RSS Feed

‘Featured’ Category

  1. MyX Is Psycho – Howl O Scream

    October 3, 2010 by Kelly

    Honestly, I don’t have an “X”, but apparently Sylvie from MyX does.

    I was invited to go to the Bleed-Up at Howl-O-Scream on October 1st. What a way to bring in October!

    We were all lucky enough to get some food, drinks and pictures with Sylvie. Along with a concert. Ooooh and the most important part – there were giveaways. Three or four people won guitars. And one person won a trip into Alone, supposedly the best haunted house of all time! More on that later…

    Around 9, everyone headed out to conquer the scare zones and houses. I took in all the scare zones like a big girl, but I am not a fan of doing haunted houses, so I opted out and was the official bag holder for Jeff, Jacobus, Jen and Jay. Holy crap that’s a lot of J names!

    We set out to find drinks (so I would maybe do a house or two) and instead we made a stop at one or two houses for the 4Js to do. Thankfully (for me) rides were open, so we did Sheikra!!

    After that, we each grabbed a drink and went to grab our reservation. Reservation for what you ask?

    ALONE!

    The person that won the chance to do Alone… ME! Probably the ONE person that wouldn’t actually do it. I never expect to win anything, especially since Sylvie was taking out tickets and then ripping them up.

    She said Kelly… then couldn’t read my last name. Said Walky (because apparently “I write bad”) and then the person on stage with her read that it said Walker. Yay me?! The ticket was up to 4 people (by the way, this house is an extra cost for anyone not able to win a ticket. It costs $25 in advance online or $35 day off. You can either do the house alone <hence the name> or with a group of up to 4) So who were the four people that did it? Well, I wasn’t included.

    Jeff, Jacobus, Jen and Jay!

    After they checked in, they waited… and waited… and waited.. They only let one person/group in at a time. From what I was told by the 4Js is that it’s “personalized” of sorts. You don’t get herded through unlike the other houses and it’s a story. If I wasn’t such a chicken it sounded cool.

    And if you don’t believe me, by 10:30 all of the spots for the house were sold out for the night!

    We didn’t get to see either of the other shows, but while they were in one of the houses I caught a peek at Fiends. Seemed funny and something I would like. Singing.. dancing.. ok I’m in.

    I saw a lot of this…

    And looked at this a lot to figure out where to go next.

    We all had an awesome time. Including me, even not doing any of the houses was a lot of fun. The rides were open. The lines were short and our Front of the Lines passes didn’t get used too much because there were hardly any lines!

    A very bloody thank you to Busch Gardens, John, and Melissa!

    There are a lot more pictures on my flickr page – flickr.com/photos/peglegpug


  2. Crash-A-Rama!!

    July 5, 2010 by Kelly

    How in the world have I lived in Florida my ENTIRE life and not seen this event. It happens twice a year – in Summer (normally June from what I heard) and the day after Thanksgiving.

    They call Crash-A-Rama ‘The Redneck Rodeo’ for a reason… as many different types of rednecks out there that you can imagine.

    It costs $20 to get into the awesome Orlando Speedway to see this event and let me say, through the rain (which I’ll get to in a bit) this place seemed like it was sold out. Soooo many people!

    The races start around 7:30PM but we got there to tailgate  around 4:30PM (yep, we were ready to start the action!) We had a couple of beers while waiting for the gate to open so we could buy tickets. The line was HUGE!!! I couldn’t believe how many people where there to literally see cars and busses crash! Amazing.

    We got in, got some food (mmmm BBQ!) and grabbed out seats (thanks Jacobus for picking out awesome seats!) All of a sudden this bus is out doing figure eights and we see people in the bus. THEN they announced that we could get in line to ride the bus. Why yes I would like to ride a bus painted black with weird writing all over it. (See the video for the exciting bus tour!)

    This whole thing was so exciting! There were crashes, rednecks (don’t worry, I’m not being mean. It’s called a “redneck rodeo” and trust me, the four of us were getting called out for NOT being rednecks.), fire, explosions, an old cop car going around the track, a truck painted with the word “NObama” on it. Everything.

    We made it until about 9:00 when the sky opened up and the rain started. They kept the races going.. until the lightening came out. We waited in the car for a bit and then once we saw the fireworks going off, we headed back out and sat some more. The rain got harder and it seemed as though it was never going to end. So we didn’t get to see the bus races or the trailer races, but that just means something to look forward to next time.

    Apparently there is an even bigger event held the day after Thanksgiving and I know 4 people that will be there for sure! I can not WAIT for November!!

    We have a mental list of what to bring next time. We brought beer, but we were under packed – need a tent for shade, a grill, more beer, ice, food, ponchos, bigger umbrellas, and apparently in November we’ll need blankets.

    I’ve got my bag packed, and now I bet you do too!


  3. Splashing The Day Away

    June 24, 2010 by Kelly

    SeaWorld did it again.

    They invited Twitter people to take part in a #splashup at their water park – Aquatica.

    Everyone that RSVP’d got the royal treatment. Before we even walked into Orlando’s newest water park, we were given an awesome pen, the coolest mister ever and sunscreen.

    My favorite thing that I was handed… THIS! (It truly doesn’t take much to make me happy..)

