Knoebels 2020

After a slightly disappointing four hours at Hersheypark, my dad and I made the hour-long drive to Knoebels, one of my favorite amusement parks. This was one of the first weekdays they were open last year, so I was able to get multiple rides on all of my favorites. Here's the amazing Flyer, still the best flat ride that I've been on. These "flying scooter" rides are a dime a dozen, but none of them allow you the wild level of control that Knoebels' does!

Twister is one of the park's two fantastic wooden coasters, patterned after the legendary Mr. Twsiter at Elitch Gardens.

 As you might guess by the picture below, the Pioneer Train provides great views of the ride, as well as the surrounding woods during its 1.5-mile trip.

While I love Twister, Phoenix will always be one of the great American coasters. Saved by the Knoebel family from a closed park in Texas, it set the example of how a coaster could be saved and is still consistently voted as the best wooden coaster in the country. 

A refreshment stand and its seating areas are housed in former merry-go-round frames that Knoebels bought. The two closest ones in this shot rotate, with the rotation of the red-and-white striped covering at left controlled by the water wheel in the far rear.

There's plenty of concession options. After all, Knoebels has the best amusement park food in the nation!

The Time Machine Theater is the home of puppet shows, and normally, ones that let the audience be part of the story.

With picnic grove roots, Knoebels lacks the grand architecture of Kennywood, but there's still some old neon.

Being from Pittsburgh, I had to go for the black and gold car on the world's best bumper cars, Skooter.

The creeks that run through Knoebels are scenic and look good at night when illuminated, but the threat of flooding they pose has caused the park some setbacks over the years, all of which they've recovered from very quickly.

This visit to Knoebels is one of my fondest memories from last year. Hopefully I'll get to go back soon!

Indiana Beach

One of the last stops on our Midwest road trip was Indiana Beach, a lakeside park in Monticello, a town in North-Central Indiana. In February of last year, it was announced that this 90-year-old park would close forever. I was sad that I would never get to visit, but luckily, a buyer stepped in, and this strangely turned out to actually be one of the first amusement parks in the country to reopen. After more than a decade of corporate ownership, the park is now family owned once again!

The Indiana Beach mascot is a crow!

Being in the middle of nowhere Indiana, it's cool to walk out of these trees and enter the park across a suspension bridge.

Here you can see some of the park's densely-packed roller coasters. It's a great entrance approach.

The most unique coaster at Indiana Beach is Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain. It's by far the wackiest coaster I've ridden. A while back, the park wanted to add some extra thrills to one of their dark rides, so they wound roller coaster track around the faux mountain that was used for the former ride. As a result, Lost Coaster has not only an extremely tight turning radius, but an elevator lift (the structure to the left in the below image), enclosed cars, and various darkride effects. And the most amazing thing is that it's a wooden coaster! The video shows this ride better than I can explain it.

Cornball Express reflects the Indiana Beach slogan: "There's more than corn in Indiana!"

This is one of the park's two traditional wood coasters. Built in 2001, it is the lower track in the picture below. The train above is actually for a different coaster, Hoosier Hurricane, built in 1994. Of the two, I definitely preferred Cornball Express; even though it's smaller, it offers much better airtime! 

Steel Hawg is an unorthodox steel coaster that had the world's steepest drop when it opened. It was a lot of fun!

I witnessed a startling collision of two cars while in line for the Tig'rr coaster; the car didn't stop at the unload station (on the right), whipped around the bend, and crashed into the car waiting at the load area. No one was hurt, but more importantly, I was worried that I wouldn't get to ride this coaster. ;-) Luckily, it passed the rigorous Indiana Beach mechanics' inspection and reopened a couple hours later. If this was Kennywood, it would've been closed for the rest of the season.

Another Indiana Beach highlight was Frankenstein's Castle, a multi-level haunted walk-through.  Check out the facade!

It had some great tricks and took about six minutes to walk through. 

It was also fun to ride a new sky ride - this one had very minimal restraints.

Several of the Indiana Beach flat rides are built on platforms in the lake; this Yo-Yo is the best swing ride I've ever done for that reason!

Indiana Beach is a park that I had wanted to visit for years, and although there are no antique rides, the park overall does have a vintage feel. There are several completely unique rides that can’t be found anywhere else in the world, and the way attractions are layered on top of each other just makes you feel like there’s always something new to discover.

Carousel Round-Up

I've ridden a lot of carousels, though they often differ in quality; the best machines have well-maintained paint jobs and a working band organ. There are also the rare few that allow you to try and catch the brass ring to win a free ride. I had seen this feature at Knoebels before, but I got to visit another ride with a ring machine last year! The Cass County Carousel in Logansport, Indiana is a squeaky-clean National Historic Landmark that also has an operational 1999 band organ.

