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An EPIC Adventure - A Live & Interactive trip report

Day 6 cont......

Sam and I were both tired after the overnight bus so decided to grab an hours sleep, 4 hours later we awoke feeling rested and much more awake. Lunch was aleady on and it was time for a beer.

With no plans today food, drink and good company were the order of the day. Italian sausage and Straub lager was lunch.

I'm sure @Mad Dog won't mind me telling you he has a beautiful property with stunning views from his balcony. We spent the afternoon enjoying the views and the wildlife. we were really treated when a deer came right up to the property to drink from the pond.

Just like the deer we drank, drank and drank some more, here's a top tip, if your ever with @Mad Dog don't mention the word cat.

I love scallops and @Mad Dog had remembered this. Dinner was an amazing seafood feast of Cajun shrimp, scallops and pasta, delicious, thank you John.

After dark we sat chatting and drinking, yup, more drinking, around the fire. Only one thing for it when you got a good fire going, you guessed it, Smores.

We went to bed full and just a little giddy after a wonderful day with good friends.

Photos later guys.......
 
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We had a great day with our good friends from England, Mark & Samantha. Good people are always the first step to a good time...........and a word on the mysterious Cats mention from Mark (UK TRigg). The Cats drinking custom dates back to the days when our Canadian cousins would descend, en mass, upon my Uncle Mike's farm in Perryoplis PA., for two weeks every July. Nearly every evening was spent outside under a giant Oak, partaking of vast quantities of grilled fresh food and alcohol, most specifically Jim Beam bourbon. The Canadians were big fans of the Hamilton Tiger Cats Canadian football team. The rallying cry and chant was CATS. Sooo, the tradition began that whenever someone said the word CATS, or was tricked to say the word, everyone had to stop what they were doing, and have an imperial shot of Jim Beam. We would go through a few gallons of Jim Beam every August, and the empty jugs were tied to the branches of the old great Oak. After a couple decades, the tree was literally, a Jim Beam Oak. I always said that my Uncle should have sent a photo to the folks at Jim Beam. It would have been a great marketing tool. Alas, nearly all of the participants of the August celebrations has passed on, but my brother and I continue to spread the word and introduce the tradition to new, and willing, guests. On Saturday, the word CATS was uttered many a time, and Mark suggested that we start hanging the empty Beam bottles from the mighty wild Cheery tree on the back oasis. Soooo, the Tradition lives on, bolstered by our English friends.
 
We had a great day with our good friends from England, Mark & Samantha. Good people are always the first step to a good time...........and a word on the mysterious Cats mention from Mark (UK TRigg). The Cats drinking custom dates back to the days when our Canadian cousins would descend, en mass, upon my Uncle Mike's farm in Perryoplis PA., for two weeks every July. Nearly every evening was spent outside under a giant Oak, partaking of vast quantities of grilled fresh food and alcohol, most specifically Jim Beam bourbon. The Canadians were big fans of the Hamilton Tiger Cats Canadian football team. The rallying cry and chant was CATS. Sooo, the tradition began that whenever someone said the word CATS, or was tricked to say the word, everyone had to stop what they were doing, and have an imperial shot of Jim Beam. We would go through a few gallons of Jim Beam every August, and the empty jugs were tied to the branches of the old great Oak. After a couple decades, the tree was literally, a Jim Beam Oak. I always said that my Uncle should have sent a photo to the folks at Jim Beam. It would have been a great marketing tool. Alas, nearly all of the participants of the August celebrations has passed on, but my brother and I continue to spread the word and introduce the tradition to new, and willing, guests. On Saturday, the word CATS was uttered many a time, and Mark suggested that we start hanging the empty Beam bottles from the mighty wild Cheery tree on the back oasis. Soooo, the Tradition lives on, bolstered by our English friends.
Haha, great story. And all the Jim Beam will get Mark acclimated for his trip to Tennessee. What days are you guys doing CP and Kennywood?
 
We had a great day with our good friends from England, Mark & Samantha. Good people are always the first step to a good time...........and a word on the mysterious Cats mention from Mark (UK TRigg). The Cats drinking custom dates back to the days when our Canadian cousins would descend, en mass, upon my Uncle Mike's farm in Perryoplis PA., for two weeks every July. Nearly every evening was spent outside under a giant Oak, partaking of vast quantities of grilled fresh food and alcohol, most specifically Jim Beam bourbon. The Canadians were big fans of the Hamilton Tiger Cats Canadian football team. The rallying cry and chant was CATS. Sooo, the tradition began that whenever someone said the word CATS, or was tricked to say the word, everyone had to stop what they were doing, and have an imperial shot of Jim Beam. We would go through a few gallons of Jim Beam every August, and the empty jugs were tied to the branches of the old great Oak. After a couple decades, the tree was literally, a Jim Beam Oak. I always said that my Uncle should have sent a photo to the folks at Jim Beam. It would have been a great marketing tool. Alas, nearly all of the participants of the August celebrations has passed on, but my brother and I continue to spread the word and introduce the tradition to new, and willing, guests. On Saturday, the word CATS was uttered many a time, and Mark suggested that we start hanging the empty Beam bottles from the mighty wild Cheery tree on the back oasis. Soooo, the Tradition lives on, bolstered by our English friends.

That’s a great story :lol:
 
Fun day at Kennywood and yup, I loved the Jack Rabbit but I will share that with Yinz tomorrow. In The mean time here are the photos from yesterday..........

