swampfox43

I was at Carowinds yesterday and the wait for FURY was just over 15 minutes. I had a friends visiting from Atlanta and Australia. The Aussie has been traveling the USA over the past 2 weeks gathering information on a documentary to be released on Australian TV in a few months. He will post it on You Tube he said. We all loved FURY (I've personally ridden 9 times now) and my guests says it has the best first drop of any coaster they had ever ridden, and they have ridden many all over the globe. I have another Australian friend coming in May or June just to ride FURY. Yes, the hype has reached global proportions. On media day there were TV crews from China there. I stood by as they were doing their commentary on the bridge that FURY dives under. I couldn't understand anything they were saying obviously except when they attempted to say "FOOWY".

Aerial drone video I took Jan 17 during construction tour.

One of many aerial photos I took Sunday, Dec 14 of FURY construction.

Just confirming the "rumor". Building permit found here for new Sling Shot ride.

Looks like Carowinds will not only be adding a world class coaster in 2015, but also a Sling Shot ride like this one at Cedar Point according to this article today in the CBJ. This has been rumored for a while but this article practically confirms it. Wow! 2015 is shaping up to be pretty exciting at Carowinds.

There are now 2 HD webcams showing construction of the new coaster and the new entrance: https://www.carowinds.com/online-fun/webcams

Millennium Force is a great coaster. Ridden it many times. Intamin coasters have a whole different feel than B&M coasters. MF may always be your favorite regardless of stats. But until F325 opens, no one can honestly say because this will be a one-of-a-kind ride unlike any other.

Let's not forget an 81º drop and 6602 feet of track. That's nearly 1300 feet more track than Intimidator and 7º steeper than Intimidators.. Also, the days of big pamphlet press kits are numbered. Take a look at the Fury 325 press kit. It's a flash drive molded to fit snuggly into the side of the hornet. All the photos and videos shown in todays presentation and even some B-rolls that were not part of the presentation are on there. Nice to be able to put a press kit in your pocket for a change...They also gave away green glasses with honeycombed lenses. They did open Intimidator for us junkies to get our thrills. All I could imagine when we crested the top was "wow, Fury 325 will be 100 feet taller than this!!!"... Another image from the flash drive.

I'll be at the media event tomorrow. Although much of this rides stats have been leaked, it will finally be nice to make it official and hope for a few surprises.

I took this one of the tear down last Saturday (March 22) from my radio controlled quadcopter. They've come a long way since then.

Here's a decent 1 hour time lapse showing uptown Charlotte/

My favorite new past time is taking my quadcopter up several hundred feet and taking pictures and video with the attached camera. Here is one I took from Freedom Park in early March.

They've announced the new stuff for 2014 already. New waterslides in the waterpark. Also, new paint jobs on some of the coasters. 2015 will be the big year. A 300+ ft coaster. Should be a nice addition to the parks skyline.

I took my flying camera to the skies on this cold Christmas day. Couldn't resist getting some aerial views of Carowinds. Take a look!

Also, Rack Room Shoes at PRSC is closing. The signs were posted Dec 23. Lot's of stores are moving out. I am sure in part because of the astronomical rate increase. Blackhawk signed a 10 year lease 2 years ago but I doubt they will be moving even with the lease rate increase Edens & Avant has swept across the shopping center. Kinda sad to see some of the other little, independent stores leaving though. When Porter Byron opened PRSC, he wanted it to be a place for the little, independent guy to succeed. Yes, times have changed but it's still sad to see so many of them leaving.

Here is a sample of the new solid white paint beside the whitewash painted bricks I took today. Also note the orange traffic cones to keep drivers from running into the flower beds. What a train wreck!

Update on the ugly whitewash paint at PRSS. Today, the owners have decided they do not like the whitewash paint. So, what are they going to do? They are going to paint the bricks a "solid" white. I'll upload some pics as they progress. Another boondoggle idea were the triangular planters along the curb in front of the shopping center. Well, many of them are level with the roadway and people parking along the curb are driving right over them. They just planted all these nice plants in them, only to have cars drive, and in some cases "park" on top of them. Crazy mess!

I, for one, dislike the changes Edens & Avant have done to PRSS. I've worked there for over 13 years and it gets quite depressing to see the train-wreck they have created with the parking lot. They have ripped most of the concrete walkways out that were between the parking spaces forcing customers, women with strollers, children, etc to walk in the roadway of the parking lot. Not very bright. I'm all for more trees and landscaping but this was not well thought out. Also, that stretch of newly configured roadway in front of Fuel Pizza was poor planning all around, especially the stretch going north. It is very narrow and most delivery type trucks can't make the turns from any direction. It's evident in all the tread marks you see in the new planter medians on the right. If they hadn't built those little planter medians, it would be a little better. Not to mention that when exiting the parking lot from the center, say from Blackhawk Hardware towards Fuel, you can only make a right turn. So, people go right and make a U-turn, holding up traffic behind them as they wait. It's a crazy mess. I see it every day. Don't even get me started on this ugly whitewash they painted over the bricks. Some may like it, but I haven't met anyone yet that does. And believe me, I've talked to many, many people. I said early in the process, I won't judge this until I see the finished product. But so far, I ain't likin' what I'm seein'.

Carowinds live webcam showing the Intimidator.

The Homeland series has been interesting. They used Blackhawk Hardware for one of the scenes back in early summer. Then a couple weeks ago, Woody Harrelson was at the Brueger's Bagels at Park Rd Shopping Center, taking a break from the recent filming. He was also seen at Boudreux's in NoDa that same week.

Ate lunch at The Diamond today. I've been a patron of The Diamond since the 1970's and was very glad they reopened. I would give it an overall rating of a C+. I ordered marinated beef tips over rice with vinegar slaw and fries. My friend ordered a sloppy joe with onion rings. The beef tips were OK, but basically rare, blood pouring out. The fries were cold and limp, but the vinegar slaw was yummy. My friend says the sloppy joe had no flavor, very bland. The onion rings, which I tried, were very good. This won't keep me from going back though. I'm always willing to give places with potential another try. I will say the service was excellent and the staff was very friendly. Don't order the fries!

Just an FYI - Sir Edmund Halley's has reopened as of today. The sign says "opening at 6pm-2am." Not sure if they will open for lunch but I will find out.

Me and a friend had lunch at Kickstand yesterday (formerly Common House). I liked the bicycle theme and the individual LCD's at each booth was a nice touch for the sports enthusiasts. We both ordered a bacon cheeseburger with fries. Although the fries were from the frozen variety, they weren't bad. Not the typical tasting frozen fries. I prefer fresh cut though, like many other restaurants do (my favorite fries are Thomas St Tavern). The burger was very good, and I loved the burger bun. I'm sure I'll go back in due time but honestly, nothing wowed me to the point where I must go back soon. There was a decent crowd in the place but Loco Lime seemed to be busier.

Interesting. I've only eaten at this location 3 times and the place was packed with a 10 minute wait. Granted, these were Sat. & Sunday lunch time visits.

Rode by there today. The name of this place is called "The Cowfish".