Woah, wait a minute... Metal Magic Mountain III??? You're probably wondering how this is possible, when last year's annual trip to Magic Mountain was labeled Metal Magic Mountain IV. The Melster, as she approaches 30, is not losing the ability to count. Rather, the original numbering came from a previous incarnation and origination of the name Metal Magic Mountain, but this was before the metalhealth posse existed. Because this has become an annual must-attend Metalhealth posse event, I took the liberty of renumbering the event to better match the event as Metalhealth event. Basically, I stole the name.

Okay, enough history... onto the pix!!!

The crew attempted to arrive early, but of course, many of us had stayed out late at the Creeping Death/Coathanger 18 show the night before, and a bad traffic accident delayed others. So, we took the main entrance shot with those who were available: (l to r, top) Rob, Tracy, Solomon, moi, Danika, Denis (bottom) Dave, Doug, Mike, RJ. Ana n Lewis joined us later.

Will the Metal Xtreme staff members please show yourself??! We had to take two main entrance photos because our photographer handed our photo claim card to someone else!! doh! What a suprise those happy tourists got when they went to the photo booth to look at their pictures and got a bunch of horn bearing metalheads instead!

Once we were in the park, we went straight for the Roaring Rapids, the great soakfest/water raft ride. The line took hours, but it was well worth it. We all rode in the same raft, plus a couple of other teenage Magic Mountaineers, who at first were horrified by the brutal waterfight we started, but later joined in. After this ride, RJ and Dave had to rush off to rehearsal -- they rode ONE RIDE. The rest of us at least got 5 rides in after an entire day of Magic Mountain, although we were Xtremely disappointed that the Xtreme rollercoaster X was shut down for unknown reasons, due to reopen at an unknown time.

After riding The Riddler's Revenge and grubbing overpriced MM food, we stood in line for Goliath, a rollercoaster fave of the group. The line said: Wait time 1 hour. We stood in line for hours on end. It wouldn't have been so bad if the creature comfort mister thingies weren't on full blast. We could barely see five feet in front of us and we were getting far more soaked than Roaring Rapids got us! 2.5 hours later, dripping wet, the misters were finally turned off. HURRAH said the crowd! But by then, we were at critical mass, and silliness exploded at an all time high.

Solomon made sure to let the Magic Mountain staff and visitors know we were here by decorating the Goliath line queue with KNAC stickers. Wonder how long those will stay up there...

This is a good place for a KNAC sticker! Fro grabs some butt and takes a lick as we climb the final staircase to the ride's entrance. I would love for this guy to find this web page some day and see this picture...

After serenading Denis with Journey and Queen's greatest hits, we decided to recreate the famous Wolf picture...

...and expand the theme... The bear wonders "is it in yet?"

The fourth ride, Batman: The Ride, always a classic. A bit of Raven Mad Trivia: did you know that this was the EXACT spot of the very first Raven Mad band photo? The early Madsters (me, Fro, n Joe) took a band-bonding trip to Magic Mountain and had a tourist take a photo which we used for our very first press photo. Don't you feel better knowing that?

Anyway, back to the present and Magic Mountain, after Batman we rushed at fifteen minutes to closing to the line for DeJa Vu (*insert Iron Maiden here* "feels like I've been here before/feels like I've been here before..."), a rush well worth the 2 hour wait!

Thank you to everyone who came out to Metal Magic Mountain III -- what a great time! If X ever opens, there will be a Metal Magic Mountain III.5, just so we can ride that damn rollercoaster!