Theme-Park-Urge Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 Middle Tennessee hosted a couple fairs recently that I attended with camera in tow. Although just a little more than a carnival, fairs here seem to revolve more around family fun like livestock, beauty pageants, and tractor pulls than high-energy thrills that I look for. Nevertheless, both the Williamson County Fair (located about 30 minutes South of Nashville) held in early August and the Tennessee State Fair (a hop, skip, and a jump from my office in Nashville) held last week provided a good amount of rides, fun, and not-so-healthy food. Both fairs are somewhat unique in that they each offer rare ferris wheels: The Seattle Wheel & The Skywheel, amidst your pretty standard-fare carnival rides. Here are some highlights from these fairs. Thanks for reading & enjoy! First up: Williamson County, TN Fair. If you want to see more photos from this fair click here: http://pics.themeparkurge.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=113897 I leave you with one last view of the Seattle Wheel keeping watchful eye over the livestock. That was the Williamson County, TN Fair. I had fun at my first southern fair! Stay tuned. The TN State Fair is up next. Clatterpillar speeding by with a train-full of youngsters. Is it just me or does the Clatterpillar look like he's been toking on the hookah? Let 'em hang! I could marathon the Hammer for hours! More Hammer love! Moon Rocket (again). Ion (again). Absolutely stunning! More Seattle Wheel beautifulness! Himalaya (again). Time for the nightly two-minute fireworks display. *grumbles* Mega Drop at nite. Cyclops with Mega Drop behind it. Oooh! Pretty lights! Cyclops spinning from underneath. More Cyclops in action. Cyclops (again). After a much deserved nap, I headed back to the fair for some nitetime pictures. I LOVE nitetime carnival photos! ...and a TPR-approved donkey, among others. There was a huge livestock exhibit that included a longhorn bull... Credit alert! Clatterpillar's not for me though. No whoring here. Jumbos. Later in the day a different ride op said that he'd give me a crazy program that was better than his supervisor's prior. He succeeded!! It was absolutely insane!! The ride op told me that he was gonna give me the longest ride of my life & I think he succeeded! It lasted about five minutes! I had a smile that big while riding! Another rarity: The Hammer (Kamikaze)! Super Slide complete with a smiley face. My idea of fun does NOT include sliding down plastic that's been baking out in the 100 degree sun. Kite Flyer. Black Widow (Spider). Sizzler. Tilt-A-Whirl. Let me tell you: the ride's A LOT more scarier when there's no cage to protect you from falling out & splatting on the ground. There was a Moon Rocket (a cageless Ring Of Fire). There's a second midway with mostly kiddie rides including the Honey Bees. I don't know when these starting popping up at carnivals/fairs but they are ANNOYING!! I guess they're doing their job well. Either way, after passing this guy a couple times you want to literally drown him - not by hitting the target with a baseball til he falls in but by hitting him with a baseball bat & holding him under the water. j/k It is funny to see how people react to insults in a public setting though. Alpine Bobs was fun. They gave a nice long ride cycle. Pirate & Alpine Bobs. Aw, hell no!! This is definitely a first!! And the ride's moving!! Pirate swinging ship. Wait! What's dude doing up there?!? Scooter bumper cars. Orbiters are the only flats that really get me woozy. Ion. This was a lot of fun! I hadn't been on an Orbiter since Lake Winnie last summer. Elvis & Vicky Tiu sat in this car. They made a movie called It Happened at the World's Fair which was released in 1963. As you can also see, it is quite a beautiful structure. I don't think the Seattle Wheel could take a bad picture. As you can see, it is a very uniquely designed ferris wheel. This is the only operating Seattle Wheel on the road these days. It stands 90 feet tall. The Seattle Wheel was created by the Valarie Brothers for the Worlds Fair in Seattle, Washington. The rare Seattle Wheel! Himalaya. Mega Drop. Cyclops. I rode this & was quite disappointed with the short cycle (maybe five full-height swings) considering it was wristband day & there were no lines. Rockin' Tug. Carousel. Welcome to the Williamson County, TN Fair. Rides provided by the Drew Exposition. This is the main midway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillerman1 Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 The Seattle Wheel is gorgeous. Though I live in Nashvegas, I've never been to either of these fairs so thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theme-Park-Urge Posted September 20, 2008 Author Share Posted September 20, 2008 Part two: Tennessee State Fair (daytime). If you want to see more photos from this fair click here: http://pics.themeparkurge.