False memories or real?

[RollaJedi]

thank you rube for posting that!  brings back good memories.  wish i still had those books and i wish they still sold them, but i know they couldnt because of how obsolete it would be.  Are there any videos out there showing the diving bell or maybe better videos than the one from youtube showing the float trip?  I was alive when both were still there but too young to really remember anything.  Well, unless you count a stupid incredible hulk piggy bank that i think my mind has decided to randomly stick in my brain for some odd reason. 
Now that you all mention the gnomes though, it does seem some part of me remembers them in there somehow.  I didnt realize the float trip went backwards.  pretty interesting.  Do they still use the old channels for anything at all now?  It seems kinda odd they'd still have them after all these years, plus still have water going through them.  I'm assuming you used to get on board your boat at the line-overflow house for the american plunge? 
They really need to do something with that cave, aka cement tunnel now in the AP.  That thing is a disgrace.  totally sad.  That and fix the guy in the whirlpool.

A couple other memory things: is it true a boy scout jumped in there to save the whirlpool guy once?  Also, did they used to have people balancing on logs in front of the waterfall?  Thanks!

[sdcforever]

A couple other memory things: is it true a boy scout jumped in there to save the whirlpool guy once?  Also, did they used to have people balancing on logs in front of the waterfall?  Thanks!

I don't know about the Boy Scout, but I do know they used to have log balancing contests in front of the waterfall.  So that is a real memory.

[betamike]

Yes, you used to board the Float trip through the building by the Gun Shop and you can still see the loading docks across from the AP queue line.  They keep the channels there for overflow water and it would have cost too much to take it out I assume.

You can still see the Jim Owens float trip sign on that building.  I would love to see a video too, but I am pretty sure that although it exists, not a lot of people taped that ride (even though it was my favorite) as opposed to other rides.

[betamike]

Here is a picture of a Citizen themed greeting at the Float trip back in the day and another picture taken recently of the same building.

[sdcforever]

^Interesting pictures.  I notice in the bottom picture it says "Explore the Mighty James".  I guess that means that Jim Owens' Float Trip is supposed to be along the James River?

[betamike]

Good catch.

More history on the real Jim Owen (not to get too off topic)

http://www.projecttaney.org/50083/owen.html

[History Buff]

Here's a pic of Phoebe Snapp from Taney County Missouri by Vicki Layton Cobb.  She probably didn't own a taffy shop in real life though.

Back to false memories:
Would the float trip have been frightening to a small child?  I remember riding a ride that went through a cave when I was little, and it scared me to death.  Then, when my parents took me to FitH (now my favorite ride anywhere) and I saw the dark, cavey walls, I threw a screaming fit to keep them from making me ride.  That is one of my first memories ever.  I don't think the AP would have scared me in that way (dark and cavey), and I'm pretty sure it wasn't FM either.  It has confused me for a long time, but if the float trip might have had a long, dark cave, maybe that was it.  Or maybe it was the FM.

I feel like I'm the one that's been swirling in the whirlpool for all these years.

[Firstvisit1967]

Now that you mention it I remember being scared of the ride.  It seems there were two tunnels on the ride and the first was very scary.  Then a couple of years later the ride was not as scary.  Why??? 

[sdcforever]

Firstvisit and History Buff, I'm pretty sure the float trip would have been frightening at times to a small child.  I never had the privilege of riding it but have read about it and seen a few home movies of the ride and some of the displays on the ride were strange and scary.  So that's not a false memory.  As for why it wasn't scary a couple of years later, Firstvisit, there are probably two reasons.  1)  You were a little older and didn't scare as easily, and 2) The ride was toned down in the last few years before it was replaced by AP.

[betamike]

I agree that a young child might have been frightened by the Float Trip.  Although it was gentle in nature, the voice over of the woman (it had audio with it) always spooked me.  I recall that "something" was following you at one point in the ride.  Now that I think about it, it was just an air jet from below the back of the boat, but the realism of that made me hold onto my parents a little tighter.

[RollaJedi]

thats some great pics!  thanks!
i'm glad somebody said there was a second tunnel because i too remember there being another.  It seemed like it was bigger and was much straighter than the other one.  THIS is the place i'm pretty sure they had the hulk piggy bank.  Why it was there?  i have no clue. 

Man, i wish there was like a source (literature or an interview) all about these old rides like the float trip and diving bell.  Is that door thats closed in that picture where you got on the float trip?

[History Buff]

And all this time, I've been thinking I never got to ride the Float Trip.  Now, I'm thinking, maybe I did.  Of course, I still wonder what the dwarves were all about.  What was the thinking?  What was the theme - I had thought it was ride down the James River.

Although it was gentle in nature, the voice over of the woman (it had audio with it) always spooked me.

Does anyone remember the audio?  The theme?  Special elements in the queue?

[RollaJedi]

Well, most of the float trips taken by the people I know involve lots of alcohol, so maybe seeing dwarves actually is part of the whole experience.  that, and pink elephants, purple aligators, flying cars, and other random halucinations. 

[betamike]

Not sure, but I do remember it was narrated.  Or at least right after you launched it was narrated (through the part that is the bridge over to Wildfire)

[History Buff]

Well, most of the float trips taken by the people I know involve lots of alcohol, so maybe seeing dwarves actually is part of the whole experience.  that, and pink elephants, purple aligators, flying cars, and other random halucinations. 

And Incredible Hulk Piggy Banks - there you go!!