Associated parks:
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After 3 hours in the car, we arrived at Lakemont sometime in the early afternoon. The first order of business after buying our (ridiculously cheap / incredibly economic) POP wrist bands was to find something to eat (having only had a light breakfast earlier in the day). We wound up at the “Dog Pound” (or “Dog House” or what ever it is called). There was a bit of a line there (they were cooking to order) so we decided to grab our first ride of the day on the nearby Leap the Dips.
The first time we rode the Dips was back in 2000 on our way home from Kennywood. This was not long after its reopening and it was in pristine condition. While it is still a fun ride (those little dips actually pack a little air time), it’s seems to be showing its age. Good news is, while it may have aged a bit over the past few years, plenty of new wood was apparent so it appears that the park is taking care of the ride. Hopefully they can keep one step ahead of the ravages of time on this classic. Anyway… I took the front seat and had a smooth and fun ride. Chele took the back seat and had what she called a “bone jarring ride”.
Retruning to the “Dog Pound” and grabbed a quick bite… curly fries and a drink (saving room for DelGrosso’s pizza later in the day)… and then went back to the Dips. This time I took the back seat and agreed with Chele… the back does jar you around a bit compared to the front. Still a fun ride though.
We then made our way through the main midway and grabbed a ride on Twister. This ride was down the first time we were there (and I didn’t ride any flats on a quick stop I made here in 2002). Not much spinning… I don’t think we spun around completely more than once or twice, and this was with the operator even varying the speed.
Octopus was next. Chele, not wanting to get too dizzy, sat this one out. Sad that rides like this are becoming more and more rare. This things spins like mad! Nice long ride cycle too.
We walked past Toboggan… Chele asked me if I was going to ride it. I said “No, not fond of Chance Toboggans” I said… (adding a few colorful adjectives that I really can’t reprint here).
We then grabbed a ride on the Tin Lizzy antique cars. I don’t know why, but every time we see a car ride like this at a park we have to ride it (shame they are slowly disappearing from parks). Nice little course for this one, going through some of the only trees left at Lakemont after the ill fated Boyertown debacle (boo! Hiss!) Unique how local advertisers were presented on bill boards around the course. There was no line… we each drove our own car. By the way we were paced / dispatched and by the way the course winds around, we passed each other a few times.
Finally we got my favorite ride at Lakemont… Skyliner. I like this coaster for a few reasons. One, great air on the first drop in back…. Great air on the top of the second hill in front… fast course… and a very fun coaster to reride. Not very busy this day… so ops were letting you re ride of no one was waiting for your seat, or switch seats if someone was waiting (That’s a plus too!). Chele had a total of 6 rides, I had a total of 7 (I jumped in an empty seat two for one ride while she waited for a front seat ride in seat 1). This is truly an underrated and overlooked coaster.
On the way out, Chele lamented the loss of Mad Mouse (removed since our first trip) . We also decided that on our next trip we would have to spend a little extra time for a round of mini golf.
DelGrossos:
This was my third visit here (once when the Zyklon was still here, and once when the Crazy Mouse was new). It was Chele’s first.
Looking over the rides we were interested in and comparing the price of a wristband to tickets, we decided to go with tickets. Still running on “half empty” with only having eaten a light breakfast and some curly fries at Lakemont, we sat down for a slice of (very reasonably priced) pizza, and then went back for seconds. Some of the best pizza around (and certainly the best park pizza around).
First ride was the Crazy Mouse. Was this thing tamed since it first opened? It seemed a bit slow and it didn’t seem to spin as much as some (i.e. that insane, berserk, out of control crazy mouse at Beech Bend... or Kennywood’s Exterminator). Still, good enough for a second ride though… and still enough to make Chele dizzy.
With her dizziness getting the best of her, Chele told me that she was done riding for the day. I however wasn’t and hit most of DelGrosso’s other non kiddie rides….
- Sea Dragon: a swinging ship that still swings nice and high
- Paratrooper: a unique design for this ride… love how only a seat belt and a non locking bar keeps you in the seat
- Flying Bobs (or do they call this "Thunderbolt"?): Lame and slow forward, kind of fast and out of control in reverse.
- Dodgem: Average (but fun) bumper cars
- Casino: Roulette wheel themed Trabant
- Roundup: The only type of ride that still makes my stomach flip.
I had two tickets left, so I grabbed a final ride on the Dodgems. On this second ride there was some very proper and fussy woman who was upset because her grand daughter (who was at least 6 inches shorter than the minium height) was not allowed to ride while, as she said, “Those other kids are riding” (who were all at least 6 inches taller than the min height). Needless to say she was my target the entire ride! Funny… she seemed to get upset every time my car slammed into hers. Hmmm… I guess she didn’t realize that they are called “Dodgems (aka BUMPER Cars)” for a reason.
By now it was close to 6pm and we still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us, so we decided to call it a day. The only regret that we had was that we were not hungry enough for another piece of that good pizza before we left.
As with Lakemont, next visit, we said we will stop in for a round of mini golf.
Oh, by the way, no signs of the Corkscrew coaster gotten from liberty land. (still planned on for next year? Still on site?)
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A fun day… While different from each other, both are good little parks with their own unique personalities. Lakemont seems to be coming along… still trying to recover from that nearly death blow that Boyertown did to it… while DelGrossos is a charming little family park. While on their own each of these two parks would not take a day to visit, it was easy to make a day of it by visiting both… and even that was not hard on the wallet with their very reasonable prices.
A nice little day trip that we will probably turn into a yearly thing.
*** Edited 8/23/2007 5:30:53 PM UTC by SLFAKE***
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