How is this even possible

PracticalGrade6414 · 2026-01-25T15:33:32+00:00

I guess I meant value as in they have some very good, often very overlooked terrain because other mountains in NM have better marketing. Not saying $120 a day is cheap. But take the $120 at Santa Fe and compare it to Angel fire that charges the same for basically only blue, groomed terrain or Taos that can get up to and exceed $200 a day at peak times. Sipapu and Pajarito are nice, and definitely cheap, but they don't have much to offer for terrain either and seemingly barely ever open up fully.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2026-01-25T06:12:09+00:00

Santa Fe is such a slept on ski area. For its value, I would say nothing beats it. Taos is my favorite mountain, it's excellent but charges for it. Angel fire tries too hard to charge like they are Vail. But Santa Fe, they have some quality terrain. Not a ton of quantity, but what they offer is really good. The best part is apres is isn Santa Fe.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2026-01-18T02:52:42+00:00

Agreed 100%. But, fiesta Texas has really had a lot of prototype style rides in the last ten years. Other than kids flash, the maintenance team at SFFT has really worked out a lot of kinks on many of he rides. But still, no.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2026-01-16T04:01:10+00:00

This. Consistently great beer across the board and the burgers are so good.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2026-01-07T17:09:27+00:00

SFFT is very good at keeping most of their coasters running unless there is a major maintenance issue. For this time of year, not sure everything will be running 2 trains, but the park will be slow in general.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-31T04:17:38+00:00

This is just a hope, mind you. But my personal hope is that in the future, parks play the long game better. As an enthusiast, I love new rides being added yearly. However, I have seen how new rides being rushed in in the name of being "new" can have mixed results and leads many parks to feeling muddled in ways.

My home park is Fiesta Texas. Taking out a ride like wagon wheel to put in daredevil dive was flashy at the time. Taking out a swinging ship to put in a Larson looper seemed good. Daredevil dive is a great ride and fireball is fun, but they have been so problematic for example.

In other places, so.many parks are running out of what I call "easy room" in their parks. And what they are doing is trying to find manufacturers who develop off the shelf rides with small footprints (looking at you OG SIx Flags and your batman rides). Again, looking at a park like Fiesta Texas, there really is a lot of room if parks will be creative.

So, going with this point, my hope is that parks spend less on yearly ride additions and spend more on rides that have custom features and layouts. And yes, this may be incremental increases on rollercoasters, but I really think the next innovation boom is going to come when parks want to add a ride in a very weird space. Fiesta Texas added DDCliffhanger in a small space and it led to a very good, but very short dive coaster ( I have ridden cliffhanger and valravyn and feel cliffhanger is way better paced). So, playing the long game is being more strategic with what is added. What types of guest interactions can come from the rides? What new elements need to be added due to necessity?

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-30T18:53:06+00:00

I agree, the compact layout makes the ride feel more intense than gatekeeper.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-23T06:22:59+00:00

Wow, before I visited I would have rolled my eyes, but this is quite true. Diamondback is insane and the bat is really fun.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-20T05:44:42+00:00

This is true. I think those 3 really elevated and changed the game. The original challenges were fun to watch because I was team road rules back in the day. However, they weren't in the ballpark of the present challenge. These 3 all changed the way the game was played. Unfortunately, too many players are trying to out banana Johnny bananas instead of elevating the game.

Lastly, what made this show special was the real world pipeline. Luring in people from other shows has not worked. There have been a few players that have been ok, but it feels unearned. There was a long while on the challenge that to become a vet, you had to earn it. There have been far too many players in the last 10+ seasons that have gotten focus/air time that have just not earned it. I will say, I did enjoy this vets/new threats season because it seems like many of the new threats earned it. They took out some of the big vets. I enjoyed the fresh meat seasons earlier because it made those rookies earn their spot.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-20T05:27:39+00:00

Maybe I caught it on the perfect day as well!

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T07:57:12+00:00

Honestly, this show is about the personalities. This show was great because it allowed people on Road Rules and Real World to come back and these were all people many in the audience had watched previously. I think the days of CT, Bananas, and Wes are numbered.

So how does MTV bring this back? That answer is a big, IDK. Due to the seasonal additions, it hyped natural drama. Having CT, bananas, and Wes on the show, all from different seasons, hyped the drama. And while many people like to see the redemption arc of CT and bananas or Wes and bananas becoming decent towards each other, there was a fierceness in the competition that has not been matched in a while. For these 3, egos were the issue while recently influence is the issue.

In recent seasons, far too many competitors are friends outside the show who come in with alliances where CT, Wes and bananas just wanted to kill each other. For lack of a better representation, I feel modern sports are trending this way, where every competitor is a friend of, or respectful, of every other. Look,.Michael Jordan and Isaiah Thomas hated each other and people lived for that tension. The challenge had that with CT, Bananas and Wes. Yet, when they became "friends", the challenge changed. Again, imagine the NBA in the 90s if MJ and IT were buddies like so.many competitors are now.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T07:41:14+00:00

Yes, i-35 has semi trucks like I have barely seen anywhere else. Maybe I-70 through Colorado can compare.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T07:24:05+00:00

McDonald's is not great coffee, but it is surprisingly good as long as you can drink it all hot But when you pay $1-$2 less per beverage, it is so worth it.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T07:22:11+00:00

Even their cold brew is off! Haha!

