Rode it 10 times in a row one day when the crowds thinned out because of a small rain shower. Good times.

dexter freebish......you know, the roller coaster where, at the corkscrew turn, a girl once stuck her head out of the cart and it hit the poorly located supporting iron column......

Great memories of season passes gone by.

Astroworld was a fairly awesome place to waste a summer chasing girls in the mid 80's.

For you younger folk, AW wasn't always low income baby-sitting.

I will never forget the urban legend that someone vomited while upside down on G.L. and it landed on everyone as the train came down.

Funny that my first thought was about all those times when we rode it like 10 times in a row, and I see that the first reply is about the same thing.

I think one afternoon, when the park had thinned out, I spent about 2 hours riding GL over and over and over. Lost track of the number of times.

We used to get to AstroWorld before the gates opened on random summer weekdays, and literally sprint to GL to get 10+ rides before anything resembling a crowd showed up.

so who bought the ride and where is it now?

That was my first roller coaster. I still remember my first ride like it was yesterday.

I miss Saturdays with the missus OD'ing on the rides all day and then walking over and relaxing in the Pavilion at an Astros game. Amazing how little that cost if you had a season pass (and a small appetite).

[This message has been edited by Big.Cat-93 (edited 6/23/2010 10:02a).]

just sad. so many memories there

People who went there during the park's dying days didn't ever have to sweat through any lines. No need for getting there early, hoping for a light shower to thin things out, or anything else. There just weren't any lines.

It was seriously ghetto by then, but there weren't any lines for anything. All those days when we rode GL over and over and over again? Yeah, you could ride any of them like that.

A theme park in Lubbock (Joyland?) bought Greezed Lightning and is currently restoring the ride. I think they also bought the Looping Starship.

I went to security after spitting while upside down on the looping starship. I shouldn't have drank that red Icee beforehand.

This chick's boyfriend was wearing white jorts, and she was yelling, "Look what you did to my boyfriend's pants!" This was probably 94-95'ish.

My first coaster was actually the Texas Cyclone. If that rickety old wooden beast didn't put the fear in you it was going to fall apart, nothing did.

I remember Enron rented out the entire park one year so we did the greezed lighting marathon as well.

Diggity---I remember too. Must have been 92 or so? That was good times. You could walk up and ride anything without waiting at all, or just a short time.

Back in the 80's, we had season passes from Kroger and went almost every day of the summer. My record for number of times riding GL in a row was in the 20's. I remember the park was empty and the attendant just kept pushing the big red button everytime we came into the station. Put the penny in your lap and let it fly! We laughed when all the coins clanged around the metal rails. Good times.

the mini loaves of bread sold at the shop right at the entrance/exit....rainbo ??

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A theme park in Lubbock (Joyland?) bought Greezed Lightning and is currently restoring the ride. I think they also bought the Looping Starship.

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You're right about the Greezed Lightning but Six Flags moved the looping starship to Arlington.

RIP

I remember the bread. I think it was Rainbo.

I still have a Rush spiral notebook I bought there (the Signals album cover is on the front).

spent a weekday there after Labor Day when Batman was a new ride - the weather was great and the place was empty

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Diggity---I remember too. Must have been 92 or so?

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sounds right.

This one wasn't open yet:

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I will never forget the urban legend that someone vomited while upside down on G.L. and it landed on everyone as the train came down.

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You mean this wasn't true???!


Man, so many memories. I can still feel the thrust of Greezed Lightin' when it took off - something like 0 - 60 in 2 seconds.

I remember after you shot through the loop and started going up the vertical part, I always got the momentary irrational fear that the whole coaster was just going to keep going and spill over the top.
Had the same fear when you went backwards up the other end.

Remember the roar when you shot backwards through the waiting area, and saw the flash of everyone's faces waiting in line??

You guys are forgetting that thing was broken for two week stretches. I worked there in the summer of 97 I think. I hated that damned park from then on. Greezed Lightning was supposedly a German ride and they had to order the part that pushed it from overseas. They would only order two at a time and if the second one broke too quick, they had to wait for the replacements.

Taz's Texas Tornado was supposedly a carnival ride from Europe. I remember that one closed for like three weeks while they rebuilt the computer shack after one of the metal flags that told the computer where the cars were came unattached, flipped across the rider perimeter and directly through the computer.

