Parks Nearby You, But You've Never Gone

I've been to Schlitterbahn, but just not in the past two summers that I've lived here.

I live 2 hours and 15 minutes from Conneaut Lake Park and have never been there. I've had plans a few times to visit, but one thing or another caused me to cancel them. Their 2012 operation schedule only has the park open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Maybe this will be the year. I probably should make it a priority. Who knows how much longer the park remain open.

I'm a few hours from Kennywood but have never visited. Back in the late 1990's, I gave my kids a choice of CP or KW and they chose CP. In the decade since we've been back to CP a few times but have never made it to KW. Also I'm not too far from Beech Bend if I felt like driving three hours south, but haven't done that yet either. A major reason in both cases is that there's not much else to do either on the way or while there.

After Tuesday's excursion to Darien Lake, Martin's Fantasy Island, and Seabreeze, there is not a 'major' park within a 6 hour radius that I have not visited...

...except Sesame Place. Never made it there, though that should change this summer. It never had my attention over the years. Now that my two girls are old enough to appreciate it, it's time to go.

Robles, you could always do Mammoth Cave while at Beech Bend, it's very beautiful.

As for me I grew up in eastern ky and even though both were close to me I never went to Coney Island Ohio, Strickers Grove, Americana, or Camden Park.

But the worst was when I visited southern California I didn't goto any amusement parks, even though I really wanted to hit up Knotts or Magic Mtn

coastinj said:

Robles, you could always do Mammoth Cave while at Beech Bend, it's very beautiful.

As for me I grew up in eastern ky and even though both were close to me I never went to Coney Island Ohio, Strickers Grove, Americana, or Camden Park.

Thanks, but yeah I did Mammoth Cave back in the seventies, and yes it was indeed beautiful... but I probably could not walk it again through in my current condition. BTW as a kid I used to WALK to Coney! It was right down the hill from my home, and we watched the fireworks from our back yard.

Though I hear Ky Rumbler is a great coaster, my last "new" woodie was RFII, which would be a tough act to follow.

Rob, on the trip when I met you back in '07, I got my only taste of the Rumbler. 14 rides, most right after one of the worst rainstorms I've ever witnessed. So the track was very wet, and that thing was flying! It's a wonderful ride, and remains in my Top Ten woods. I hope it's still in good shape and that they're taking good care of it.

Mike

In Florida there are 12 or so very small parks with one kiddie coaster at each. Most of them are up and down the coast. There is one just north a half an hour away in Altamonte that I could take my two youngest granddaughters to. There are also some a little bit bigger places from the past. I don't give myself credit for riding coasters at Boardwalk and Baseball. I have ridden three at Legoland but missed the others when it was Cypress Gardens. I never went to Boomers so I missed Dania Beach Hurricane.

When I lived in Ohio, I also missed all the small places with one little coaster. I never even rode the wooden at Wyandot Lake and that was close by. I did go to the Sea World when it was open up there, but one of my biggest regrets is never going to Geauga Lake.

Interesting topic!

We never made it to Schlitterbahn when we were living in Houston, despite making several trips to both SW and SFFT. We barely missed the Boardwalk Bullet at Kemah Boardwalk, although I did get to see it during construction with Pat-O.

I think we managed to get to most of the parks in FL, although we were living in Houston by the time we actually made it to Busch and IOA. Glad we caught a lot of rides on DBH before it was gone.

When we were briefly in Chicago we made a lot of trips to SFGAm (right down the street from our house), and SFStL. We also were able to make it to MA once. We never made it to the IN parks, however.

There are a lot of tiny parks here in the Tokyo area that we have not been to yet, but I don't think we have missed anything major (other than Takabisha). It would be nice to get out more to go to Spaceworld, and some of the other interesting parks here in Japan. I am sure we will go more when the girls are old enough to enjoy it.

For a brief time I was working two train stops from NSL, one of my favorite parks in the world. I never made it, but we arranged a trip when we moved some of my stuff a few months later.

