Hey folks. I just wanted to let you know that I will no longer be organizing
the Coaster Alley Convergence (CAC) at Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho. When I
organized the first gathering in 2001, I really only thought it would be a one
time deal. We ended up having CACs three years in a row and what fun we all
had! It was so cool to be able to meet other hardcore enthusiasts from
throughout the U.S. and to share all of the stellar coaster rides together!
The main reason I'm giving up CAC is because the park is in Idaho and I live in
California. I simply do not like to have to commit to traveling to Idaho every
year. To those who attended the events, well, THANKS! It was definitely the
best ERT I've ever had, period! If someone wants to take over the event, feel
free. However, I would appreciate an e-mail if you plan on keeping the name
Coaster Alley Convergence. It isn't too late to book an event for 2005 if
someone really wanted to do it. Matthew? Dave?

My interests are changing and I'm finding myself wanting to do some non-coaster
related travel. I just returned from the big island of Hawaii where I
snorkeled for the first time, and I even hiked 3 miles over a lava rock field
to an active lava flow!! WOW! Now, I'm wanting to travel to other places in
the world that have great snorkeling as well as other things. For the past
several years, roller coasters were the main focal point in planning my travel,
but now I'm in a relationship, and my interests have changed somewhat. I guess
I just want more of a balance in my travel activities, and not just coaster
trips.

One trip I will be making this year will be to Mt. Olympus (again!) to ride
Hades. All I can say is Tremors, watch out! Again, thanks to those who helped
to make CAC a reality! It truly was awesome!

Take care,

Kevin Coley

From:	Mark Rosenzweig
Subject:	Re: The future of Coaster Alley Convergence
Date:	23 Jan 2005 08:41:50 -0800

Flare wrote:
> mamoosh wrote:
>
> > Thanks for all your time and effort, Kevin. Over at Coasterbuzz
> > people are trying to convince Jeff to do a CBuzz event there...but
I
> > might be interested in taking over and coordinating the event. I'd
> > love to discuss it with you, Kev ;-)
>
> I'll add a 2nd to the list.
>
> I'm sure that between us, we can get it off the ground. It's just way

> too much of a good thing to let go. I'm pretty much of the mindset
that
> I'm not too worried about making it happen. Hell, if they can be
rented,
> that's all that matters!
>
> Make no mistake, it is probably THE best wooden ERT you can
experience.
> The only better coasting on that level I can recall was on Boulder
Dash
> at the Preservation Conference (2001 Holy crap was THAT sick!1!), and

> Ghostrider at Solace (01,02 take your pick).
>
> I think setting up the sliding scale for the event is the way to go.
Set
> it at 3 hours of ERT. I'm brainstorming some "Perk" type angles to
> consider. I will definitely be in touch! Silverwood is an awesome
park,
> and for 1st timers to make the trip, to not get night ERT is a tragic

> thought in itself.
>
> On the related note, I completely understand your position, Kevin. I
> actually recounted my travels from last year, and realized that out
of
> the 4 significant trips that I took, I rode a total of 2 coasters.
:-O
> Of course, that doesn't express the multitude of visits to Coney,
> Knoebel's and Wildwood that balanced it out, on a local scale.
>
> Dave

Is it the snow? Cabin fever?

Whatever! Welcome back Coaster Enthusiast Flare. I'm sitting around
waiting for Jim's TR from yesterday when he walked to Coney in a
Blizzard all for an authentic Nathan's hot dog with onions and kraut.
-Mark

From:	Flare
Subject:	Re: The future of Coaster Alley Convergence
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 21:16:07 GMT

Mark Rosenzweig wrote:

> Is it the snow? Cabin fever?

lol... It's all of the above.

> Whatever! Welcome back Coaster Enthusiast Flare.

Tanks, Mark. I love Rollie Coasters. I'd say really, really good ones
aren't far from great, full-release . I'd put em really close to
favorite foods. In fact, if I had a chance to eat my favorite meal, or
ride SROS, it'd likely be a no brainer. :-)

As for a return to enthusiasm, it never really left; it's more a
transition in regards to certain things settling and solidifying in my
life a bit. After a couple of "non-coaster" related seasons, there will
be quite a bit of traveling to "new to me" places this year with
coastering/hanging being the focal point.

Don't be drinking too much Winter brew, Mark, cause a I'm going to be
tapping your always meaningful knowledge on several territories.
(Southeast, TX, Maryland & Virginia, and obviously the Dells). Upon a
brief inspection of places planned, it's looking like a good 75 new
coasters...And not just a bunch of CreHo credits; a large number of
solid rides that I've been meaning to get to for a long, long time. I'm
really looking forward to this coming season.

I'm sitting around
> waiting for Jim's TR from yesterday when he walked to Coney in a
> Blizzard all for an authentic Nathan's hot dog with onions and kraut.

It wouldn't surprise me to hear of Jim doing such a thing. He's a
complete maniac!

And holy crap. We got dumped on!

