Big news on the Minnesota Goodbye Valley Fair opens this weekend. A favorite ride of Valley Fair, Steel Venom Wild Thing is a great ride. Steel Venom is terrifying. And this is the one that's shaped like a U. So you start at the bottom of the U. You back up and then you go way to the top and then you sit there for a minute and then you wait for it to drop and it clicks, but it doesn't drop.
Is that the one that spins at the top two like it twirls down.
A little bit. Yeah, it does twirl a little bit at the going forward end, I believe, And then it clicks, but it doesn't drop, and you think, oh my god, something's wrong, and then it drops. But now that I say that, No, my favorite ride is Power Tower, no question. Power Tower is ridiculously high. Every time I go on it, I'm riding up. I can't believe how high I am. I hate heights. But then I go, why am I on this ride? So any thoughts on rides at Valley Fair.
I like a roller coaster, but it has to just be like a tame roller coaster. So is it one of the wooden ones I can? I can deal with? One of the wooden ones. But if it goes like up down, up down, up down, up down, I don't like it. And if it goes like up up up up up up up and then has a huge drop, like if it's more than a sixty foot drop, I'm not doing it period. I'm too scared.
When are you gonna start living your life?
I'm too scared. I like I like Splash Mountain, I like Evers, I like the Disney roller coasters, but I can't do I can't do a really big drop like the wild Thing is too scary. Can't do it.
I don't think ben a Valley fair like twice. I think total in my lifetime because I didn't grow up here, so I would say steel Venom's probably my favorite. However, I do have a story of I grew up going to Six Legs in Gurney, Illinois, and there was a a wooden roller coaster called Viper, and we would purposely not try to have our seatbelts buckle as tight or like the sing as tight because it was so rickety and it just like shut.
Like just shake really back. Yeah, and you'd like.
Fly around and stuff, and I mean obvious, they still a common check and make sure you're like decently secure. But I remember, like, I'm pretty sure I peed my pants one time, laughing so hard because I was not in secure at.
All and I was just flying everywhere and it was so fun.
Wow, nights bad idea. Yeah, A little myth that you might have heard is that the wooden roller coaster at Valley Fair used to be in the Excelsior Amusement Park. That's not true, However, the carousel at Valley Fair used to be in the Excelsior Amusement Park, and you might be going, there was an amusement park in excels Here.
There was right where Maynards is now. There used to be an amusement park right along the shore of Lake Minnetaka, and it was there from maybe the thirties until like the seventies or so, and then they tore it down. Here's another fun fact. Yeah, and I bring this up once in a while. There used to be in the parking lot of Maynards, so you got Maynards on one
side of the road. Across the street from Maynards. There used to be a a nightclub, like a teen dance club, and I forget what it was called, But the Rolling Stones played there one time before they were really really big, and it was burnt down by some stupid thug that lived around there. And I was talking to somebody who rents jet skis in in Lake Minnetonka, and he said, yeah, I grew up with that guy. He was an asshole. Oh so yeah, so a little bit of history perience.
Yeah, isn't it always creepy when you see the abandoned amusement parks? Like there aren't any around here? I know, yeah, no one in Denver or no, there might have been.
Maybe No.
I think that that actually is like running. But I just feel like when you see those abandoned amusement parks, it's like, how many ghosts are haunting that ghost?
I'm now thinking of a video game I played that took place in an abandoned amusement park, and now I can't remember what it is. But all right, let's get on with the emails on the Minnesota goodbye and see what we've got here we go. Well, here's the announcement. We're excited to open Valley Fair for the season Monday or Sunday, May eleventh, and if you are interested in filming a story on May eleventh. Well, we don't film anything, but yeah, I got.
That email too, jam, which is just always fun to get emails that. It's like, I work in radio. Yeah, I won't be bringing my news team out there.
You know.
We probably could though, because radio people do social media videoing.
Well, we could, yeah, but I just feel like the way that it was worded was a very generic press release sent out to all media personnel that they thought are most likely TV people.
That's true.
You know. It's nice though, just speaking of ally Fair, if you go on their website and you can actually watch little videos of all of their rides from like a point of view of being on the ride.
Oh, that's cool.
So I think I could handle Excalibur. That's the one that I'm looking at right now.
Okay, that's the one that me and Pattia Ebert wrote on one hundred and one times back in about nineteen ninety four.
This drop, I can see the bottom, so that's good.
Yeah, it's still there, so kind of a wooden one with a little bit of metal. I think the tracks are met well, most roller coaster tracks are metal. Now they think about it, How.
Long did it take you to ride it? All day.
We started it probably one Yeah, we started about eleven o'clock in the morning, I guess it was on a weekday. And we went out there and pat and I rode the EXCaliber and I think we rode probably too about thirty times, and then we started to feel sick, so we took a break and then we rode ten more times. Then we were really sick.
Oh my god.
