s***@hotmail.com
2018-08-16 23:44:38 UTC
Just a few notes from this year's Stricker's Grove Family Day.
The park is now no smoking, no vaping, except in the horseshoe pits to the left of the front entrance. A HUGE improvement over past years.
Tornado has a lot of new wood - the majority of the track, and 100% of the wood between the rails. However, it's really rough at the bottom of the first drop. No seats roped off in the train this year.
They have a Moser frog hopper, Freefall, that has not operated for most of this season. They are having problems with the circuit board and some other parts. They need to send them back to Moser but haven't been able to do it yet. Tim Stricker said that he'd take the parts down to the IAAPA convention this year just to hand them over, if he could.
Their Ferris wheel has been almost completely rebuilt, and now is very smooth. From what we could tell, only the cars and the blue interior boards with the lights are original.
The forecast called for scattered storms, and some blew through abound 3:00. They shut down all of the taller rides due to threat of lightning. There were some very loud thunder bangs at times, but not more than a handful. We got a chance to talk to Tim Stricker, one of the owners, as we waited for the Ferris Wheel. We chose to wait out the storm in the line while under a very full tree that would block most of the rain. It was fun once it did start up again, about 25 minutes after we got in line.
Lots of maintenance has gone on this past year - buildings have been given paint jobs, and they've been working on a lot of the rides. All of the broken light bulbs (from getting hit by the Flyers) are fixed on Tornado. They're doing good business and are thinking of bringing in some more rides. Tim said that one thing they might do is adjust the mini-golf course so they can take out the Freefall and add a new ride there.
On the way there, we drove past the old Americana site. Butler Tech has taken over Couch's showroom, and they've built a new building just to the west of it. Most of the old amusement park buildings seem to be standing, but there is construction equipment around them like they are tearing things down slowly. The main buildings at the front of the park are still standing, but probably not for long. Some of the old Fantasy Farm buildings are in the middle of being demolished. The ultimate plans are for a nature park, so maybe we (Miami Valley Orienteering Club) will map it and then we'll have maps of 2 parks that used to have amusement parks. The other being Possum Creek MetroPark, which used to be the Argonne Forest amusement park.
Sharon
The park is now no smoking, no vaping, except in the horseshoe pits to the left of the front entrance. A HUGE improvement over past years.
Tornado has a lot of new wood - the majority of the track, and 100% of the wood between the rails. However, it's really rough at the bottom of the first drop. No seats roped off in the train this year.
They have a Moser frog hopper, Freefall, that has not operated for most of this season. They are having problems with the circuit board and some other parts. They need to send them back to Moser but haven't been able to do it yet. Tim Stricker said that he'd take the parts down to the IAAPA convention this year just to hand them over, if he could.
Their Ferris wheel has been almost completely rebuilt, and now is very smooth. From what we could tell, only the cars and the blue interior boards with the lights are original.
The forecast called for scattered storms, and some blew through abound 3:00. They shut down all of the taller rides due to threat of lightning. There were some very loud thunder bangs at times, but not more than a handful. We got a chance to talk to Tim Stricker, one of the owners, as we waited for the Ferris Wheel. We chose to wait out the storm in the line while under a very full tree that would block most of the rain. It was fun once it did start up again, about 25 minutes after we got in line.
Lots of maintenance has gone on this past year - buildings have been given paint jobs, and they've been working on a lot of the rides. All of the broken light bulbs (from getting hit by the Flyers) are fixed on Tornado. They're doing good business and are thinking of bringing in some more rides. Tim said that one thing they might do is adjust the mini-golf course so they can take out the Freefall and add a new ride there.
On the way there, we drove past the old Americana site. Butler Tech has taken over Couch's showroom, and they've built a new building just to the west of it. Most of the old amusement park buildings seem to be standing, but there is construction equipment around them like they are tearing things down slowly. The main buildings at the front of the park are still standing, but probably not for long. Some of the old Fantasy Farm buildings are in the middle of being demolished. The ultimate plans are for a nature park, so maybe we (Miami Valley Orienteering Club) will map it and then we'll have maps of 2 parks that used to have amusement parks. The other being Possum Creek MetroPark, which used to be the Argonne Forest amusement park.
Sharon