A little less than a month ago I wrote the blog, “Sam & Greg to Get Credits 50 & 75 on Phoenix?” where I talked about an upcoming trip to Knoebels for the We Were Inverted Flight Crew. With Sam approaching 50 credits and Greg 75, the idea was to get them those credits during the same exact ride. Heading into the trip, Sam only needed three more credits, but Greg would need five. We worried that if any of the coasters were down at Knoebels, we might not be able to make the plan work. Our solution? Stop at Adventure Park USA (APUSA) on the way.
Greg had visited APUSA in the past, but did so before the park added both Tumbleweed or Wild West Express. His lone credit at the park was the Schwarzkopf, Wildcat, which was previously found at several other parks, most notably, Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW), where it was known as Die Wildkatze.
First Stop Tumbleweed
We arrived right before APUSA opened at 11 a.m. We were going to keep our stop brief to maximize our time at Knoebels later on. Greg would be the only one riding since Sam and I got all three credits last fall. Since Greg only needed the two rides, he loaded his card with the needed credits and we made our way outside.
Our first stop was Tumbleweed. A park employee followed us out to the ride and after a couple of minutes due to an issue with the card reader, Greg got a front row zen ride on the black and orange coaster. Once his three laps were over, her had himself a new credit. It was then time to get Wild West Express.
Held Up at Wild West Express
As we walked up to the red and blue coaster, no one was in that area of the park working the rides. There were only a few employees working outside at the time anyhow. A worker told us they’d be over in a minute, so we waited. That’s when a second employee walked over, looked toward us, and said, “This ride is down right now. They’re going to fix it.” and proceeded to walk away.
Greg asked if there was any kind of timeframe. He really wanted this credit, but also knew we had a long drive ahead of us. The employee told Greg that he didn’t know, but it was running last Saturday. We debated for a few minutes on if we should wait. Since APUSA is only about 40 minutes from Greg’s house and about an hour from both Sam and I, we decided it would be best to come back another day. We all want to come back when we can dedicate more to the park’s other rides and attractions anyhow.
Onward to Knoebels
Although we only landed one of the two credits for Greg at APUSA, we felt good about our luck at getting him to 75 at Knoebels. The only coaster not running, according to their site, was Flying Turns, which has been down all season for a retrofit. If you want to know more about that retrofit, check out the blog, “Knoebels Grounds Flying Turns” where I discussed what improvements were being made to the ride.
And with that, it was then onto Knoebels. It would be Greg’s first visit and Sam’s second. The three of us were really looking forward to visiting the park. Little did we know, so were a ton of other people! More on that in the blog, “Knoebels – Wait for it…“
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): n/a
Sam
Commander
New Credit(s): n/a
Greg
Lieutenant
New Credit(s): Tumbleweed