I guess I regret not getting to SFNE when I was playing a gig in Cape Cod all summer. If I would not have been given a free pass to return to Lake Compounce, I probably would have gone.

I also spent the summer twice in Ohio and made it to CP and KI, but we did not go to Geauga Lake. Fortunately, we did make it to GL at the end of an event at CP our last riding season in the states.

-Tim

cellocoasterdude said:
I also spent the summer twice in Ohio and made it to CP and KI, but we did not go to Geauga Lake. Fortunately, we did make it to GL at the end of an event at CP our last riding season in the states.

Was that by any chance the so-called Coaster-EXT, the day after Coastermania 2007? That was my first, last, and only visit to GL. I missed RWB by about an hour, as it broke down that morning and never reopened. That's also the trip when I hooked up with Mike "Beastmaster" and got our first rides on Maverick. GL closed at the end of that season, but what a season it was!

RobLec said:

cellocoasterdude said:
I also spent the summer twice in Ohio and made it to CP and KI, but we did not go to Geauga Lake. Fortunately, we did make it to GL at the end of an event at CP our last riding season in the states.

Was that by any chance the so-called Coaster-EXT, the day after Coastermania 2007? That was my first, last, and only visit to GL. I missed RWB by about an hour, as it broke down that morning and never reopened. That's also the trip when I hooked up with Mike "Beastmaster" and got our first rides on Maverick. GL closed at the end of that season, but what a season it was!

I don't think..and I've been wrong before, so take this for what it's worth...RWB "broke down." Didn't it actually derail/crash. I went on it that morning twice, and enjoyed the hell out of it.

I always thought it interesting that I met you at CP that week, but that we were both at GL the same day and didn't meet, even by happenstance.

Mike

Yeah, well it was a BIG event. Even meeting up at CP took some doing, as you'll recall :)

As for RWB, I didn't remember the extent of the breakdown, but I do recall it was serious. I don't even know whether or not it ever reopened that season... and it was GL's last. I sure enjoyed the heck out of Big Dipper though, and got probably twenty rides that night. Most of the ERT crowd was hanging out at Dominator. Sorry I don't recall it's original name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raging_Wolf_Bobs

And Dominator was known by the same name at Geauga.

Mike

I have lived in Maryland nearly all of my life and yet there are a couple of parks either I have never been to or have only been there eons ago. The first is Adventure Park on the outskirts of Frederick, which is literally only about 25 mins away from where I now live. A big part of my reasoning is that it is a relatively tiny park with only one small coaster that I have already ridden before when it was at BGE. There is just little compelling reason for me to go there at this point.

The other two are Jolly Roger's (I guess technically one park, two locations) and Trimper's at Ocean City. These are both parks I have been to way, way back in the early 80's but I haven't visited either of them (or Ocean City itself, which is only about 2 hrs away) since then. Again, neither of these have any coasters that I'm really itching to ride (though I could boost my count by a good bit by paying these parks a visit).

But one of these days I do intend to make it out to Ocean City and check out these parks again and score some easy credits that are practically right under my nose.

RobLec said:

cellocoasterdude said:
I also spent the summer twice in Ohio and made it to CP and KI, but we did not go to Geauga Lake. Fortunately, we did make it to GL at the end of an event at CP our last riding season in the states.

Was that by any chance the so-called Coaster-EXT, the day after Coastermania 2007? That was my first, last, and only visit to GL. I missed RWB by about an hour, as it broke down that morning and never reopened. That's also the trip when I hooked up with Mike "Beastmaster" and got our first rides on Maverick. GL closed at the end of that season, but what a season it was!

Actually It was the GOCC event the year before that, I think. CP showed us their promotional material for Maverick, which was just being built.

Come to think of it, we did get to both of the IN parks eventually (first HWN!), but we were already living in Houston at the time.

