Relocation Day - Jeremy Reid's Backyard Coaster

Total Timber Tour Blog Day 10

577 mile drive south-west from accomodation in Kansas City, MO, past Wichita and then south through Oklahoma and Oklahoma City to Texas.

When we started planning this trip last December, we thought this was just going to be a driving / relocation day. However, as time has passed we’ve thought of things to see and do that would not take up too much time, but break up the monotony of the driving-only days.

So a last minute accommodation change and last night we stayed in a holiday village at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. Because it was another closed park (see blog Day 9) they were offering cabins and cottages at rock bottom prices. One of cheapest nights stays, at just $65 (£33) became one of the most luxurious. The cabins and park are all new, and designed to accommodate a family. It was like having a full suite in a luxury hotel – very swish.

Waking up and drawing the curtains to the sight of two coasters was a real treat. We’ve been to the park before and nothing to tick off here, so staying on site was the next best thing. Highly recommended.

At lunchtime, we passed another closed park, Joyland in Wichita. However, this park wasn’t just closed because it was a weekday, the park has not operated for a couple of years now.

Not sure of all the reasons, but it would be great to see it open again. In fact, this is one of the ‘Standing But Not Operating’ (SBNO) wooden coasters in America that we have not ridden.

Moving on down towards Oklahoma City and we encountered something very familiar to us both. We have tried storm chasing on a couple of occasions in the past and ahead of us was a very typical text-book ‘supercell’. With our limited knowledge of tornado’s we knew that this could have been a tornado producing storm, so took the opportunity to stand by and watch it develop.

Nothing did come of it, and time pressures meant we had to ‘punch’ our way through it onwards towards our next stop.

The journey out of the other end of the storm was quite amazing, one minute it was 77°F, the next 99°, and then back to 85° - all within the space of about 10 miles.

Arriving into Oklahoma City, and another closed park for a photo op, this time Frontier City. Again, we’ve been here before, but the stop broke the journey up.

Onwards towards Texas, and one of the highlights of our trip. We always try to do a little something to make the holiday more than just being regular park visitors. This trip, it was the visit to the GCIi HQ. Well, we also had an invitation we couldn’t turn down – a guy called Jeremy Reid said we could stop by and take a look at his back yard coaster – for those unfamiliar, Jeremy has built his own wooden coaster in his back yard!.

The coaster has its routes over 10 years ago and has been through various incarnations – a true labour of love for the guy. How cool, your own coaster!

He has just modified the return run so he can add a set of brakes and because of this has yet to ride the current layout himself. In our books, this puts the coaster firmly in the ‘under construction’ state, so not affecting our tour in any way.

It was great to meet Jeremy, a true Internet legend, and all his family – we were treated like royalty with that true ‘southern’ hospitality you don’t find anywhere else on earth! Thanks all, it truly made our holiday special.

More on Jeremy Reid check out his website HERE.

Tomorrow were off to Six Flags Over Texas and it looks like it’s gonna be HOT!. Hotel located near Dallas Fort Worth Airport.