Sunday, June 25, 2006

What's Happening to Libertyland?

Ack, and I never even got to go... check out this article from CNN.com:

Pair buys Elvis roller coaster

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Owners of a small museum wanted a piece of Elvis Presley's favorite amusement park ride but ended up instead with the whole thing -- a roller coaster called the Zippin Pippin.

The Pippin was bought by the city's park commission in 1947. Most of the superstructure for its 2,800 feet of track was replaced over the years but it's still billed as one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the country.

The ride was a top attraction at Libertyland, a 30-year-old amusement park Presley often rented for private parties.

Libertyland is closing and its rides and concession stands were sold at auction Wednesday.
Robert Reynolds and Stephen Shutts, partners in a traveling museum called the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame & Rock-N-Roll Roadshow, showed up planning to bid on one of the roller-coaster cars.

Instead, they bought the whole Pippin for $2,500. It went cheap because the sale agreement gives the buyer a month to take it down and haul it away.

Reynolds said he had not yet decided what they will do with the Pippin.

"There's 30 days to figure it out. ... The car is all we needed," he said.

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