Mini TR: Ohio State Fair 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
“This thing is a piece of crap!”
For the most part I’ll let the ride list speak for this one, since I wasn’t there for very long. I got there at about 7, and we got into the lot (still $5) and parked. Since my dad didn’t come this year, we weren’t in the handicapped lot or inside the grounds like we usually are, so we were toward the back of the grass lot, near the U stop on the yellow parking shuttle route.
We got in and I promptly jumped onto the SkyGlider to go from the North end of the grounds to the South end of the grounds. Got off there in the Kidway area, took a few photos and looked around there, then quickly toured the South Commercial and Collectibles buildings. Didn’t get anything there for the second year in a row, the selection there has sucked for the last few years, basically the same stock and same places they’ve had for quite some time now.
There were more empty/open spots in the commercial building than there usually are, and most of the booth people looked bored. Not surprised really.
After that, I finally headed to the midway and redeemed my wristband voucher from Kroger. I’ll let the rides list mostly speak for itself for the midway. After my first midway lap I wasn’t feeling too good, so I took a break from the rides for a minute and walked over into the Natural Resources Park to use the restroom real quick, then back out onto the midway. I waited in the fairly short line for Avalanche and got a ride in, then continued on down the midway taking more photos now that it was getting very dark. I noticed that it had suddenly gotten very windy, and while the sky was getting very dark now the clouds were looking threatening.
It had that feeling of an imminent storm blowing in. Standing at the Wave Swinger end of the midway, I called my mom to mention the weather, and she said DeLuca’s, where I wanted to eat as I had the last two state fairs, would close if it started to rain. She came on over to the midway and as I started around the bend of the midway to get some night photos of Space Roller, she flagged down a passing pair of state troopers to ask about the weather. They said there was a severe storm warning for the county directly to the north, but nothing for here yet. After we went on down to Space Roller and I shot some night photos, I decided to bail on the midway and we headed out, taking the long way back around the midway and out of it by the Giant Wheel so I could take more night photos on the way, then headed back to the “Food Highway” section of the grounds. On the way I stopped at the souvenir stand to get my usual pin, then we headed on to DeLuca’s.
I got the fettucini alfredo, same as the last two years and sat in their eating area behind the joint and ate, then we stopped back at the front window and got some more garlic bread to go. It was starting to sprinkle, so we headed out toward the front gate, making a couple brief stops including so I could get a funnel cake.
Funnel cake in hand, I headed out and we boarded the parking shuttle back to the back part of the lot where we were parked, and headed home. I ate the funnel cake in the car, and it was a pretty uneventful ride back home, other than mixing up exits just after exiting the fairgrounds and ending up going east instead of getting onto I-71 South. Quick fix though, just got off the first exit, crossed the overpass and got back on the other direction, then got onto 71.
Some notes on the rides…
The new Wisdom Viper is a painful POS. It’s a modern remake of the old Cobra, except it has hard shoulder bars and the seats don’t swing out to absorb the later forces. Result: It sucks. Hard. It ran for at least a full minute in tame mode, so I was sitting there bored. Then, it kicked into high speed and SUCKED. Plastered sideways with your neck wedged against the hard shoulder bar. NOT fun, that sucked a lot. Painful POS.
The new Mondial Heartbreaker isn’t much better, but at least has an interesting ride action. It’s basically a Moby Dick with Space Roller seats, and flips throughout the ride, though it’s not consistent. The problem is that it plays ping pong with your head between the OTSR, which isn’t fun at all especially if you have glasses earpieces there. Yeowch. The flipping was fun and felt a little out of control, but not worth the ear smashing.
I also rode my first Inverter. Major piece of crap. There’s really nothing redeeming about it, unless you hauled it to the steel scrappers. Uncomfortable junk.
Finally rode the Belle City RockNRoll himalaya. Fastest thing I’ve ever ridden, it glues you sideways against the outer side of the vehicle at neckbreaking speeds. Awesome.
Quasar was boring. The Hang Ten they had here a couple years ago in 2006 was better, this thing just never got enough speed to be much fun.
Space Roller kicked ass like it always does, though it was running in WTF Mode, only rotating backwards. Most all of the lights worked, and they actually fixed the onboard compressor, so no more air hose to release the restraints. Speakers still sound like total crap though.
Rides List: (Order may be slightly off after Inverter)
Skyglider (One-way from North to South)
Giant Wheel (AOA)
Tornado (AOA)
Quasar (Bates)
Viper (Bates)
Inverter (Bates)
Heartbreaker (Baxter)
MTV Walkthrough (I think… Might have been the Rock and Roll Palace one)
Space Roller (Baxter)
Cave of Doom
RocknRoll (Belle City/Himalaya)
Avalanche (AOA)
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