    It’s a 2gig USB drive that included facts on some of SeaWorld’s new projects, such as the After 2PM pass. What the pass is: you pay for a day in the park and for 2, yes TWO, dollars more you can upgrade your ticket is you can get in every day for the rest of the year after 2PM. No blackout dates and all the fun that you want. Less than $50 can get you 6 months of water play! YES PLEASE!

    Aquatica has over 30 slides and the ones that I was able to do were amazing! We put our stuff down and headed straight for Omaka Rocka, the newest ride. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a ride where there is water pouring DOWN on me. I was turned and tossed on my float and passed from wall to wall. It was sooo crazy! I loved it. It was probably my favorite ride of the ones we were able to do.

    Next was Dolphin Plunge. Where you, the rider, go flying THROUGH the Commerson’s dolphin play area. It was fun and it’s cool to watch others go through the tube and see the Commerson’s dolphins playing.

    We then took on the lazy river and the NOT-so lazy river. The not-so lazy river is called Roa’s Rapids. It is about 4 times faster than a normal lazy river. It was quite a good work out and you have to be ready to yell “SORRY!” as you fly by someone after running into them. Oops!

    I’m pretty we may have had the MOST fun in Walkabout Waters. I’m also pretty sure it’s for kids. But heck, we dumped water on people (don’t worry, no one was hurt.. everyone is there for the same reason!), rode a slide, climbed some rope contraption thing, got pushed around by kids and had LOTS of water dumped on us.

    There are a couple of slides I still want to take on. Maybe next time.

    Oh and SeaWorld treated us to their Banana Beach Cook-Out, which is an all you can eat special at the water park. And a couple of animals. Yay! Thanks SeaWorld!!

    PS – Shamu, if you’re reading this.. I’d really like an updated shirt since mine is vintage now…seriously. Honestly vintage. “I Follow @RealShamu” being on my shirt totally dates me to over a year ago.


  4. Mission: Accomplished

    May 16, 2010 by Kelly

    It’s Sunday, May 16, which means Atlantis embarked on it’s ‘last’ flight two days ago. I was there to share the experience with 149 other Twitter users that had the amazing opportunity to be there first hand to witness such an awesome thing.

    However, we weren’t just there for the launch. We got a VIP tour of the entire NASA complex.. as they said, everything they could have shown us, they did.

    Also, any guest speakers they could brought in to talk to us, they did. Seriously.. a Close Out Crew member! One that had JUST help get the astronauts of Atlantis get situated and ready for flight. We watched him be apart of the crew on NASA tv and then about an hour later, he was in our tent telling us all about it: his final words to the astronauts before closing the hatch (“God Speed.”) and that it’s not always fun, as he was part of the crew that get Columbia ready for flight.. right before that horrible launch.

    We got to spend a lot of time hanging around the countdown clock and Launch Pad. (I’m sorry for whatever you were doing on Thursday and Friday!)

    Thursday’s speakers:

    Bobby Braun – NASA Chief Technologist
    Janice Voss – Astronaut
    Stephanie Stilson – Orbiter Processing Director
    Jon Cowart, NASA engineer
    Ron Woods – NASA spacesuit designer

    Thursday included a full VIP tour, with the added bonus of going to Launch Pad 39-A. Being there while the RSS – Rotating Service Structure – pulled away from Atlantis. What a freaking experience. Amazing!

    Friday’s speakers:

    Lori Garver, NASA Deputy Administrator
    Lt. Col. Patrick Barrett, Weather Officer
    Dave Wolf, Astronaut
    Chris Meinert, Closeout crew (for STS-132, how crazy!!)
    Madi Sengupta, Robotics Instructor (for STS-132..see totally mind blowing)
    Bobby Braun, Chief Technologist, came back for more questions

    The speakers came randomly throughout the day. Then everyone went out by the road to wave the Atlantis STS-132 crew off!! What a great experience!

    Once 2:10 came around we all went out to get our spots for the launch.. what an amazing view we ALL had. Felt the Earth shake. Got yelled at by a gator (honestly, it was SUPER loud and scary.)

    I have posted the rest of the pictures on flickr, so go and enjoy them! See NASA up close!

    Day one pictures Day two pictures


  5. Mission: Still in Progress

    May 14, 2010 by Kelly

    Currently listening to Lori Garver, Deputy Administrator, talk about her job and the her two loves, Space and Politics. Gave us the information that David Letterman is here on property for the launch – he’s not Conan, but thankfully he’s not Leno as well!

    Before Garver came in to speak for a few minutes, we took our group photo out by the countdown clock! :)

    STS-132 Launch Tweetup (201005140001HQ)

    Here’s the photo next to the launch pad 39-A last night: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/4605256176/sizes/l/

    I was there… see! :)

    Today doesn’t have quite the same structure on speakers today.. we just got the chance to wave the astronauts off in the Astrovan. We are some of the last people that they will see! How crazy is that. My mind has been blown.

    Chief Meteorologist Lt. Col. Patrick Barrett is telling us about why the shuttle may NOT go off: low clouds, lightening, etc. Atlantis needs to be able to return to the pad if need be and the weather has to be clear.

    I can’t wait to get some of my pictures up today and tomorrow. There is over 14 gigs of pictures and videos to go through, so bear with me. I want to get them up soon so I can share them.

    Here is a photo for the RSS pulling away from Atlantis yesterday to hold you and me over.