Transcript
Zach: I'm Zach and ah
Zach: something about Allen Ginsberg.
Ben: I'm Ben and I'm, I broke another phone.
Zach: What'd you do, sit on it?
Ben: No, I just drop it.
Zach: Don't drop your phone.
Ben: I think the problem is, is like, I buy the really cheap ones on eBay, like the refurb ones that are like 50 bucks.
Ben: And then I think it's just like a psychological thing because it's like, oh, it's just this cheap phone, like whatever. It you know it doesn't matter if something happens to it. But yeah, this is...
Zach: You're like, let me just throw it from the second story window. It's all good.
Ben: But remember, like I accidentally cracked it when ah like before I went to California. like like, oh, I just got this and there it's already cracked. So...
Zach: Yeah. What the fuck do you.
Ben: so
Zach: You're like on the flight. I was kind of just like i had it in the tray and I kept slamming the tray.
Ben: I'm just sick of phone. Like, I'm just like, I'm losing interest in the phone. Like I just, I just throw it and then I just kind of forget about it.
Zach: Me too, right right?
Ben: It's
Zach: My phone now primarily, because I've really been trying to just like disengage from all forms of social media.
Ben: yeah.
Zach: um Primarily it's a game device now where I play solitaire.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Salter is good.
Zach: Fucking Monopoly solitaire. I did not think jamming those two games together would make either of them more interesting, but they found a way.
Ben: I mean, is it still like a card game or?
Zach: So it's it's solitaire and every you like every move you do that is like every card you get on the ace pile or every card you flip over is where the certain amount of points and after you get a certain amount of points you get a dice roll.
Ben: Okay.
Zach: You know, yeah, it's it's not it takes a moment to grasp how it the mechanics but once it's rolling it's like oh this is cool.
Ben: Huh.
Ben: Nice.
Zach: Yeah. Not paid content. Monopoly. It's a follow tear.
Ben: Yeah. Ad reading, ad reading likes phone games. And like, it was always kind of, always thought that was kind of funny. Like, and here's the thing like doing an ad read just for the game. If you are just doing the ad read and it's like, whatever, that's fine.
Ben: But when you're trying to like upsell it, um Like this game is great. It's so much fun. My favorite part is when type of thing, that's when it's a little cringe.
Zach: Use our code and get a free unlockable character.
Ben: Dude, I thought it was, funny I thought it was pretty funny when there was a YouTube or YouTuber and suddenly like there was an ad for like a fishing game.
Ben: it was like a com i think It was like a combo of like, it was basically like the hybrid of games of like Monopoly and Candy Crush, but it was like fishing and Candy Crush. And it was like a fort.
Zach: fish
Ben: It was like a fort.
Zach: Which sounds like a total frat bro thing. Anyway.
Ben: But it was like a four minute ad and like, and trying to like upsell it and the game looked so bad. Like, don't It was kind of funny.
Zach: It's so much fun when you catch a bass.
Ben: It's like, this is coaster enthusiasts. Like, I don't think there's a big crossover of, fishing theme parks.
Zach: I bet you there is some.
Ben: There's yeah, there's definitely some, but I mean,
Ben: thing, the thing is, is like they're in like the coast of there's like the, i guess like when I think of the template of the theme park enthusiasts nowadays, it's like Orlando And like waiting in line for like a new fast food chain to open up.
Zach: yeah that
Ben: And and like ah like craft beer is a personality.
Zach: Okay, don't don't don't make some of our listener base feel seen, Ben.
Ben: i mean.
Ben: I'm just saying
Ben: we can all make observations.
Zach: Some better than others. Anyway. Here's some exciting news. I infused some coconut oil and I drank a quarter cup of it right before we started recording.
Ben: Isn't that just going to like get shout out?
Zach: I mean, I drank it with tea. I didn't drink it straight.
Ben: I mean, like how much, like a teaspoon or like, oh shit, that's a lot.
Zach: No, like a quarter cup.
Zach: Yeah.
Ben: like Like coconut milk or coconut oil?
Zach: Oil, but it was infused with cannabinoids.
Ben: Oh, okay.
Ben: It'll be like, it might be like that Pringles evil Pringle bastard story tomorrow.
Zach: So.
Zach: I'm hoping not.
Zach: I had to put it to the test because I'm to make brownies with it tomorrow. And this was about half hour ago. Seems like it's working so far.
Ben: Nice.
Zach: Yeah. Can't complain.
Ben: what I wonder how long that stuff takes to expire.
Zach: I'd imagine same as the coconut oil, but I'm going to try and use it pretty quick.
Ben: Yeah. Well, I ask because I have a jar, like a homemade jar of that in the fridge. I think it's just like regular can of butter. But I think at this point it's like four years old.
Zach: Oh, no, dude, get rid of that shit.
Ben: So...
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: No. That same rule of thumb as as regular butter would apply there.
Ben: Yeah. I mean, it's in a mason jar.
Zach: You wouldn't eat four-year-old butter. You wouldn't steal a car.
Zach: Uh... Okay, yeah, I'm feeling that oil, though. That's working. So we were ah talking about, not to derail this, but we were having an um interesting conversation before we ah started recording about stand-up comedy.
Zach: And I thought really quick we could circle back around to that. were talking about Marin, of course. We'll...
Zach: He's amazing, right? He's great. Like I said, I saw him do, I think it was like two and a half or three hours in Chicago. um It was fantastic.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah. Some, I've seen them twice now, once in Boulder and that was like two and a half hours. It wasn't, He definitely was like trying new stuff, so it was like very kind of slow, but still good. and Then we saw him at Comedy Works for a like ah more condensed set, and it was still good.
Ben: but i was saying like we've definitely been like through our like friends and stuff as a group thing. We've been seeing comedy shows, and we've seen a couple that I had never really heard of, but like try to keep an open mind and go and you know still have fun, but And it seems like there's definitely a like a newer template of comedy.
Ben: We were saying it's like very like clippy TikTok, like 30-second bits to record and put on TikTok. And then like really over an overemphasis of crowd work.
Ben: Like too much crowd work. So... so And then when you go to see someone like Maren, who's been doing it for whatever, 25 plus years, it's like literally seasoned and professional and like has so much experience. It's just like such a like relief. It's like, oh, like you're in the hands of a professional. Like it's going to be a good show.
Ben: Like we said.
Zach: here's Here's my theory, right? Because I think you're right. and it's a generational thing. Because, like, Marin and older comics... Like, you think about, like, the golden age of stand-up in the 80s.
Zach: When it was, like, prior to that, there was really just, like, New York and l L.A. Just, like, you know, Carolines of the Cellar in New York and, like... um
Zach: What's it called? Improv was in the 80s, but fucking can't believe I'm forgetting it. Comedy store, the store in L.A.
Ben: Yeah. yeah
Zach: And then after it became like cheap television to fill on cable, comedy clubs started opening up in every city and suburb across America.
Zach: So like. the The wave of comics in that time, which are now the old guard, right? Like Marin. They had to be like. Like people went to a comedy club and they didn't know who the comic was. And the big deal was like, oh, the credit would be like, oh, this person's appeared on ah the Tonight Show.
Zach: Carson, you know.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
Zach: but that'd be it. the People wouldn't know these people like from a background role on some show or whatever. So these guys had to like learn to just like the audience expected comedy, right?
Zach: Didn't matter who it was. So these dudes had to learn to like be funny for any audience.
Ben: yeah
Zach: So like that's, like that's a real fucking skill. You know what I'm saying?
Ben: Yeah, for sure. And it almost seems like nowadays because of um because of social media, you curate your audience. It's almost like you curate your audience first and then you build your comedy around your audience.
Ben: Or no, that doesn't make sense.
Zach: Yes, but also but also there's like the cheap way to be and like an everyman comedian, like it'd be an every situation comedian, which is crowd work, which is what we were talking about, where it's this over-reliance on crowd work.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
Zach: And that's kind of like a cheat code to be ah just to provide comedy if you're just the entertainment, right?
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: yeah
Zach: But it doesn't leave you with an actual act. can't You can't go do a tight five of crowd work on TV or opening a Vegas show. or what You know what I'm saying?
Ben: yeah
Zach: And yeah, you're you're getting people that are like, I don't know. everything like Comedy is becoming more hyper-specified to people's audiences, like you're saying. and It's weird.
Ben: Yeah, I mean, especially with the way that social media pushes you down like a like super specific channels. And now, like if you grow an audience if you grow an audience online, because that's one thing I've noticed too. It's like there's people who will, I don't know, like everybody who goes shows up to a show. It's like everybody's like a fan and it's everybody's like a listener to the podcast. Yeah.
Zach: yep
Ben: It's like a, to where i don't even know if you're getting. so I guess at that point, if you have a reliable audience that is in your niche, it's probably easier to like the coast.
Ben: Because you know, the audience.
Zach: Well, shit, maybe maybe you and I need to book a stand-up tour.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Because it seems like the internet, it's like, i mean, i don't know. Like, the fact that...
Ben: i don't know. guess it's just It's just different. Whatever.
Ben: Anyway, I saw this guy named Caleb Heron last night, who I've never really, like, listened to or heard of. But it was weird. There was, like, a drag show in the middle of the show, which, like...
Ben: Drag is fine, but like it's just kind of it was just kind of like random. like There's no intermission of the show, but then it was just like, oh, hey, we have a local Denver drag queen going to do a performance. And then it was like, oh, we have this band that's going to do two songs.
Ben: And it was just kind of like weird. like i No, it it was almost like instead of having openers, it was just like the openers were in the middle of the show.
Zach: And it wasn't promoted as a variety show.
