Conneaut Lake Park 10/12/14

Coinciding with a driving tour of some of Ashtabula County's 18 covered bridges, we decided to hit up CLP one last time to get our son his Blue Streak credit. (#225) It had been at least 10 years since we'd been, and he was an infant back then. Even with the threat of imminent doom, I was still not even going to bother, but the covered bridge tour gave us a good excuse, since we were already going to be nearby.

Unfortunately for us, we did not know that the rides were closing at 5pm. We arrived at 4:25. Oops.

The Pumpkin Festival (think smaller version of PPP's Covered Bridge Fest) was lining the main walkway, so it was very crowded. Sure, there were a decent amount of people, but I also mean just crowded with *stuff.* Booths, trucks, trailers...

On to the Rides: Well, like I said, we had almost no time, so we only managed to get 1 ride on Blue Streak, 1 ride for Boogie on the Kiddie Coaster, and 1 ride on the Tumblebug.

Blue Streak: I'll be honest, I expected this to suck. I didn't remember much from my rides so many years ago, but recent pictures do not flatter this ride. Nor does seeing it in person. It looks like it's about to collapse on itself. But we sat in row 2 and got quite a nice ride! It's not in perfect shape, but it was fun, fast, and had a decent amount of air. Getting off, people in the back did not seem to have enjoyed it quite as much, but if this is indeed the ride's swan song, it went out well!

Kiddie Coaster: I didn't even know/remember that this existed. I just saw it while looking back from Blue Streaks lift. So we ran over for the cheap credit only to find, to my disappointment, that adults are not allowed. This must be why I didn't remember it. Either way, Boogie (12 yrs old) had a very fun ride. It was obvious that he enjoyed it, despite it being a kiddie. He looked to be getting tossed about, and was laughing. Lucky him!

Tumblebug: This I could have ridden all day! Just the 2 of us in the back car, which is the best one. I was sitting on the inside of the circle, Boogie on the outside. I kept my feet up the entire ride and was getting tossed around the entire car. From being thrown forward to the inside front, to being completely whipped around to the opposite side of the car 180 degrees! We were laughing uncontrollably the entire ride.

Unfortunately, our ride ended at 5:00 and the rides were now closed. Not wanting to leave just yet (I mean, we just got here) we walked around a bit more. Got Boogie some pumpkin pie flavored fudge, which I really liked, despite the fact that I don't care much for pumpkin flavored stuff. One of the pastry stands, as they were closing down from the fest, was offering a $7.00 bag sale. For $7.00, you got to fill up a paper bag. How could we refuse? We got 2 good sized cinnamon rolls, 3 cookies, 2 creampuffs, a brownie, an apple strudel, and 2 pieces of baklava. What a steal!

From there we walked down to the lake to see if my wife could find any birds. Boogie and I are Coastertools, Janice is a Bird Nerd. (They prefer "birder" to "birdwatcher" nowadays.)

Despite all the activity at the park today, I can see why they are shutting down. As others noted in a different thread, the place is just so run down. To really fix it up, you'd not only have to majorly overhaul / replace all of the rides, but you'd have to completely tear out and replace nearly every section of pavement. There are parts of the park where you have to look down as you walk, or you'd trip over the uneven and broken pavement.

Again, as noted in the other thread, I just don't see the cost to keep this place viable being worth it. The only things worth saving are the Blue Streak, Tumblebug, and maybe the Devils Den haunted house ride. The rest are so old and run down, it's probably cheaper to just buy new ones. I was shocked at how horrible the Flyers looked.

But, all that being said, we had an enjoyable hour at CLP. I wish we had a little more time, as we would have have liked another ride on the Blue Streak, and 3 or 4 more on the Tumblebug. But even then, our visit would still have only maybe totaled 2-2.5 hours. And at a 2 hour drive each, Waldameer would win out as a daytrip destination. CLP, to us, would always be a "becuase we're in the area" type thing. It's unfortunate.

I thought CLP was on a pilot show on Travel Channel Called Mission Amusement and they repaired the park and added a haunted house and gave Devil's Den a facelift

Yup I saw that too... Interesting that things didn't really change. Also read somewhere the new haunted walk-through was closed.

Well Devils Den was closed. The girl at the ticket booth made it sound like it had been closed for a while when I asked.

Didn't see a haunted walkthrough, but wasn't looking either. They did have the Ghost Lake event starting later that night, a multi house haunted attraction billed as "13 levels of fear." But we did not want to hang around, as Boogie still had school the next day, despite it being Columbus Day.

All of the "haunted" stuff associated with the park (Devil's Den & the new walk-thru) are being used for the haunted attraction at night. The Devil's Den is actually a walk-thru during the evening. Very different perspective than when you're in those cars.

Well, now you know how what you see on TV correlates to real life situations.

Remember it any time you watch anything.

We had a local restaurant that was featured on 'Restaurant Impossible' on Food network, where it was completely turned around...

... it closed a year later.

~Rob

^ Heh, you just referenced my hometown. Similarly, a restaurant in the city where I live now was also featured on Restaurant Impossible, but this one took a whole two years to close.

It's OK... If you live in Strongsville, you should be eating at the Brew Kettle.

(Never ate at Mad Cactus.)