Returning to the Valley of Mello Yello

Last year I helped a friend move to South Carolina, and lamented over how much Mello Yello they tried to pour down my throat.

Last WEEK I returned to see my friends in South Carolina, and I'm pleased to report that they did not offer me a single glass of Mello Yello. In fact, we shared a chuckle over the experience and I drank a Coke-with-no-ice with dinner.

During the trip, we went to visit the Freestyle Music amusement park. This was formerly the Hard Rock amusement park, but it went bankrupt and was bought and re-named a year later.

When you have a brand as world recognized as Hard Rock, and you can't make money, you are doing something WRONG! An amusement park called Hard Rock should be able to host a concert every Friday in the Summer with a well recognized pop/rock star. Hell, Sun Tan Lake did it for all of those years!

(The park, by the way, STILL has the giant Hard Rock guitar logo on top of a tower at the edge of the park. You would think the Hard Rock people would try to capitalize on SOME part of this...!)

HOWEVER, before I blast the hard Rock for their failure, let me give you some feedback on the Freestyle Music amusement park.

1) It was very clean and had some very cool roller coasters
2) It was practically empty.

INCREDIBLE! Here it was, July 5th. Great weather. Good prices (Four of us got in for $82.00) and the place was empty. It was like back in the day when Michael Jackson would have an amusement park privatized so he and his little friends could play! We felt like special guests or something. (Yeah -something from Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park!)

In all, we had a great time and I DID drink a soda while I was there.
Hey, after all, an empty amusement park can be good (not for the owners, of course)...and Soda is Good!