-Tim

Schrecken said:

I have lived in Maryland nearly all of my life and yet there are a couple of parks either I have never been to or have only been there eons ago. The first is Adventure Park on the outskirts of Frederick, which is literally only about 25 mins away from where I now live. A big part of my reasoning is that it is a relatively tiny park with only one small coaster that I have already ridden before when it was at BGE. There is just little compelling reason for me to go there at this point.

My friends and I used to call that park, "Six Flags Great Depression", just because it looks so lonely out there in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes I wish some of those smaller parks would try to throw their hats into the ring and start building some modern coasters...or that someone would buy up a bunch of them and try to compete with 6F or Cedar.

I have never been to Six Flags America in PG County. That is probably the closest major theme park to me. But for me, if I'm down that far already, I may as well keep going to KD or BGW.

i don,t know if this is considered close but knoebels which is about a 2 hour drive from where i live in new york & i have never been to knoebels in my lifetime but there is a reason for it.I do not have a car.i am completely dependent upon public transportation to get around because i do not have a car.There is no public transportation anywhere near knoebels & to take a taxi from scranton or wilkes barre is too expensive for me but knoebels is about a 2 hour drive from where i live.Knoebels is one of the few major parks that i have never been to because of the lack of public transportation there.

skc2000

squirrels said:

Schrecken said:

I have lived in Maryland nearly all of my life and yet there are a couple of parks either I have never been to or have only been there eons ago. The first is Adventure Park on the outskirts of Frederick, which is literally only about 25 mins away from where I now live. A big part of my reasoning is that it is a relatively tiny park with only one small coaster that I have already ridden before when it was at BGE. There is just little compelling reason for me to go there at this point.

My friends and I used to call that park, "Six Flags Great Depression", just because it looks so lonely out there in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes I wish some of those smaller parks would try to throw their hats into the ring and start building some modern coasters...or that someone would buy up a bunch of them and try to compete with 6F or Cedar.

I have never been to Six Flags America in PG County. That is probably the closest major theme park to me. But for me, if I'm down that far already, I may as well keep going to KD or BGW.

I really can't add SFA to parks I've never been to, but I can add it to my list of parks very close by (about an hour, as opposed to 2.5 hrs for KD or HP) that I seldom ever visit, so I know how you feel with regards to going to KD instead. However, if you're looking to add coasters to your count it would be worth it for that for those who have never been.

I figure that when they actually build a NEW (and not just leftover junk that's new to the park; relocations don't have to be bad but in this case I could care less about stand-ups, especially old, rough ones) I will again make my way over to SFA again.

My problem is there are really no parks near me, so I have to make extra special trips to any of them. There are still lots I haven't been to, especially in the Midwest and on the East Coast.

It barely counts, but I haven't been to Oaks Park (Portland, Ore.) in about 10 years. The coaster there is about 40 feet tall, kind of mouse coaster with a small loop. Not worth doing again, that's for sure.

I drove to Idaho over 5 hours to Silverwood (Idaho) last year and that's the closest park with a coaster that actually produced some adrenaline.

I spent the first 30+ years of my life living in a river town in Kentucky about about 1/2 way between Cincinnati,OH and Huntington, WV. While I went to every park in the Cincy area multiple times growing up,(KI, Lesourdsville Lake/Americana, Coney Island and Stricker's Grove)I still haven't been to Camden Park. I've drove past it at least 10 times during the summer months, but have never stopped.

Now that I live near KI the only "nearby" parks that I've missed out on are Indiana Beach and Beech Bend. I'm sure I will make it to Beech Bend eventually, since Mammoth Caves, Corvette Museum and Bourbon trail, give me and my non-enthusiast partner an overnight trip that both of us can enjoy. Indiana Beach, however, is a park I'm not sure I'll ever visit. I've just heard so many bad things about the poor operations, questionable maintenance and lack of cleanliness that I'm not sure I will ever take the time to make that trip.