Dave

From:	steelforce at aol.come2Mypark (Sam Marks)
Subject:	Re: The future of Coaster Alley Convergence
Date:	23 Jan 2005 17:22:21 GMT

> I'm sitting around
>waiting for Jim's TR from yesterday when he walked to Coney in a
>Blizzard all for an authentic Nathan's hot dog with onions and kraut.

I wonder who else is in a blizzard wanting a wiener LOL

From:	Mark Rosenzweig
Subject:	Re: The future of Coaster Alley Convergence
Date:	23 Jan 2005 17:19:22 -0800

Flare wrote:

> In fact, if I had a chance to eat my favorite meal, or
> ride SROS, it'd likely be a no brainer. :-)

Favorite meal vs. SFNE SROS? Ask most enthusiasts and its about a
50/50 split. Heck, most would just settle for munching on a piece of
track.

> As for a return to enthusiasm, it never really left; it's more a
> transition in regards to certain things settling and solidifying in
my
> life a bit.

Oh, you mean, uh, getting married? Yeah, sailing that ship right now!
Remember those days of, uh going to a Knicks game, hopping out to
Knoebels on no "notice", or even going down the block to have an IPA or
two?

Well, it isn't all that bad when you marry your best friend/and or soul
mate as I did. Luckily, there are a select few parks (you know- DL,
Knoebels, BGW, LC, etc) that we can meet in the middle on.

> Don't be drinking too much Winter brew, Mark, cause a I'm going to
be
> tapping your always meaningful knowledge on several territories.
> (Southeast, TX, Maryland & Virginia, and obviously the Dells).

I do so much traveling to these areas that the parks are starting to
seriously bore me. Want to know where those goldy locks can be
mullet-ized in the Dells area? I can lead you there, too!

> Upon a
> brief inspection of places planned, it's looking like a good 75 new
> coasters...And not just a bunch of CreHo credits; a large number of
> solid rides that I've been meaning to get to for a long, long time.
I'm
> really looking forward to this coming season.
>

I suspect after popping your Shivering Timbers on Hades, among other
various activities, that you'll see the light.

>
> And holy crap. We got dumped on!

After it was all said and done, the storm wasn't nearly as bad as the
President's Day "dumping" we had two years ago. All primary and
secondary roads out here in Clifton were passable by 10AM.

From:	BaSSiStiSt
Subject:	Re: The future of Coaster Alley Convergence
Date:	Sat, 22 Jan 2005 21:33:06 GMT

On 22 Jan 2005 18:18:48 GMT, airtimejunkie@aol.com (AirtimeJunkie)
wrote:

>Hey folks. I just wanted to let you know that I will no longer be organizing
>the Coaster Alley Convergence (CAC) at Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho.

That's a shame but I think everyone understands, Kevin. It's a lot of
work to set up an event and you did a great job on the three. 2002's
was a BLAST!

>My interests are changing and I'm finding myself wanting to do some non-coaster
>related travel. I just returned from the big island of Hawaii where I
>snorkeled for the first time, and I even hiked 3 miles over a lava rock field
>to an active lava flow!! WOW! Now, I'm wanting to travel to other places in
>the world that have great snorkeling as well as other things.

Might I recommend the Caribbean? Best snorkeling I've ever
experienced. Grand Cayman was amazing, with St. Croix and Labadee not
far behind. I think you'd really enjoy a cruise vacation if you gave
it a try...great food, great ports, and very relaxing.

There's also some decent snorkeling closer to home on Catalina Island.

>One trip I will be making this year will be to Mt. Olympus (again!) to ride
>Hades.

Drop me an email and let me know when you're going, Kevin.

> Again, thanks to those who helped to make CAC a reality! It truly was awesome!

And thanks to you for setting it up.

Mike Miller

OMG, I'm a CreHo

From:	NASHvlMIKE
Subject:	Re: The future of Coaster Alley Convergence
Date:	24 Jan 2005 04:13:07 GMT

Frickin AOL has gone to hell with it's complete and utter inability to stay
current with newsgroup topics.... aargh...

However, that rant aside;

Thanks Kevin for putting forth the effort to start and run CAC for those years.
I sure enjoyed that last one! At some point it's good to investigate other
interests and hobbies -- I certainly balanced my life a lot more last year in
terms of doing more things that were photography related and not so much
coaster related. I think it's healthy, honestly.

I hope Moosh or Flare can continue in your footsteps - I would have added my
name to the list but the reality is I'm completely unsure of my job situation
at the moment and can't take on anything until that gets sorted and is
stabilized.

As Tim posts later on this thread (I can't find his post with AOL so I can't
insert my comments to it...grrrr) night ERT is a must for Tremors and maybe it
would be nice if the ACE Rep there were to realize that next time he plans an
event up there...

I don't know if the park having the event as a park-sponsored event is good or
not - the jury is out on that one. One of the reasons CAC was so great was that
it was clearly a purist event, not so much a social event. With a small group
of riders, mostly people who knew of one another, there were no problems, no
misbehavior, no drunken fools, none of the problems that seem to plague other
events once they grow in size. For that reason I kind of like the fact that CAC
was expensive, and that it is remote. I'm not even sure there has to be any
"sweetener" to the deal - if you don't like riding Tremors at night for an hour
(or more) after the park closes in the summer, you don't belong at the event -
period. It's not for the social scene, it's for those of us who like the
hardcore riding on an awesome coaster that only shows it's true colors late at
night.

