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Hello Coaster Fans Rejoicing in the Grand Reopening of LeSourdsville Lake!
First order of business, the official name of the park is LeSourdsville Lake. It's on the main sign and that's what everyone calls it at the park. That at least clears up some confusion (and it a heck of a lot easier to say).
Shawna and I left NE Ohio for what should have been a 4-hour trip. We hit 2 major traffic jams on 71 and it took 5 hours so we got to the park at 5:30pm. What a great sight to see!! People pulling into the parking lot after many months. They have a new sign up which looks great, and right next to that is a working Ferris wheel that will turn (it's not yet). We paid $1 to park since they have a two-week promotion going on for $1 for practically everything. The entrance looks GREAT! I was always a big fan of the entrance to this park is unique. In between the ticket booths and the main gates is a working railroad track (yes they still use it. and people thought the road in front of SFWoA entrance was strange.) Shawna and I paid $2 to enter the park (we actually used our ride tickets.) We bought 20 $1 tickets and were off.
It was Sooooo nice to be at this park again! The park has a bittersweet feel to enthusiast who have been there before. This park is set up in a horse shoe pattern much like Sea World Ohio was. There is A LOT of work that needs to be done. For most it looks great though. A lot of buildings are closed but will open later this year. There is a lot of remodeling being done and a ton of painting going on. What they have done so far looks wonderful. This park has a HUGE task in hand and ahead of them. Sea Serpent looked just the way I remembered it (it's really the first thing you see when you walk in.) A fun little ride with some nice helixes. Biggest lines of the day were for the Sea Serpent. The new Zipper is right next to that flying people all around. Opposite side on the midway across from the Sea Serpent is LSL (LeSourdsville Lake) is their "Signature building" Which I understand will soon be their restaurant (much remodeling going on.) It looks great from the outside, a few weathered flags way up high but looks great. Next to that is what looks to be where the Viking boat will sit. And next to that is the Flying Scooters!!
The Flying Scooters are the BEST these things fly way faster than PKI?s!! A little harder to fly than PKI but talk about being able to impress the by standers! We had a few good rides on it with some ACErs. Further on is the Musik Express. WOW this ride is at TOP speed way faster than any normal park would dare to run it. And it also runs backwards! Hang on for dear life.
Next to the Zipper they still have the Sky Ride which takes you across the lake and back on one trip with a few stops over the lake in between. Opposite that on the midway is "one-of-a-kind Whip." I don?t think I have run in to a Whip that looks like this or acts like this. It still has its weird 70?s type cars and wasn't running up to speed yet. But the operator said the mechanics have been working on it.
And of course, next to the Whip is the VERY famous Screechin Eagle! Only problem, it was closed today! I called early and they said they were hoping to have it up and running tonight, but it failed. I couldn't believe it, and Shawna has never ridden it. It looked GREAT though. It was probably one of the best looking rides in the park (it needed A LOT of grease on the track though.) We found who ended up being the VP of park and asked him what was going on with SE? He ended up being a GREAT guy and telling us all about the park rides, winter and the SE. He was disappointed that the SE was, "A few bolts shy of passing the inspections." He went on to tell about how hard is mechanics and everyone at the park has been working but just couldn't pull it off with some of the rides in time (Little Dipper included.) We talked for awhile and he let me get some AWESOME pictures of the SE that I will put up later on OhioThemeParks.com. He also gave Shawna and I four passes to come back and bring some friends! We thanked him very much and were off to more rides.
They had a souvenir store that was opened (but REALLY looked nice and looked like it should have been). I wanted to buy a shirt so bad today?I guess next time. This park still has a very nice working Fascination game! This thing really is an antique! It still looks like it's in perfect condition, what's funny is it even has it's original ash trays! Wow.
We than went next door to the arcade where everything is 25 cents. Skeeball for 25 cents, now that's what I'm talking about. Even all their cool arcade games were 25 cents. And it was air-conditioned inside. Next to the arcade they have a nice Calypso. Across from that they have a newly painted Tilt-A-Whirl! This ride is purple and blue and has a nice long cycle. Shawna and I loved this ride! Next to that is a Tip-Top which Shawna has never ridden. The only other one I have is at the IX Indoor Amusement Park. This is like a Tea Cup gone mad! Imagine spinning than being tossed up and down =C) It was a lot of fun for both of us. They repainted their miniature golf course and did some nice landscaping to it. It wasn't opened yet but looked nice. Across from that is some type of train house that looks like a museum (it was closed.) Next to that was a theater closed also. They still have the "circus stage" their it's being slowly remodeled but it had this EERY feeling when you walked into there, like you were steeping WAY back into time.
The train was the main highlight of the park. It looked great. The tour was great. Landscaped nicely and the train was ALWAYS packed. Nice job for the park! We didn?t go on the paddle boat, even though it looked like a nice little trip around the lake. We headed over to the kiddie area (which you make a right as you walk in the park to go that). They have a nice collection of kiddie rides for an amusement park. A few of them look a little old and weathered but again it's one of those painting checklists for the next two weeks. The Little Dipper wasn't running, but it looked like it needed much tender love and care. This is the exact same model as Dover Lake's Kiddie Coaster. The cars are probably the biggest thing that needs work. They have already started to paint the actual coaster to get it back to normal. They have a VERY nice swimming pool that looked great (but the girls said the water was freezing.) Shawna and I got a kick out of the "POOL Rules" sign...let's just say go to the bathroom before you go swimming. They did have some type of landscaping guy though that was grabbing every leaf not attached to a bush or tree. It was quite comical to watch. No one can say he wasn't doing his job.
They had the walkway to the back of the park closed off. So you couldn't get to the Log Flume, scrambler and Rock-O-Plane (and whatever else was back there.) LSL had MANY stages and theaters around the park, which is going to make for some great music and fun times throughout the year from what the VP said. I can't wait for that.
Overall Shawna and I enjoyed the park for what they had and just taking in the sites and sounds of LeSourdsville Lake. We'll definitely come back later this year. I recommend everyone making some attempt at coming to this park, especially sine it's only about a 15min drive or so from PKI. I had a great time and I am very excited for the parks and things to come! After we took a TON of pictures and a lot of 360 degree pictures (soon to be up online) we headed home after 3 ½ hours. What a nice park with great potential, I hope they can pull it off!!
"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com
*** This post was edited by RollerCoasterGod on 6/8/2002. ***
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