Every year for 5 years, my dad, my dad's friend, my friend, and me all go down to branson and camp. And by "camp" i mean that we sleep in a tent, that's pretty much all the camping we do(our campground has a swimming pool). We left KC at about 8:30 friday morning, and arrived at Springfield at 11:30. We ate lunch at taco bell, and my dad said he had a suprise for us. We drove about 2 miles and arrived at Bass Pro Shop. It was amazing, and HUGE!! It had every single item of sporting goods ever made. We wondered around there for about an hour, and left towards Branson. We arrived at Tall Pines campground around 1. We set up our tents, and my friend and I went to the game room to play pool, and noticed they had a new air hockey table this year. My dad and his friend started talking to our camp neighbors, and that took til about 4. So we left our camp and headed down to:
Celebration City
When we got there, i was suprised at the gate location. It was at the back of the park, the farthest side away from 76. We walked to the gate and swiped our City Hopper passes. The moment we hit the main street, i knew what it reminded me of. A little Disney World. We walked down the street, and they had the pin carts set up, another thing of Disney parks. After the main street, it splits at the carousel.
We decided to go to the Jack Rabbit. I don't know how to describe this ride. It's weird. It sits 6 people with 3 cars, 2 to a car. I knew just standing under it it was gonna be painful. We got on, and headed up the lift. I don't know much about this ride, but i'm guessin that the lift was around 60ft, probably less. You make a little turn and down the 1st drop, right up into a wild mouse type turn. OUCH. You drop into some bunny hills with some pretty good air, only into another painful turn. Then some more bunny hills, painful turn, bunny hill, then brakes. I decided to never go on that again.
We made our way around to the Thunderbolt, another little portable ride. It looked like a Schwarzkopf(sp), but i dunno. We borded the trains, and looked in horror of the lap bars. The metal t-bars came down right between my legs, and made me a little scared of what to expect. We made a slight turn and up the lift, about the same size as jackrabbit. It had a sign to the right of the lift, that said "roller coaster". Thank God for that sign, or i wouldn't have known what i was on. We did a little drop the the left, and did a bunny hill to the other side of the course, then a swooping drop down, then right back up and headed to the most intense drop i've ever experienced. Go to
www.coastergallery.com and check out the Branson USA page, and look at the red coaster. Holy crap. We made a sharp twist almost straight down avoiding near-misses with supports, only to be brought up again into a helix, then went to the other side of the course and did another intense helix. I started the black out on the last helix. We hit the brakes and came to an abrubt halt. I was dizzy and the rest of my party was letting out a string of curse words. Holy crap, that was intense.
We went to the diner, which i would guess is the centerpiece of the park. It was huge. We got some malts and headed towards the Wildcat.
My dad and his friend gave a quick "hell no" and went to the ferris wheel. So, my friend and i took a seat near the back and exited the station into a little pre-lift ride, complete with a little bunny hill. When we got to the top, we did a little helix and gathered a lot of speed, and speeded down the twisting 1st drop. Some of the turns on this ride seemed the be almost over 90*. It also had the most air time filled finale of any coaster, just ejecting you out of your seat over and over into another tight banked turn, then another bunny hill, into the brakes. The smoothest wooden rollercoaster i've ever been on, and also the 1st GCI i've been on. They rule!!!!
After we got off and went down the LONG exit ramp, we were "greeted" by a employee at the photo booth, half asleep, but fully mean and crabby. The pictures were 9.75 a piece, and i was gonna wait til later to get one.
We met up with my dad and headed to the shute the chute ride. It was pretty good, it had 2 drops. The 1st drop was about 20ft and had a double dip in it. The 2nd drop was 40ft, just like a normal shute the chute. The lifts up to the drops were really fast, which was cool. After that we went for another ride on wildcat, this time with all 4 of us. It was awesome, and i bought a picture. And with that, we left Celebration City, and did some go karts, bumperboats, and lazer storm.
