#rocknroller18

Metallica in Portland Live Recording

February 25, 2019 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Metallica does it right. One of the coolest souvenirs from a concert is not a black shirt, a poster, hat, or picture with the band. It is a live recording from the concert. When we attending the Metallica show at the Rose Bowl during our Rock n Roller 17 tour we ordered a cd of the show and it arrived a couple months later. We did the same at our recent visit to Portland to see the band.

When you pop the cd into the player you are immediately taken right back to the show. All of the emotion, sounds, feelings come rushing back and you get to re-live the show as if it was happening all over again.

What an experience. I am surprised more bands don’t do this. Before you say anything about cd’s are dead or there is nothing like a live show. I agree with you but these cd’s special.

Here is the set list from the show:

Hardwired
Atlas, Rise!
Seek & Destroy
Holier Than Thou
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Now That We’re Dead
Creeping Death
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Fade to Black
No Remorse
Fuel
Moth Into Flame
Sad But True
One
Master of Puppets
Spit Out the Bone
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman

Coaster Geeks Podcast Launch

November 19, 2018 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Join Robert and Michele Forto as they launch their brand new podcast, Coaster Geeks. This fun show is about their travels across the country searching out some of the best coasters.

On each episode you will hear about their travels, their favorite coasters, food at the park, attractions, special events, and more. This project has been talked about since they took their first tour, what they call the Rock n Roller tour, each summer where they hit up rock concerts and ride coasters.

To date, they have ridden more than 350 coasters and been to more than 30 theme parks. Next year, the #rocknroller19 tour will start in August when they visit Florida.

The Coaster Geeks envisions more than just a podcast. They want to do live feeds on social media and more.

Follow the Coaster Geeks on social media

Coaster Geeks on Facebook

Coaster Geeks on Twitter: @coastergeekspod

Coaster Geeks on Instagram: @coastergeekspod

Search the hashtags on social media: #rocknroller16 #rocknroller17 #rocknroller18 #rocknroller19

Please check out the first episode here:

ACE Preservation Conference: Indiana Beach

August 4, 2018 by robertforto 2 Comments

It has been quite the summer! The Rock n Roller Coaster Tour across America has taken me from Orlando to the Northeast to middle America and I find myself at my second American Coaster Enthusiasts Preservation Conference. This year we are at Indiana Beach in Monticello, Indiana and Michigan’s Adventure on the Great Lakes.

Michele and I parted ways in Boston. She had to fly home to attend our business and I flew to Chicago for this leg of the tour. It was a slow slog down I-65 to the middle of nowhere Indiana. I checked into my motel at the Pine View Resort that was in the middle of a corn field. I arrived a day and a half early and didn’t venture too far from the motel. I worked on my Master’s courses by the pool and enjoyed leisurely dinners at the local family restaurant. The first night I had a huge three course chicken dinner that only cost $8.95 and could have easily cost 40 bucks back home.

Friday morning was the first day of the conference at Indiana Beach. Who would have known that all of this fun was only 0.6 miles from my little motel! It changes your perspective a little bit when you don’t venture too far from where you are. Its like driving down the interstate and puling off and setting for a Big Mac when at the next exit is the most amazing burger shop in the world that you missed out on.

I checked in and grabbed my name tags and tickets and headed into the park. It is a cool little spot where a lot of it is built on piers that jut out into the lake. We had the day to ourselves with the first formal event being a walk through of one of the rides later in the day. I walked the boardwalk and grabbed a Pronto Pup. Its a corn dog for those of you who don’t know…

I jumped on a cool coaster called Steel hog first. It was fun! It sort of a mash up of a mouse and a corkscrew. It was the first time I have ever ridden one like that. The restraints were interesting. The sort of squish you in like a vise.

Next up was a couple woodies. The premier coaster in the park is the Hoosier Hurricane which is by far the longest and juts out over the lake in a few spots. It is fast but a bit rough. Next was the Cornball Express. It was a lot of fun too.

I didn’t know what to expect when I was in line for an older steel coaster called, Tiger. By the looks on the peoples faces that went ahead of me and the warning by the ride attendant to hold on and brace for the sharp right turns, I knew I was in for a treat. That first right turn caused a cracked rib on the same spot as always. It is never going to heal if I keep this crap up!