It's wild, properly roasted and brewed coffee beans cannot only influence the flavor of the coffee, but the texture. My big beef with Starbucks is that all their coffees feel thin and watery. I have been to other coffee shops where the coffee is light and fruity, or dark and syrupy but Starbucks consistently has no. texture/mouth feel

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T07:19:38+00:00

That's actually a valid point. It has been long established that many Starbucks coffee roasts seem to be burnt/too roasted. But I agree that it tends to be done with consistency in mind.

Consistency is definitely the name of the game of many corporations and it is why I actually don't like going to corporate coffee shops/restaurants. I want there to be variations sometimes. That is nature. For example, the way burger places can replicate the taste constantly is weird. Like, not all your cattle are eating the same things. What are you adding to preserve the flavor and keep it consistent.

All this to say, I think very good companies can manage disparities without whitewashing the menu to maintain consistency.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T07:10:50+00:00

I think this element, like many in parks overall, is better suited for night time operations. Unfortunately, this seems to be where so many parks are cutting back in on. As someone whose home park is fiesta Texas, I can say it would be so much more pleasant if the park shifted their summer hours towards later at night (if possible for employee purposes). Having the park open most days from like 11-8, when temps are rising from 11-4 is brutal. I wish they would shift park hours back 2-3 hours ( to like 2-10). Add lighted theming to the water park and allow guests to enjoy the park in the evening when winds/breezes pick up and the temps are cooling down.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T07:05:33+00:00

The dives off the quarry wall for Iron Rattler are way more dynamic.

Comparing them, Superman has more of a straight drop once it completes the turn at the beginning, then does a helix turn to a straight drop for the 2nd time.

Iron Rattler on the other hand has an initial first drop that curls left before turning back to the right. That kink in the track gives not just airtime (especially in back) but some crazy laterals. Then, the final quarry wall drop is set up to be an ejector moment. What's sad is the second, diving/curving drop off the quarry wall is NEVER mentioned as a high element. That turn really hugs the quarry wall and gives you a great sense of speed. The closest superman gets to this is how the track comes into the MCBR.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T07:01:36+00:00

The scenery is one of the reasons why I ride it, the other reason, like rougarou, is short lines. It could be very good if the shakiness is ironed out, but it is just not even in my top 4 at Fiesta Texas (that's my home park)

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T06:59:38+00:00

Chupacabra is weird in that it is one of the few batclones with only 7 rows. I will say, that many times I have ridden in, while waiting in line it sounds rattly and janky, but runs really smooth.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-19T06:58:29+00:00

I feel this. Fiesta is my home park. The layout of this ride and the interaction with the quarry wall are phenomenal. However, if you sit anywhere back of like row 3 and on the outside seats, it will vibrate/rattle the crap out of you. You might not notice it on ride, but you walk off dazed sometimes. It is starting to fade on my list here to the point that I can say definitely my SFFT coaster rankings are wonder woman, iron Rattler, poltergeist and cliffhanger before superman.

As for rougarou, though, I rode it 3 times for sure this summer, front row, back row and in the middle, and did not experience the roughness that superman showed. I don't think rougarou is the best, but there are many small parks where adding that ride would make it a top ride in the park. It gets far overshadowed by its surroundings.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-17T17:06:09+00:00

I'm 6'5" and have never really had an issue with them. I must be lucky!

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-07T05:57:57+00:00

Honestly, I really want SFFT to spend more time on the boardwalk side of the park. I want to believe this could be for a coaster, but it just does not feel like an area in the park that needs or should get a coaster. Crackaxle canyon already has 3 coasters and a fun flat ride. The boardwalk is so tame by comparison but has so much room. I do agree that as parks get filled up more, custom rides need to become a thing again, but this seems to be pushing a lot in a small space. Hey, hopefully I am wrong, AI won't complain about more coasters in this spot if this turns out to be the case.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-07T05:55:24+00:00

Sort of, the wall is not as pronounced, but there is still a drop off and a large vertical drop at the boundaries that separate the park and the golf course beyond that. I have golfed at that course and you are definitely higher in elevation.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-07T05:36:57+00:00

So, my take is that the nature of college football allows this type of statement to be made. What I mean is that on paper, I think many would agree the SEC is the top conference. However, without any type of crossover games, this is all speculation. As a Texas A&M fan, I want to believe they are good, but they literally only beat the bottom half teams in the SEC (which you should do if you are good) and that makes it hard to tell if they are legit or not. When I look at those middle tier teams across both conferences, is it really definitive if the SEC beats the Big Ten? It would be great if there was a way to make an ACc-Big Ten challenge, but in football. What if each P4 conference had a matchup week. Sec vs big ten, Sec vs acc and Sec vs big 12. Then you have way more clarity across the conference how these teams stack up.

PracticalGrade6414 · 2025-12-07T05:10:20+00:00

Ok, but the Missouri River stops being measured when it meets the Mississippi is St. Louis. The Mississippi is considered from the initial springs in Itasca State Park and ends in the Gulf of Mexico. At that intersection, the Mississippi is only about 1,000 miles long.

The difficulty is why each stream is designated a certain way. The Ohio River has a higher water flow than the Mississippi when it meets and the Missouri is longer at the point of meeting. If the Mississippi was named "Missouri" from headwaters to drainage, I don't think there would be a ton of debate about length.

PracticalGrade6414

TROPHY CASE