Kennywood Park...8/8/05

I take students on a tour of 12 parks as part of their The Amusement Park in American Society course. One of their assignments is always to rank the various rides in the appropriate categories. They always rank them as follows :

l. Phantom is always ranked the top hyper.

2. Thunderbolt is never ranked first, but is always in the top five among woodies.

3. Racer is never in the top five but is always somewhere in the second five, and everyone always agrees its the smoothest woodie they've ridden.

4. Jackrabbit is never in the top 10 but is always in the third five, and everyone agrees the double dip creates the best airtime of any woodie.

5. Exterminator flips back and forth between one and two with Blazing Fury down at Dollywood. The rides are not identical, but are both indoor coasters.

6. They always rank the Turnpike, Flying Carpet, Turtle and Whip the best of those kinds of rides. They always rank the Swings second to Holiday World's.

7. They always rank the Arrow Log Flume and Raging Rapids number one among those types of rides.

8. They just find Noah's Ark, Kangaroo, Auto Race and The Old Mill befuddling. There aren't any other of those types of rides out there to rank them against.

9. They also think Kennywood has the best shooting gallery, arcade and skeeball alleys of any park we visit.

Keep in mind we never make it to any park West of the Mississippi.

So which 12 parks do you hit? There's still a lot of territory and parks east of the Mississippi. And exactly what is the curriculum for this course beyond visiting parks?

Part of me is jealous there is such a course, and part of me is glad I'm not a taxpayer in your district paying for such frivolity. :)