the site staff. We encourage all members of our community to submit similar op-ed pieces by e-mailing them to blogs@coaster-net.com for review by our editorial staff.
It is amazing yet terrifying at the same time. At how much has gone on in this country the past few weeks. So many things have been shuttered, including theme parks. Driving around where I live, it is so eerie seeing all the empty parking lots. It feels like we are living in a terrifying movie. I understand and agree with social distancing. But man even I have only so many shows to watch on Netflix & Amazon Prime. Recently we canceled our Fantasy Baseball draft. That is usually one of my favorite days of the year. I mean spring is on the way, and baseball was so close. Hanging out with some close friends, then playing cards after the draft eating bad for you but delicious food and watching March Madness...... Then, poof, it was all gone. Now we are still having the draft whenever baseball resumes. It just won't feel the same. However, when you have lemons, you make lemonade. 2 cups sugar. 2 cups water. 1 gallon cold water. 2 cups fresh lemon juice (Bottled juice works fine) 1 lemon, sliced, plus 1 lemon, cut into wedges, for garnish. Ice Directions: Make a simple syrup by adding the sugar and water to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Add a gallon of cold water and the lemon juice to a large glass pitcher. Add the simple syrup and the lemon slices. Stir well. Pour the lemonade into tall glasses filled with ice. Garnish the rims with lemon wedges and enjoy icy cold! Look with so much that is unavailable to us right now. I needed to find something to do. So I made my first apple pie from scratch in around ten years. With all the things going on in my life, I had started to make quick, rather dull meals. Or worse doing the drive-thru/take out, I had forgotten how much I liked to cook! Heck, I forgot what my dining room looked like. With more time and way fewer options, I have started to rediscover my kitchen. I even recently made a homemade Chicago style pizza that Lou Malnati himself would have been impressed with. And I do not have the words to tell you how cool it is to have an actual conversation with your family sitting at the dinner table. But let us take this a step further, this is the time of year that most seasonal parks start to open. Heck Kigamania (Orion) was opening This Saturday. Now I know it is impossible to ride a Giga coaster at home, but we can make up some pretty good park-like food in the home kitchen. Trappers Smokehouse at Busch Gardens Williamsburg was the inspiration for this meal Rybarczyk Raptor Ribs. Ingredients (for Dry Rub). 8 Tablespoons, Brown Sugar 3 Tablespoons, Kosher Salt, you can use sea salt also, please don’t use nasty table salt if possible. 1 Tablespoon, Smoked Paprika, you can use plain paprika, but smoked is way better. 2 Teaspoons, Chipotle powder. This has some kick use 1 teaspoon if you like less heat. (You can use regular chili powder if can't find Ancho & Chipotle powder) 2 Teaspoons, Ancho chili powder. 1 Teaspoon, Granulated Garlic. 1 Teaspoon, Granulated Onion. ½ Teaspoon each dried, Basil, Thyme, Coriander. ½ Teaspoon, Fresh black pepper. ½ Teaspoon, Old bay seasoning. ½ Teaspoon, Powder Ginger. ½ Teaspoon, Curry powder. There is enough rub here for 2-3 racks Directions Dry your ribs with some paper towel and remove the clear membrane on the bone side. Spread some good mustard on both sides of the ribs. Then liberally apply the rub, gently tap the ribs so that the rub sticks. Wrap in foil put in the refrigerator and let sit at least 8 hours (I usually do them the night before and let them sit overnight). Heat your smoker to 250. A little lower is ok, but try your best not to go over, smoke with your favorite wood(s) for 2 hours. Wrap back in foil and place back in the smoker for 2 more hours. Check for tenderness (You do not want them to tender) remove from the smoker and finish on the grill with a light layer of your favorite BBQ sauce to caramelize. Bring lots of napkins and enjoy. If you don’t have a smoker, here is a delicious alternative. Preheat the oven to 350 Place ribs on a baking sheet large enough, so you do not have to cut or stack them on top of each other. Add 1/3 cup vinegar and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake 75 minutes or until very tender remove ribs from oven and carefully lift off tin foil. Watch out for steam, the ribs are now fully cooked and need to be finished. You have a couple of options: OPTION 1: Heat your grill to medium and place ribs meat side down without sauce, but you can baste the back with the BBQ sauce of your choice. Cook until they start to develop grill marks, and turn over - now baste the top You could stop here after they grill a bit on this side, or you could baste them a bit more and then give them a couple more minutes meat side down - that's what I do, or OPTION 2: Heat broiler to high and place ribs on a baking sheet about 4 inches