I’ve always been a firm believer in the fact that “Location Matters”. Location is important and relevant in nearly every instance I can think of. Do you ever hear a song on the radio and it triggers a thought of where you were when you first heard it? Whenever I hear Daughter by Pearl Jam I think back to a bus trip to UNC Chapel Hill to get our butts kicked in a soccer game. Brad Harris actually had the CD and let me listen to it. But I digress.

What triggered this blog post was a recent trip we took to Six Flags with our daughter. I decided it would be a fun experiment to take one of our portable GPS trackers with us to Six Flags and map our trip. The biggest incentive for me was to see if I could get a 90 mph speed reading while plummeting down the first hill of the Titan. Unfortunately, we didn’t get around to riding the Titan but plan on making it back. You can see a sample of our trek around Six Flags below.

It’s amazing the amount of detail that some of Google’s satellite imagery provides. In an instance I could look at all the blips and think of a “story” that was associated with each one. As an example, blip #1 was when we rode the Judge Roy Scream and blip #9 is where we stopped (note the red color) and ate dinner. Each one of these blips tells a story and if a picture’s worth a thousand words, then a map with blips is worth a thousand more. Here’s some YouTube footage of the Judge Roy Scream that I just stumbled across. Nothing too crazy, but with a 4 yr old you gotta ease them into the wild world of rollercoasters:

As a side note, I think there could be incredible value for Six Flags to actually rent these portable GPS trackers at the gate. It would be a great way for parents to keep track of kids/teens while at the park (on a parents cell phone). They already rent a “Flash Pass” that allows holds your virtual place in line. Based on the current wait times you get notified when it’s your turn in line. This all happens while you’re off somewhere else eating lunch or riding another ride. So it’s apparent that Six Flags has embraced the whole upsell model.