We got back to camp at around 12:30, and went to sleep. We woke up at 8:15, got ready, and headed to:
Silver Dollar City
I love this park, and i always will. The atmosphere is great. The 1st thing we did was go to ThuNderaTion, a very fun arrow mine train. We walked down the empty line and walked right on a train towards the front. We headed out of the station and through the forest and arrived at the spiral into the tunnel, and bursted out into a bunny hill, then a rough helix, and to the lift hill. This lift hill will always be a mystery to me. It's 80ft tall, poking out of the trees, and you can see none of silver dollar city. Not even the water toboggen tower. Anyway, we went down the swooping hill side drop and went right back up the hill into a painful turn into the brakes. Fun stuff.
After that we headed to Buzz Saw Falls, and the line was almost empty. But we had to wait another 10min for them to put another boat on. So the ride ops played the chicken dance song, and attempted to get us to dance. No. So we got on and my dad and his friend were in the back, and we dipped out of the station, and half the boat went under water, just as we planned, and got my dad completely soaked. mwauahahahahah. We floated around until we hooked on the the track, and did the awesome triple dip down the hillside, into a long turn to the lift. This is the steepest lift i've ever been on. So we lifted our feet up from experience, b/c we know that the water in the boat comes flooding to the back. We checked out the awesome view and turned and went down the 65ft drop, which isn't as wet as it looks. I got misted, and we floated into the station.
After that we went on Fire in the Hole, a fun indoor coaster about the baldknobbers burning down the town. We walked past a grill and saw the food being cooked, and it looked really good. So we got lunch and saw that in addition to the 2.12 drink price, refills were 1.42. Screw that. We snuck up and snatched refills and ran for lost river of the ozarks, the river raft ride. We waited for about 45min and boarded the rafts. It's a pretty average raft ride, nothing compared to the one at IOA. After that, we split up, and my friend and i headed to Wildfire.
We waited for about 15min and took a seat towards the back. After being sprayed with "wildfire" the chemical that makes you fly, we headed up to the 155ft summit. We plunged down into the immelman, in my opinion the best part. Then the huge vertical loop, and bulleted to the cobra roll, which was fast and intense. After exiting the cobra roll, you go into an overbanked turn into the corkscrew, and into a ground-huggin spiral up into the brakes. Phew!!! I love this ride, smooth as glass!!
We then went to american plunge, and got SOAKED. The wettest i've ever gotten on a shute the chute ride. I like the them of this, that your going over niagra falls in a barrel. All through the queue, there's signs for the S.O.D., the Society for Ozarkian Daredevilry. After getting soaked, we went to the Wilderness Watertoboggen, and waited for around 30min. We found this ride to have been refurbished. It has new rafts, and no more tunnels. The whole ride is a half pipe, which makes it more intense. You get precariously close to the top of the flume, which is scary since your 80ft off the ground. All the way up the tower we listened to people say "Oh this is the best ride in the park!!!" I don't agree. It doesn't even come close to coming close to Wildfire, or Buzz Saw Falls.
After the toboggen, we did the Great Shoot Out at the Flooded Mine. This ride is fun, you go through a flooded mine where escaped convicts are, and shoot little targets and make them do stuff. I got a final score of 8400, which isn't to bad.
We then got out of the little rafts and did ThuNderaTion again. If you're wondering while i'm capitalizing the different letters, it's supposed to be a clue of how the trains are powered. TNT!!! We sat in the front.
We then decided to do BSF again, which i finally got in touch with my dad, who was on the train. We agreed on meeting at Wildfire. We got a seat on BSF in the middle of the boat, and i snapped a pic of the view from the top. We headed to the entrance to Wildfire, but they were just now getting on the train. We did the American Plunge 2 more times, the they showed up, and decided they weren't gonna do wildfire, they were "rollercoastered out." Psh! We waited an extra 10min for the very front, and it was SWEET!!! I had tears running down my face at the end. We headed towards the exit of the park, and wandered through the gift shop. We did some more bumper boats and go-karts, and hit the sack. We woke up at 8:30, got the car packed, and headed out at 12 to:
White Water
We arrived and got 2 lockers. The 1st thing we did was the new slide, Raging River Rapids. We did the tan slide 1st, which is the one for double tubes. It was crazy. We did everything there.
We went to CC again for wildcat in the front, and i got a glow in the dark shirt. I like CC, i wouldn't pay full price, but the City Hopper is a good deal!
Peace out!
Silver Dollar City, Celebration City, and White Water 
. The report is now EXACTLY 10000 characters. So i couldn't grade it even if i wanted.
Linear Mode