The ride was carved by the staff of Gustav A. Dentzel, America's most renowned carousel carver, in 1902, although some figures date back to 1885. It was located at two other area amusement parks before arriving at its present home in 1949. Below you can see the ring machine.

The lion is the Dentzel trademark, and a similar figure can be found in most of his other works.

Like this one at Kennywood!

We were driving through Logansport to our hotel, and I had no idea that this stand-alone ride even existed until I saw the town's welcome sign said "catch the brass ring." That got me excited! Luckily, it was still open, and you can't beat $1 for a ride!

 I like the design of this ticket booth.

To add a little extra to this post, here's a look at the Knoebels Carousel Museum! Knoebels is proud of the fact that their museums are free! (They also tout free parking-free admission-free shows-free picnic facilities!!)

Knoebels is proud of its history, and they started this carousel museum in the early 90s to show the evolution of carousel carvings over time. It's completely unique to Knoebels and one of my must-do attractions when I visit the park.

These are all orphaned figures that have been collected by Knoebels over the years. Sadly, it's usually more profitable to auction off a carousel piecemeal than to sell it as a package.

The large scenic panel (the same style can be seen on the Cass County Carousel) came from West View Park, the amusement park 10 minutes from me that closed in 1977.

Knoebels has two amazing antique carousels and ten band organs. Attached to this museum is a gift shop with some of the best amusement park merchandise I've seen. By the way, when I went to Knoebels last year (pictures from 2019), I caught the brass ring for the first time, probably because my dad and I were two of the only people riding!

Carousels are some of the best rides at an amusement park when you stop to enjoy them, and of course, both young and old can appreciate a classic merry-go-round. It just makes it all the better when it's a classic ride with its original artistry intact.

Six Flags America

I got to visit my first Six Flags park in November! I was supposed to start with the best - Magic Mountain - but I ended up going to Six Flags America, located east of Washington, DC and sometimes called the "worst" Six Flags park. But due to it being the most dead I've ever seen a theme park, I had a great time! I can't complain about getting 20 rides in three hours, even if the park is a little shabby in areas. The overcast sky added to the slightly-eerie atmosphere.

Here we see Six Flags visitors streaming in for a day full of fun!!

The S'mores fire pit was not yet in operation, sadly.

This was a weekend between the Christmas and Halloween events, and it was funny seeing the decorations mixed together in places. The western area becomes the North Pole for Christmas. In the background, you can see Mind Eraser, which is literally the worst coaster I've ever ridden.

The uniquely-themed "Rodeo" was my first Break Dance ride, though it ran really slow.

Who needs New Orleans Square when you have the epic MARDI GRAS section!!

It's complete with rides better than Pirates of the Caribbean, like RAGIN' CAJUN!

Wild One was a bucket-list wooden coaster for me, and it's by far the better of the two in the park. Surprisingly, this is the fourth oldest roller coaster in the world with an opening date of 1917. However, it was only relocated to the park then known as Adventure World from Massachusetts in 1986, so its claim to fame as a 100+ year coater is up for debate. (Six Flags rebranded Adventure World in 1999).

It's still a spectacular wooden coaster after 100 years!

Wild One runs through this rock structure that was theming for a former flume ride. (The drop went through the skull's mouth.) The funny thing about the flume is that Six Flags didn't spend the money to remove the trough, so you clearly see it inside the mountain when on Wild One!

Looney Tunes Movie Town looks to have some parts that haven't been touched since 1999...

Areas like this have given Six Flags America its bad reputation, but they are improving bit by bit.

This Sunday in November was the last day of the season for the park's three major steel coasters.

I had ridden the two indoor "clones" of this launched coaster, but I think I liked Joker's Jinx more! These rides are nicknamed "Spaghetti Bowls" for their closely intertwined track sections.

The park's star attraction is Superman: Ride of Steel. I can't complain about as many rides as you want without getting out of your seat on a coaster like this.  

The coaster that turned out to be my favorite in the park is Batwing, a flying coaster, which means that you're lying facedown for portions of the ride (and on your back for others, like this loop). I had never been on a flying coaster before, so I have a feeling that the gimmick will wear off once I ride more.

I love Cedar Fair parks, but only a Six Flags park opens for the heck of it in November even though they won't make any money! An $80 season pass gets me into every Six Flags park in the country, too, so I can appreciate the "discount chain" - especially after dropping more than twice as much for a Cedar Fair pass that includes fewer parks! I look forward to visiting more Six Flags parks this summer, but I'm guessing it'll be hard to beat having the place to yourself!