Trip Report: Ohio State Fair (8/15/01)
Rides by: Amusements of America
"You must be this masochistic to ride this ride"
After spending the morning at Wyandot Lake, see my other TR, the Daring Duo of Rideman and myself took in the Ohio State Fair. This is purely academic now, since the fair ended on August 19, 2001. We arrived at the fairgrounds around 1:00 and were pleasantly surpised to be shown to the paved parking area. (Parking $5). We hoped on a waiting parking tram and continued to wait until the tram filled, and then were taken to the fair via a very out-of-the-way routing. I had already purchased an advance sale package through Krogers with rides included for $17. ($5 for grounds, $12 for rides). Today happend to be half price admission day, but I still got a good deal when you consider the midway rides discount.
- FAST FORWARD FROM TICKET PLAZA TO RIDES MIDWAY -
After looking at a model train layour which included a very nice amusement park tableau, and backing away from the counter which had model amusement rides for sale. (It's no fun looking when you have no way to get them home). We continued down the main drag until we turned at the Skyscraper. A Gravity Works Skycraper, $25, we declined it. We entered the Thrill Zone, a pay-extra area with such attraction asthe Trampoline Thing, Skycraper, Batcopter Rides, and various inflatable games. Soon we arrived at the midway where I quickly redeemed my ride voucher for a wristband. After acquiring some nice aqua Tyvek jewlery for the day, we walked to: Our First Ride.
* Fireball - a KMG Afterburner
Fireball looked sort of like what you get when you cross a Huss Frisbee with a KMG Spin Out. (And a Huss Frisbee is sort of what you get when you combine a spin ride with a swinging ship ride) Forget the nice floor you find on a Frisbee, on the Fireball you have the same giant 'claw' tub you find on the Spin Out, yes with OTSR. Passengers boarded, bars down, and the Pit opens up. The Pit allows for your legs to have sufficent clearance for the Pendulum. "Pit and the Pendulum:The Ride" It was interesting to gave into the pit and see all the stuff fair goers USED to own before riding the Fireball. Then the clw starts spinning, then the pendulum effect starts. Mild at first, but soon it swings high, I'd say at least 135 degrees, all the while the seats are spinning, spinning slowly at first then speeding up, then slowing down, then reversing the direction of rotation, then speeding back up. A very fine start to our fair experience. We then walked next 'door' and came accorss
* Avalance - Pinfari Zyklon
According to my host, this particular Zyklon once belonged to Holiday World where it ran as the Firecracker. There have been a few changes since then: a new marquee, a new paint job, new control system, and the lapbars were ripped out and replaced with seatbelts. The Zyklon offered a predictable ride, the block brake before the final turnaround was on hard, but it was moving riders through at a fast pace due to the efficient operation of using the entire station to preload the cars, insuring interval is met.
After the rollercoaster we moved on to another one of the new headliners on the midway,
* Magnum - Mondial Shake
The sign said you must be 53" to ride, they should have added another one "You must be this masochistic to ride". As usual for the state fair, no waiting was neccessary and we were soon directed to pick a tub in the blue section of the ride. While waiting to board we had coreographed boarding the tub so as to best protect electronic equipment. The concept was that I would sit on the right, and sit down first. Uhm, the person sitting on the left must get in first. Rideman boards the tub and does not sit down. The tub pithces forward under his weight. I board the tub, I get my first foot in, and put my weight on it to swing my other foot into the tub, the tub pitches SEVERELY forward. We hear laughter. The tub entrance is no where near the step when I got to put my other foot in requiring some unusual bode flexing but soon we are in the tub, standing. then we sit down as we rehearsed. Except that when putting our weight on the seatback, the car did NOT pitch backawards to an upright position. This may be becuase the seats were tippes so far forward, we had to sort of stand and lean back against them. At this point an operator decided he had laughed hard enough, and came to rigt our tub so that we could sit down and the retraints could lower. He said "Next time you try getting in one at a time" Thanks for telling us now, bud. The OTSR's come down. The Shake is what you get when you cross a Chaos and a BreakDance. More specifically when you put Chaos cars on a Breakdance. The ride started spinning, and at first we were merely spun mericlessly, then the ride cranked up to crusing speed. "So that's what this does" All of a sudden in addition to spinning our tub began doing flips. Interesting visuals as you are spinning and flipping at the same time. After two eternities of flipping and spinning we realized our shoulders were starting to ache, and this really wasn't as much fun as it looke from the midway. Ah, am I glad THAT's over with.