from the heat source and brush the top of the ribs well with the sauce and cook until they start getting a bit brown - then flip to the back, baste and cook some more. Flip back to the top (sauce again) and cook until they get that beautiful rib look. Then, no matter how you cooked them, give them one extra baste after they've been removed and just before you serve them. I know a lot is going on here, but trust me, you more than likely have most of the rub ingredients in your spice rack already. And I know that some if not most of you will not have a smoker. But the oven option is still excellent. I recommend the Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce. (Amazon) But almost any BBQ sauce will work. Miller’s Manta Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese Ingredients: 1 lb. elbow macaroni 8 tablespoons butter 4 eggs 1 12oz can evaporated milk 1 teaspoon hot sauce 2 teaspoons kosher salt Fresh black pepper 1 teaspoon dry mustard 16 oz Colby jack or sharp cheddar shredded cheese. Directions: In a large pot boil at least 1 gallon of water. Cook pasta to al dente (8-9 minutes) and drain. Return to the pot and melt butter. Toss to coat. Add cheese, whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta. Over low heat continue to stir until creamy, (around 2-3 minutes). This is as easy as any boxed mac and cheese and 100 times better. I make this too often, but it is sooooo good. Fury 325 Baked Beans Ingredients 3 cans / 15oz Great Northern Beans. 1 Cup BBQ sauce or Ketchup. Both are equally good. 2/3 Cup Sugar regular or 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar. 1 Large onion diced 1 Package Bacon. I take 4 strips a time and use scissors to cut into roughly 1-inch pieces. Directions Combine in a crockpot and turn on high for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. If you pressed for time, cover the crock with some plastic wrap and cook in the microwave on high for twenty minutes stir and repeat as many times as necessary. Return to the pot to keep warm. It can be doubled if going to a potluck. I love baked beans, and it hurts me when I see people buy them canned when they are so easy to make. When you make these beans, I will guarantee that you will never, ever buy them in a can again. The Beast coleslaw Ingredients 2 lbs of coleslaw mix (cabbage and carrots in any produce section) 1 15oz Jar of real Mayo. 3/4 Cups White Vinegar 3/4 Cups Sugar 1-1/2 tsp Celery Seed 1-1/2 tsp Granulated Garlic 1 tbs Granulated Onion Directions In a stainless steel or plastic mixing bowl, combine the Mayo, Celery Seed, Garlic & Onion. Mix thoroughly. Pour the Vinegar in the empty Mayo jar & shake until all leftover mayo is incorporated. Pour Vinegar mixture in the mixing bowl. Stir until contents or in a liquid state. In a large salad bowl, pour in the sauce. Then slowly fold in the coleslaw mix. Cover and store in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Overnight would be better. Every meal can use a salad, and I can not think of a better salad for BBQ than coleslaw. You will not find a coleslaw in any Amusement/Theme park that can match up with this. Once again, EASY!!!! Skyrush Peach Cobbler Ingredients 3 15oz cans sliced peaches in heavy syrup 1 box yellow cake mix.(Non-pudding mix) 1 stick salted butter Directions Grease a 9x13 pan. Open then empty peaches into the pan, dump the cake mix on top, mix to combine. Just bring it together and do not over mix. Cut the stick of butter into 15/20 pats. Place evenly on top of batter. Place pan in a preheated 350-degree oven cook until golden on top around 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let cool for 15 minutes. Enjoy with whip cream or better yet ICECREAM. Ok, I know you are getting full, but this dessert is worth loosening your belt. It is warm sweet buttery, everything you can want in a dessert. Heck, it is even prize-winning (I won a local BBQ contest in the dessert category.) The cobbler will be the talk of your next dinner. If you have young kids, it is an excellent blackmail tool."You can't have your cobbler unless you eat your vegetables." I have even been known to make this for breakfast. Well, there you have it, a meal inspired by one of the better Theme Park restaurants. You could even make one outstanding Easter dinner from this menu. Also, all of these recipes, along with many other excellent ones, are in the Ride Warrior Discord Cook Book. (Shameless plug) I know what we want, almost a need, to get back to the parks to hang out with our family and friends at a place we all love. To ride some coasters, scream with all of our might. And like I said earlier, eat some bad for you but delicious food. We will get back to them until then happy Easter, And eat on Ride Warriors!!!! Author Michael Flynn  I love Boulder Dash, but my world has turn upside down. Here is a view of Boulder Dash that has broken with reality. Hopefully we will be ripping through the woods under the yellow sky with a bright blue sun. Wait what?