Ben: Which, I mean, i appreciate the whole like, promote you know using a platform to promote like a smaller local artist, but at the same time, like the pacing of it was a little off.
Ben: was just, everyone was kind of like confused.
Zach: Yeah, that seems weird too. Cause it's like, If you can't do an hour and a half, then hold on the tour.
Zach: Right? like Like, and it doesn't really matter what you're doing, whatever your performance is.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: People pay money to come in, give them an hour and a half of ah of like a headline set.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Concert, comedy, whatever. Hour and a half. That's 90 minutes a show. Not including the openers.
Ben: Yeah. And this, the last hour of the show was just a, basically a podcast recording with like a guest. Yeah.
Ben: So it was like two guys talking. it was like him and this guy talking. Which like it was fine. Like they were able to be funny. Like it wasn't a you know. It was fine.
Ben: It just was like you know. I left a little confused. Especially being able to like sell at the Paramount two nights. But I'm not I'm not in the stand up comedian space so.
Zach: I'm so far removed from it, I don't really know.
Zach: It's been too long.
Ben: Now everybody's doing podcasts. And I say that like I get it. Like I get, you know, if we do a podcast. It's fun. But it at the same time, everybody's, it's like
Ben: a lot of, I don't know, like
Ben: it' It's it cool as an art form. like It's a cool way to communicate, but when are we going to go full circle to where
Ben: we just go back to like live chat rooms?
Zach: What if we did like a podcast, but like it was in person and like we didn't record it?
Zach: No, but yeah, it's, it's, I don't know, man. Oh, thing is weird. Cause like, here's the thing, right? You know, it's really hard. is coming up with and writing down material and then going to a bar for open mic night and signing your name up and waiting on a list or waiting for like an hour and a half while a bunch of other people do shitty dick jokes for five minutes to then finally go up and do your five minutes in front of them and barely get any response.
Zach: And like buy like $30 worth of beer and fries and then go home. But you know what's easy? Talking some shit with your friends and then posting it on the internet.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah. And it's fun. I'll keep doing Yeah.
Zach: Yeah, yeah. So that's why everyone does podcasts now because you don't have to go through the grind of actual comedy to be like...
Zach: To be a podcaster, you just need a microphone and an internet connection.
Ben: yeah
Ben: It's also like a scheduled, it's almost like a scheduled way to like hang out with your friends. It's like, uh, or like have conversations or instead of like calling somebody on the phone or like, remember like Skype group, like, I don't know. Did ever do like the group Skype thing back in the day? i guess we still have that shit with zoom, but like for some reason it seemed more fun when it was Skype and you're like in high school.
Zach: Couple times.
Ben: It would be like someone who would drop like a Skype link on MySpace.
Ben: That's what, that's what one thing I was trying to figure out. Like, remember when, like when zoom became big, like I never used zoom in like pre COVID.
Ben: And then like when zoom came out, it Oh yeah. Like zoom is cool. It's like, you can have these rooms, you can have like 20 people. And it's like, I'm pretty sure this technology has existed for like 10 years, but they made it seem like it was this new thing.
Zach: yeah Yeah, I don't know how Skype dropped the ball on that so bad.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: But yeah, I don't...
Ben: Because like in, oh, like in 09, I was using Skype. I even remember like go being on like a group Skype call with like gap people in 2009, 2010. Yeah.
Ben: two thousand and ten
Zach: Yeah, I was going to say, that was around for a long while.
Ben: yeah But in a way, like the Skype group things were kind of like a podcast.
Zach: Yeah, well, I mean, you and me sitting in my car smoking on weed was kind of like a podcast.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Except now it's like scheduled. You can like, you can like, um, If you miss it, you can just put it and save it up or you can like bank them for like a long road trip or.
Zach: Right? And I'm also...
Ben: It's like a passive way to hang out with. It's like a passive way to hang out with friends, noncommittal.
Zach: yeah Yeah, I could could see that. The whole parasocial thing, too.
Zach: it's like It's like listening to a phone call where you're always on mute.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: That's like there was that app Clubhouse.
Ben: you remember that? It was like ah like a thing.
Zach: That one I don't remember.
Ben: but But basically it was a Zoom that there was a moderator who controlled the the mute and the like the mute and the unmute.
Ben: But it was basically like a way to have a Zoom call with like 400 people where like only one person was able to talk. was basically a webinar, like a webinar app.
Zach: and Okay.
Ben: And then it be, yeah, but it became, it kind of gotten taken over by like the
Zach: Sounds useful for like a college class or something.
Ben: intellectual dark web slash like right slash Joe Rogan sphere podcast thing to where it was all, it was all like about COVID shit.
Zach: Oh, God.
Ben: You know, it was like oh the the ventilators were actually what was killing the people and, you know, stuff like that.
Zach: We're going to flagged for misinformation.
Zach: You know what I remember is chat roulette.
Ben: that's still That's still a thing. um It's pretty fun. We were doing that not too long ago.
Ben: We had it like pulled up on on the TV and stuff.
Zach: It's still all just dicks, right?
Ben: ah I think they've done a pretty good job of like separating dicks and the non-dicks. Because now they've they've in they've improved the infrastructure for like the chatterbait space so much to where if you want to do the dick thing, you can just go to your own like its own designated space.
Ben: It's always funny, though. It's not that random because occasionally you'll like get connected with the same person You know what I mean? Like you'll talk to somebody or you'll hit next. And then after like 10 reconnects, it's like you'll be connected with the same person.
Ben: you're like, oh, I just clicked off of you.
Zach: Oh, hi again.
Ben: was...
Zach: that's That's awkward. I remember that happening once or twice.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: And it'd awkward because it's like, oh, hey again. and then yet you have to click off again.
Ben: Yeah. And it's even more funny when like you have like an actual conversation with someone that lasts for 15, 20 minutes and then like, like you're, and then they're still talking and you're like, Oh, this is awkward. i don't know how to end this. I'll just hit next.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Fingerslip, bye.
Zach: Oh my god. Welcome back to your favorite Coaster Sucks. We are obviously an all rollercoaster podcast.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Occasionally delve into the realms of prior video chat technology? Question mark?
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: We'll go with that, sure. um Welcome back. This is ah the first time in a while we've recorded two weeks in a row.
Ben: I know it's nice. It's just, it's a weather shift. We wrote X to a bunch of times a few weeks ago. It's still like, You know, I'm in the mood.
Ben: Things are opening. the flash is opened.
Zach: Yeah, springtime is here. Yeah, Flash is open.
Ben: Finally.
Zach: Other things will be open.
Ben: And just for the sake of keeping this topical and in check, i need to get a quick update from the national roller coaster museum and archives and
Zach: Please do.
Ben: There is
Ben: nothing. Let's see. Their latest news is from December 17th.
Zach: Now, here's the important question. Are they still accepting donations?
Ben: Yes.
Zach: Lovely.
Ben: Okay, but their model of Mind Mender at Galaxyland is pretty sweet.
Zach: I will buy one when I make it to the museum.
Ben: i think it's I think it's like a one-off that was actually in the museum. I don't think it's a purchasable one. It's like the, think it's like the actual concept art.
Zach: Oh, well, maybe one day the museum will be open.
Ben: Check out our online shop today.
Zach: I know our friend, uh, our friend Lance from the single rider line podcast was on a tweet stream for several days, tweeting at them, asking them to open.
Ben: that's what everybody needs to be doing just bug the shit out of them especially like bring up if more people brought up like hey weren't you guys supposed to open at Kings Island like 10 years ago
Zach: No, no, we weren't. Stop asking block.
Zach: Um, yeah, well, good to, good to get a, uh, check in on the museum there.
Zach: ah Always liked, uh, the updates. Um, reviews were pouring in from, ah Flash, Super Boomerang, uh, whatever the fuck the name of the ride is,
Ben: ah flash Is it flash vertical velocity or is it?
Zach: and
Zach: It might be. and I don't know. I don't really care.
Zach: going to be honest here.
Zach: um The ride does look pretty cool.
Ben: Yeah. Most people are saying it's better than they were expecting, but it doesn't exactly like set a bar anywhere. It's just like, it was better than I was expecting, but I mean, it looks fun. At least like you can kind of tell like people are getting thrown around in their seats. There's some airtime. Looks like there's some forces.
Ben: It's a somewhat longer ride than you would think, but
Zach: Better than I was expecting is less committal than great addition to the park.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: I love it.
Zach: How's the ride? Oh, um well, it's better than I expected. and
Ben: And people are posting pictures of the of the park map for 2025 of Great Adventure. And, uh...
Zach: Big old parking lot.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: It's, uh... That shit's grim. I still have non-enthusiast people be like, did you there's a you know talking about of the Cog getting imploded. um was making the the waves.
Ben: So like people in the non-enthusiast space have been asking me about it. So that shit's going to hit them hard, I think.
Zach: And just a word to the wise for those of you out here out there who are dealing with similar situations, non-enthusiast friends reaching out to you regarding King Naka. the The appropriate and proper response is to say, what?
Zach: Or be like that girl on the news that was crying.
Ben: Wait, did someone cry?
Zach: Yeah, they're
Ben: oh shit.
Zach: It's a video of a news report in New Jersey and they're talking about Kingda Ka and this girl is crying.
Ben: Oh, my God. Was she married to it?
Zach: No, I don't think so. They didn't specify though, so it's possible.
Ben: She's like, shit, I just bought this like $30,000 thirty thousand dollars ring
Zach: I just put a non-refundable deposit down on a venue.
Zach: The worst part is it was the park.
Ben: this one
Zach: Oh, man. All right.
Zach: Yeah, let's see. There's been much going on recently. Parks are opening. Love it. Love it.