* Remix - KMG Oribter-inspired ride
We next headed over to Remix, yet another of the new headliners. Remix is what you get when you put inverted style seats on a Tivoli Oribter. Whiel this ride was fast and fun, I wonder if we could do it without OTSR. As with the Orbiter the ride forces press you into your seat anyway, so lets put lapbars on this thing.
* Tornado - Wisdom Tornado
I didn't learn my lesson on the King Frolic. Tornado is a larger 4 'player' version of the King Frolic. This one has 4 chairs, 4 lapbars, and a wheel in the center of each tub. Take your seats, lower the lapbars and spin your way into oblivion. Unlike the Frolic, the Tornado takes quite a lot more strength to get a good spin on the tub. We started out spinning and reversing just like the Frolic. Here's where my stomach started a revolt. I soon selected another riding strategy. Sitting back in the chair staring intensely at the wheel but not the surroundings. I felt like I was on the Remix for awhile as the motion seemed quite simliar. As expected it soon wore down Rideman's strangth and we made it to a safe landing.
We looked at the Banzai, which is like a Zamperla Hawk or Vekoma Air Jumper in that it is a looping ship ride with no floor and inverted style seating. I just wasn't that interested in it. I'm really starting to dislike being held upside down, and yeah that stomach revolt is trying to tell me something. Instead we headed for
* Cliffhanger (Dartron)
Cliffhanger is a Paratrooper with prone riding 'berths'. I very much liked it when it came to the town carnival by my house, and it would be a nice tame ride. We boarded cralwed up into our berths and were secured by the restraint system. I still like the Cliffhanger as itis a gentle yet unusual fun ride. It took a while to unload at the end of the ride due to the design of the restraints.
We noted the Swiss bobs were closed and headed towards the kiddieland. Kiddieland is just a name to tell it apart from the main midway. It is true also that almost all the kiddie rides are located on the Kidway. Recently though several rides have posted signs "This ride for children AND adults" We took pause at the Zamperla Kiteflyer (like a Dartron Cliffhanger but with 2 accross rather than 3 accross berths). What caught our eye was the sign "Ride Face Up or Face Down, Your Choice" Although I wanted to try it Face Up, my host gently suggested that I look up at the sky. Bright sunshine, not what you want to be forced to stare up at for the whole ride. I decided to let Rideman ride it at night after the sun went down and report back to me. He did, reporting that its not an experience he wanted to repeat. What did bring us to Kiddieland was the Allan Hershell Skywheel.
Skywheel - Allen Herschell
This gem debuted in 1967 as a solution to the Ferris Wheel Problem. The Ferris Wheel Problem is rooted in the fact that you can't load a lot of
cars each time you stop the wheel, and loading is time consuming. So you spend a lot of time and effort loading the wheel, then running the ride. This is why on a lot of Giant Wheels the actual ride is only 1 or two revolutions. On some bigger wheels the ride merely loads and unloads all the time with no crusing revolutions. On several earlier Ferris Wheels, only 1 seat could be loaded at a time. the Sky Wheel was invented of the philosophy of "What if we could combine constant loading with being able to give people a long ride?" At its heart a Skywheel consists of two ferris wheels, one at each end of a long boom. In concept you rotate the large boom so that one wheel is at the bottom being loaded, while the other sits at the top merrily spinning away giving its passengers a gentle pleasant ride. It sort of gives you the effect of having two Ferris Wheels in the same footprint as one. Idealy, as was the case at the Stafe Fair, they also included a 'cruising cycle'. What is interesting here is that the large boom containing both wheels starts to rotate so that the two wheels are rotating around the center of the ride, while the cars on each wheel are rotating about the center of their respective subwheel. In fact the timing is such that the main wheel (consisting of the two subwheels) rotates at the exact same RPM as the subwheels. Which means that when the subwheel goes from its top position to the bottom position, the topmost seat on that subwheel is now on the bottom. gives the illusion of riding a much wider diameter wheel than you actually are. Its a wonderful idea, and a historical footnote to our ride session.