And I think it took until probably evening, like maybe six o'clock, but we did get all one hundred and one rides in. It was not a lot of fun, no, and there was a plaque at the loading area of Excalibur for years that said Dave Ryan and Patty Eberts from KWB rode this hundred one times.
Not there anymore, No, it's not there. I mean it would have been so cute to like go back and remember that, though it would Yeah.
Well maybe this summer you should go ride it one hundred one times.
No, never mind, I'll write it once.
Michelle writes in Hello Dave, Jenny vontam my girl, Bailey, I hope you had a great weekend. I know I did. We didn't do much. It was nice as always. Thanks for keeping me fucking sane for four hours a day. Well, you're welcome. I have one thing I would like from you all. Please please please mix up some of the old songs with the same ones you play every day. I mean, what happened to Taylor Swift, Pink Backstreet Boys, Eminem etc. Okay, I can't wait for the State Fair.
I will be there giving you all shit this year. Thanks for being you. Have a great fucking week from Michelle. A love the attitude, Michelle, Thank you very much. All right, next one, it says, Okay, it's from Aaron, and she said, I feel the need to follow up on this. Have been catch it up on Minnesota goodbyes, and I heard some more feedback. Let's jump in and see what she's talking about. She is the one who wanted to write she wrote about getting the puppy. Yes, Okay, isn't she Yeah?
Oh, I don't know if she's the one, but we've been talking about someone who wants to get a puppy.
Yeah, that's her. So anyway, So she's heard some feedback from people saying, if you can't afford it, don't get it. Your mom and dad shouldn't be paying for things. I want to clear some stuff up. I've been on my own since twenty two, paying my own bills, moved out at twenty three, and paying rent my own rent since the only thing my parents were paying for is my car insurance, and that was because they bought the truck.
I'm not sure why we never transferred the payment. It just never came up until I bought a new truck and obviously was then responsible for my own insurance. Okay, and yes, every now and then I would get a large scary bill from my old ass truck and would complain about it, not ask for money, and sometimes my parents would help by giving me money to help pay for it. I am a responsible adult who works full time with two part time jobs full time, two part
time jobs. I just have a very expensive hobby, and sometimes my parents like to help me with that because a horse truck and trailer is a lot to put on a young adult. The maintenance of a truck alone is a lot more expensive than a normal car. Regardless, I've always assumed at the expense that come with orning a horse truck and trailer. Anyway, I told my parents about the puppy. They took it very well. Maybe a little annoyed at first, but overall they know my love
for animals and they get it. They have an old dog at home and she is my girl. We know she doesn't have much time left, as she's been declining fairly quickly. I think the puppy is a good distraction for everyone but me, especially when the time comes. PS. Somebody said, buy a fucking plant. Remember that?
Oh yeah, yeah, ps.
I do have many houseplants, but they do not cuddle quite the same as a dog does. Anyway, I appreciate the feedback. I'm very fortunate to have parents that have been able to support my hobby growing up, and even more fortunate to have been able to continue to enjoy my hobby through my early adulthood. I am really excited about welcoming a puppy into my life. You know what, if it works for you, and it works for your parents, it doesn't affect me, then I don't care. Good for you.
Yeah, yeah, okay, and I hope it's cute and snuggy.
Next one, let's see, here we go. This is it in New York City. I've been meaning to write in for a long time, so I'm currently typing this mail email at my desk at work. I'll try to be brief, but here are some random questions. My sister is having a bachelorette party in Charleston, South Carolina, and we're trying to figure out a theme for one of our nights out. We're trying to strike a balance between fun and simple. We don't want to make everybody buy new clothes or
accessories because the trip as expensive as it is. What are your thoughts. I have no thoughts on this. I don't know, m.
Okay, because they don't want to buy accessories. I was gonna say, just buy some cheap wigs, because I always think that that's fun and easy, and then you can wear whatever you want. But you know you're in the bachelorette party if you're wearing a wig. But if you don't want to do that, I would say, just find a color scheme of like obviously, the bridewear is white, and I've seen a lot of like more like fluorescent colors together, Like just see what people have or color
coordinates with what people have already. It's always easy to just have everyone wear black and the brideware white too.
Okay, what about an activity? I mean, do you think she's looking for activities.
Oh there's Charleston's like one of the top etcera destinations now for hoping. So I'm sure they've got it planned by now.
Okay, yeah, then, Sid says commenting on the woman who wrote in about getting a dog and still needing help from her parents, which we just covered. In my opinion, if you can't afford something, you don't get it. To me, if you're making a choice like that to spend money on something you don't technically need, you don't have a right to ask your parents for help. You don't get to buy your wants and beg for your needs. Believe me, I totally understand early adulthood and parents helping out, but
this isn't the same thing. If you're concerned about pet cots, look into pet insurance. Well that's when they can really nail you, is when you take your dog in because they're you know, they can't poop or they won't eat, and then they go, oh, yeah, she needs surgery. It's going to be thirty two hundred dollars, and that is you know, I mean, it's like you have a choice, then let the dog die or get the surgery.
And usually you'll get the surgery.