Greyhound Ride from NYC to PA

20180901_053545 by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180831_223017[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180831_223047[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180831_230240[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr


Arriving In Pittsburgh

20180901_061749 by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_061535 by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_061818[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_071415 by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

 
Arriving at The @Mad Dog 's Resort

20180902_094659[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180902_094838[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

Above is a Video, Click to play

a20180901_162821[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_162744[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_162543[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_183256[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_193444[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_200535[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr


20180901_201013[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_203859[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_201541[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_232015[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_231616[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

20180901_231619[1] by UK-Trigg, on Flickr

Looks wonderful, did you crash the party next door? :spit:
 
Piper's pub is the best restaurant in Pittsburgh or at least it was the last time I went there. Football brunches and rare cask ale. Boxty and scotch eggs yum. Primanti bros. is overrated and pretty terrible confirmed by the fact that no other places bother to try and copy it as opposed to other actually good regional food.
 
Day 7 - Kennywood

Kennywood is just a short 15 minute drive from the @Mad Dog resort so we were soon at the park after a quick breakfast of coffee and danish pastries.

The park opened at 10.30 with rides starting from 11.00, we made our way into the park and got in line for Phantoms revenge,. Just a short wait late we were seated, strapped in and making our way up the lift hill.

This is a fun ride with two fantastic drops, some awesome airtime and some killer views of the area, I really enjoyed the the spacious cars and the smooth ride, Phantoms revenge is a solid coaster that gives a smooth ride with just a few jolts here and there, mainly dropping into the bunny hops

The park was relatively quiet so we had no trouble getting rides in on all three woodies.

Thunderbolt was first up followed by Racer and Jack Rabbit. Jack rabbit was my favorite of the three with thunderbolt a close second and racer third.

These are all good old fashioned woodies dating as far back as the 1920s, they all give a good ride and are surprisingly smooth for their age, sure they thow you around a little bit that's to be expected with such old rides but it wasn't too much to put you off repeat rides.

The ride attended on racer was a young lad named Ryan, this guy was awesome. He as running the ride like a trooper, loading, unloading strapping in and checking the safety of each and every ride all in his own. This was no mean feat as this is a racing coaster and Ryan was attending two trains every run. Ryan, if you are out there buddy, you did a great job and are a credit to the park. I also intend on emailing Kennywood to mention him.

Jack rabbit was the longest line of the day, this was probably due to its location at the front of the park and a small through put even so 30 mins on Labor day weekend wasnt bad at all.

Thunderbolt lines were around 20 mins and I soon passed the time learning Pittsburghsee from the back of a guys shirt, the shirt had all the pittsburgh slang on it so I'm now speaking like a local.

After the bumps and the thrills we all took a much easier ride in the parks beautiful, good ole old fashioned carousel.

Lunch was skin on fries with cheese sauce.

After lunch the crowds were still light so whilst the girls went on the Garfield ride we got two walk on rides on phantoms revenue and once on the swinging flat ride.

We headed back to meet the girls only to find them still in line at Garfield, this thing was only loading two to a boat and boy was it backed up.

We rode racer again where Ryan was still running the station. We then wandered the park and saw the new Steelers area, work is well under way here with footings going in for what's sounds like a decent new coaster for the park.

It was nearly time to leave but as the line was short we decided to hit thunderbolt one last time. Not long after being in line it seemed to stop moving, the problem here was you have to ride with a partner, no single riders here, but one guy had gone through the line and sat in the car in his own. They operators wouldn't send the ride and the guy wouldn't move. The dude we getting booed but he didn't give a rat ass and sat stubbornly in the car. No other singles were around and after repeat requests no one in the station would ride with him. From the back of the line I shouted up "I'll ride" this was greeted by loud cheers from the waiting riders and I got pats I the back as I made my way through the line to sit in the car next to the official dick of the day. We finally set off to more cheers and I got high fived all the way out of the station.

After the ride I hoped the fence to get back in line just in time to go again with @Mad Dog.

It was now late afternoon so decided on Johnny rockets for dinner, thing was the park was steadily getting busier and busier so Johnny rockets was queuing out the door so we decided to leave the park and head elsewhere to eat.

To be cont....
 
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Two busy days at the parks. Reports to come on both Kennywood and cedar point. But for now it's time for a well earned sleep.
Just woke up after a long hot day at Cedar Point, all beat up after some really really rough coasters. Mark's on the back balcony typing his 'second day in Pittsburgh' report, trying to catch up on the reports a bit. A drive deep into the mountains, and a dip into the Yough river at the Ohiopyle waterfalls, is on today's agenda.
 
Day 7 cont.......

A big part of this trip was to get out of the bubbles of Uni and Disney and get to see some of real America. Having skipped Johnny rockets this gave the perfect opportunity to hit up a local bar for dinner instead.

I really wanted some decent BBQ food on this trip so @Mad Dog suggested a local beer and ribs joint.

We walked in and it reminded me of the kinda place you see on TV where one person throws a punch and before you know it the whole bar is fighting. Perfect.

We had the smoked ribs with home made BBQ sauce, beer batter fries and slaw on the side, to drink was yeungling followed by an IPA. The fact my shirt and shorts were covered in sauce at the end was testament to how good those ribs were.

Bellies full we made for the door but not before having our photos, randomly, with the tin man and cowardly Lion from the Wizard of oz.

I forget the names of the bar, the sauce and the IPA but I'm sure @Mad Dog will be along to help out.

Will get the photos up tonight.
 
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