Introduction

My fourth club trip to the US with the European Coaster Club saw the trip starting in the Carolinas and ending in Toronto. My original plan had a week prior starting in Florida and a week after ending in Boston but with an opportunity to go on another trip I dropped the extensions and chose to do just the club bit instead.

In 2006 my extension after that trip took me from Georgia to New Jersey so there was an overlap with this trip. The good news was that pretty much every park I'd been to before had something new to ride. There had also been a lot of parks change owners since I visited last time so it would be interesting to see how they were now.

The flight was pretty uneventful, in that nothing worked. The automated check-in was a farce which meant we had to use the people who were sat behind the consoles like lemons. The in-flight entertainment didn't work down our side of the plane. Not that it mattered having stayed up for 40 hours prior to the flight I was asleep before the plan had left the runway.

We've just landed so lets go straight to Carowinds

Carowinds

Carowinds was a park I'd last visited in 2006 and since then had changed ownership from Paramount to Cedar Fair. This had led to most of the rides being rebranded and a couple of new attractions being installed. It was also a park we'd be visiting twice end-of-day riding on day 1 and a half day the following morning.

Within 30 minutes of arriving at the park we were taken on a brief tour of the new coaster Intimidator. This ride built by B&M is by far the largest coaster in the park and offers a very good ride experience with massive hills and fast drops.

There was a queue for the ride but with 3 trains being run, very efficiently too, we were soon riding the first coaster of the trip, and what a way to start!

The strange seating arrangement on these new hyper coasters reportedly offers a better view than the conventional 4-in-a-row. I'm not too sure if that's the case. I think it's so you don't have to sit next to a random.

Flying Ace Aerial Chase (nothing to do with soap powder) was a headbanging ride (nothing to do with rock bands) and we only rode it the once.

You go girl! Go as fast as that stressed buggy allows.

Afterburn (formerly Top Gun) is an excellent ride, which I loved the last time I was here. With us visiting at the end of the day this ride was even faster with forces strong enough to leave your dangling legs with pins and needles, which made jumping out of the trains at the end very amusing indeed. Despite the size of Intimidator this, in my opinion, is the best ride in the park.

Lucy's Crabby Cabbie is a kids-only ride that we'd been given special permission from the park to ride. A very friendly ride operator made sure we had a good time during this little mini-ERS.

The other new coaster in the park was Carolina Cobra, a boomerang (booooooo!!! merang) ride that used to exist at Googoo Lake and was relocated here when that park was closed down. This ride had been fitted with the new vest restraints that offered a less head-banging experience than most of the others. Still a ride we only rode once though, mostly on account of the poor throughput.

Within the coaster fraternity there is a small percentage who have embraced naked riding (I'm not one of them). So it's nice to see signs like this that ensure the likes of Ellis are kept decent.

For the more hardcore rider, you can ride the coasters without sitting down but there is a price, a 1 year ban from the park. A great offering to those of us who only visit the park once every few years. I didn't take the park up on their offer though, too chicken!

Carolina Cyclone is the arrow looping coaster, not a bad ride I guess.

The last time I visited this park I remember the informality in their warning signs, something that has continued under their new owners.

The Hurler was just as good as I remembered, not that good at all. The layout did perplex those that hadn't ridden it before due to it staying low after the first drop rather than going back up into a second hill as typically happens.

Nice incentive to play the games.

Vortex is the stand-up coaster and it can be summarised in a single word "ouch" and a single pun "a hole world of pain".

Formerly "Borg Assimilator", this ride had been given a yellow coat of a paint and rebranded as Nighthawk. I quite like these design of flying coaster once you accept that the jacket style restraint won't pop open no matter how much it looks like it would. Nighthawk went down just as we approached it but we decided to wait in the shaded queue line for it to restart, just as well as the wait was not too long. The ride itself was a lot of fun even if the sun-facing lift hill caused us to do the start with our eyes closed.

Carolina Goldrusher is the park's mine train ride. It's a really nice ride let down by poor ride operations. Having made it through the queue we were still kept for what felt like eternity before they'd let us board.The rides at Carowinds are just as good as I remember but the operations of the ride, in most cases, was a lot better under the new owners. The new coaster has been an excellent addition to the park and the park now has something that steals the skyline, always a good way to attract drivers to your park.