Ben: um Twizzlers, screaming, or screaming Twizzlers, or
Ben: you know that swinging ride with the air-powered cylinders.
Zach: Let me take a look.
Ben: Psych underworld.
Zach: Twizzlers. Twisted Gravity. That's
Ben: But that ride doesn't twist.
Zach: a weird name.
Ben: Yeah, I mean, like, i get, like, I mean, you could just call it, like, the Twizzlers ride, I guess.
Zach: Twizzlers. The Ride.
Ben: Yeah, like, twist. Twisted Twizzler. Twizzlers.
Zach: The Twizzler.
Ben: Wait a minute. What the fuck is that Wallaby Belgium?
Ben: Oh, they got like a family they got a family coaster.
Zach: I don't know.
Ben: Oh, this thing actually looks pretty good. um
Zach: Meclodon.
Ben: It looks like it it has the identity of like four other family coasters.
Ben: It has like a wild, because it kind of has like a wild mouse section, but then it also has like the like the straddle coaster, like bank turns kind of thing. It's multi-launch. It looks pretty cool. cool
Ben: Oh, I thought the ride is called Deck or Dock World.
Zach: Doc world.
Ben: That's a slightly better name than
Zach: he oh yeah. I've seen this one. This looks pretty cool.
Zach: Oh, I forgot Ben. You know what? I knew we were recording today. I solicited content from our listeners.
Ben: Oh, perfect.
Zach: Yeah, so um here from our Discord, which, shameless plug, join our Discord. It's free, and it's the best way to get in touch with us um and make some friends that are cool and like roller coasters.
Zach: Anyway, um link's in the episode description. So, let's see what we got here. First of all, our buddy Ribs and Bacon asked...
Zach: Which park would you bilk out of 25K?
Zach: So I want to give some context here to listeners who may not be familiar with this the situation as ah we've ah understood what's happening.
Zach: There's a park. ah well Well, on the Internet, back up a little bit. On the Internet, in the rollercoaster Twitter space, in the past few days, um an email got posted.
Zach: Alleging that a park, but an enthusiast club had an unpaid balance of $25,000 to a park in Europe for an event that they held two years ago.
Ben: And this was Coaster Crew?
Zach: i don't know if we want to go into mentioning names specifically.
Zach: Allegedly.
Ben: Yeah. Well, if it's not then, they can defend. don't know.
Zach: ah This is all alleged.
Zach: So anyway, what park would we bilk out of 25K? I think the obvious answer there, Mount Olympus.
Ben: By fucking up their plumbing by flushing jewel bags down the toilets.
Zach: everybody Everybody fill up grocery bags with fucking paper towels.
Ben: system
Ben: I don't know why that visual is just so funny. Because it's a very satisfying... They probably got some power flushers. They just get sucked right in. um
Zach: By like, like, pouring, ah just like, putting handfuls of sugar packets into the go-kart motors.
Ben: um
Zach: Throwing full beer cans at the coaster supports.
Ben: Yeah, I mean, this is fucked up, but I've never done this, but I did think it was funny to like, Or like the idea of like on Hades, you could basically stand above that first tunnel and like throw shit down onto the track.
Ben: I'm not saying do that. That's fucked up. But you know what I mean? it's great It's more of a play on their lack of security or like on Cyclops. So you can literally stand and touch the track.
Ben: Put a bunch of ketchup packets on the track on Cyclops.
Zach: Throw a fish at the train.
Ben: um
Zach: There's so much fun you could have in Mount Olympus.
Ben: Yeah. You can even make it more fun. Like, don't know, like take a bunch of glow sticks and toss them at the wall in the tunnel. So they pop and like, then when you come back the second time, like the walls are glowing.
Zach: Take a liquid ass and drop it in the tunnel on the way in.
Zach: So that way when you go back through it, it fucking reeks.
Ben: Yeah, I mean,
Zach: Yeah, and there's not a breeze down there, so would probably stink forever.
Ben: yeah, that tunnel was always like, I always liked the smell of it because it smelled like like damp wood. you know what I'm talking about? like Especially when the ride was new, that tunnel smelled so good.
Ben: was just like a fresh cut wood smell.
Zach: I don't remember if I, I don't know if I remember the smell. I definitely remember it was like, always felt like noticeably colder in that tunnel.
Ben: Yeah, it was like nice and cool and damp.
Ben: I need to...
Zach: Good place to store some wine.
Ben: man Yeah. I want to ride that ride again. ah just don't want to go to that park.
Ben: I also... and not sure how rough Hades is running these days, but...
Zach: Hades 360.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: I think it's been like 12 years since I've ridden it. 10 years. At this point, it's like... I'm sure this is even open like whenever I see like a random YouTube short of that ride running I'm like holy shit that ride's still running
Zach: Yeah, I'm pretty sure 2014 was the last time I've written it.
Zach: Holy shit, that place hasn't been sued out of existence yet. Yeah.
Ben: and what's crazy too is like they've gone so long now without a major addition to their theme park yeah but I mean
Zach: cause they don't need to. Because people show up to the Dells every year.
Ben: Yeah, but like at a certain point, I think what's well i think what's sad about Mount Olympus is that because they got that land for so cheap and they have so much property that I bet i would be willing to bet that their guest attendance has like slowly declined, but they're still making so much money it doesn't even matter.
Ben: like at this point, it's more of a real estate game for them than it is. like The park is just like a secondary thing. It's like how, um i think that's true of like Subway franchises that like, it's really just like a real estate, like Subway is mainly a real estate holding company and the Subway business is like auxiliary.
Zach: It was either going to be sandwiches or drywall, so...
Ben: I could go... um we always talk about Subway. i think this is probably like... but I think we've talked about Subway the last three times. Or... Three times this year, but... It's just so funny.
Ben: Subway's just such a funny brand.
Zach: When you're really hungry and there's no other food around, eat fresh.
Ben: yeah
Ben: Yeah. Yeah, we did talk about this last... but We talked about the the the white tomatoes.
Ben: Or the pink tomatoes.
Zach: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: I mean, first of all, keep tomatoes off at everything forever. Personally. Fuck them.
Zach: But... Yeah, the ones that Subway has where they're like... Are they underripe? I don't know.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: They're
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Well...
Zach: like, oh, these were accidentally in the freezer.
Zach: It's still good.
Ben: do
Zach: It's still good. let's see. Metal Mike asks, what's the last goal you set for yourself that you accomplished?
Ben: Huh.
Zach: That's ah that's an incredibly insightful question that I wasn't expecting.
Ben: yeah, that's like a legit question.
Ben: Um, I mean a couple of small things, I guess, like,
Ben: I've
Ben: done pretty good about like not drinking this year.
Zach: Nice.
Ben: um
Ben: Got some house projects done.
Ben: couple I guess like yeah the goal thing is
Ben: no coaster goals no theme park goals unfortunately
Zach: Yeah, I like my, I'm having a hard time with this one because my goals all tend to be like big ambitious things. And obviously they, you know, break down into smaller, more manageable chunks. But like, I don't ever think back on it in those terms.
Ben: Oops.
Zach: Like, like right now I'd say i'm in the middle of accomplishing a goal of switching careers.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: And it's been a series of small goals, you know.
Zach: And still underway. But, um, man, I appreciate that question. Metal Mike. Thank you for asking something so positive. Now let's see. Uh, Marcelli says, do you think any of the U S park chains, not counting Disney and universal will ever open another park in the U S instead of acquiring an existing one?
Zach: No.
Ben: Yeah, I don't see that happening, unfortunately, because i feel like the market's kind of tapped out.
Zach: Yeah, I mean, here's the deal.
Ben: And... Yeah.
Zach: is A, land is way too expensive.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: There's not enough undeveloped land available for a reasonable price in an attractive enough space geographically to make it worthwhile, to even conceivably think of any ROI.
Ben: Right. Oh yeah.
Zach: um Secondly, if you look to pretty recent history, right? And there's two big examples here. um The first and most obvious being Hard Rock Park.
Zach: Which is like the last non-big chain affiliated park that opened in the U.S.
Ben: ah yeah
Ben: I forgot about her.
Zach: And it fell flat on its ass, right?
Ben: And then it had a sad, it had a very sad, like last gasp as freestyle music park.
Zach: um
Zach: Right, right, yeah, so that was, and that's ah fairly recent history, right? That's like 15 years ago, so it's not even like, granted, obviously economic factors being what they were, different then and now and everything, but still, if that only, if that failed in two years back then, and the economy's worse now, right, it doesn't spell a good
Zach: sign
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: And then the other example I'll point to is Evermore, which is not which never came to fruition as a theme park with like rides, but it did operate as theme park experience.
Zach: And again, couple couple years didn't even make a decade.
Zach: granted i think that one is still kind of up in the air if i'm not mistaken most recently the site is for sale and someone wants to you know buy it to keep it operating as a park but again struggles right you look at the stuff that's opened ground up theme park wise here in america and it's been troubles right it's struggles
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, for sure.
Ben: Yeah, I don't even.
Zach: I mean, what else? Schlitterbahn, Kansas City?
Ben: yeah
Zach: Obviously, that one was you know um partially due to that horrible accident.
Zach: But, yeah, I just don't think with... with the economy the way it is, the, the, the price of land, the way it is and the fairly recent history and string of failures of ground up amusement parks that weren't supported by Disney or universal.
Zach: I just don't see it happening. Unfortunately,
Ben: Yeah, and um also so also too, like the regions that could support multiple parks have been showing that they're not able to even maintain what they have. Like, I mean, the Bay Area, like that's a pretty populous region and like they're going to lose maybe both of their parks. Yeah.
