Deadwood

Today was all about a long drive from the Carolinas to Virginia. The initial plan would have had us driving for about 5 hours in a single hit but from my Google Earth Project I'd found a little park called Deadwood half way, which would offer a little break in the journey and an extra credit for those of us whoring the rides. The problem we had was that the park was supposed to be closed today. A quick call from the main trip organiser Yvonne, and the park had agreed to open up especially for us. How cool is that?

The day started pretty stupidly for me as I'd managed to leave my phone beside the bed. A quick call to the hotel and it was being Fed Ex'd to our next hotel in Richmond.

Deadwood is a western themed family park stuck in the middle of nowhere, North Carolina (actually Bear Grass if you ever want to visit, and you should). Formerly a music venue it had expanded to become a little theme park too. As well as opening up for us the park had laid on pork roast, bbq chicken and some really nice veg for lunch.

We also had a go on their coaster, Dinosaur Canyon, which offered a wild ride (as its designed to throw kids around, not adults) and we didn't need tickets.

The owners of the park let us run amok basically and it was great to see initial responses on arrival of "this is it?" and "we came here?" quickly disappear as the amazing hospitality was recognised.

Thomaso with an impromptu piano performance.

Viper will not be appearing on Worlds Strongest Man anytime soon.

Darren takes the opportunity to become the lighting guy, not to be confused with

Raiden, the lightning guy.

Oh deer! What a terrible pun.

I can't bear such bad worldplay. Oh no, there's another one!

Good advice that!

and the best ever reason for a ride being down
"Repairman from Brazil trying to sneak into USA to fix. Please be patient"

A few of us were taken to the owners garden (they live on the property) where a pile of salvaged coaster track could be found. The park had taken ownership of a hacked up ride from Mississipi which they need to make the space to build. I hope that project comes to fruition, it's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle they have on their hands.

Deadwood's hospitality was amazing and what they did for us was just brilliant. I think we left them with the best thank you that we could; a record day's takings from park merchandise (mostly from t-shirts that they'd freshly screen printed for us) although on a day that they don't trade, which hopefully won't get them into any trouble with their accountants!