Midwest Trip Reports from Josh!

Yesterday during my trip to the Des Moines area, I decided to pay my first visit to the local amusement park, Adventureland. It's a small family park located in Altoona, Iowa that has some fun rides, friendly employees, and a nice atmosphere that exceed my expectations.

 

Adventureland has a nice charm that is hard to find in most parks nowadays. For the most part, the park is clean and good looking despite being a little dated. The Main Street section of the park especially looks nice. The park's employees were very friendly. They always had a good attitude, and they were making an effort to fill all available seats on the rides. It was also nice that food prices here weren't that ridiculous here compared to other places. The rides were a lot of fun, with Tornado and Outlaw being the park's best. Adventureland isn't perfect though. There is a graffiti problem in most of the queues, and the coasters can only run one train at a time, however I very much enjoyed my time here, and I'm looking forward to coming back next summer to ride Monster, the park's new for 2016 Gerstlauer Infinity coaster. I will reserve final judgement until riding, but I think Monster will end up being the park's new best ride. Overall, I think Adventureland is an underrated park that I would recommend visiting if you're ever in the area because there really isn't much else to do in Iowa.

 

This is what a drive in Iowa looks like.

 

Welcome to Adventureland? Thank you!

 

I'd like to compare the entrance quality to my trip to Carowinds about a month ago, and it kinda sucks.

 

And the little Engine/Coaster Enthusiast said, "I think I can {Have time to ride this}!"

 

This supposed to be a rip-off of Magic Kingdom?

 

The map should be a little more interesting once Monster is put up

 

Singing in the "rain".

 

Our first ride of the day is going to be Tornado!

 

Pullin' outta the station

 

Cornfields and coasters in the same picture are only found in Iowa...

 

About to get hit by airtime

 

Tornado's station has no air gates, still has buzz bars, and it uses skid brakes. Very old school

 

Entrance to the parks Outlaw Gulch section.

 

This guy is saying what the height requirement is for Outlaw is, even though he probably isn't tall enough himself...

 

This has been noted.

 

Pretty nice first drop!

 

And the train comes speeding by. I have to be completely honest. Compared to Outlaw Run, this one sucked.

 

Might as well get this over with

 

NERD SHOT!!!

 

Not horrible, but not very good either

 

Semi-decent loops...

 

Also took a ride on the Inverter.

 

Yep, actually a fun ride!

 

There's the little engine that the enthusiast never had time to do

 

Up next was the Underground

 

Hey, it's Paddington!

 

Wait, that's just a creepy possessed person

 

Took another ride on Outlaw after I had a bite to eat.

 

Hi Dragon! Hi Tornado!

 

Dragon in the figure-8.

 

One more lap on Tornado before heading out

 

Space Shot. I didn't get to it because I have been on tons others, but the people of the park seem to like it

 

"Cause baby you're so classic!" (And you will be eaten by Gerstlauer, like, tomorrow)

 

That's my first trip report on this thread! Thanks for reading