Personally, I agree w/ Tim that once every other year might be an idea, and
even one hour of ERT at night after the park closed would be worth it for me;
maybe even a bracket where one night of post-close ERT followed by one morning
hour of pre-open ERT.... those who remembered the summer con there years ago
would attest to how well Tremors ran that morning after the insane night ERT.

-m

From:	mamoosh
Subject:	Re: The future of Coaster Alley Convergence
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 03:26:04 GMT

Thanks for all your time and effort, Kevin. Over at Coasterbuzz
people are trying to convince Jeff to do a CBuzz event there...but I
might be interested in taking over and coordinating the event. I'd
love to discuss it with you, Kev ;-)

mOOSH

From:	Flare
Subject:	Re: The future of Coaster Alley Convergence
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 14:03:35 GMT

mamoosh wrote:

> Thanks for all your time and effort, Kevin. Over at Coasterbuzz
> people are trying to convince Jeff to do a CBuzz event there...but I
> might be interested in taking over and coordinating the event. I'd
> love to discuss it with you, Kev ;-)

I'll add a 2nd to the list.

I'm sure that between us, we can get it off the ground. It's just way
too much of a good thing to let go. I'm pretty much of the mindset that
I'm not too worried about making it happen. Hell, if they can be rented,
that's all that matters!

Make no mistake, it is probably THE best wooden ERT you can experience.
The only better coasting on that level I can recall was on Boulder Dash
at the Preservation Conference (2001 Holy crap was THAT sick!1!), and
Ghostrider at Solace (01,02 take your pick).

I think setting up the sliding scale for the event is the way to go. Set
it at 3 hours of ERT. I'm brainstorming some "Perk" type angles to
consider. I will definitely be in touch! Silverwood is an awesome park,
and for 1st timers to make the trip, to not get night ERT is a tragic
thought in itself.

On the related note, I completely understand your position, Kevin. I
actually recounted my travels from last year, and realized that out of
the 4 significant trips that I took, I rode a total of 2 coasters. :-O
Of course, that doesn't express the multitude of visits to Coney,
Knoebel's and Wildwood that balanced it out, on a local scale.

Dave

From:	Tim Melago
Subject:	Re: The future of Coaster Alley Convergence
Date:	Mon, 24 Jan 2005 03:10:53 GMT

"Flare" wrote in message
news:X8OId.12307$HT6.4694@trnddc04...
> mamoosh wrote:
>
> > Thanks for all your time and effort, Kevin. Over at Coasterbuzz
> > people are trying to convince Jeff to do a CBuzz event there...but I
> > might be interested in taking over and coordinating the event. I'd
> > love to discuss it with you, Kev ;-)
>
> I'll add a 2nd to the list.
>
> I'm sure that between us, we can get it off the ground. It's just way
> too much of a good thing to let go. I'm pretty much of the mindset that
> I'm not too worried about making it happen. Hell, if they can be rented,
> that's all that matters!
>
> Make no mistake, it is probably THE best wooden ERT you can experience.
> The only better coasting on that level I can recall was on Boulder Dash
> at the Preservation Conference (2001 Holy crap was THAT sick!1!), and
> Ghostrider at Solace (01,02 take your pick).
>
> I think setting up the sliding scale for the event is the way to go. Set
> it at 3 hours of ERT. I'm brainstorming some "Perk" type angles to
> consider. I will definitely be in touch! Silverwood is an awesome park,
> and for 1st timers to make the trip, to not get night ERT is a tragic
> thought in itself.
>
> On the related note, I completely understand your position, Kevin. I
> actually recounted my travels from last year, and realized that out of
> the 4 significant trips that I took, I rode a total of 2 coasters. :-O
> Of course, that doesn't express the multitude of visits to Coney,
> Knoebel's and Wildwood that balanced it out, on a local scale.

First, thanks to Kevin for organizing the event for several years. I only
made it out the final year but the ERT was unbeatable. I knew from the ACE
conference out there that it was worth making another trip out for 3 hours
of night ERT in Coaster Alley. Kudos to others like Moosh and Flare for
showing interesting in picking up where Kevin left off.

I'd take any amount of *night* ERT on the Silverwoodies. I'm not sure if the
park would give you 3 hours anymore but its worth checking. I'm not sure why
the park couldn't pick up some sponsorship of this event as well since it
wasn't affiliated with any club. On the other hand it's mind boggling that
the ACE regional event last year only had ERT in the morning. I don't care
if you're local or from the east coast, night ERT is what makes an event a
Silverwood special. And that's when the park closes at 10 PM, not 6 or 7 PM.
Maybe something could also be worked out in conjunction with ACE to help
bring the event "up to standard" with true night ERT. Easy for me to say
since I can't commit to anything in Idaho this year. But that leads me to
another point that you could simply have this event every other year since
it is so hard for most people to get out to Idaho every single year.
Considering that SRM is no more, Silverwood ERT every other year doesn't
sound too bad.

--Tim Melago