Ben: Which is an insane. Like, with all the money and all the people and all the that whole San Francisco region, and, like, they can't have sustained two parks, which is pretty insane.
Zach: Well, okay, so I think, to be fair, they could if they were still competing.
Zach: But I think...
Zach: When they... If they're not competing, they are, to an extent, cannibalizing each other's business.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: But I mean, but then like what happens if both close?
Zach: And the land, like again, the land value, right? Where the land in Santa Clara is incredibly valuable.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: So all the acreage that that, that great America is sitting on is gonna, it's worth a ton, right?
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: I don't think Vallejo is quite the same.
Ben: No, I don't, I don't think, I mean, I'm sure it's expensive, but yeah, it's on the same level.
Ben: Um, but yeah, like, or even, i mean, even just like the Northeast coast, where adventure is like having a weird fit, even like magic mountain, like It seems like it's just weird that the Los Angeles adjacent and the New York City adjacent theme parks are like going through such a weird lull period.
Ben: I'm I'm like, I know people say it won't happen, but I don't know. Like, I think I could definitely see like X2 being gone soon.
Ben: I mean, what are they going to like dump another $10 million dollars into it again? Like,
Ben: it's just a weird time. Like we're losing, like we're losing parks and we're losing coasters. It was just like, somehow the market got too saturated.
Ben: And so we're in this like stabilization period.
Zach: Yeah, but like...
Zach: I feel like X2 is still the main draw at Magic Mountain.
Ben: Oh, I mean, it definitely is. But the fact that they ripped out King of Cobb, mean, that was a big draw for Great Adventure. Now, I don't...
Zach: Yeah, but I don't think it was as big of a draw as El Toro.
Ben: I think, no, I think King Cobb was, like, the main thing of that park. Like, El Toro obviously was, too, but, like, I mean, having the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster, well, asterisk, but, you know, that was, like, what people talked about.
Ben: Like, i guess I'll it this way. I've had more GP... GP. I've had more, like, non-enthusiast friends or people ask me about Kane Nika that probably don't even know a to El Toro exists.
Ben: Like, it it just...
Zach: Yeah, but what I'm saying is 20 years on, regardless of the the publicity,
Zach: what's actually flipping turn styles? You know what I mean? I think between between the two of them, I think El Toro is a bigger draw for them.
Ben: um but I it was King to call
Ben: Ka. I would agree on like the return on investment perspective. like What makes the money versus the cost? cause like yeah The King to costing a million dollars a year plus.
Ben: I don't think X2 is and at at the same level. i don't I doubt X2 costs him a million dollars. It's just ah it's an arrow. Um, but I mean, it's far, yeah, but it,
Zach: ah Agreed, because it's a gravity-powered, too, so it's got less... Ironically, has less moving parts to maintain.
Ben: yeah, but the fact that it was a walk-on on one train ops when that was a little, like, it's just weird to see, like And then i know not there wasn't a whole there weren't a whole lot of lines at the park that day, but I mean, like, Goliath, at one point, Lance and I tried to ride Goliath again, and it had like a 30, 45 minute wait.
Ben: And Twisted Colossus had a longish, not long, but like, you know, 15, 20 minute line. And then like, you go up to X2, and it's like a one train op walk on. And it's like, this is fucking weird.
Zach: I fucking love that ride.
Ben: Oh, I do. I do too. Like, um, I just, it's, I'm one, I'm just curious, like, I'm curious, like what the popularity of it still is. I mean, and if the park is, cause at a certain point it'll get rough, rougher, more more rough
Ben: to where like people will just kind of stop riding it. Like there was also, also I didn't do any digging on this, on that accident article that was posted about um the a boy who had like brain damage from the ride apparently.
Zach: That was fucking terrifying.
Ben: Yeah. And the thing is is, like when I read that, I was like, after those couple rides that we had, i was like, yeah, like I could kind of see that happening. Um, so, you know, like it's, I don't know, like ah at a certain point, like, even if the ride doesn't cost them anything, it's still bringing people in. Like it if it gets too rough, like eventually you do have to like kind of close it.
Ben: It's just, I don't know. It's just, and I, we talked about it a last time too. I just, that whole parks collective aging coaster collection is just kind of sad.
Ben: where like, unless they start doing like multi, multi coaster, you know, ripouts where they like take out two rides, you know, replace it with like one bigger one. I don't really know how they're going to manage that in the future.
Zach: Yeah, but you know, you say that and I'm like, you're not wrong, but at the same time, I'm like, pretty sure you could make the exact same argument about Cedar Point.
Ben: Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, it's definitely not a Magic Mountain specific thing, but
Ben: i think i'll pet I think the entire country's coaster collection is going through the same thing.
Zach: That's saying, because there was that boom period in the 90s and early 2000s, and then ever since then, it's been cooled off
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
Zach: everywhere, you know? So it's just only a handful of rides, whereas in the 90s and 2000s, early 2000s, it was like every park was getting new rides all the time.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
Ben: I think the only difference between, so I guess the only differences I would make between Cedar Point and Magic Mountain would be like, Cedar Point has newer B&Ms. They have two B&Ms that were built in like, what, Gatekeeper is 2013. So that's
Ben: so that's like 12 years old. And then Val Raven, I think is like nine years old.
Zach: 2018, want to say.
Zach: Maybe 2017.
Ben: I think it was like 2016 or 2015. I know it was like...
Ben: a I know it was after 2014 and before 2018. That's all I know. All I remember. So they have like you know they have like two newer B&Ms and then like their Intamin... I mean, they refurb their Intamin.
Ben: you know they're there They refurb Dragster, which if it opens, it'll be fine. And like Millennium Force and Maverick haven't aged like X2 or you know like ah like a B&M. They still run pretty good. and
Zach: I mean, to me, X2 wasn't any worse than any of the other times I wrote it.
Ben: I guess, yeah, hard to tell. i thought, i get in my mind, I thought it was rougher, but it probably wasn't as rough as, yeah I don't know.
Zach: And I didn't really find it rough.
Zach: It was like bouncy.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: More than rough. Because I didn't like. Bang my head or hit anything. Nothing like that. It was just kind of bouncy. It jostled me up.
Ben: yeah
Zach: We did the night rides. And I had that one. And it jostled me up. And I was like that's it. Just one.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Zach: But it wasn't like it was rough. It was just. It was like oh if my stomach gets jostled up. ah Again that way. I'm not going to feel fucking good at all.
Ben: yeah
Zach: I mean, yeah, okay, they got the newer B&Ms.
Ben: It doesn't feel the same way as like, cause magic mountain, all the rides have like a, like a, like a flavor of neglect to them. Like, like especially the arrows where it's like, they're just, you know, holding on.
Ben: They're not repainted. i don't know. I don't know what, I don't know what, it's just a vibe.
Zach: Okay, but if we're doing the classic, we're doing the classic, the head-to-head, right? Especially we're talking arrows. Right off the bat, Gold Rusher Ninja, absolutely 100% over Cedar Creek ride mine Mine Ride and Iron Dragon.
Ben: Yeah, for sure.
Zach: Um...
Zach: Blue streak apocalypse is moot because they both kind of suck.
Ben: I mean, I think Blue Streak is generally better. I've never really had a rough ride on Blue Streak.
Ben: Some people complain about it. I think it's fine.
Zach: It's fine. It's just boring. I don't remember really getting much airtime.
Ben: Really?
Zach: Not the last time I wrote it, but think it's probably been, don't know, 13, 14 years.
Ben: Okay, yeah, shit. Blue Shriek was always, like, my favorite for airtime. Especially, like, in the third row.
Ben: Like, the front front the whole front car on Blue Shriek was always pretty good.
Zach: All right, well, I mean, next time I'm at Cedar Point, I'll have to ride it.
Ben: Yeah, and, like,
Zach: um'll I'll give it, on your recommendation, I'll give it to, I'll give the nod to Blue Streak. um Raptor Batman, I'm going Raptor.
Ben: Yeah. I would, I fit.
Zach: ridley Riddler, Riddler Rogaroo, well I guess Scream Rogaroo. Oof.
Zach: There's no winners there.
Ben: Yeah. It's kind of like, I would go scream. If you had to do the three, it'd be like scream at the bottom Ruger in the middle Riddler at the top.
Zach: Yeah, I guess. I haven't ridden Rogaroo, but I can't... I rode Mantis plenty.
Ben: It is better than Scream. Scream is kind of... Scream is always not great. Rougarou is at least like a couple steps above Mantis.
Zach: Okay, yeah, I mean, I'll take your word for that one. um Because, yeah, I agree. Scream fair.
Zach: um
Zach: um
Zach: Superman TT2, verdict's out.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Um...
Zach: I guess in the name of fairness, Goliath Magnum, which
Ben: um No, I would say Goliath Millennium Force.
Zach: either way, it's going to Cedar Point either way.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Here's the thing though. Cause if you do Goliath Millennium Force, then it's like Magnum revolution.
Ben: Yeah, there's not really a ah good one to compare it to
Zach: um
Ben: Maybe like Viper, but it's not this, you know, it's like, yeah.
Zach: Okay, yeah, Viper and Magnum, sure.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: That's fine. ah Magnum, of course. um
Zach: I don't know. Wonder Woman doesn't really have anything to compare to at Cedar Point. I guess Maverick.
Ben: Um, yeah, probably closest to it.
Zach: Uh...
Ben: And then,
Zach: I'm going Maverick.
Ben: yeah
Zach: Um... Let's see.
Zach: West Coast Gemini?
Ben: Maybe i
Ben: I don't know. Like, I guess it makes sense, but it's not, like...
Zach: It's a tough... It's not a one-to-one, but...
Ben: Because before it would have been Gemini...
