After getting to the gate, I paid the $10 to enter and headed over the bridge to the fairgrounds. I met up with Johnny and the kids at the bottom of the bridge, paid for my Ride Till 5 bracelet, and we headed to the first ride, a new coaster.

Wild Mouse-This thing looked brand spanking new. I wasn’t aware it was a spinning mouse until I got up close. I’d ridden 2 Reverchron spinning mice previously, but this was the newer Zamperla model, and the layout was slightly different. The wait was about 10 minutes, but it moved quickly. This was my first coaster ever with Chris and Kaitlyn. The spinning was okay, and the ride was fun. A basic spinning mouse, and another credit as my first ride. Yay!

The midway had changed dramatically this year, with most of the returning rides in completely different spots. In fact, the only thing that looked to be in the same spot was the Freak Out. Gone was the Inverter and some haunted houses, but they added a new coaster, a drop tower, a Full Tilt, and some new kids stuff, including some fun houses. Since we were at the drop tower, we headed there next.

Sling Shot-Most people complain about these, but the one I’ve ridden in Myrtle Beach was fun, and had we had more time, I would like to have ridden the one at the Adventuredome in Las Vegas. The cycle for this is unusually long (far too long in my opinion), and as we waited in line, Chris got more and more nervous. I just kept telling him this was nothing compared to the Zipper that he’d ridden earlier in the day before I got there, and that Dr. Doom’s Fearfall was far worse than riding this short tower. As I went thru the gate and sat down, I realized that Chris and Kaitlyn weren’t behind me, they’d be on the next cycle. This kind shoots you up the tower, but it only shot you up about half way. It gave a nice pop of airtime, but it wasn’t anything special. Then it takes it’s sweet old time making it’s way up the tower. Very slowly. That got on my nerves. It shouldn’t take that long, and it didn’t add anything to the ride. The drop was underwhelming as well.

I got off the ride and stood with Johnny for a minute to watch the kids launch once they were on. Then, as the gondola slowly went up the tower, I went over and got a Philly Steak Sandwich and water, as I’d yet to eat that day. We could tell Chris was nervous, but once the ride was over and they dropped, he got off and said it wasn’t nearly as bad as he had thought. Next the kids got on another spinny ride that I wasn’t in the mood for. Then they rode the scrambler, which was on full out psycho mode. Thankfully I opted out, knowing that I’d get sick since I’d just eaten. We passed by Pharaoh’s Fury and the kids wanted to ride, so we hopped in the middle.

Pharaoh’s Fury-I normally don’t do these after eating, but the ride was fun. Swinging ships can give great amounts of airtime, but this was only okay. The cycle was kind of short, but the boat was full. I prefer the larger Pirate ships or the Intamin version that goes upside down.

After that we headed to the Full Tilt. Johnny had went to play some games and told us he’d meet us at the other coaster in the back, but once we got to this ride, he’d finished and met us there as we boarded the Full Tilt.

Full Tilt-I’d never done one of these. Basically it’s a Rainbow/Falling Star/Conestoga type ride (for the uninformed) where the gondola tilts forward during parts of the ride and it replaced the Inverter this year. And it was running, like the scrambler, in Psycho mode. This was the first time I’d done something like that that required over the shoulder restraints. We got in the middle, and once everyone was seated we were off. Man this thing was violently good. The tilting didn’t do much, but it swung multiple times in both directions and gave an insane ride. I’d like to see more of these, but it still didn’t beat the Rainbow at Myrtle Beach.

In line for the Full Tilt, I tried to talk Chris into riding the Tango. I knew Kaitlyn would ride, but Chris needed convincing. I don’t think Johnny was too thrilled with Chris riding, but he let him and we got in line.

Tango-My only problem with the Tango is the seats. I’d rather have actual seats than the bicycle seats on it, but oh well. Tango was running well with a good program. Chris and Kaitlyn both enjoyed it, but had the same issues I did with uncomfortable seats. There was some kid on another arm that was totally freaked out and screaming the entire time, and it was annoying, but the people on the ground thought it was funny. I can’t even give a description of a ride on a Tango, because you’re so disoriented the entire time. Suffice it to say, they’re a fun flat that could use a better seat.

We skipped the other coaster for now and made our way around the other side of the midway. Around the back of the park was the stall to throw a baseball at the clown to dunk them, so we watched this guy make fun of a bunch of people for about 15 minutes. Kaitlyn and Chris almost road the Ring of Fire, but we went to the Freak Out instead.

Freak Out-The program this year wasn’t quite as good as last year. I was squished in because the over the shoulder restraints on these do not conform to someone over 6 feet tall and with a broad chest at all. These are actually the only over the shoulder restraints I have a problem with what so ever. But the ride is fun. I love being on the out side of the gondola when the arm swings out. We had a full ride, so there were quite a few others on, but the guy facing directly in front of me didn’t seem to be enjoying the ride. Chris and Kate had ridden this though, and were happy to ride again. My sister finally met up with us and Kaitlyn and I went over and got in line for Speed, the sky scraper. I’d never done one and Kaitlyn wanted to, but it only loads 8 minutes and the ride cycle was over 2 minutes, and the line was really long, so we opted to do something else. Jacqui and Johnny went off with my parents, so the kids went with me and we went around to the other side of the midway once again as the kids wanted to ride the Orbitor. Once they got off, I took the chance that I had with my niece and nephew and we went over to ride the kiddy coaster.

Orient Express-I have a new most hated coaster to add to the list. Yay! I’ll never have to ride this again. Ever. I hated it even more than Vortex at Carowinds. We went around the track 9 or 10 times, and it was painful every time. And every time we went around the lift hill ‘drop’, I squashed Kaitlyn because we didn’t know it would cause me to squash her. The only thing good about this was that my coaster count went up by one. I guess that’s good.

So after that we headed back to the last coaster we hadn’t ridden yet, the Indy 500 coaster, a Flitzer that I ride every time I go to the fair. It’s not that exciting, but it’s the only coaster that was there for years.

Indy 500-I rode with Chris, and I have to say it was giving a decent ride today. None of the brakes on the course seemed to be on so it was going rather fast. I don’t have much to say, mostly because I’ve rode it a bunch of times and I’ve never thought it was that fun. Just another courtesy lap.

It was closing in on five o’clock, so we hopped over to the Ferris wheel, which I hadn’t rode in many years. The line was kind of long, but that was mostly due to the long length of the ride.

Dutch Wheel-I don’t even know why I’m trying to squeeze saying anything about this in here. It’s a large portable Ferris Wheel. Oh, and they were playing Queen. And the ride was long. That’s about it.

We ran over to the sky scraper to get a ride in as it didn’t have a line, but they’d cleared the line out of everyone with Ride till Five bracelets, so we didn’t get to ride. Bummer. So instead we made our way over to the other side of the fairgrounds and met up with the family. On the way, I stopped and got a funnel cake for me and the kids and water. Once we met with the rest of the family we had these incredible ribeye steak sandwiches. Man was it good. Then it was time for everyone to leave.