Jeff Goodman  Which way would you go? Forward into a new future? Or back to relive the good old days?
Author Jeff Goodman  There may be a lot of downtime, an extra long wait, it may even be over before we have had our fill. When we finally pull down that lapbar and dispatch we will feel free. There will not be thoughts of stress, obligation, or even responsibility. It will be time to ride.
Author Jeff Goodman  Dear Coaster Friends,
The off-season may have been unexpectedly prolonged, and many of us are experiencing a roller coaster of emotions. Isolation may look lonely, but we are all thinking the same thing together. Author Jeff Goodman  EDITOR'S NOTE: The author of this article is a community member and not a member of the site staff. We encourage all members of our community to submit similar op-ed pieces by e-mailing them to blogs@coaster-net.com for review by our editorial staff.
The story began on August 15th, 1999. My best friend Brian and I made a Sunday day trip to Cedar Point. It turned out to be one of the best days I have ever had there. Small crowds, multiple rides on Raptor, Magnum, Mantis, and the newest thrill ride Power Tower. Now as much fun as we were having that day, all we could talk about was Millennium Force, the announcement was a few weeks prior. Even strangers that we were standing in the queue lines with us were obsessed with Cedar Point's Y2K addition. We must have ridden the train at least five times to see piles of dirt and downed trees. Brian and I even made a pact, no matter how long the line was our first ride was going to be front row. We were so excited about riding, Millennium Force the next summer. That I even checked with Hotel Breakers, to see if we could make reservations for the following year. (They said no) Anyway, like I was saying earlier, a truly great day. A few weeks later, we started planning our 2000 pilgrimage to Cedar Point. After talking to several mutual friends, we ended up with a large group of us planning to go. Well, Summer turned into Fall. Fall turned into Winter. And we were still mainly talking about Millennium Force, all of us were counting down the days. In January, Brian asked me if I wanted to go on a snowmobile excursion. His family has a hunting cabin in Kalkaska. Ours have one in Gaylord, and we would take long rides in between them. When he told me the dates, I had to decline. 1. The trip would fall on Super Bowl weekend, and I, along with some others, was planning a Super Bowl party. 2. My Uncle and his family were already going to be using our cabin that weekend. Now I was a little bummed because I used to love snowmobiling. Plus, it was a great way to have some outstanding fun during the offseason. Brian understood he planned a smaller excursion focused around their cabin. If all went well, they would try to make it back in time for the Super Bowl party. I remember him joking with me; he was going to take a couple of the hillier trails at 90MPH to get a feel for riding Millennium Force. I went over to his place and helped Brian and his dad load up their Arctic Cats, and said I would see him in a couple of days. A little over 24hrs later, I received a phone call you never want to get. Brian James Vickery left this world way too soon from a head-on collision with another snowmobile. Now you all probably know someone like Brian, he was the life of the party, someone everybody loved. When you went out with Brian, you were going to have fun. I even bet some of the fun we had, the statute of limitations has expired. His death shook our group to its core. All of us were devastated. I lost my best friend. No, it was way worse than that, I lost a brother. The months passed and the time to go to Cedar Point was approaching. Some people had to drop out, others who thought they would not be able to go could. Our final count was 24. We all wanted our 1st ride to be on the same train. But we had heard some of the horror stories coming out of Cedar Point that Summer; four to five hour wait times, down half the day, and the worst issue for our group, we could not choose a row or time it to all ride together. Cedar Point was filling every train with how you entered the station, with no exceptions. Some in our group were very upset, myself included. But the need to ride the world's first Giga coaster outweighed the aggravation of not being able to choose where we rode. Finally, June 11th, 2000, arrived. Our group checked into the Breakers right at 4:00 PM. We ate an early dinner and headed into the park on the twilight ticket. Now we were not planning to ride Millennium Force that night. The original plan was to ride everything else Sunday night and Monday morning. Then get in as many rides as possible the rest of the day/night Monday and Tuesday. But the park was strangely