Zach: colossus
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Right, but that's not...
Ben: Yeah, I mean, there's there's a couple holes in everything, but, you know, my point...
Zach: Yeah, but if we're going... Okay, if we're doing Gemini West Coast, though... Ooh, this is tough. I think I might go West Coast.
Ben: Yeah. i was actually I would actually almost say Gemini Revolution is a fair...
Zach: Um...
Zach: Okay. Well, in that case, I
Ben: Time, like...
Zach: think I'm going Gemini.
Ben: is
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: If it's Gemini Revolution, then I'm going Gemini.
Zach: Okay. Gatekeeper Tatsu. I'm going Tatsu.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Let's see.
Ben: There's really not, I mean, there's nothing with
Zach: No, not really. ah Power Tower, Lex Luthor, I'm definitely going Lex Luthor.
Zach: And then one that all the Thusies are going to cook us on, Vengeance versus Twisted Colossus.
Ben: I would probably go...
Zach: I'm going Colossus.
Ben: vote neither.
Ben: Yeah, um I think I'd actually go Steel Vengeance.
Zach: Okay.
Ben: I think. I don't know. like i Both of those, like I was never a huge like OMG fan of either of those RMCs. Yeah.
Zach: Me neither. they They have opposite problems.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: It's like Twisted Colossus is like, okay, it's too short.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: And Steel Vengeance like, okay, it's too long.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah. Steel Vengeance is like, it's so long that i start like thinking about other shit halfway through the ride because it's, it's almost, um, yeah, it's funny. It's fun.
Ben: I don't know I had some weird, ride it's not a very fun ride the ride when you're high either.
Zach: No, no RMC is really because like first the sound of the chain lift is really alarming because it's so loud.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: You're like, oh, my God.
Ben: Yeah, think like...
Zach: And then like the restraints are all the the restraints are stupid with the shins and everything. you're like, oh, my God, I'm like fucking locked in.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: And just like the abrupt unnatural movements where I think that's like what I always describe in RMC is like if you were to close your eyes, like you were in complete pitch black darkness and you just went on like Twisted Colossus It would feel like you were in like a one of those like robo arms.
Ben: You know what i mean? like What is it? a
Ben: What's that brand?
Zach: Kuka. Kuka arm.
Ben: Yeah. Where you're just getting thrown side to side and like up down. it kind of feels like you're in a robotic arm. Just getting thrown. It's like you're on a flat ride. It's not like natural rollercoaster forces.
Ben: There are some outliers. Like I actually really liked wild cats revenge.
Zach: I like Twisted Cyclone.
Ben: Yeah, that one's good. And also like storm chasers good. i actually, I think RMC always excelled with the smaller models.
Zach: yeah I really want to ride Twisted Timbers.
Ben: Yeah, that's a good one. That's yeah.
Zach: Like the the the two like just straight bunny hills. That's like...
Ben: Oh, it's three, three straight bunny hills.
Zach: Oh, Jesus. Yeah, that's like that's dream state for me.
Ben: Yeah. And that's.
Zach: Just give me straight uncut air time. Don't bank me 40 degrees to the left. Fuck that. Fuck.
Ben: Yeah. And that's actually what I never liked about RMCs was, was just that, like, that's why the the first one, they were the first, that was the first um RMC to do that. I think it's the only one even.
Ben: And that's what I thought. Like the whole time i was like, why couldn't you just do this the whole time? Like, Your rides could have been so much better if you just throw it through in like, you know, just some standard elements.
Zach: The only exception to that is like, like the wave turn on twisted cyclone is cool. It's because it's small and you take it at that right speed.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: But I think the real major exception to me is like the first drop on iron rattler.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Cause it has that kink to it.
Ben: Yeah, that's a good first drop. I'm not a fan of the rest of the ride, but...
Zach: Yeah, well, it it like whips you out out of your seat. I like that one. That drop and the drop off the quarry wall are good. The rest of the ride's kind of, yeah, not memorable.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
Zach: Because everything on top of the quarry wall is like a pre-lift, basically.
Ben: Yeah, and it's all, it's doing those weird like 90 degree like kind of outward bank twisty things.
Zach: Yeah, you're like, oh, I'm this way.
Ben: It's, yeah.
Zach: oh I'm that way.
Zach: Trick track.
Ben: And then, the yeah, like the rest, there's really not a whole lot of the rest of the ride. like
Ben: And like, you know.
Zach: I mean, yeah, the drop off the quarry wall and then that tunnel, dude, the tunnel's great, too, because it's so dark in there.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: but it's a general I mean it's a very general like ranking of things where like yeah like I don't think basically like the smaller the arm sees the more I like it like the the lower half of the smaller ones I enjoy and then like Iron Gwazi was good but the same thing as Steel Vengeance and it's just I don't know I just I didn't walk off of it like wow it was just a very like oh it was good and Yeah, I was an RMC. Yeah.
Zach: Yeah, I don't and don't remember where exactly on Steel Vengeance it was, but I definitely have a moment on there when I've ridden it where I'm like, yeah, I think I've had enough.
Zach: I'm good. like And it's not like it's it's somewhere in that third lap when you're like really quickly losing speed.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: I'm not. i'm not
Zach: It's like, i I've had enough. like ah Like, part of me wants to say the voyage, but on the voyage, it doesn't feel too long.
Ben: what's like it i mean i'm trying to think of like what what a good alternative is like what's the i mean is there any other ride that's too long that is that forceful i can't really
Ben: yeah
Zach: You reach the end and you're like, oh my god. But it's not like, eh, I was good, you know, 30 seconds ago. You know, like...
Ben: Well, mean, the Voyage, is it's not repetitive.
Zach: Well, and the pacing is better, too.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: That's, like, kind of the problem with RMCs is there's, like, the pacing is not typically very good.
Zach: Like, if you look at, like, Goliath at Great America...
Zach: It's like part of it is just the plot of land where it's like, okay, all the elements are like sandwiched between things like drop, turn, bunny hill.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: i guess the dive loop is an element.
Ben: yeah
Zach: It's stall.
Zach: Turn.
Zach: Rocket into the brakes.
Zach: Yeah, I don't know if there's... I don't know if... I guess Twisted Cyclone is the one for me where it's like, yeah, that was that was perfect. That was the exact right amount of everything that I want out of an RMC.
Ben: Yep.
Zach: even like Outlaw Run at the end...
Zach: The first time I rode it, like the bunny, the the zero G roll ending, I was like, okay, this is cool. Then like every time I've ridden it since then, I'm like, so we got to do the thing.
Ben: Yeah. I mean,
Zach: Because it doesn't feel like it adds a lot to the excitement of the ride. It's just like, oh, look, we can make it flippy do twice before it's over.
Ben: yeah pretty much. And, um, the single rail coasters see like wonder woman and the other
Ben: whatever the trailblazer railblazer,
Ben: that's a right amount of length the fucking wonder woman thing though i wasn't a big fan of it it was clunky yeah yeah
Zach: Yeah, the they're okay. Wonder Woman's okay. the The Magic Mountain one. It's okay. It's fine. it like it To me, it's basically like, if that would have been if that would have been the the layout they went with for Goliath, Goliath would have been fucking amazing.
Ben: yeah
Ben: And even, yeah Goliath needs one more. and just needed like something. I don't know. One more lap around. I don't know. Just too short.
Zach: Well, yeah, because if it would have gone in around between the station and the dive loop, up over underneath the lift hill, done like a bunny hill, ah a roll, hit that turn again, then do one more bunny hill into the brakes. There you go.
Zach: Fixed it for you.
Ben: Yep.
Zach: Too bad somebody was selling coke to the construction guys.
Ben: Whatever happened with the whole, that whole thing and that man and
Zach: Well, that person is insane.
Zach: i don't know what I think. If I remember correctly, they they still pop up every you know once in a while.
Ben: But do they even like ride coasters anymore?
Zach: Maybe?
Ben: Like...
Zach: i don't know.
Zach: it's It's wild that we met that dude.
Ben: Hold on, there's a Facebook group.
Ben: What the fuck this?
Ben: Hold on a second.
Zach: What's this? What's this?
Ben: Okay. um I'm going to send you a link. I won't mention it on here, but
Ben: just...
Zach: I just typed in their name just to see like what might come up. So I'm looking it up now.
Ben: I sent you a Facebook link.
Zach: Okay. Yeah, that's... That's the person.
Ben: But just like scroll down.
Zach: That's their group.
Ben: Yeah, but just scroll a little bit.
Zach: What... What is this?
Ben: Oh, wonderful.
Zach: What...
Ben: A little slideshow.
Zach: What the fuck is this?
Zach: Oh no.
Zach: They've tagged...
Zach: and don't even want to... A prevalent enthusiast who has a very visible career in the Chicago area on their page.
Ben: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Ben: here
Zach: Oh, well, they posted, they reposted the national rollercoaster museum and called them a piece of shit.
Zach: So I'm guessing this person is in defeat.
Zach: It would appear.
Ben: Okay, so i um I'm going to come back to this link.
Zach: Is this, are these ai
Ben: get
Ben: I don't know. this just like a random, like, hashtag FF?
Ben: I don't... Is this just like a crazy girlfriend?
Zach: Oh, they posted, they reposted, um,
Zach: that person. I don't want to be too specific about any of this.
Zach: Um, uh, a studio
Zach: revolving around coasters.
Zach: And they're making some very mean remarks about them. That's not surprising.
Ben: But every post is a new... Okay, so that there's multiple women. I think he's just grabbing these from... i don't think...
Ben: There's no way these are like enthusiasts.
Zach: No, I don't think so.
Ben: Bet she's not getting...
