Little Updates
Jun 29, 2004Finally recovered from BeastBuzz. Good fun, lots of people. 16+ hour day. If you weren’t there you missed it. Maybe next year.
I finally have a week or so before we hit anything new, so on with the updates. I’m starting slow this time. Little updates, really. FAQ’s updated, schedule updated, some personal pics added. The biggest change is that you can once again download the music from the videos. At the bottom of each video page is a link to the music in the video in mp3 format. I’ve been getting tons of requests & inquiries for and about the music in the vids. Now you can just snag it at your leisure. If you want to know a little more about these tunes check the FAQ.
Look for a new gallery to pop up in the next few days or so. Keep cool, my babies!
Storm Runner Video, Hersheypark Pictures
Jun 21, 2004Last week’s trip was good fun. We got a bunch of new coasters and a few new parks in and my daughter passed the 100 mark. (she’s at 105 now - not bad for a six year old!). If you weren’t there - you missed out!
I got a new Storm Runner video online along with an updated Hersheypark gallery that now contains pictures of all of their coasters including a ton of Storm Runner photos. I still don’t have nearly enough photos of Hersheypark though. I guess it’s an excuse to go back. This update puts us over 2800 photos!
Next up is BeastBuzz this weekend. Looks to be pretty cool. I’m sure I’ll see more than a few of you there.
As far as the site goes, I still have Idlewild, Williams Grove and Kings Dominion photos to put online. After this weekend I’ll have Kings Island pics too. That’s 4 parks. I have Hershey’s Chocolate World to add to the Special Features section (even some video too!). I also have a bunch of souvenir cups to add to the Cups special feature. I think that’s all that’s sitting on the back burner for now. We’ll be heading out to more parks in July although I’m not sure where we’ll be going yet, so keep an eye out for that info too.
Check back after this weekend and I’ll have some more new material to gander at.
Lakemont Park Pictures
Jun 10, 2004If there’s one thing I do well around here, it’s frequent updates. I don’t think there’s another non-news coaster or park site that updates more than I do. Always something new here at coasterimage.com and there’s a bunch to cover this time so hang on and enjoy the ride…
First off, the Lakemont Park pictures are now online. Lots of good stuff there so take a peek. To follow up that gallery there’s a new wallpaper online. It’s one of my all time favorite shots showing the Skyliner coaster at Lakemont from the Blair County Ballpark. In one of the most unique ballpark settings ever, the Skyliner looms large over the right field wall. If you’re a baseball fan as well as an enthusiast, this is nirvana. Great photo and an outstanding wallpaper image.
You may have noticed in the past few gallery updates that I’m really into panoramic shots right now. Maybe it’s a phase, maybe it’ll stick - who knows? For the time being I’m having a blast with them, so I hope they’re appreciated. With all panoramic shots, there will be a link to an extra large high resolution version of the shot. These photos really have to be seen at a large size to be appreciated. The links will push you through an advertisement page (to help cover the additional bandwidth these 500k images eat up) - just click the link at the top of the page to pass the ad and see the photo or if you’re feeling froggy click the ad and support the people who support this site. Your choice. They’re the same ads you’ll run across when downloading videos, so they should be familiar. It’s all good.
I also wanted to mention our Roller Coaster Photo List & Ride And Attraction List - 2 great resources for quick access to specific ride pictures that you may be looking for. I’m not sure very many people have found these lists and just wanted to point them out - they’re very handy.
The usual thanks to you guys (and gals) snagging coasterimage merchandise. I’m glad we’re able to offer something people are interested in. If you’ve hesitated because the shirts are only available in white, then now is your chance. We’ve just added obnoxious yellow, green and pink shirts to the lineup. As if these shirts weren’t ‘in your face’ enough already, now you can get them in bright, almost neon looking, colors. Sick!
We’re finally hitting our stride with the summer season and it means I’m getting to the point where I can’t update the site as fast as the photos are coming in. This happens every year. I try to stay current as much as possible, some sites will pass along 6 month old photos as something new, but around here you’ll always know exactly when the photos you’re looking at were taken (under the park name on the gallery list page and at the bottom of each individual park’s main gallery page and on the schedule pages). With that said, I still have pictures from Idlewild Park that need put online, but we’re leaving in two days on another coaster trip that will cover 4 parks. I always put up the photos and videos with the most potential interest first which means you’ll probably see Hersheypark (with Storm Runner Pics and Video) before Idlewild photo even though they Idlewild pics are older. This lets me get items with heightened interest online as soon as possible, plus gives me a backlog of stuff for the off season. In a nutshell it means the site stays fresh year round and that there’s always something new to stop by and check out. Make sense? Good.
Speaking of our upcoming coaster trip, we’ll be hitting Hersheypark (Storm Runner pics and video), Kings Dominion (the last really major park on the east coast that we haven’t been to), Williams Grove (one of the last parks in Pennsylvania that we haven’t visited) and Waldameer (assuming their new coaster is on schedule and up & running) - so if you’ll plan on visiting any of those parks in the next week take a look at the 2004 schedule page and maybe you’ll catch us somewhere along the way. We’ve met a bunch of cool people and are always looking to say hello to coasterimage visitors and catch a few quick rides. If you happen to be at Hersheypark or Kings Dominion you can share in our own personal little mini-event. What mini-event is that, you ask? If you’ve looked around the site at all and checked out the FAQ page, then you may have noticed I have a 6 year old daughter who’s closing in on her 100th coaster. Using a little bit of common sense, it occured to me that she’ll hit that mark either at Hershey or Kings Dominion depending on what we ride along the way. So if you happen to catch us at one of these parks, you can partake in the social freakshow that is a 6 year old kid riding her 100th coaster. How can you beat that kind of twisted entertainment? Let me answer that for you - you can’t!
Then as if leaving for a week isn’t going to slow me down enough, I’ll have just 6 days when we get back to get the new stuff online before we head out to Cincinnati and Kings Island for BeastBuzz and the official 25th anniversary celebration of the Beast…and just like that June has come and gone! If you thought we were cranking it out around here last year, then this year will kick your ass because we’re hitting more parks than ever before and delivering more photos and WAY more videos than in the past. Like I said at the beginning of this long-winded update… Hang on and enjoy the ride!
Check back sometime between the 19th and the 24th and I’ll have more new goodies - right now I’d say expect Storm Runner media, but we’ll see when the time comes.
Correction
Jun 7, 2004Christ, I can be a moron sometimes! I just realized that in my 3am, haste makes waste stupor last weekend while trying to get the DelGrosso’s pics up as quickly as possible that I forgot to reduce the size of the thumbnail images (the little pics you click to see the big version) - they were roughly 5 to 10 times the file size they should have been. My apolgies everyone. If you were getting frustrated waiting for pages to load in the DelGrosso’s gallery, it’s been fixed, try again.
I’ll have Lakemont Park up in a couple of days. So check back later in the week.
