It is early May in 2017 and we are about to kick off the third annual rock n roller coaster tour of America! The tour will start on May 12th with me heading to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Northern California. I will be down in Cali for a swift water rescue class for school and wanted to start the summer off right. After my weekend on the river learning how to save people from drowning, I will head south to the famous Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to ride the Giant Dipper and a couple other coasters before I jump on a plane and head to the deep South. I bought a season pass for Six Flags again this year for less than 75 bucks with a web special and this will get me into five of the parks for the cost of just one and a half tickets. How’s that for a deal?
Over the weekend of May 19-21 I will be attending a roller coaster preservation conference put on by American Coaster Enthusiasts at three parks, two in Georgia and one in Alabama. If I have time I will head north to Dollywood in Tennessee to ride the new Lightning Rod. It is a coaster that is high on my list of ‘must-rides’.
We pick up the coater tour in July when I head back to California for a quick trip to run in a triathlon called Eppies Great Race. While there I will visit California Great Adventure before heading home and picking up Michele where she will will join the tour! The weekend after my triathlon we will fly down to see one of the greatest rock bands of all time, Metallica, at the Rose Bowl and visit Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knotts Berry Farms before we jump on a red eye and fly back to Seattle.
Our road trip version of the rock n roller 17 tour starts in Seattle and we head west towards the rockies. We will visit Silverwood in Idaho, Ole Faithful at Yellowstone National Park then head into Colorado to visit Glenwood Springs Adventure Park, Elitch Gardens and Lakeside Amusement Park with our son Kyle. We will stay in Denver for a couple days to see Gun’s n Roses at Mile High then head to Utah to visit Lagoon theme park before flying home.
While the last stages of the tour are still in the works we are hoping to head to Vegas over Christmas break and ride a couple coasters there and catch a hockey game for the new NHL expansion team, The Las Vegas Golden Nights. If we can fit it into our schedule we will go to San Diego and see what kind of mischief we can get into there with a couple coasters in southern Cali.
At least 14 parks and who knows how many coasters as we continue our passion of finding the greatest thrill rides in the country. A lot of you have asked what drives you to do all of this traveling? It’s simple. Our kids are grown and moved out of the house and we wanted to do a little traveling. Michele grew up on the west coast and didn’t get to see much of the country as a kid. I was lucky enough to have a dad in the military and we always took road trips every summer. Some people take expensive cruises and stay at 5-star resorts. We rent a car, stay in inexpensive hotels we find on Booking.com and see the country. What a better way! We would love to meet up with any of our friends on social media. We will buy dinner!
Coasters to date on the tour: 0
Check out our tour from last year: Rock n Roller 16
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