Ben: to him
Zach: I feel like some of these definitely brush up on the community guidelines.
Ben: yeah
Ben: Too bad you have to sit for 10 hours with a bunch of kid fuckers.
Zach: I saw that one too.
Ben: Yeah, I don't know what the fuck is happening.
Zach: This is very, very bizarre.
Zach: Oh, wow.
Zach: There's one from August 4th, 2022.
Ben: Okay.
Ben: Um,
Ben: I'm getting there.
Zach: I'm just waiting to hear your reaction.
Ben: Closer, closer.
Ben: Damn. There's all these women.
Ben: What the fuck is...
Ben: And then...
Ben: um my god
Zach: I'm like, is that a shirt? Or did somebody, like, write that on the picture?
Ben: and then
Ben: Yeah, I don't know.
Zach: ah Like, and there's so few rollercoaster posts.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: I'm very confused.
Ben: Is this just like his like wank bang that he's reposting?
Zach: I guess so. It's like.
Ben: liked one.
Ben: and my family my My family on Facebook sees, like I don't know, it'd like my mom or dad, they see that I'm liking these like pictures of women.
Zach: Your home, your homepage is cooked.
Ben: They'd be like, what?
Zach: like, do you have something to tell us?
Ben: And it just keeps going. like Yeah, it's just like a it's like a Tumblr find where he's just reposting pictures of women.
Ben: It's
Ben: fucking bizarre.
Zach: It is.
Ben: And it goes pretty far. Like,
Zach: i Why am I still scrolling this?
Ben: I don't know.
Zach: Well, I mean...
Ben: Yeah. Now there's like no,
Zach: It's not like they're bad pictures. Okay, alright.
Ben: yeah, there's no, and
Zach: It's just surprising because...
Zach: Well, I think we can give this much info, right? The page does have the words rollercoaster in it.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: And there's just like not really any rollercoaster stuff.
Zach: It's all just very evocative photography of women.
Zach: And i I know for... I'm i'm almost certain that none of this is... Yeah, this is all like just downloaded content, I'm pretty sure. Although...
Zach: don't want to talk too specifically on a recorded podcast.
Zach: But I think this might have to do with um potentially connecting some dots with one of their former associates professions.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Possibly.
Ben: Did you go to April 2nd, 2022?
Zach: Oh, I didn't know I was on the hunt. Let me check.
Ben: The caption is, got a little too defensive when I brought up enthusiast kid fucking.
Zach: Oh, God.
Zach: said August April I'm in 2022.
Ben: Or April 2nd.
Zach: Hold on. twenty twenty two okay um in twenty twenty two
Zach: um man
Zach: August 4th, 2022.
Zach: Sorry, it's taking a moment.
Ben: and know there's all these women.
Zach: I don't understand why there's pages like this on Facebook. Like...
Ben: Well, it's a total boomer page too. It's like just,
Ben: it actually reminds me of the, how, what crazy shit.com is like nowadays.
Zach: Really?
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Ugh, that's disappointing.
Zach: I'm in May. Come on.
Zach: I hope we're not giving too much information.
Ben: No, it's a public page.
Zach: Jesus, it's taking forever to find.
Zach: Whoa, April 18th, 2022. I thought that was somebody that we knew for a second.
Zach: You know what I'm talking about, right?
Ben: Uh, wait, let me go back.
Ben: Damn. There's a lot of posts in April.
Zach: Yeah, that was a busy month for this person, apparently.
Ben: Oh, wait, hold on. There's multiple on eight on the 18th.
Zach: um
Zach: Look for pink.
Ben: Like pink hair.
Zach: Yep.
Ben: oh yeah.
Ben: That'd be kind of funny.
Zach: It would be.
Zach: Who is that person?
Ben: Basically, in the conversation, I don't know.
Zach: Yeah. What are these screenshots?
Ben: But what's funny about it is like just look at the the last three
Ben: We're like, if you're going to share, ah if you're going to take screenshots of a text argument where you're trying to make a point and if the other person stops responding, but you keep sending walls and walls and walls of texts, like it doesn't exactly make you look like you're coming out on top. If you just include that, you know what i mean?
Zach: Yeah, this is, um...
Zach: Did he think he was, like, owning this guy?
Ben: I don't know.
Ben: Shit, I clicked off. Okay, i probably for the better. Nice.
Zach: Yeah, this is not worth... don't Don't go down the same goddamn rabbit hole Ben and I just did. We did it for you. um We got in a similar vein, but much more benign.
Zach: We got some unhinged questions from one of our old buddies, Coaster Boy.
Ben: nice
Zach: so
Zach: I guess Justin now. I don't... Thanks for sending your questions. Okay. He said two, but then he ended up coming up with three. So, you know.
Zach: First one. You can prevent one thing from happening. still Disney building Paris or Frank Wells helicopter crash.
Zach: Frank would live until Eisner left in 2006. ah
Ben: ah
Zach: I guess I'd say Frank Wells.
Ben: Sure. ah That's a little bit of a deep cut. I don't.
Zach: Yeah, um because we don't really know. Eisner would have likely been able to do a lot more ambitious stuff just for a little bit of background for the Disney folks. um But he became a lot more conservative and in his approach after Frank Wells passing because he was kind of like his right hand man.
Zach: All right. Now here's where things get a little um unhinged. And I'm going to just say it's in the best way, but it's still insanity. Justin, he says, brilliant genius drew the intern.
Zach: who I reached out to about trying to field this question, but he, uh, he was unavailable to record today. Um, so brilliant dream, a genius drew the intern invents a truth serum where nobody can lie or swerve.
Zach: You can interview one park person living or dead, excluding Walt Disney. Who do you give the serum to? And what five questions do you ask? Okay. And first of all,
Zach: What the fuck? Okay, now, second.
Zach: I'm just going to blanket statement here. Your favorite coaster sucks, does not, never has, and never will endorse giving people substances against their knowledge.
Zach: Uncool.
Zach: We don't dose people who aren't ready for it. and
Ben: So she's just to ask five questions.
Zach: Well, I don't even know who.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Because I don't know if I have five questions that I'm burning to ask anybody.
Ben: um
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Because I'm like, I don't want to be like fucking Chris Farley in that SNL sketch with Paul McCartney. Fucking pick like Ron Toomer and be like, do you remember when you built Magnum?
Zach: Wasn't that awesome?
Ben: Yeah, I mean, Ron, well, ah you now that you mention it, Ron Toomer interviewed be kind of fun.
Zach: That's the only one I'm thinking of that I would like.
Ben: Yeah. But like, wait, so part of the question is we have to dose them?
Zach: Yeah. yeah
Ben: We got a Cosby Ron Toomer?
Zach: yes
Ben: Just to ask five questions. What if Ron Toomer was like willing to do it? like to He seemed like a nice guy. Like, it's like, oh, you want me to answer five questions about my business and my history of building roller coasters? Like...
Zach: I'll just answer him honestly anyway. No, you have to take this fucking serum.
Ben: Um...
Zach: Yeah, I don't, I can't really, a little hard pressed, right? Walt Disney's not applicable.
Zach: I don't... Here's the thing. ah
Zach: i don't see the purpose of the serum.
Zach: I don't know what lies i'm trying to uncover here.
Ben: um
Zach: it's not It's not fucking... It's not like...
Zach: What questions would you possibly ask somebody in the amusement industry that they would be lying so deeply about?
Ben: I mean, maybe like Dick Kinzel.
Zach: yeah okay, there's a good one. Uh,
Ben: Yeah, like he but he may be someone you have to give a serum to because, you know,
Zach: okay, need...
Zach: Okay, sure. You mentioned that, now I'm coming up with a couple others, maybe. um Kieran Burke would be interesting to talk to.
Ben: Who is that?
Zach: Jim Reed Anderson.
Ben: Oh, yeah.
Zach: Kieran Burke was the CEO of Premier Parks when they owned Six Flags.
Ben: Okay. Okay.
Zach: ah Matt Wiemann.
Zach: I follow him on faith on LinkedIn and he posts some incredibly insightful, interesting stuff about the industry.
Ben: ah
Zach: So I don't really, I don't think you need to use the serum on him though.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: If I was getting a Cosby someone.
Zach: Oh, oh, wait a second. Hold on. What about Rob Alvey?
Ben: Yeah. Although i feel like it would be pretty predictable. Like, he's not necessarily an opening book, but like...
Ben: He'd be down for the serum.
Zach: Maybe, maybe not. But yeah, no. Well, that's the thing is like, he's not an open book.
Zach: He very, I don't want to say famously, but he got pretty upset when somebody dug up his mugshot.
Ben: Yeah, it's true.
Zach: so it might be interesting. I don't know if I'd ask him anything about amusement parks, though.
Zach: More like, you know, like, what's what's the deal with Ace?
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: What actually happened with, like, Cedar Point and Holiday World?
Zach: And you.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, that'd be pretty good. Well, um,
Zach: Oh, all right, hold on. He sent us one more question, unless you got another one.
Ben: no, go ahead.
Zach: He said, what five foods would you add to Great America and where would you add them to?
Ben: I guess I don't even know what they have currently.
Zach: It's Six Flags, so just a bunch of shit, you know.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: I will say Magic Mountain's food was surprisingly better when we were there than my previous visits.
Ben: Also, like, it's funny how it's basically the same price as like going to McDonald's.
Zach: It is. Which is crazy because I remember when we were kids, it was like, oh my God, 18 bucks for a burger and fries.
Ben: yeah
Zach: And now it's like, yeah, 18 bucks for a burger fries.
Ben: I remember the cheapest thing that you could buy in the park food-wise was like um I think it was like a Papa John's stand by Raging Bull and they had like cheesy breadsticks and it was like seven bucks
Zach: Jesus Christ.