dead even for a Sunday evening. We walked on Magnum a few times then, went up to Raptor, and was shocked to walk on that multiple times as well. While we were going through Raptor's queue line, we overheard someone saying that Millennium Force only had an hour wait. We quickly scrapped our original plan and decided to see if that was the case. Heck, even if it were a two-hour wait, from all the things we had heard, it would be worth it. IT WAS TRUE!!!! Not even a full queue. We felt like little kids when you see all the presents under the tree Christmas morning. With a winning Powerball thrown in. Another life long friend and I were the first two in line. What made that special was that Scott, out of all my friends, truly loves roller coasters. After hearing all of the hype about Millennium Force along with Brian's passing, I knew he would be there. Some of you long time Cedar Point fans will remember when Millennium Force had a DJ in the queue line. I knew something special was happening when he started playing some of Brian's favorite songs. Some Garth Brooks, a little Bon Jovi, a touch of Billy Joel. (He had quite the taste in music) We were approaching the unload station, and the DJ played "In the Air Tonight." by Phil Collins. Let us say that took the moment to an eleven. On a whim, I started to count the people in front of us. To my amazement, it looked like we were going to all be on the same train. A couple more trains dispatched, I counted again. Now I knew for sure we were all going to be on the same train. Telling everyone in our group that our first ride was going to be together, resulted in a lot of high-fives and a few hugs. A couple more trains dispatched, and I realized Scott, and I had the front row. The look of joy on Scott's face is something that I will never, ever forget. After the longest Winter and Spring, I can ever remember, we finally started up the massive lift hill. It had to be the quietest ascent on a roller coaster. You could hear crickets. Something was building; to this day, I can not describe it accurately. We crested the hill, started the drop, and the dam broke. Five months of unbearable sadness, grief, and pain were stripped bare. We all let loose our primal screams as loud as humanly possible. And I think somewhere in that absolute maelstrom of noise I could make out a scream from Brian. The train was blistering through the track, and it was almost like we were chasing lightning. And we were going to catch it, and I have no doubts that was the fastest Millennium Force has ever run. We made our way toward the ride photo building. Did the normal pointing and laughing when someone in our group had a tear form in their eye. One by one, we all had some tears in our eyes, then we grouped up together. I said a verse from the bible. John 11:35 "Jesus wept" " He wept for the death of his best friend" And we did; it was a good and healing weeping. After all of that, the park was still open for another hour; we rode Millennium Force one more time that night. And honestly, that is all I can remember of that trip after our first ride. Now I can tell you every detail leading up to that ride, and it is still so vivid almost twenty years later. And I know for at least 24 individuals no matter the coaster, no matter the years. No other ride will ever, ever come close. It was the greatest ride we ever had. Author Michael Flynn  With all the strong rides being introduced for the 2020 season there is a lot to look forward to. There is the overdue, the divine, the sweetest, the shortest, a dive coaster, an ice breaker, a splash, the first, and some Legos. But sometimes it is more fun to be bad... Don't forget about the Jersey Devil.
-Jeff Goodman (This image is a composite with a photo credit to Six Flags Great Adventure)  My current phone lockscreen is this shot of Steel Curtain the Pittsburg Steelers themed coaster at Kennywood in West Mifflin, PA. I loved this new for 2019 ride last season on my first visit to Kennywood. I know that not everyone's' favorite team made it into the Super Bowl today, so let's all be Steel Curtain fans instead.
Author Jeff Goodman  Dear Coaster Friends,
I know the term clone has a negative connotation to it, but clones allow a manufacturer and a park to spread out the risk of a new concept. Batman: The Ride was the stepping stone for B&M to create the invert an undeniable all-star of their product line. The invert coaster not only flipped the track over but the experience, putting the emphasis on extreme positive G forces instead of the airtime many riders associate with roller coasters. It is hard for a coaster to feel relevant, modern, and smooth for almost three decades however Batman: The Ride delivers. Author Jeff Goodman |
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