Travel Note 1st March 2019 I decided to spend a long weekend in Florida to decompress after four extremely busy days working in Texas. In an ideal world I'd have booked myself onto a Thursday evening flight, but there were no direct services late enough for my schedule. As such, my morning began with a 4:15am alarm call delivered by a robotic voice whose dull monotone accurately represented how I felt about waking up so early. Twenty minutes later I'd checked out of my hotel and boarded an Uber driven by a middle-aged man who didn't stop talking for the entire fifteen minute journey to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport; it was a relief to get out of the car. I'd allowed myself ninety minutes to complete departure formalities, though this proved to be far more than needed; my newly acquired TSA PreCheck status ensured that I was on the far side of security just fifteen minutes after arrival. On the positive side, this left me with plenty of time to walk the length of the terminal in search of breakfast. There were plenty of restaurants available despite the hour, but unfortunately the options were limited to variants of the two local staples, namely tacos and eggs. Those after less calorific fare like myself were restricted to a single shop selling fruit at about five times the local market rate. I managed to scavenge something to meet the immediate need, but it was definitely not satisfying. The flight on JetBlue was both on time and remarkably pleasant courtesy of an empty seat next to me. There was no charge for on-board internet, yet despite that it proved to be unexpectedly quick; a check on Speedtest showed that I was getting a download speed of almost 10Mbit, comparing very favourably with the paltry 864Kbit shared by over five hundred passengers on my regular journeys to and from Singapore. I was able to work productively for virtually all of the two hour journey, and as a result the time passed very quickly. Getting out of the airport on arrival was painless, if somewhat time consuming as luggage delivery took the better part of an hour. My booked economy rental car was unavailable, so I was assigned a Mazda CX-5, described to me as a "small SUV" but quite a way into mid-size territory by European standards. I was a little unsure about the upgrade, but my doubts quickly vanished on the discovery of adaptive cruise control that didn't give up in stop/start traffic, allowing me to rest my foot away from the accelerator and concentrate on steering. This feature proved its worth ten times over after I accidentally sprained one of my toes on Saturday night by colliding at speed with misplaced furniture; I'm not at all sure that I'd have been able to complete my planned route without it.

Fun Spot America Kissimmee 1st March 2019 The Fun Spot America parks in Florida operate daily from 10:00am to midnight, presumably in the hope that those staying in the vicinity will drop in after a full day at one of the better known destinations nearby. I'd figured that I'd be visiting at an off-peak time, but I was still surprised to see no more than a dozen cars in the parking lot at the Kissimmee branch when I arrived shortly before noon, especially since some of those probably belonged to staff. As far as I could tell the only attraction to have dedicated personnel was the wooden coaster; everything else was being run on an as needed basis by a few roving operators. It was tempting to buy an unlimited wristband so that I could have my own exclusive ride session, but the break even point was five laps and I wasn't sure that I'd want to do that many back to back rides on minimal sleep with an inadequate breakfast. In the end I decided to buy two individual $10 tickets so I could do both front and back, and that was the right call, as I felt a little woozy at the end of my second lap; age is a terrible thing. Mine Blower (#2580) is the twenty-first wood tracked coaster to be manufactured by The Gravity Group, and their fourth to feature an inversion (following Hades 360 and three different Jungle Trailblazers in China). It uses a steel support structure, though this fact has been cleverly disguised, to the point that the average visitor would be unlikely to notice. The trains are modern six car Timberliners, and both feature a themed lead car decorated with stylised sticks of dynamite. The ride has been installed on a plot of around 38,000 square feet on the eastern edge of the park that was home to a pair of go kart tracks between 2008-2016. (The park opened with three separate tracks; the one that has been retained was the largest by some margin.) The layout starts with a tight left turn and an eighty-three foot lift, decorated with American flags on both sides. A slight descent and left turn prefix the main drop, which goes all the way to ground level. The ensuing climb culminates in a right turning corkscrew that is negotiated exceptionally well, without even the vaguest hint of jarring. The rest of the course consists of a fairly generic mix of airtime hills punctuated by a pair of overbanked turns that are handled without any of the shaking experienced on my local coaster. I noticed no significant difference between front and back; both seats gave a similar experience. Enthusiast reports on the ride comfort level have been somewhat mixed, but I can report that there were only minor bumps today; under other circumstances I'd have happily ridden for a few hours. After disembarking I went for a walk around the park to snap a few photographs for my collection. There was signage up advertising the brand new Sky Sled harness for the world's tallest Skycoaster, but after brief contemplation I decided that it was an experience that I'd prefer to save for a visit with company. There were no other attractions that I had a strong desire to try, and given that I decided to set out for my second stop a little ahead of schedule.