Ben: like and it came with a little dipping cup That was like the cheapest food thing I could buy.
Zach: I remember very frequently leaving the park when I was younger and walking to the Burger King.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Because
Ben: yeah
Zach: you're not saving any money.
Ben: Yeah. My favorite was always going to Golden Corral.
Zach: oh
Zach: I don't know if I could ever do that again in my life.
Ben: I know it's going to happen again at some point in my life. Like...
Zach: Next time we do a meetup and we get drunk
Ben: I can...
Zach: and we happen to pass a golden corral when we're drunk.
Ben: But see, like, picking... You got to pick the right one. It's got to be the right time, and it's got to be in, like, the right place. Because...
Ben: Clientele is important. Like local clientele is important. And remember when we went to that one in, uh, I think it was a Kenosha, like a long time ago on a Saturday, we had to wait like an hour to get a table.
Zach: Yep.
Zach: Fucking sneaking cue at the front.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
Zach: And then you get in there and there's like ah kid playing tech decks in the fucking fish fillets.
Zach: Like somebody's coughing.
Ben: Yeah, it's now i'm way now I'm way too hyper aware of that shit. We went to this Chinese buffet last year for my birthday. And the most disgusting thing I saw out of all... I mean, there's a lot of disgusting things, but like the worst was there was like ah chocolate cake on a pedestal thing.
Ben: or whatever, like a platform, like a cake platform. And this person was like trying to scoop a slice out and the slice fell like off of the platform and just onto the the metal, like the stainless steel, you know, part of the buffet.
Ben: And he just like picked it up with her hand and just put the piece back onto the cake.
Zach: ah no
Ben: And it was Easter Sunday, which was actually kind of funny. And it was slammed.
Ben: But, yeah. The
Zach: Dude, nothing will ever top fucking CCs.
Ben: thing about CC's, it's fine, but like it's easy because it's just pizza. and like There's not a lot of variety, but yeah
Ben: yeah. Top disgustingness.
Zach: Yeah.
Ben: Oh, yeah. See, at least like at CeCe's, when the pizza's fresh, you know you can like grab it and you know they're you're the only person that's touched it. But but yeah.
Zach: Yeah, but it doesn't, but that's not true because the the cook touched it.
Ben: True.
Zach: And the cook was just giving a guy a hand job for 20 bucks.
Zach: Because he works at CC's.
Zach: and that guy was his manager.
Ben: my thing about my favorite thing about cc's oh i have these old photos of for some reason i have photos of cc's and old country buffet
Ben: and all the food has like a gross like shiny shimmer to it
Zach: Crisco.
Ben: Like it's a picture of like a plate of just like random things on it and everything is shiny.
Zach: They're like the the number one rule for the buffet. Make sure everything's got vegetable shortening on it before getting out on the floor.
Zach: You sure we need to put fucking vegetable shortening on the pizza? Put it on the pizza. Get it under the heat light.
Ben: Yeah. It's cheap calories to fill you up.
Ben: It's like to eat less food.
Ben: um I wonder if I can find this quickly.
Zach: do we Do we really need to put vegetable shortening on the soft s serve of ice cream?
Zach: I said do it, god damn it.
Zach: Oh, man.
Ben: i want I'm curious how fast I can find this. if
Zach: Old Country is pretty gnarly, too.
Ben: See, that shit was gross even back in like high school. That was gross. Like that was always one that was always disappointing. At least like Corral was like decent.
Ben: But um my God, this is such a bad photo.
Zach: We got a friend, and I don't want to name him because I'm not putting him on blast. It's just kind of funny. One of their quirks is that every time I've eaten at a buffet with them, they only eat mac and cheese.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: You know who I'm talking about, right?
Ben: um
Zach: You don't have to say.
Ben: Maybe? and Actually, I know.
Zach: Um, I'll tell you when we're done recording, but yeah, this person, and I've seen them like when we were younger, i don't know, 15 years ago, whatever, eat like three full plates of Mac and cheese, just Mac and cheese.
Ben: Okay.
Ben: I think I know you're talking about.
Zach: It's somebody we've both known for a long, long time, but yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Um,
Zach: Because I remember going to an old country buffet with them one time.
Zach: And I thought that maybe it was like a cleanliness thing.
Zach: You know, like they saw something and they were like, well, the mac and cheese is fine.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah,
Zach: And it turns out they just really only care for mac and cheese.
Ben: that sounds better.
Zach: And again, I'm not putting this person on blast, so if I'm talking about you, don't be offended. It's a quirk, that's all.
Zach: we've all We've all got our quirks.
Zach: Excuse me. To be fair, I'm not even sure if that person listens to what we do here, but just in case.
Zach: Because they're awesome. They're a great person and good friend, so I don't want them. Anyway, anyway, anyway. Now the only time I eat at a buffet is when I go to Vegas.
Ben: I mean, yeah, that's different.
Zach: Well, because in Vegas they have food in the buffets, not just like fiber-enriched cardboard.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: With vegetable shortening.
Zach: Yeah, I don't even know how like an old country buffet would survive now. Because like, you know, they eat like egg filler.
Ben: There's... Yeah.
Zach: But like eggs cost like 80 bucks for a dozen now.
Ben: I mean, i know that there's even still fucking... There's like one Ponderosa left in Wisconsin.
Zach: oo
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: That is asking for trouble.
Zach: Your colon will beg you to stop.
Zach: I remember eating at a Ponderosa in Florida.
Ben: That sounds about right.
Zach: It was pretty unremarkable.
Ben: It's like even worse than old country. affair Like Ponderosa to me was always at the bottom. We had one of those in our town. And even in my fat 18 year old high school period, like I ate at one and it was not good.
Ben: Like,
Ben: And any turning down of a buffet at that age, and I don't know why. Now I'm thinking about this other Chinese buffet that was in town that was really fucking good. That I closed down.
Zach: There was a Chinese buffet near my parents' house that a different friend of ours and I went to one time, and this person was insistent that we dine and dash.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: And I know you know who I'm talking about this time, because this person was kind of a serial dine and dasher.
Ben: Yeah, he did that to me twice in on a trip.
Zach: Well, yeah, and because this fucking this asshole wouldn't even indicated until like he'd be like, all right, let's go.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: And it's like, wait, what?
Ben: yeah Yeah. To be fair, the one time we did it in Canada, um it was like a random Chinese buffet in Nova Scotia.
Ben: To be fair, like this place deserved it um because we didn't even eat. Like we barely ate a plate. Like we did a lap and like there was a couple things that were sort of edible, but it like really wasn't a lot of like good food.
Ben: And then they never brought us our or they never brought us our drinks. They like never came around. We like sat there for like 10 minutes. They didn't even like ask for any, know, we couldn't even get ahold of anybody.
Ben: So it was like, all right, fuck this.
Zach: that's That's why you stiff them on the tip, not the bill, dude.
Ben: But it was one of those two, but it was also like 20 bucks a person. It was one of those where like, it was like a scam. It was like 20 bucks a person. and like, there was no food on out would on the buffet and like, no one was serving you And like, we didn't even finish our plate. Like we didn't even, you know, that's different.
Ben: I think.
Zach: that's That's when you just take the food that is on the line and just put it in your plate and walk over to the table, look at it for a minute, and then pick it up and throw it all in the garbage.
Ben: the other well so The other time that it happened that he did it to me was in New Jersey. Outside of Great Adventure, there was a Chinese buffet. and
Ben: This one was only like $6. It was like $6.99 for lunch, which is like nothing. Even back in 2010, this was like nothing. and so he's Basically, I was like going up to get dessert, and he's like, oh, you're getting dessert?
Ben: and was like, yeah. Yeah. And he's like, well, once you get dessert, that's how they know you're finished. And was like, and? And he's like, I don't know if I want any dessert.
Ben: And then he starts, like I like grab a plate and he starts like creeping to the door. And he's like looking at me and he's like laughing. And I'm like, don't do it. Don't do it. And then he just like runs out the front door and I'm like, fuck. So then I like put my plate down and I follow him and I'm like, what are we doing? What are we doing? He's just, just chicago go, go, go, go. oh Like, fuck, are we were really doing this? And we ran to the car and like, I felt bad about that one.
Zach: Yeah, I felt bad the time he fucking made me do that shit too because it's like i i wasn't on board with this.
Ben: yeah
Zach: you're You're the one with the car and the keys to the car.
Ben: Also too, like at that age, like the idea of just paying for his portion like didn't seem... like I couldn't comprehend that. right like I was like, I'm not going to pay for your food..........
Zach: Same. I don't know if that ever entered into my mind. Like, uh, I don't know. My friend's an asshole. I don't know. Oh, man.
Zach: oh man
Zach: Well, shit, we got a lot of rollercoaster chat in.
Ben: yeah
Zach: Oh, we didn't pick anything to add to Great America's food lineup. um All right, I'm going Wendy's chili with a finger in it. um Should be served in the Raging Bull queue by a vendor who says, Finger chili!
Ben: I'm going to go with a churro. i don't think i don't I don't think they have churros in the park anymore.
Zach: Ooh, I agree.
Zach: They did, and they were always terrible.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: They were always like, like, you left it sitting under the heat light for so long that, like, the outside's not, like, it's not, like, crisp how, like, a churro should be. It's, like, flaky and dusty.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
Zach: And the insides like mush, not like soft, like how it should be.
Zach: Kind of like the trademark thing of like heating frozen food in a microwave where it's like, oh, the outside's burnt and the inside's frozen. Great.
