Belated TR from Kennywood and the NYS Fair

[Movieguy]

Due to my business at work and at other sites on the web, I have not been able to document my recent amusement excursions from August until tonight. But I'm finally able to do it now.

 

At first I thought that my big trip to WDW in July would be my only trip for the Summer. It turns out I was wrong. I discovered I needed to go down to Western PA just before my birthday on August 9th, and help my Grandmother move from her old home, to her new Apartment up here in Ithaca. Well, my family and I decided that on one of the days we were there, we could go down to West Mifflin and visit Kennywood. I had not been there since 1996, so I jumped at the chance.

 

As soon as we arrived, just before the rides opened, my sister and I immediately got in line for the Phantom's Revenge. I'd heard a lot of good things about the coaster formerly known as the Steel Phantom, and it did not disappoint. Great speed and loads of airtime throughout. However, there was so much airtime for me at one point, that the G-forces slammed my elbow on the edge of the car from all the time I spent with my arms in the air. Didn't feel too good, but I lived.

 

The two of us quickly headed to the Thunderbolt soon after, which had NO line when we arrived, so we got right in the front seat, which I'd never done on Thunderbolt before. The ride was as great as I remembered, and my sister had a great time slamming into me from the Lateral G's.

 

We went on a couple of spinning rides after that, and then my sister dragged me onto the King Kahuna, A Huss Top Spin that squirts water on you. I had never wanted to go on a Top Spin in my life before that day. They just freaked me out too much. But my sister, who grew up with a love of thrill rides thanks to me, had a lot more guts, and just took me right on. I was nervous as all hell, and I won't lie to you, I screamed bloody murder once that thing began to turn us upside down. I guess I ended up having fun, but I was still holding onto that restraint pretty tightly after the ride ended.

 

After a while, we met up with our parents, and took a ride on the Jack Rabbit, followed by the Racer, before I finally went on my own to get some cheese fries from the Potato Patch.

 

From then on I just casually walked around, snacking and riding, going on the Phantom's Revenge again, before riding on the raging rapids and getting soaked.

 

I met up with my parents one more time, and then just felt like walking around. I got some more food, a bag of cotton candy, and even got to play a couple of great pinball machines in the arcade, before buying a great DVD of the PBS documentary "Kennywood Memories".

 

Once I met up with my family again, we went to a sweet shop in the park, got some fudge and candy, and then headed back to my Grandma's.

 

Kennywood's still a great little park. It's so nice to go to a place where it doesn't take an eternity to walk to the other end.

 

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I got to have one final fling at thrills when my family took its traditional trip to the opening day of The New York State Fair. It may not be as attractive or as well maintained as most Theme Parks are, but there are lots of lovable things about this place if you just know where to look.

 

My favorite part of the place, is the food. Not many people realize that Upstate NY has a fairly sizable dairy industry, in fact there's an entire building at the fair dedicated to dairy. In this building, you can get an entire carton of ice cream, ben and Jerry sized, all kinds of flavors, for just $1.50. My favorite, was the Black Raspeberry Blast, Black Rasperry ice cream mixed with bittersweet chocolate flakes, and little chocolate hearts filled with raspberry.

 

They also have a lot of pastires and desserts to choose from, including 4 different kinds of cannoli.

 

But enough about food. The Midway is also a big attraction. And contrary to popular belief, many of the people running the rides and games didn't all fit the "Carny" mold. Many of them were actually wearing uniforms, reasonably clean ones too. Though a few of them looked like they didn't have a complete grasp of the English language, if you know what I mean.

 

As for the rides, in recent years, the Fair has had the privilige of trying out all kinds of new flat rides from Chance and Huss. This year however, was fairly devoid of any of the new stuff, but there were still plenty of old favorites to make up for it.

 

My favorite was the Fire Ball, a combination spinning/swinging ride. The seats face inward in a circle as they spin on a single arm, which then begins to swing very high, back and forth at the same time. It was quite an experience the first time, and after I got off, I got right back in line again.

 

I then went on the Orbitor, a kind of scrambler ride that extends its arms outward as it spins and twirls, before heading over to the Top Spin. Thanks to my experience at Kennywood, I finally went on the thing myself, and was totally exhilerated this time.

 

After taking a ride on the Re-Mix, a scrambler type ride that also extends its arms, only it has seats like those on an inverted coaster, I walked back to the exhibit area and enjoyed all of the food there, before heading back to the midway and meeting up with my sister, riding the Top Spin a second time with her.

 

We then parted ways, I went back and looked through some more exhibits, and then met up to get some dinner at the Dinosaur Barbeque's popular tent, before finally heading home.

 

Overall, this was a very nice August for me in terms of thrills and leisure.

[MrsPhishy]

I never thought I'd say this...but hearing about the NYS Fair almost makes me miss Syracuse. Almost. Then I remember how bad that lake smells and I remember why I left.

 

But I do miss the Dinosaur BBQ....

[Movieguy]

Well, I've never been to the Lake, so I'll have to take your word for it, lol.

 

The Pyramid company is apparently going to start with DestiNY USA, the proposed plan to expand and change the Carousel Mall into the biggest mall in the US, even without full permission of the local government, and I for one applaud them for it. It's about time somebody thumbed their nose at all the bueracratic BS that's made places like Syracuse suffer for so long.

 

Who knows, maybe this will inspire somebody to come along and start cleaning up that lake, whether the red tape idiots like it or not. We can only hope.