Saturday, 15th of April, 2000
We spent the rest of the day @ Six Flags over Fiesta Texas. The first thing I did was hit 3 roller coasters in a row. I hit Superman Krypton Coaster first. It was really really nice. I stood in the longer line for the front seat, and it was well worth it. Awesome coaster. It was long too, much longer than the short Batman in St. Louis.
Next, I hit the Joker, and it was running backwards today. Sweet. About 20 seconds into the ride, I realized it was designed exactly like the Ninja here in St. Louis, except shorter. Instead of 2 loops, it has 1. But otherwise, the turns are all the same, and I basically knew what was coming. Going in the loop backwards is very thrilling though, but that is all that is worth mentioning.
So I decided to hit the Poltergeist next. It looked cool. It used some sort of magnetic launching mechanism to get it up to speed, unlike the traditional gravity based ones. Neato. The ride started out nicely, it's a very smooth coaster, and thrilling. It got kind of boring in the middle, though, the turns got really weak. But it ended pretty nicely. Owell, the sudden acceleration @ first is nice.
Susan got sick of the roller coasters, and I think the sudden launching of the Poltergeist was a little harsh. We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon waiting in the long line of Thunder River to only get moderately wet. Owell.
Overall, the park is nice in terms of theming. I haven't seen a park that is so nicely themed. Disney World was overdone, but this is just right. I liked it. And it's a cheap park too, only $19.95. And it's a huge park. Nice value.
They had nice huge picnic facilities for the Heritage Festival to have their dinner and awards ceremony. I'm shocked @ how few instrumental groups they had. They put all instrumental: band, orchestra, everything, in one category, while choral groups had about 6 different categories. This must not be a location concentrated much on instrumental groups. Owell, our orchestra got a Gold award, with a score of 93, which is really nice. They invited us to come to Dallas next year for the National Convention.
Friday, 14th of April, 2000
I used the soldering iron to burn off the anti-tamper covering on the TV so we could plug Cory's Nintendo64 into the TV in the hotel room. Ugh, that thing smells. Owell, it worked.
Thursday, 13th of April, 2000
Texas has the best highways. It's all 3/3 in the rural areas, and @ least 4/4 urban. @ 0600, we passed through Dallas. Now that city is da bomb. It's all urban highway. Quadruple carriageway. Retaining walls, all sub-level. Nice skyline, everything. The city is awesome for highway watching, there is electronic signage everywhere, and all walls and concrete and very high quality.
Our hotel was nice, we had Woodfield Suites. It was located near the city centre, so we just took busses to the CBD and historical sites. There is no light-rail or anything, however. I found a newspaper and the proposition of light-rail is a hot issue there, apparently. Owell, their bus service is very extensive.
I walked around the Riverwalk, and it wasn't as impressive as I had hoped. The sidewalks were narrow, and the stores were not that interesting. Everything is overpriced. Also, it is not isolated, but instead it meanders around the CBD, so it kinda ruins the entire feeling of "historical". Pretty dissapointing, but owell.
A previous Ladue student that moved to San Antonio hosted us for a party tonight. They have quite a house, with a gigantic swimming pool and hot tub. It was quite relaxing.
Wednesday, 12th of April, 2000
Tuesday, 11th of April 2000
Monday, 10th of April 2000
It's all about this SUV. Caterpillar 979. Car and Driver did a review on it. It's totally hilarious.
Let's start with the engine. A turbocharged V-24 diesel engine. 4-turbo units. That is insane. 27 psi. You could power a small farming community with that. It has 3400 bhp, with 12170 pounds per square feet of torque. That's like, train locomotive territory. Transmission? 7-speed automatic. I can't imagine how a clutch for that thing would work if it were a manual. You'd probably have to stand up. Ok, exterior dimensions: It's 255.9 inches wide, 572 inches long, and 285 inches high. Now that is one big truck. Ground clearance, 29 inches. I think that means you can drive a small convertible through it. Now this baby weighs a lot too. Curb weight is 560000 pounds. Yes, I didn't accidentally type in a 0, it's over half a million pounds. The Gross weight is 1280000 pounds. Yes, 1.28 million. Funny how the reviewed truck came with bucket seats. Gotta strap in the people of this fast moving car, it does 0-30 mph in 27.1 seconds. And I thought the Nissan Serena was bad. Top speed is 40 mph, redline limited. Now that's just hilarious. Course, thinking about it, making that big thing move 40 mph is quite impressive. I wonder how they discovered what the top speed was. Took it out on a desert? Well, someone's gotta stop this thing some how. There are 10 discs per wheel in the brake system. Each 42" in diameter. Man, you can stop a battleship with that. Fuel economy. Now this is something to seriously complain about. It came with a 1800 gallon fuel tank. It sucks 1 gallon every 0.3 miles. 0.3 miles per gallon. That's like, Titanic territory. And that's only with a 40% load too. And boy can you load it. It's got a 290 cubic yard dumper on the back. Talk about the SUV trend.
Woah! It's a Subaru Turbo Cop Car!
Subaru Wagon! And a Volvo T5 wagon cop car! Owell, tons of stuff on this site.
Sunday, 9th of April 2000