Other highlights include the employees running a counterfeit scheme passing fake bills to guests for change. The two who got fired for having sex in the children's ball pit........while the park was open. Imagine being a parent watching your kids in the ballpit and seeing someone's bare ass popping up from underneath them.

thank you Lucky 007 for adding to our fond, nostalgic memories of this fine amusement park ride. I wish I had the sense and timing to have such memories about the surprisingly aptly named ball pit.

I didn't even mention LeeRoy, the gay guy that worked on XLR8 with me. He did everything he could to be a girl, but he did such a good job being one I accidentally called him she one day and he freaked out. Tried to get me fired. That was awesome.

We almost killed a woman at Water World with that ride thanks to a gigantic fat man. This dude got on with his 8 year old daughter. Needless to say the car was hanging way the hell out to one side. When they came back into the station, the trough wheel on the car that straightened it up to come in the station slammed into the side thanks to old tubby out. Little did we know that it cracked the steel rod that connected it to the car. About ten minutes later we got a call to close because one of our trough wheels went flying off and landed two feet from some woman standing by the wave pool. Those things weighed a good 15 pounds. Two feet to the left and she was toast.

Another fun fact about XLR8: it was built over an old water ride which is what the lagoon below it was. There were bull frogs eight inches across in there but the water was stagnant so there also vicious swarms of man eating mosquitos.

Oh, and at night the park was taken over by a large pack of ferile cats. They kept the exterminator bills low though so they were allowed to stay.

We also had a grandmother die waiting in line. That was fun.

I got screamed at by grown men because I wouldn't let their three year olds on the ride. Spit at by teenagers.

I did get to check Ms. Texas's harness, which was nice. She refused to take off her damned tiara and almost lost it.

Flag Day was real fun. Rainbows galore and the most notable even of the day being the five foot skinny white dork leading around the six foot five black gym rat wearing a diaper, bonnet and sucking on a pacifier around on a leash. Didn't really know what to say to that one. LeeRoy was in hog heaven that day.

[This message has been edited by Lucky #007 (edited 6/23/2010 9:31p).]

Lucky #007...freakin awesome

That summer was fun. Not really. They offered me a four dollar an hour raise to stay when I quit and I said no. That was almost double my salary. I just didn't care. I had fall baseball starting and couldn't work thank God. My parents made me get that job.

I actually passed out at the job fair frome the shear awesomeness of the place. Twice. I didn't eat got nervous and down I went. Came to, got really embarrassed, stood up real fast and down for the count again. Did they quietly carry me out? Oh hell no. They put me in a chair and wheeled me out with two gigantic security guards shouting "out of the way, he passed out. Move!" What a dream that was for me as they wheeled me by the Water World booth where the three smoking hot blonds were applying (sorry. Rule number 1 didn't exist yet and digital cameras were barely out. I think. Picture Baywatch babes). Was it over yet? Hell no. They called 911 who proceeded to send their paramedics on the damned fire truck that rolled in lights a blazing to check my blood sugar. That was finally over after they wheeled me out to my mom's car with the two security guards shouting again. I think I mde their day. I did get the job though.

My ride manager had high aspirations for being poor with no high school degree. She wanted to be area manager. Not of the company, of the Alpine section of the park. That was her goal in life. At that level she didn't have to wear the themed costume that smelled like weeke old spaghetti when you picked it up. High motivation to succeed actually.

I've got more later.

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Not of the company, of the Alpine section of the park.

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Taz's Texas Tornado was supposedly a carnival ride from Europe

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This might have been my favorite ride in the whole park. I remember being pissed when I realized they had taken it out and replaced it with that stupid SWAT ride.

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In 1998, AstroWorld opened a looping coaster designed by Anton Schwarzkopf. Originally a travelling coaster throughout Germany and other parts of Europe, the coaster known as Thriller was re-named Taz's Texas Tornado, and later simply referred to as Texas Tornado. This coaster installation brought the park's collection of Schwarzkopf rides up to three. Despite efforts to operate the coaster efficiently, it was removed at the end of the 2002 season and sent to Six Flags Marine World where its first drop and loop were modified by Premier Rides in an attempt to reduce the G-forces experienced by riders. The ride operated at that park under the name "Zonga" until it was closed and dismantled. It now will be used at a fair in Mexico.

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