adventure

Review of the Georgia Mountain Coaster: The Perfect Addition to Downtown Helen, Georgia!

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The Georgia Mountain Coaster is Georgia’s first and currently only mountain coaster. This may be the first mountain coaster in Georgia, but it will have everything you love about mountain coasters in areas where they are more commonplace, like Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. What makes this coaster special is location location location. It is located in the heart of Helen, Georgia, a popular German themed tourist destination in Northern Georgia and it’s LITERALLY on Main Street. You can easily walk to it from all the popular shops and restaurants and it’s the only pedestrian accessible coaster I know of other than Ripley’s Mountain Coaster in downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee. However, even though it’s very close to everything, when you’re up on the hill it still feels quiet and isolated.

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Atlanta’s Six Flags White Water is a Beautiful Water Park in the Woods

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July 28th is National Water Park Day and it’s a great day to spotlight Six Flags White Water, which feels like a water park built in the woods. As you drive in the parking lot is your typical sea of concrete, but from the moment you step through security and towards the park entrance you’ll be walking through a forest of trees. This continues throughout the park with really only the wave pool and a few of the kids play areas not being tree covered. If you look at a Google Maps satellite view you’ll see the wave pool and a few patches of concrete elsewhere, but the rest is trees with hints of blue slides and water peeking through the gaps. This article is part history, part review and part looking towards the park’s future which may unfortunately be uncertain.

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Get Your Engineering Cub Scout Adventure Loop at Fun Spot America Kissimmee with Mine Blower!

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Fun Spot America Logo
Scout leader and scout in front of the Mine Blower roller coaster at Fun Spot Kissimmee

Earning the Arrow of Light “Engineering” adventure loop has the potential to be one of the most fun and exciting activities in scouting, especially with the increased interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). What’s even more exciting is that one of the recommended adventure activities in the cub scout handbook is to have scouts build their own roller coaster! A theme park is a great place for the scouts to explore and learn about engineering and Fun Spot America Kissimmee is perfectly suited for this adventure. Earning the “Engineering” Adventure Loop at Fun Spot Kissimmee can be as simple as watching a few YouTube videos, having a discussion, riding a roller coaster and participating in the park’s “build your own roller coaster” activity or doing your own at your next den or pack meeting.

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Review of The Swamp Tour at Wild Adventures: This Up, Close and Personal Show Will Have You Touch, Feed and Even Hold Some Amazing Creatures!

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Family at Wild Adventures Swamp Tour with skink

On Father’s Day 2025 we had the chance to experience the Discovery Tours – Swamp Tour at Wild Adventures Theme Park. This is not a “tour” in the traditional sense where you’ll be walking around, but instead a small and intimate show limited to just 20 people where you’ll have the chance to see, touch, feed and hold some of the park’s amazing animal ambassadors. It really feels more like an animal encounter than a show. However, instead of just one animal, you’ll get to meet several. From feeding an African bullfrog to holding a snake, you’ll certainly leave this experience with great memories and probably some great pictures too!

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Scout Overnight Adventure Coming to Fun Spot Atlanta in Fall 2025

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Scouts by ArieForce One at Fun Spot America Atlanta

Have you ever wanted to camp next to a roller coaster? Fun Spot Atlanta will give Cub scouts, BSA Scouting America scouts and Girl scouts just that opportunity this fall by camping in the ArieForce One Courtyard at their Scout Overnight Adventure. For those not familiar, Fun Spot America Atlanta is a theme park located in Fayetteville, GA, just south of Atlanta that is home to great rides and go-karts including the world famous Arie Force One roller coaster. The event will consist of a night of camping fun followed by a day at the park with some fun bonus events like a Behind-the-Scenes Tour. The park will offer this event on three different nights catering to each of the different groups. The event is priced at $90 and includes camping, meals and unlimited rides.

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Get Your Engineering Cub Scout Adventure Loop at Fun Spot America Atlanta with ArieForce One!

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Fun Spot America Logo

The “Engineering” adventure has the potential to be one of the most fun and exciting in scouting as one of the handbook recommended activities is to have scouts build their own roller coaster! A trip to a theme park is a great way for the scouts to explore and learn about engineering and Fun Spot America Atlanta is perfectly suited for this adventure. Earning the “Engineering” Adventure Loop at Fun Spot can be as simple as watching a few YouTube videos, having a discussion, riding a great roller coaster and participating in the park’s “build your own roller coaster” activity.

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See a Capybara at Wild Adventures Theme Park!

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The capybara is having a bit of a cultural moment. I’ve seen shirts and stuffed animals featuring capybaras at levels I never recall seeing before. There is even a local zoo in Georgia that offers capybara yoga! However, if you want to see some real live capybaras, one of the best places is at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Georgia. They have several of them that are quite active in a great habitat viewable from the giraffe overlook in the back center of the park. They are quite entertaining to watch and appear to be living their best capybara life!

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The GetOutPass is a Great Value to Visit Local Theme Parks in Georgia and Other States

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We’ve had the GetOutPass for Georgia for about a year and couldn’t be more thrilled with it. The GetOutPass is an annual pass that gives you free admission to local attractions either once annually, quarterly or monthly depending upon the attraction. In Georgia this includes admission to Wild Adventures and Fun Spot America Atlanta. However, you’ll also get admission to great non-theme park locations like Zoo Atlanta, BreakOut Games (escape room), Terminus Wake Park and many more. In other states this includes SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Kentucky Kingdom and Silver Dollar City. GetOutPass prices are so good that the price of an annual GetOutPass is usually less than a single day at ticket to just one of these attractions!

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ACE’s “World’s Largest Ride” at Wild Adventures on Boomerang

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On June 16th at 2pm participating parks simultaneously dispatch coasters as part of “The World’s Largest Ride” to celebrate the anniversary of LaMarcus Thompson’s Switchback Railway, the first modern roller coaster. The event is organized by American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) and this year is the 3rd annual celebration of the event. About 20 parks participated this year including Wild Adventures of Valdosta, GA where I participated.

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