This past Wednesday I headed down to Stricker's Grove with my girlfriend. This is our third trip there, and the second time we attended the 4H fair. The only other time we went was last year during the Customer Appreciation Day. While the 4H fair is slightly more expensive and it doesn't have the freebe's that the other days do, it does offer almost non-existant waits for rides. We got to the park around 5pm which is when the rides opened. Off we went to Tornado. First thing I noticed was that two of the nine rows in the train (1-3 and 2-1) were not working. We took our seat in the very last row, and off we went. While I wouldn't even come close to calling this ride rough, it did have a touch of jack hammering at the bottom of the first drop in the very last row, which I don't remember it having last year. However, this was the only seat that I experienced it in. "The Cliff" still gives you that familiar jolt. We headed back to the station, but since there was no one in line, the train didn't even stop, and we went around for the second lap. Little did we know, that would pretty much happen all night. If there was no one in line, the ride cycle on the flats would pretty much keep on going.
There were a few other things that I had noticed throughout the day:
Tornado was receiving a new paint job slowely:
New sign stating that Stricker's is the home to 4-H:
Pirate Ship, their new ride for 2012, wasn't quite ready:
While I don't have pictures of either of these, the chaser lights on Tornado wern't chasing, and instead only had one bulb lit for about every ten. Also, a good amount of the lights on Tilt-a-Whirl were out.
Scrambler received a new paint job:
Tip Top had a couple of it's outer lights out. However after looking at pictures I took last year and the pictures on Stricker's website, the lights in the center of the ride had returned with a rainbow color, as opposed to the clear they are online, and the lack of lights all together in 2011.
Other then that, here are just a few other pictures from our night:
In the end, we had a great time, and can't wait to go back in the fall.