- May 23rd, 2015, 4:19 pm
#77719
I am sorry for everybody who is saddened about the loss of it. I really am. I understand many of you have a lot of fun memories on Thunder Road. So that does suck, indeed. I feel bad to see how this news makes many of you feel.
I moved to Charlotte in 2012 (also my first visit to Carowinds that year), so I don't have any sentimental attachment to the ride. But unlike in 2012, I actually am seriously enjoying riding it this year (it was awful when I first rode it in 2012). I had 3 fun rides in a row on it last night. It was bouncy, but fun. 2 rides were back-to-back without having to even unbuckle. For as much as people seem to "love" Thunder Road, they sure don't ride it much. And that is a big part of what I am enjoying about it, other people just aren't lining up to ride it. So, I am riding it a lot now, and enjoying it far more than I thought I would when I bought the season passes.
But I have to agree with management on this one. I know as a Carowinds noob, you'll all consider this blasphemy.
Story you all don't want to hear:
I recently did some work on an old wood fence at my mother's house. It was built at the same time as her house, in the mid 1980s. She didn't want to spend the money to tear the old one down and build a new one, but she still wanted to have a fence. I tried to convince her not to invest in keeping this old fence, but she would not listen to that advice. It was her house, her fence, and her money. I shut up, and I agreed to do what she wanted. So, I was just going to replace the worst pickets, beams and posts. I first surveyed it with her and estimated what all she thought should be replaced. I went to the local Lowes and bought that amount of material, plus a few extras. When I pulled "okay -looking" pickets off the beams to replace the failed beams, all the pickets turned out to be bad. When I pulled the "okay-looking" beams off the bad posts, those beams crumbled. So back to Lowes for more wood. And still, the more I kept replacing the more I discovered wood that might have "looked" okay on the first survey, but was actually complete rotted. Back to Lowes for the third load. The fence was simply garbage, all of it. My mom didn't have to pay any labor cost for this work, all she had to do was buy wood and screws (Carowinds does not get free labor like my mom does). Even so, it still was a complete waste of her money. It was all wood that had sat out in the elements for 30+ years, it all needed to be replaced The fence looks better now, and some parts of it are somewhat stronger. But I just had to stop and accept the futility of what I was doing, and reuse garbage, as much as possible.
And still now, the vast majority of it will fail at first opportunity (person leaning against it, lawn mower bumping it, tree branches falling, a strong winds in storm, etc). She still has her fence, and didn't spend much too much money on it. She's happy for that. It looks better. The money she did spent was a complete waste though, because next year or the year after, she's going to have a crappy fence that is falling apart still. That's what nature does to wood. It's going to constantly need repair in the future, and I live 1000 miles from her and I am not always going to be able to give her the free work.
If she wants to have a fence, for the future, she still needs a new one even with what I did this year. If the fence ends up getting replaced piece-meal, it's going to cost a lot more than doing it all at once, and doing it right.
And if Carowinds wants to have an attraction for the future, they need a new one.
And if they need a new one, they need new one that brings more people to the park. They can't spend more money on a ride that people have no interest in already, than it would cost to buy a new one that makes them more money. They can't. They have no option. They don't even have the choice, that most of you want them to make. They aren't a retired mother, with a fence, and son who works for free. They don't run a museum to display nostalgic stuff that no longer works. They either make money, or they close the doors. They are a business.
All that crap said, I hope it's not all waterpark... please please please make it a great woodie. Please.
I don't mind your opinion. I don't agree with it, but it's your opinion. I just didn't appreciate how you presented it. It came across like you didn't give two hoots about Thunder Road so it was insulting to see you lump us in with you when you said the gp doesn't appreciate it like "we" do.
