Jul. 21 – Eight chapters in and I finally get to a full-sized theme park. Somehow this is only the fourth legacy Six Flags park I’ve reviewed, bringing it equal to the number of Happy Valley parks in China I’ve reviewed. I find the process of reviewing helpful. In this case I realized I had generally positive feelings towards all the roller coasters in their collection, which is more than can be said for some of the legacy Cedar Fair parks in the region… yet this fact was obscured by my memories that included numerous frustrations. Read on for more.
Jul. 14 – Normally a review from a park like this one is pretty much just going to be an analysis of a single coaster. While I don’t waste too many words over the other attractions at Fun Spot America Atlanta, there is more to today’s update than just figuring out where on the pain to pleasure scale ArieForce One ranks. It’s also about politics and identity, and the great city of Atlanta. I didn’t have very much time in the city from this trip, but still was able to reminisce about some of my other recent experiences in the ATL for completion’s sake.
Jul. 7 – The United States just celebrated its 249th anniversary, and while many forces are actively engaged in whitewashing much of that history, it’s important to remember that there are people, institutions, and entire cities dedicated to preserving the entire story of this country, the good and the bad. While I only had a half day in Montgomery, Alabama two years ago, the three sites I experienced there left a profound impact on me that continues to resonate with me, both in terms of how I understand my country and even from a purely artistic quality. It’s incredible to me that in less than the span of a human lifetime that a history so ugly could lead to something so beautiful as what I found in Montgomery. I can only hope that the history we’re living through today will someday be looked back upon in a similar fashion within our own lifetimes.
Jun. 30 – I’m a planner. Whenever I travel, I like to know exactly where I’m going to be each hour and what I can expect in advance. Some people swear by the more romantic notion of simply wandering to see where it takes you, but in my experience if you don’t do your research before traveling that leads to a lot of tourist traps and bad food. Of course, often I specifically plan to see tourist traps, as was the case in how I ended up in Biloxi, Mississippi for an evening during a day that otherwise very much did not go according to plan. Here’s the story of that day. I don’t have any lessons in finding serenity or learning to accept the unexpected from this experience, only suggestions of how to more safely park your car overnight.
Jun. 23 – I only had planned a day in New Orleans as part of this road trip, so I made sure to make it count, even if it didn’t add anything to my coaster count. A special highlight was an excursion outside the city to tour the Whitney Plantation, the first and still only historical plantation focused on the legacy of slavery… particularly timely with the recent Juneteenth holiday. Keep checking back each Monday for the next chapter.
Jun. 16 – The South has several amusement parks that are one good wooden coaster and not much else. (See last week.) Of them all, Alabama Adventure probably has the greatest disparity in the size and quality of their wooden coaster and… everything else. But they’re trying. Maybe one day. In the meanwhile, Alabama Adventure is far from a full day park, so make sure you make some time for other experiences in the area. This review includes a tour of Sloss Furnaces, a completely free must-do if you’re ever in Birmingham.
Jun. 9 – The journey continues deeper south with this three-parter update featuring Mammoth Cave National Park and Beech Bend Park in Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee. The first part of the tour included more days broken into smaller stops like this including cities, culture, and nature, while the big parks and coasters factor more heavily in the later half. I sort of prefer these episodic days, it’s like being the protagonist of a picaresque.
Jun. 2 – I need to set a reminder to hit publish on Mondays before I head out for the day. Just barely made it before midnight for North American time zones. Nevertheless, here is the first part (of many weekly updates) chronicling my June 2023 road trip across the American Southeast that began almost exactly two years ago in Louisville with Kentucky Kingdom.
I’m especially pleased that this report allowed me to update the category title for the severely dated “Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom” from my first entry about this park 16 years ago. I’ve been doing this for way too long. The irony is in all that time and the countless reviews published, I’ve only gotten around to writing about four of the legacy Six Flags parks, now reduced to three (fewer than the number of Happy Valley parks in China I’ve written about). That will change in a little while once I get around to Six Flags Over Georgia. For now, enjoy the start of Pride Month with some thoughts on a theme park that is perpetually in a state of transition.
May 26 – For Memorial Day, I’m writing about a theme park that does a lot to memorialize the First & Second Sino-Japanese Wars. Glorious Orient is Fantawild’s newest theme park focused on modern Chinese history, and it’s simultaneously one of the their best and most propagandistic. But what does that really mean? This is very much the kind of theme park that is of interest to Roller Coaster Philosophy, and I wrote way too much about it, especially because (unlike certain other brand new theme parks) it is almost completely unknown to western fans and as such I wanted to do my duty to document accordingly. It even gave me a new (and I promise unironic) entry on my list of Essentials!
May 19 – Good news: a new park review from 2025, exactly one month ago. Technically it’s two, for both Fantawild Dreamland and Oriental Heritage theme parks in Xiamen, China. As the review states, I went in with low expectations and had them exceeded just enough that I was inspired to write about them. Especially for the update coming next week, Glorious Orient, a theme park with some wild dark rides based on modern Chinese history. If you follow me on Bluesky you’ve already seen some posts about them.
Better news: Yes, I said coming next week. And this isn’t a one-off. After these Fantawild parks, I intend to keep a weekly schedule throughout much of the summer as I go back and review the parks and experiences from my ambitious 2023 road trip throughout the American Southeast. How can I commit to keeping this schedule when my track record with regular updates is what it is? Well, I’ve already written two months’ worth of updates as I was struggling with writer’s block for a longer piece I’m not sure when/if I’ll ever share. So making some lemonade from lemons. Check back each Monday for updates, or follow me on Bluesky.
Mar. 30 – A quick update in terms of the time it took to produce it; a relatively long one if you want to read everything contained within. Over the last several years I had written a handful professional blog posts. Some, like the theme park and video game comparative series, I still regard quite well. (Others, eh, definitely show their age.) The original blog is now offline, but I didn’t want that work to disappear completely into the void, so I tracked down the archives and am re-sharing them here as a portfolio of work.
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