[Chris]

I hate to sound like a broken record and repeat everything everyone else is saying but it was really great to finally meet everyone. This was my first event and it certainly will not be my last.

[aoriole19]

Yesterday was so awesome!! I went to coaster stock twice but I haven't been to an enthusiast event in 5 years, and I must say it's much better now that I look/feel more like an adult (or at least kind of a little bit grown up) because I feel like I'm more on everyone's "level" haha, I don't know, it's hard to explain. It was just much easier to talk to people.

Related: Yesterday I met someone and told him my forum name and he said "Oh I didn't know you were a girl" (hahaha) but unfortunately I didn't actually get his name after that; who was that? Was it you Edwardo? Sadly I didn't even get to meet everyone who was there yesterday, so I'm not sure who it was.


I got pretty sunburned yesterday, but oh well, it was worth it. Hands down the best day of my Summer (...so far :p)

[chknwing]

^ pretty sure that was tarheel. he hasn't had that class yet.

[Edwardo]

I was the one that didn't realize you were a girl

[tarheel1231]

^ pretty sure that was tarheel. he hasn't had that class yet.

I literally did not talk to anyone yesterday. I considered going up to Swampfox to ask for a Thunder Road t-shirt but decided against it. So I did not meet any of you lol. I was the black kid with the glasses and the black Nike shirt.

[coasterbruh]

^Trust me...we all knew who you were lol. I said something to you as you were walking back from getting your prize but you didn't hear me. We've all been that shy 13 year old.

It was such a great feeling seeing how many of you guys showed up yesterday! While I have no stock or ownership in carowindsconnection, other than being the mayor lol, I was ecstatic to see everyone! Loved seeing the ones who don't post much and the ones who can't stop posting...tarheel...famousamos hahaha. What was really special was seeing the interaction amongst us all. It was a family reunion. We were so organic around each other one would think we have NEVER sparred off one bit! I wish there was a way we all could officially meet up at the park again say some time in 2016...don't mind me...wishfully [s]planning[/s] thinking.

I know for a fact Max would have been proud of this group...and woe have had lots of snarky, all in good fun comments to share.

[Chris]

^ Well said on every level, Jarvis. I walked into Carowinds yesterday morning having met, in real life, 2 people from this forum. Within 5 minutes, I think I met everyone there. Everyone was so welcoming. I hate you didn't feel you could come say hey to any of us, tarheel. Don't be a stranger next time. We won't bite (I can't speak 100% for Jarvis). Standing in the plaza waiting for our 'rode drop', my friend Matt and I met two people from this forum and ended up riding rides with them the entire day. You would have thought we all had been good friends for years, but nope. We just met yesterday. I can't top Jarvis's analogy... it was like a family reunion.

[ColetD]

^ ^^ Couldn't agree more. This was only my 3rd event, but I was looking forward to this one more just because I knew I was finally going to make myself say hi to some of you.. yet try really hard not to come off as some sort of creeper, lol. I would love to meet up with you guys again so hopefully we could have another get together at some point in the future. I would've hung out more throughout the day, but having family with me.. I would've felt bad. Haha

@Tarheel- I completely know how it is to be shy/uncomfortable in these kinds of situations, but trust me when I say that it can get better but .. you do need to put some work into it. You just need to bite the bullet and do it, don't listen to that little voice in the back of your head. I also have social anxiety so I know where you are coming from, but you are young and at some point you won't care (too much, anyway.. lol) what happens, because you may miss out on something if you didn't try in the first place. Whether it is walking up to a stranger, making a phone call or hitting 'send' on a message that may make you seem completely weird and maybe a little crazy. But once you do it.. you can be proud and confident, even if it seems little and insignificant to anyone but yourself.
..Sorry everyone, that was my PSA for today. Let me crawl back into my hole now.. haha.

[arby]

Most of you know what I look like so always feel free to come up and talk to me. I'm usually so focused on taking pictures, looking for survey markings, or one thing or another that I often forget my manners...

[Chris]

That sounds neat but I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of taking pictures with strangers who aren't mascots.

I've always thought it would be so much fun to be a mascot, sorry I don't actually have one to bring.. /offtopic

It's not. At all. I can't believe I am going to admit this but I was Dino for 1 basketball season at Wake Forest (head coach was Dino Gaudio so they had a Dino dinosaur mascot). It was terrible. There were some benefits. I went to NBA player James Johnson's 21st birthday... that was a crazy night. But overall, ugh.













My Fox Sports debut...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkN6e1Ta87o

My ESPN debut at 2:28 (side note: Wake Forest used to have one of the best entrances in history.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDRb-kqzzEY

[jeffdavis]

I simply didn't get the chance to speak to everyone but I did get to finally meet some of you. I look forward to meeting more next time. I had an awesome time at my first enthusiast event. Thanks to everyone that helped put this on. The tour was a special treat!

[aoriole19]

^^Lies. It's fun! Hot, but fun. We aren't supposed to stay in the costume for more than about 30 minutes, so I guess that helps make it not too bad. I have always wanted to do stuff like sports games, but surprisingly MIT isn't big on sports (In all seriousness I would argue that MIT students are much more athletic/sporty than people would assume, but people just aren't into going and watching the varsity games. They're fun, but always small turnouts). So usually I just work random events around campus where my main job is to wave at people and pose for photos. Sorry I keep responding to the off-topic stuff, but I love talking about Tim the Beaver!

[Chris]

The heat was the only issue I had. Unfortunately, it was a big enough issue for me to say it sucked. Everything else was great. The people interaction was awesome. The heat was crucial, though. I only took a quick 10-15 minute break at halftime. Other than that, I was going 110%. By the end of the night, I would be wore out.

[SeasonDiningPlan]

I didn't get to make it to the meetup. We had been riding Thunder Road all morning and around 11 they opened up the NC side so my son and wife decided to go on a little marathon of NC side. Headed home around 2 and left back out to the park at 5. My son and wife got back on Thunder Road SC side after waiting a bit ( I decided to stay off an snap some photos ) and when they got back off, he got complaining his head hurt really badly so we ended up having to take him to First Aid over by Goldrusher/Cyclone.

Long story short is that they advised us not to ride any more coasters for the evening with him (Liability I guess). So we ended up heading back up to my Mother-in-laws house to see if she would baby sit him while my wife and I came back for the meet up and group ride.

By the time I got back into the park around 9pm I couldn't find anyone from the CarowindsConnection group in Harmony Hall. I figured you guys went over to Thunder Road so we headed there and basically I didn't see any indicators of who was who..
(Probably some of you guys were there! )

But yeah we gave up and left after riding one time. The night time experience wasn't very memorable IMO. Had much more fun during the morning when the families were all out there and none of those young punks cussing and smoking. Felt like I was at the nightclub on ThunderRoad. (And it smelled terrible! All those sweaty people boxed in together...)

[Jarsh]

The night time experience wasn't very memorable IMO. Had much more fun during the morning when the families were all out there and none of those young punks cussing and smoking. Felt like I was at the nightclub on ThunderRoad. (And it smelled terrible! All those sweaty people boxed in together...)

Funny how an ACE event works... I didn't have that issue at 9:45 for my final ride.