Ben: yeah speaking of that I so we're gonna go to Hawaii next week for some backpacking and I have these like backpacking freeze dried meals that I just I bought like a bunch of them so I could like basically meal prep And they're dehydrated, so you pour the boiling water in, and then it rehydrates, and you mix it, whatever. i was so hungry today, and there's no food in the house, so I ate one of those fucking backpacking meals as my lunch.
Zach: I wasn't.
Ben: It was actually good. like It's actually good food, but it's like you know it's there's like good food when you're in the middle of nowhere, camping, and then there's like, oh, I'm eating this in my house, and I'm just too lazy to go to the gym.
Ben: Like it literally because I bought it online, it's shipped to the house and I opened this box of these meals and I was too lazy to go to the grocery store. So no,
Zach: Did you set up a tent or a sleeping bag?
Zach: Just in the living room.
Ben: it's good. That was biscuits and gravy. Yeah.
Zach: ah there you go.
Zach: I mean, i can't imagine the gravy being too bad if you're just adding hot water to it.
Ben: No, it's like legit. I mean, it's like it, it, even the biscuit has a crunch to it. Like it's, um, it was good. It was a good one. I'll get more.
Ben: um yeah, I don't know. Six Flags doesn't have, I guess there's not really any food that I crave at a park.
Ben: I generally just like, don't know.
Ben: I'm not really like a park food guy.
Ben: Other than Knoebels has good food trucks.
Zach: Yeah, I mean, i like...
Zach: like Mrs. Knott's.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: But i'm not I don't think they should have, like, Knott's chicken at other parks. Oh! How about the boysenberry punch? Let's get that at every fucking Six Flags park, please.
Ben: Yeah. That's
Zach: That counts as a food item, right?
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: I drink like six cups of that shit at Miss Nott.
Ben: um Yeah, that stuff's pretty good. and
Zach: Yeah, yeah. So if we could get that at the Six Flags parks, that would be fantastic. um
Zach: Oh, how about saltwater taffy?
Ben: Yeah, I don't see that around anymore either. That was always like, a one I remember that was a big thing when I was like a kid. Whenever we would go to the state fair or like a park or something, we'd get saltwater taffy.
Zach: That's what I'm saying. That shit's good. I remember that was a big thing at Cedar Point.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: I remember getting a box of saltwater taffies from Cedar Point when I was like 13 or something.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: And they were flavored and they were good.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: So let's see some saltwater taffy available.
Zach: I don't know.
Zach: The thing is like that's difficult with theme park food is like the good stuff is like if it if it's imitated, it's rarely imitated well.
Ben: Yeah. just And I don't know. I just, and like most of the stuff, when I think of a Six Flags, it's like the, you know, the nacho, the plastic nacho cheese and that little dish with the super salty yellow corn chips and things sitting under a heat light. And I don't know.
Zach: Instead of a food item, here's something I'd like to see at Great America in all Six Flags parks. A sit-down restaurant with table service.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: Doesn't have to be anything too fancy. Put something along the lines of, I don't know, the Olive Garden or something into a park, right? Like...
Zach: Sometimes, like, we're at Magic Mountain, right? And instead of sitting outside of West Coast Racers for two hours, it would have been nice to have, like, a sit-down restaurant we could have gone to, right?
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: so like, that's that's kind of... I've always kind of felt that way. Like, just put in a nice sit-down restaurant.
Ben: Oh.
Zach: Oh, and that TGI Friday's at Knott's is like closed, closed, apparently.
Ben: Okay.
Zach: Which I don't know how the fuck that happens. It's a TGI Friday's. All you do is sell overpriced fucking food and drinks.
Ben: Yeah. I can't remember the last time even been in the Fridays.
Zach: I went to the one at Breakers and that had been 2020. I think
Ben: Nice.
Zach: that's the last time I've been in into TGI Fridays.
Ben: um Yeah.
Zach: Because it's like, really $28 burger?
Zach: but twentyeight dollars burger
Zach: And most of the time...
Ben: It's Meteor.
Zach: Yeah, it's it's fine. The food's perfectly serviceable, but like...
Zach: There's no like... ambiance to a fucking Friday's. It's
Zach: like, oh, there's a sports game on.
Ben: Um,
Zach: Oh, cool.
Zach: Anyway...
Ben: should we do Disney minute?
Zach: Oh yeah, let's do the Disney Minute. I completely forgot. You want to start it or do you want me to start it?
Ben: Um, do you have the music sweet?
Zach: Yeah.
Ben: Um, I can, I'll, I'll, I'll start
Zach: Alright.
Ben: There was an Epcot fire over the weekend. Characters from the Fantastic Four will appear in Tomorrowland. Oh, shed the tears. Go ahead.
Zach: hu Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom is now down for a year-long refurbishment.
Ben: It's tough to be a bug.
Ben: ah
Zach: Well, fuck, that was all the time we had for the Disney Minute.
Ben: Um, I haven't, it's been a while since I've heard that audio.
Zach: Yeah, it's been a minute since we've done that, so...
Ben: ah Yeah.
Zach: And you know what? The bit's still funny, so...
Ben: Yeah, that's great.
Zach: Yeah, as long as it's still funny, then shit, if it's got juice, worth the squeeze, right?
Ben: ah love the, um, the ukulele music. Yeah.
Zach: I wish I still had the original of that file. I could probably recreate it pretty easily because it wasn't the best one ah to honor the request of our buddy, Drew the intern, friend of the show, because he i remember him asking about being put into there.
Ben: Oh, nice. Okay.
Zach: Maybe we'll do a new Disney Minute.
Ben: It's good. to I mean, i Disney has plenty of news stories to... i mean, there's always plenty. i mean, some of these are like... Let's see.
Ben: Big Thunder Mountain down for a year, though. That seems pretty Mm-hmm.
Zach: Yeah, I don't know all the specific details. We'll have to talk to um some of our friends who might have a better idea. It seems like possibly they're doing a full retrack.
Ben: Okay. RMC.
Zach: Yeah, right?
Zach: Big Iron Mountain Railroad. Big Twisted Mountain Railroad.
Zach: um
Ben: Shit, I got to piss so bad. How long...
Ben: How much longer you want to go?
Zach: I'm good. We can cut.
Ben: Okay. I'm either like... I either got to piss or i got a end it we're at two hours are you um good yeah
Zach: right. Well then. Yeah. We're at about two hours. We might as well wrap it up.
Zach: All right. Awesome. Well, thank you all so much for listening. This has been an absolute blast. We'll be back with some more content for you soon.
Ben: oh wait actually okay i i can hold it for a second we didn't uh wrath of rakshasa the track is complete
Zach: Um,
Zach: Oh yeah, that's right. That's exciting. I'm hoping that they will actually be open. That it will be open for Memorial Day.
Zach: Weekend.
Ben: Wasn't it supposed to be an opening day? Opening?
Zach: I think so.
Ben: Yeah, that's cool.
Zach: ah It's not like Great America or Six Flags has the best track record with that stuff.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: However, Flash opened.
Ben: That's true. and
Zach: So...
Zach: Like I said, I'll be visiting.
Ben: feel...
Zach: I'll be in the Chicagoland area Memorial Day weekend. So if it's operating at that time, I will make a special trip up to Gurney.
Ben: Yeah, I.
Zach: But if it's not ah not if it's not operating, I'm not sure if to make the trip up to Gurney.
Ben: Yeah, the.
Zach: But exciting to see that they're actually making progress on it.
Ben: Yeah, I mean, I'm, you know, I'm not. I wish it were something different, but I'm happy to see a new B&M go in our home park.
Zach: Agreed. I mean, I think it'll be a big ah big hit. It'll be a crowd pleaser.
Zach: I think they've been fucking starved for a new ride and addition of some sort there at Great America.
Ben: Yeah, mean, especially now that, you know, an RMC is now 10-year-old thing. so it's like, it's basically been the newest. I guess they have the S&S thing too.
Zach: Yeah, but this was the longest ah dry spell in the entire park's history between coasters.
Ben: Oh yeah, that's right.
Zach: Because the last one was Max Force, and that was 2019. Yeah,
Ben: Yeah. That's a lot longer than it seems.
Zach: yeah yeah. Well, I mean, shit, six years. That's a pretty long time for Great America to go without a major... major addition they did get a sky striker in 2024 but I don't know if that's a major addition
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: anyway anyway I digress we hit that two hour mark that's always a good time
Ben: Yeah. My bladder is going to blast off or
Zach: You're going piss so hard you blast off of the toilet into the wall and through it.
Ben: Just enough to make a mess.
Zach: It's everywhere. Like ah me, myself, and Irene.
Ben: I don't think I've...
Zach: That's a deep cut.
Ben: I don't think I've actually ever seen that movie. Yeah.
Zach: Because Jim Carrey's got like split personality basically. And so he's like, they like do it one night and then he wakes up with Morningwood, but he's the other guy.
Ben: Yeah.
Zach: And so he goes to take a piss and he like pisses all over the wall and he's like, why am I pissing like I was up having sex all night?
Zach: Anyway. Anyway. um Yeah, you got to wait around until the two hour mark. then we ah Then we let the dick jokes fly. All right.
Zach: i'll ah I'll let you get to your piss. Thank you all for listening so much. Unless you got something else.
Ben: No, i'm I'm good. At this point, my brain's turning off.
Zach: For sure. All right. Well, then let's ah let's turn off the podcast before the brain's all the way shut down. Thank you all so much for listening. Join our Discord. It is free. It's the best way to interact with us, and we'll answer your questions.
Zach: Thanks for sending in your questions, everybody, and interacting with us. Yeah, again, join our Discord. Thanks for listening. We'll be back soon, and until next time, your favorite coaster sucks.
Ben: Your favorite coaster sucks.
