KONA-KAI, Panama City Beach, Tikis located! - Locating Tiki

T TikiG Tiki Socialite Riverside, California Joined: Jun 17, 2008 Posts: 1560	T TikiG Posted posted on Thu, Apr 30, 2009 1:57 PM Wow! AlohaStation! Thanks for mentioning Petticoat Junction amusement park. This brought back bittersweet memories for me. 1973 - I'm ten years old and visiting Panama City Beach. Family. I love wooden roller coasters and when I found out Panama City Beach featured two operating wooden coasters (at that time) I freaked out, man! Dad really had no choice but to drive me to the beach area and check them out. Dad first drove me to Miracle Strip to ride the Starliner (which I did - front seat alone!)and then drove me further along the strip to Petticoat Junction to ride the Tornado. I was upset when we got to Petticoat Junction and dad wouldn't give me the fare to ride the coaster even once. Remember, stand alone, pay as you go roller-coasters were rare in 1973 (rarer today)and Dad totally refused to pay the one dollar fee. Strange because he loved amusement park rides himself. Why? I never was told the reason. Maybe the fact the coaster was billed as "the fastest in the nation"Gas prices were way below a dollar a gallon then! I remember the ticket booth entrance to the Tornado was outside the fenced-in park - you could walk up the ramp directly from the parking lot, buy a ticket, get on and ride. Each Tornado train I watched only had four-eight passengers out of twenty-four possible seats. Each one! I was angry back then having traveled three thousand miles to discover a "new" coaster, standing literally at the threshold of the loading platform and not able to ride due to no allowance money. Anyway, I got over my initial anger pretty fast because Panama City Beach was a kids paradise from an amusement park/themed structure standpoint. I know that today both Miracle Strip and Petticoat Junction amusement parks are long gone and that's shame. Its nice to read the Kona Kai building is still standing although revised. The location, the pilings over the water is pure ecstatica for me. I also remember a miniature golf course across the street from Miracle Strip that had a HUGE moai head at the entrance and a ski-lift type ride that went thru a huge concrete volcano. Heaven on Earth. I'm positive now, looking at the postcards and photos of the KONA KAI: My aunt and uncle took me and my father to dinner there during our family visit in the summer of '73. A long forgotten episode that was shadowed by childhood disappointment.

Wow! AlohaStation! Thanks for mentioning Petticoat Junction amusement park. This brought back bittersweet memories for me.

1973 - I'm ten years old and visiting Panama City Beach. Family. I love wooden roller coasters and when I found out Panama City Beach featured two operating wooden coasters (at that time) I freaked out, man! Dad really had no choice but to drive me to the beach area and check them out. Dad first drove me to Miracle Strip to ride the Starliner (which I did - front seat alone!)and then drove me further along the strip to Petticoat Junction to ride the Tornado. I was upset when we got to Petticoat Junction and dad wouldn't give me the fare to ride the coaster even once. Remember, stand alone, pay as you go roller-coasters were rare in 1973 (rarer today)and Dad totally refused to pay the one dollar fee. Strange because he loved amusement park rides himself. Why? I never was told the reason. Maybe the fact the coaster was billed as "the fastest in the nation"Gas prices were way below a dollar a gallon then! I remember the ticket booth entrance to the Tornado was outside the fenced-in park - you could walk up the ramp directly from the parking lot, buy a ticket, get on and ride. Each Tornado train I watched only had four-eight passengers out of twenty-four possible seats. Each one!

I was angry back then having traveled three thousand miles to discover a "new" coaster, standing literally at the threshold of the loading platform and not able to ride due to no allowance money.

Anyway, I got over my initial anger pretty fast because Panama City Beach was a kids paradise from an amusement park/themed structure standpoint. I know that today both Miracle Strip and Petticoat Junction amusement parks are long gone and that's shame. Its nice to read the Kona Kai building is still standing although revised. The location, the pilings over the water is pure ecstatica for me. I also remember a miniature golf course across the street from Miracle Strip that had a HUGE moai head at the entrance and a ski-lift type ride that went thru a huge concrete volcano. Heaven on Earth.

I'm positive now, looking at the postcards and photos of the KONA KAI: My aunt and uncle took me and my father to dinner there during our family visit in the summer of '73. A long forgotten episode that was shadowed by childhood disappointment.

Post #450800 by TikiG on Thu, Apr 30, 2009 1:57 PM