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=122462 Oh! That looks "appetizing"... Stay tuned for the final installment: TN Fair at nite. Then I saw this: Beef Sundae. What the heck is a Beef Sundae?!? They had a Quit Smoking stand. God, how I love irony! (Check out the lady in pink.) Toon Town. A walk-though copyright infringement attraction. Raiders. Tornado. Spider. I was impressed/shocked that they had two coasters at the fair too. Among tons of kiddie rides that I'm not going to post pictures for, there was an Orient Express. Cliffhanger. Giant Wheel. Yep, there were two ferris wheels at this fair. ANOTHER Scooter?!? Seriously?!? Sea Ray swinging ship. Yep, that's as high as it went. Boo on you AGAIN! Tilt-A-Whirl. What carnival/fair doesn't have one?!? A blow-up Haunted House?!? Now, that's a first. Ring Of Fire. Thunder Bolt, straight out of RCT3!! I absolutely love how this picture turned out! It was pretty photogenic too. Dream Machine was extremely nice-looking. ...until you dropped to the ground. ...and sat... ...where you sat... ...then it kicked into drop tower mode, lifting you to the top... First, it shot you up & bounced you a couple times... Big Ben, their space shot drop tower. ...until the arms raise you to upside-down. All the while, you continue spinning!! Believe it or not, it wasn't the least bit dizzying or nauseating! It spins like a Scrambler first, then like an Orbiter... Time for one of my new favorite flats: Exstacy! Scrambler. It was difficult to get a picture of this Sky Wheel in operation, since they ran a split-second cycle: only a couple revolutions & off you go. Boo on you again. I had previously only seen a Sky Wheel operating in one of my RCT3 parks. The Sky Wheel was originally manufactured by the Allan Herschel Company & later reproduced by Chance Rides. The rare Sky Wheel. Starship 3000 (Gravitron). This ride is so intense & seems to never end! Power Surge. One of my all-time favorite flats! Scooter bumper cars. Nitro. That's as high as it went & it didn't spin. A motor was broken but they kept the ride open. I thought that was pretty lame on their part. Boo on you! They were giving like four laps per ride! Such a cute little coaster! Wow! They've got a Wacky Worm here! Dizzy Dragons. Rockin' Tug. Super Slide. In honor of Big Mike! Good luck counting all the duckies in THIS picture! "Help Wanted"? Hmmmm... Another huge game stall. I loved the colorfulness of Mighty Bluegrass' midway! Family Swings. A closer look at the Carousel. Carousel. Elephant Ears?!? I'll definitely be visiting that later! BTW: They were so huge that I couldn't even eat half of it! And I love me some Elephant Ears! See what I mean?!? BTW: you can kind of see the game girl hiding from the camera. She did not want to be captured on film! Many of the games seemed to be over-sized on the midway! This food smelled delicious! Crab Cakes, Coconut Shrimp, Gyros, huge Turkey Legs... Yummy! But $7.50 for a Philly Steak at the TN State fair?!? What gives?!? There was food EVERYWHERE at this fair! You can get your picture on a pony & who doesn't want their picture on a pony?!? Welcome to the Tennessee State Fair. Rides provided by Mighty Bluegrass Shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theme-Park-Urge Posted September 20, 2008 Author Share Posted September 20, 2008 Part three: Tennessee State Fair (nitetime). Again, if you want to see more photos from this fair click here: http://pics.themeparkurge.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=122462 Goodnite from Tennessee. The Carousel at nite provides me with a good ending to a long yet enjoyable day at the Tennessee State Fair. I don't know why, but I really wanted to take this pic & actually am satisfied with its results. Family Swings looks nice at nite. It'd look nicer if all the bulbs worked though. Orient Express heading up the lift. Giant Wheel all lit up. I love how this picture turned out! Thunder Bolt in action. Dream Catch... I mean Weav... (dammit) Machine by the light of the moon. Will someone please just change the name for me?!? Great! Now that song Dream Weaver is stuck in my head! So far, I've typed (& deleted) Dream Weaver & Dream Catcher when I'm trying