Into the woods with Thunderbird
So how is Thunderbird construction coming along? We’re ready to go vertical! Let’s take a closer look. In this episode of the Hard Hat Chronicles, James takes us into the woods and explains one big commonality Thunderbird will have with its Holiday World siblings. Do you have any questions for James to consider answering in an upcoming episodes? Please post them here and maybe he’ll give you a shout-out in the coming weeks and months.
What’s that? Flying through the trees …
It’s Thunderbird, of course! Thunderbird track count: 5 up and 72 to go. #HW2015 pic.twitter.com/RuzR5BsjVn — Holiday World (@HolidayWorld) September 8, 2014
The Secret: How we kept it
It’s been a little more than a month since our announcement for 2015, and I’m still in shock that we managed to keep this massive project under wraps. And I’m even more in shock that our fans just loved that we kept the secret. Frankly, we were all braced for people to discover it two days out. We decided if that happened, it would be okay. After all, we still had an awesome teaser video to reveal. Two days out, though, a message popped up in Paula’s Facebook inbox: Someone had found our trademark application. He admitted it took him…
A bird’s eye view
The downside of visiting the Thunderbird construction site on a Sunday, there’s just isn’t much going on … The upside, of course, is you can take a photo like this: Above? Well that’s Thunderbird’s brake run. Here’s another view: It’s amazing to see so many pieces of bright orange track scattered around the staging area, knowing that in just a few months there will be loops and dives and crossovers galore. For now, though, we have a field of corn separating much of the steel track and supports from the construction site. The track that’s being put in place right…
Steelhenge
VP James managed to find the construction site amidst this morning’s heavy fog. #HW2015 #Thunderbird #tristatewx pic.twitter.com/d7gS1PUXvi — Holiday World (@HolidayWorld) August 21, 2014
Orange is the New Track
On July 24, while our Thunderbird announcement was still underway, there it was on Twitter: Orange is the New Track. I’d gladly give credit to the clever person who tweeted that witty phrase within seconds of seeing our Thunderbird animation, but alas, Twitter won’t give me access that far back in our “notification” history. (We have been tweeted-at a lot lately!) Whoever you are – bravo! Because suddenly, we all love orange. Matt, of course, he’s always been an orange fan. In fact, he insists it’s his favorite color. Orange is the new Matt? No, no, no … sorry. If…
Aw shucks, that track is pretty!
That’s right, nothing but cornfields around here … #HW2015 #OrangeIsTheNewTrack #Thunderbird pic.twitter.com/1Bz1qyjFd2 — Holiday World (@HolidayWorld) August 5, 2014
Countdown to launch
This tweet was from last night, so now we’re at T-8months:27days! 8 months and 28 days. #HW2015 #Thunderbird http://t.co/psuknKZkwc pic.twitter.com/blrJMYuw1m — Holiday World (@HolidayWorld) July 29, 2014
Timing is everything
In case you were wondering … This is why we announced Thunderbird last week. Sort of hard to hide 29 truckloads of track and supports! #HW2015 pic.twitter.com/MJ8RrINp1w — Holiday World (@HolidayWorld) July 28, 2014
The Legend of the Thunderbird
After the most amazing new-ride announcement we could have asked for, some people are a bit confused. They like the fact that we’re getting a steel coaster, but they don’t get how Thunderbird belongs in Holiday World. Especially in our Thanksgiving section. The Voyage is easily the best name. It’s simple. It tells a story in a word. But that name was already taken. So we had to start getting creative. Really creative. When I first heard the name Thunderbird, like some others, I cringed a bit. I didn’t see the fit. But I started researching. And researching. And it…