When I was a little kid, my grandma used to take me to Deer Park. There was a train and deer. People went and rode the train and bought food out of those 25¢ machines to feed the deer. For fun. We still do stuff like that where I’m from but I’ll show pictures of that tomorrow.
Somewhere between being a little, little kid and a 5th grader Deer Park turned into an amusement park. I remember because one of the perks of being on safety patrol all year was that you got to take a field trip to Michigan’s Adventure and if you were really, really brave you rode The Corkscrew. Between then and now it’s been purchased by the same people who own Cedar Point (best roller coaster park EVER) and Valley Fair (for those Wisco and Minnesota locals) and turned to a decently sized place to go and get your thrill on.
When Jess and I first got together I made him ride the Shivering Timbers (a 2 mile wooden roller coaster that goes 65 mph with drops over 200 ft) until he was green. Literally, green. I thought he was going to spew on my shoes. He survived. I married him. I don’t make him ride the Shivering Timbers anymore.
This year, the V was big enough to ride two (another was shut down for the day) and we bounced quite a bit between them. That girl isn’t afraid of any ride made by man. Her biggest frustration was that she’s still an 1 1/2 inches too short for the “big” roller coaster that mom wanted to go on. She called me a wimp because I hated one of “her” sized rides. And because I hate the ferris wheel.
Jess made the best of having to ride a roller coaster (V and A weren’t tall enough to ride without adults) but lucky for him, A wasn’t that much of a thrill ride fan.
I felt so bad after he got off that log ride. He was so mad about being wet and crying but another little girl thought it was from being scared (he was a little of that too) and she chickened out. Her parents weren’t happy with me after they had waited in line for so long. Oops.
It was a great day. Drying my dress underneath one of those automatic hand dryers after a midday rain shower and too much carnival food added to the wonder of it all.
What was your favorite amusement park/fair ride as a kid?
looks like a lot of fun… Sometimes homey things are so much more fun than the huge, over stimulating "amusements"…
It was fun, but it was a bit crowded for my youngest and my husband. I'm glad we tried it though – we'd been talking about doing Disney next year and after realized that it might need to wait a few years – or forever 😉