Off to Myrtle Beach now

Family Kingdom

I'd been to Family Park before on the 2006 trip and with the group only spending a couple of hours here I took the opportunity to relax a bit. Strange time to open, something to bear in mind if you're planning a trip here.

It wasn't too bad for what it is. A small bit of land on the main strip with a number of old rides on it.

"Why did you come here, the ride is crap" said the wheel operator when we told her we had come to ride Swamp Fox. She wasn't that wrong either, the ride had gotten noticeably worse since the last time I rode it. The banner proclaiming it had been the 8th best coaster had faded away too, perhaps a portent of things.

The best attraction in the park is probably the shooting dark ride, which had been added since my last visit.

Interesting registration plate. "I'm gonna hunt me one of them terrorists billybob!"

With the park completed we ended the night with a meal at Friendlys, their Fribble shakes are really good. The fronion burger was nice too. Worth waiting for (and you will be kept waiting)

Let's look at a park that could've been a contender

Freestyle Music Park

In my attempts to get fit I have started running and I started the day with a morning jog to the site of what was Freestyle Music Park. This park had been included on the trip but fell into receivership earlier in the year. It opened in 2008 as a Hard Rock themed park but that all went pear-shaped by the end of the season. It re-emerged under new ownership in 2009 but then went under again and hasn't re-opened since... A real shame as it had some great looking attractions in there.

Passed this sign along the way. What on earth is a "Dirty Water Dog" and why would I want to eat one?

A good job had been made of the security with green slats interwoven in amongst the chicken wire fencing to prevent tourists from photographing the inside of the park. In the end I had to make do with taking pics of the B&M and whatever I could see from afar.

The former staff entrance

Some dead cool graffiti in the car park. "Dead" as in really, not like the park!

Some not so good graffiti that reminds me of those multi-coloured block pen things that the Chinese criminal fraternity sell in city centres.

A snails eye view of the park, if snails could be found. They all moved out when everyone else did.

Ultimately a victim of poor planning, piss poor location, the recession, corporate in-fighting and excessive litigation the park died a quick death. There is constant talk of new owners but nothing has materialised yet. If new owners can be found and they can avoid the accusations of being close to the initial brands that blighted the Freestyle days then they will have a wonderful park...The next challenge would be getting people to visit it.

to the middle of nowhere

Deadwood

Today was all about a long drive from the Carolinas to Virginia. The initial plan would have had us driving for about 5 hours in a single hit but from my Google Earth Project I'd found a little park called Deadwood half way, which would offer a little break in the journey and an extra credit for those of us whoring the rides. The problem we had was that the park was supposed to be closed today. A quick call from the main trip organiser Yvonne, and the park had agreed to open up especially for us. How cool is that?

The day started pretty stupidly for me as I'd managed to leave my phone beside the bed. A quick call to the hotel and it was being Fed Ex'd to our next hotel in Richmond.

Deadwood is a western themed family park stuck in the middle of nowhere, North Carolina (actually Bear Grass if you ever want to visit, and you should). Formerly a music venue it had expanded to become a little theme park too. As well as opening up for us the park had laid on pork roast, bbq chicken and some really nice veg for lunch.

We also had a go on their coaster, Dinosaur Canyon, which offered a wild ride (as its designed to throw kids around, not adults) and we didn't need tickets.

The owners of the park let us run amok basically and it was great to see initial responses on arrival of "this is it?" and "we came here?" quickly disappear as the amazing hospitality was recognised.

Thomaso with an impromptu piano performance.

Viper will not be appearing on Worlds Strongest Man anytime soon.

Darren takes the opportunity to become the lighting guy, not to be confused with

Raiden, the lightning guy.

Oh deer! What a terrible pun.

I can't bear such bad worldplay. Oh no, there's another one!

Good advice that!

and the best ever reason for a ride being down
"Repairman from Brazil trying to sneak into USA to fix. Please be patient"

A few of us were taken to the owners garden (they live on the property) where a pile of salvaged coaster track could be found. The park had taken ownership of a hacked up ride from Mississipi which they need to make the space to build. I hope that project comes to fruition, it's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle they have on their hands.

Deadwood's hospitality was amazing and what they did for us was just brilliant. I think we left them with the best thank you that we could; a record day's takings from park merchandise (mostly from t-shirts that they'd freshly screen printed for us) although on a day that they don't trade, which hopefully won't get them into any trouble with their accountants!

Time for a city adventure