The rest of the afternoon I spent people watching along the boardwalk and riding things like the dark ride, the sky ride, the scrambler the little train, and more. I was surprised at how fun Frankenstein’s Castle was! I haven’t been in a walk through haunted house in a long time and this was a good one. It was huge!

The last coaster I rode before we met up for dinner as a group was the Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain. It was a fun one! It has this little elevator that takes you up to the top and then is a mess of twists and turns through a “mountain”. The cars are a super tight fit for four people but it was a quick coaster and everyone was laughing in our car.

Dinner was late. They forgot to make the burgers and by the sounds of it from the grumblings of my fellow coaster geeks, we were hungry! We finished off the meal with a cake commemorating the 40th anniversary of ACE and we got ready for our night runs durning ERT.

It was a fun first day of the conference. I met up with several friends that I met last year at the conference in Alabama/Georgia. It was cool to see them again.

Tomorrow we finish up here and drive north to our next stop at Michigan’s Adventure!

Up Next: Michigan’s Adventure

Coasters to date on the tour: 24

Do you like what you are reading? Want to see more? use the hashtag #rocknroller18 on social media and you can see pics on Instagram, tweets on Twitter and our daily trials and tribulations on Facebook.

Rock n Roller 18: Story Land

July 30, 2018 by robertforto Leave a Comment

There is a little park in the middle of New Hampshire that has been around for a very long time. It is Story Land. When we spent the week at The Christmas Farm Inn just up the road we had no idea that there was a theme park in the area.

This was a paradise for a little kid. Heck big kids for that matter. As we waited in a long line for the park to open at ten, there was a constant buzz brewing with kids hyped up on sugar, plenty of moms wearing, well, Mom Jeans, and dads with fannypacks, sleeveless shirts, sandals with socks, and bluetooth headsets in their ears. It was the middle of summer in New Hampshire and it was pretty warm but that does not give you carte blanche to dress like a dork.

Hopefully Michele and I will get a pass on our outfits since we were wearing match-y same color blue shirts. We didn’t do this intentionally. If you have ever been to a theme park you know what I am talking about. You will often see a busload of snot-nosed pre-teens wearing blaze-orange t-shirts. What do they think, its hunting season?

As we worked our way up to the front of the line we came across a grandpa that was scalping tickets to the park. His story claimed that he bought extras. Isn’t that what they all say?

We made it inside and the kids around us went wild, running in every direction. Moms and dads were screaming for little Johnny and Julie but the kids didn’t mind and paid them no attention. I guess that is why they have a little booth that issues honest-to-goodness driver’s licenses for little kids, not only gives them access to the rides but also to use–and I am speculating here–if they are pulled over by the park patrol for running at breakneck speeds.

The park is laid out in different sections like all of the fairytales. You have Mother Goose, Cinderella’s castle where you can have tea, the Three Little Pigs with three little pigs in their little brick, straw and stick houses. We also had Little Miss Muffet where you could sit on her tuffet–oh behave!

Just a side note, did you know that Disney has a racket on their characters portrayed in other theme parks? Cinderella wasn’t allowed to have blonde hair here at Story Land so the kiddos had to settle for a dark haired vixen. We were a long way from Walt’s lair up here in the Green Mountains but the Mouse still rules with an iron-fisted white glove. It’s true look it up…

There were two coasters in the park. The first one was the Polar Coaster. It is really a kiddie coaster but it has a few thrills.

The second was much more fun! It was Roar-O-Saurus. It was designed and built by the coaster company The Gravity Group for Story Land’s unique natural setting, it is the only wooden roller coaster of its kind in northern New England. Roar is the major component of Story Land’s new dinosaur themed section. What kid doesn’t love dinosaurs right?

The wood coaster takes just 12 passengers led by Story Land’s newest member, ‘Rory” the little Dino with a big roar! It was built in 2014 with a track length of 1,242 feet and a lift height of 40 feet. It does have some amazing airtime for a kiddie woodie with 12 spots. Michele loved this one and it is in her Top five woodies right now.

After the coasters and walking around the park we headed over to the log flume. We always wait until last to ride the water rides. Who in the heck wants to walk around in wet clothes? Bamboo Chutes was very well themed with some impressive asian-insprired landscaping. It was your typical up and down flume but like always I got wet!