We took a look at the newest in kiddie rides, which started a session of "Why didn't they have these when WE were kids" I took a look at the Whacky Worm, didn't ride itm but now wish I did. I can't fault Rideman who asked me point blank "Do you want to ride the Whacky Worm?" Next to the Whacky Worm a new ride dropped in that wasn't there at the start of the fair. And I do think Dropped in is an appropriate term since it was a Moser Junior Drop Tower. Unfortunately it dropped in so recently that it did not have its required operating permit yet. We took a look at the permanent Giant Slide, and I remarked at the unuaul arches above the slide. I learned that they have the slide miked so that the sounds of the riders come over speakers mounted at the base of the slide.
We then headed back towards the main midway after a cold refreshments stop. Really this visit to Kiddway did a lot for my revolting stomach. Upon return to the Main Midway, we looked at the Inverter. I don't particualarly care for the Inverter so skipped it. I was interested in the Zipper, but they were cleaning up after an inferior ride enthusiast who could not control their stomach revolt.
Then out of the corner of our eyes, we saw the Swiss Bob running. Swiss Bob is Anton's version of the Byern Kurve. Becasue it's an awesome ride, and for a tribute to Anton we took a spin on the Swiss Bob. After the Swiss Bob, I suggested the Musik Express. Dear stomach forgive me. There were in fact a number of Music Express/Flying Bobs (Doniker) rides at the fair, and I think I selected the fastest of the fastest ones offered. This model had ratcheting lapbars, and an operator who decided to staple us in. Hey the ride does go backwards, and for those that have been following Himalayah incidents, its good to have the riders very secured if you are going to run backwards. This design also featured two seperate lap bar locks, which must be operated at the same time to release the lapbar. (One for each rider) . The operator who was not on cosole was taking the Music Express theme overboard as he was playing his air guitar and funking out as the ride was spinning. I beleive the ride program was 25%forwards, 75%backwards. Some more walking this time to a rather deserted area of the midway, not much back there but some dark rides, walk throughs, and a Flying Doniker. After the music express, I was not ready for the Flying Doniker (Bobs)
We startedto head back towards the front of the midway,making a stop at the Ring of Fire. "May I show you to your cage?" I don't quite remember those little cages being THIS confining. I hear they are now offering an open air version, but it has OTSR. I'll stick to the traditional Ring of Fire. You may recall from earlier I reported that I disliked being held upside down. Let me clarify that, I dislike being held upside down with OTSR's, held upside down with a nice thickly padded lapbar is A-OK. After our Ring of Fire ride I got a schooling by my host on better riding tips.
I then took a look at the Larson High Roller, even walked over to it. Then I had a painful flashback from 1993. (The last time I was intrigued by a Larson High Roller). Suffice to say I did not ride the Larson High Roller. "That looks pretty uncomfortable".
We came back to the head of the midway, where we took another ride on the KMG Afterburner. It was a fine ride, and I still love the Afterburner, but I could not wait to get off. Right after the midride tub rotation reversal I started feeling REALLY bad. By the time the ride stopped I was quite close to getting sick. Rideman may have ntoiced how I gingerly got out of my seat, and ever so slowly made my wayto the exit stairs, and held on as I decended the stairs."I have just hit my spin ride limit"
Just as well, it looks like I have to leave in a little under an hour anyway. We made our way to the first fully plumbed doniker we came accross. (No not to give offerings to the Porcelin God), then we went inside the air-conditioned Bricker building to find a nice park bench to sit on for the next 15 minutes or so. Behind said benches was something that should make Six Flags, Cedar Fair, and Paramount all sit up and take notice. I spotted a row of Pepsi machines. You say, whats the big deal about that, almost all major parks have soft drink vending machines now. I was thirsty, needed fluids replaced, and walked over to one. I looked at the price. $1.00! "Bet it's a can" I insrted a $1.00 bill, made my selection, and out popped a 20 oz. plastic bottle of Dr. Pepper. When Six Flags, Cedar Fair, or Paramount start selling bottled soft drinks (to guests) in their parks for $1.00 each, it will be a miracle.
We won't even talk about the High Tech exhibit that featured such high tech things as: EMPTY BOOTHS, dot coms doing a BAD job promoting their website. What happend to all the high thech electronic goodies I wasexpecting to see?
We then left the fair so that I could catch my transportation home. All in all it was good that we stopped riding when we did, because we arrived a the terminal with impecable timing.