to type Dream Machine... Dream Machine looks even more stunning at nite. Big Ben falling from the sky. Big Ben beauty. Close-upside-down Exstacy action! Close-up Exstacy action! Wow! Gorgeous! Pretty! Time for some nitetime Sky Wheel love! Oh yeah, they had a Round-Up that I kept waiting to open but it never did. Yet another boo on you! I had a vision of this shot when I was at the fair earlier & here's the result. One of my all-time favorite pictures! You don't know how many pictures I had to take before I could get this shot timed correctly. Power Surge (again) looks cool! After a quick nap, I headed back to the fair for some nitetime pics. Sound familiar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luka Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 Wow! Those are 2 awesome fairs! Good amount & Great flats! But the best part was the night time pictures, absoloutely beautiful at night, thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnguy Posted September 21, 2008 Share Posted September 21, 2008 Cool stuff. I had never seen that Seattle wheel before. Thats pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRapidsNerd Posted September 21, 2008 Share Posted September 21, 2008 Some great pics and sooo many good things in them! Spiders, Moon Rocket, Ring of Fire, Funnel Cake, Orient Express, Wacky Worm, and the Seattle Wheel is awesome. One of the night pics of the SW looked like a praying mantis. These would definately be worth the trip to Nashville next summer. Also, the ducky game pic was very funny. Enjoyed this one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cprocks22 Posted September 21, 2008 Share Posted September 21, 2008 Ooo I'm super jealous, I love sky wheels! I have memories of me as a kid riding one over and over and over and over . I wish more were still around cause they're fun rides! Great TR, its a nice change to see a fair TR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigstevet07 Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 Wait, so the Hammer was themed to the former Soviet Union? Am I crazy or is that what the C.C.C.P. is referring to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 ^ lol. Yeah, I caught that too. Hilarious! Thanks for posting this! I remember seeing the Seattle Wheel at the Dalton fair earlier this year, but had no idea about the history of it. I appreciate the background info on it. Hopefully it makes an appearance down here next year as well. If so, I won't miss out on a ride. In fact, I'm gonna have to check my pics of it when I get home. These all may be the exact same rides as we got. My memory sucks sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightypotato Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 The Erie County Fair used to have a Sky Wheel every year when I was a kid. My dad would drag me on it, and I was absolutely terrified. I eventually started liking it...but then it disappeared and never came back. I miss it so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreaky Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 The Seattle Wheel has been at the Tennessee Valley Fair in Knoxville the past four or so years. I think this year they went with a different vendor...but for the most part the same rides. The Seattle wheel gives a great ride too. I watched that movie again not too long ago hoping to catch Elvis riding the wheel, but they only passed by it when they're on the monorail at the beginning of the film and it makes one other short appearance I think. Never showed them actually riding it, unfortunately. Thanks for sharing your great pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speeddeamon128 Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 That looks like a fun fair. If I was there I would definitely be a whore & ride the credits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ETapley0687 Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 Good TR, I live in Wilson County, but I used to live in Nashville and I go to the State Fair every year but it's ran down a little more every year. The Wilson County Fair is really putting our State Fair to shame lol. But besides that I love the Ecstacy! but it makes me soooo sick! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBIJim Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 Great photos. I haven't seen or ridden a Sky Wheel in perhaps 20+ years. I've always enjoyed watching them in motion, especially at night. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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