You will. My dog Rex could not poop. He was older, and I think we spent five thousand dollars to tighten up his butt anal muscles so he could poop again. And he lived probably another year after that. But you know, he was our boy, yeah, and we were fortunate to be able to afford it. Question for the group, what is on the top of your bucket list? Not your wish list bucket list, but the list of things you will actually be devastated about if you don't get to do.
For example, I have items on my bucket list like go into Wimbledon or traveling to New Zealand, but I only have two items on my real bucket list, having children living abroad. So I guess what she's saying is, Oh, it would be really cool if I could own my own theme park one day, but that's not going to happen. It's the thing that you really want to do, and if you don't get to do it, you will feel like you missed out on something in life. Anything come to mine, Jenny, anything to come to mine.
Ugh, I mean mine's all just travel based. I just wish I could go take six months off and travel all around like South America or Southeast Asia maybe eure up, that's probably mine.
And might's just go to Graceland with my mom and own a house. Those are two things that I think I could potentially do in my life, okay, and I will likely do them both at some point in time. Me and my mom literally talked about Graceland yesterday and we're like, let's actually get some shit on paper, so we do it instead of just talking about it.
I don't really have a lot. I do want to ride the motorcycle to Alaska one day, so cool. I think that'd be really cool. But now we might take the RV. The problem Jenny with the RV is it gets and this is awful. This is what I fucking hate about it because I'm really like, I care about the environment. I pick up things when I go for a walk. I picked up two cigarette butts and a bread twisty tab you know the little square ones with a hole in it. Found that on the path, So
I don't like fucking up the environment. The RV gets about eight miles to the gallon, which is like absurd. It is that means ten gallons of gas to go eighty miles. So if I'm going to go from here to Red Wigan back, that is ten gallons of gas. Ridiculous. Yeah, but I would like to do that. Also, would like to go to the Cascades. Like you know, I've never seen like mountaineer in Mount oly the Olympus. I don't know whatever is out there now.
I'm blanket even though I've been.
I think it's Olympia. I'm going to look it up though, because i've literally, oh it is No, that's in Greece.
Okay, well mountain, but that's why I don't know anything about it. But I would love to see the Cascades, and that is on my bucket list I really don't have. I'm not like I want to go to Fiji. I want to go to Iceland. I don't want to go to Greece. I don't want to go I'm not a traveler kind of a person. I think there's enough to see here.
Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of My algorithm is travel based, so I see a lot of things that it's like I've traveled the entire world and these are my top countries, and the United States is always in it because the just diverse landscape that we have here.
It really is.
But also the United States is huge, whereas like Iceland is the size of Texas or whatever, you know.
So it's oh, I think it's even smaller probably.
And actually probably is.
Yeah, But a lot of people say, like, you know, people feel like they have to go to Europe to experience different like the mountains in Switzerland and stuff, but really there's so much in the United States too.
I've never been really to driven through Utah, but never through the pretty part of Utah. I've never been like northern California in like the Redwoods, Washington, Oregon, what else is up that way?
Idaho, Washington. I just think like the Pacific Northwest is probably my favorite area of the country. And I don't know why, like what I could nail down, because there's mountains in multiple different states. But it's like the smells, it's the trees, it's just like also being close to water.
I don't know, I know about that.
But what troubles me is how crowded everything has become. Like in Colorado, I grew up there and it was it never seemed crowded back then, But now to get up into the mountains on Interstate seventy. You go from Denver up into the mountains on weekends, there's a traffic jam. Coming back. On Sunday afternoons, there's a traffic jam in Colorado Springs. Going up in a highway twenty four, there's a traffic jam and coming back. And that's what I worry about with the crowds. A friend of mine went
to the Grand Canyon last summer with his family. There was a five hour wait to get into the front gate or one of the gates at the Grand Canyon. Five hours. Yeah, and I think about going to Yosemite because I've always wanted to see Yosemite, But it seems like it's just people, people, people, cars, cars, cars everywhere, and I would be one of those. So I can't blame the other people, but it just kind of where can you still go in the United States where there's not crowds.
Well, you got to go in the off seasons.
Yeah, that's why.
But unfortunately, you know, Glacier, you can't experience most of Glacier in the off season, like roads are closed down, it's dangerous, like you don't have access to a lot of stuff. So that's why it becomes so busy in the summer and there is such a long wait because that's the only time you can go to certain things.
Well, there's a thing in Glacier called going to the Sun Road, and we tried to drive up, but we were there, I think in July and the snow was still too deep on going to the Sun Road and we couldn't go. Yeah, it's like, well fuck, if you go during the wintertime, there's no way you can go up that road. So anyway, what is on your bucket list? What would you recommend? Where do you go to get away from the crowds? What do you want to talk
about on the Minnesota Goodbye? Send an email because we always love your emails and that's really what the heart of the show is is finding out what's on your mind. And you've given us something to talk about, so we appreciate you. Send those in to Ryan's show at KDWB dot com. Short or long, We love all of them.