We were out of the park by two with a thunderstorm threatening above. I am glad we found this little park and added a couple coasters to our credits that we probably would have missed if we hadn’t stayed at the Inn. I encourage all of you to check out the woodie. It is a fun one that I am sure you will enjoy!

Rock n Roller 18: Coney Island and Impounded Rental Cars

July 22, 2018 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Another red-eye from Alaska and Michele and I were stumbling on our feet as we unloaded from the plane at JFK in New York. Neither one of us had slept a wink on the long flight over and we knew it was going to be a very long day. Little did we know we would rack up almost 500 bucks in parking tickets, have our rental car impounded and drive through the city like a maniac going from one borough to the other.

We were due to have breakfast with our friend Mannie in Manhattan at eight and we decided on a little diner. The food wasn’t too bad and it was fun to catch up but the service was terrible. I guess this is how they do it in the Big Apple. We chatted with our friend for about an hour and he gave us a bottle of wine that he had been promising us since his visit to Alaska the previous spring.

After we said our good byes we headed to Lower Manhattan to see the Freedom Tower and pay our respects at the 9/11 memorial. We found a parking spot after driving around the block a few times and jumped out of the rental car. The memorial was awe-inspiring and the area around it was very serene even after all of these years. If you are in New York this is a must visit place.

As we were heading back to the car, still punch drunk from the flight we went inside Target to find a bathroom. When we walked outside we saw two of New York’s finest parking cops walking away after putting a boot on our car. Michele ran up to have a few choice words and they pointed to a sign near our car that said “parking for city council.” What?! First it was a Saturday, second why would the city council get a choice spot at a local Target store and third the dang sign was misleading. It had little arrows that said you can not park from here to here and we thought we were, there!

The cop handed us the ticket and told us we had two hours to pay the fine or it would be impounded and we checked the address on Google Maps. It was some 70 blocks away. Michele ran over to a hot dog cart and grabbed a cabbie who was scarfing down his lunch and said she needed a ride quick to the impound lot.

We jumped in the cab and headed uptown. We surely were getting the full New York experience as it wasn’t even lunch time.

Michele had asked the cabbie to wait and as we walked away we saw him drive off. Just great! We went inside and paid our ticket. Since it was a rental we weren’t sure if they were going to accept it since the ticket said only the registered owner could pay the fine and must show proof of insurance. They accepted it and we walked outside ready to flag down another cab and just at the moment like Superman swooping down from the sky here was our friend, the cabbie that said he would wait!

We made it back to the car about an hour after this ordeal began and waited for the cops to come and take the boot off the front wheel.

What a morning.

We rev’d up the car and headed over to Brooklyn to Coney Island. The stupid Google Maps took us way out of the way and we had to back track a couple dozen blocks to find the spot. From this point forward we will use an app called Waze. I love that little app now. We drove around for what seemed like forever and finally found a spot near the boardwalk. Michele said “I dont know if you should park here.” I said, “what do you mean, this is fine” and jumped out of the car.

We walked up and down the boardwalk, looked in a few shops and headed over to Cyclone. Besides breakfast with Mannie, this was the only reason we were in the city. We paid our ten bucks each and we were able to ride in the front car! The ride was awesome as always.

Did you know:

Coney Island History Comes Alive on the Cyclone Roller Coaster!

The Mother of American roller coaster culture and the “Big Momma” of Coney Island, the Cyclone tops everyone’s list of things to do in New York City. Get ready to shake, rattle, rumble and roll over 2,640 feet of track featuring 12 drops and 27 elevation changes that still has the stuff to take your breath away.

You slowly rise to panoramic heights and grip the bar tight as you go over the ledge on an exhilarating 85-foot, 60-degree plunge at speeds of 60 mph. It’s an all-time classic amusement park ride that’s kept coaster lovers coming back since the Cyclone roller coaster first debuted on June 26, 1927.

After the ride on Cyclone we grabbed lunch at Nathans and headed back to the car. As we approached we could see a little orange paper under the wiper. Another ticket. What?! 90 bucks this time. I couldn’t believe it. Michele just shrugged her shoulders.

I was so ready to get out of the city and it wasn’t even 3pm. We jumped on the freeway and headed north. We drove for over six hours upstate on our way to Six Flags Great Escape. What a freaking day. I keep telling myself its not worth the hundred bucks we save flying the red eye flights. Heck no its not. We racked up 500 bucks in tickets because we couldn’t think straight after a freaking sleepless night.