|
 ACE Preservation Conference
We spent the morning in Minneapolis at the Mall of America and then drove about 3 hours to Arnolds Park. Our plan was to drive to the hotel and have a nice dinner and then get up early for the final stage of the ACE Preservation Conference. Ben and Sarah hightailed it back to Kansas City and skipped this portion of the adventure. Shane and Arielle did some more extensive shopping at the mall so they didn’t get to Iowa until much later. So it was the core travel cluster of Ron, Art, Wife and me. On the way to the hotel we spotted the park and figured that we would make a quick stop and check it out. The area was littered with people in full party mode and it made driving a bit difficult. This was apparently a very popular locale for professional drinkers and the George Thorogood concert only added to the madness. We noticed a lot of bars along the road to the park, which gave it a college town feel. The park was right on the lake and it was an impressive setting; it gave us an extraordinary sunset. After wading through all of the people we thought that we would find a lot of lines and craziness inside of the park. We were wrong; the park was pretty much empty. At this point we decided to alter the vacation plan and hit all of the rides Saturday night and skip the Sunday event. This got us back to Kansas City about 4 hours earlier and allowed us to sleep in a bit on Sunday. I love the ERT that ACE events provide us with but getting up early and staying up late every night gets a little tiring. We were able to ride everything that we wanted to ride in about an hour so we didn’t bother eating at the park. The park could have been cleaner. It wasn’t a dump it just had a “classic” feel to it. The park employees were all really pleasant and knowledgeable. When they saw out super cool ACE badges they were quick to engage us in conversation and tell us about their friendly little park. We didn’t wait more than 5 minutes in any of the lines. The Coasters:
The Legend: 5 out of 10
This is a classic wood coaster that I had been looking forward to for a long time. We haven’t been to a lot of classic parks and we certainly haven’t been on a lot of classic rides so this was a treat. There wasn’t a line so I hopped on near the back and up the lift we went. The ride had the right amount of jiggle, it wasn’t rough at all and there were a few spots of decent air-time. The ride takes a strange path around the park so it’s hard to see the whole thing until you’re actually on it. I’m glad that I got a chance to ride it.
Little Coaster: 2 out of 10
I hate rating kiddie coasters because their fun but nowhere near as fun as their larger family members. The ride-op gave us 4 laps before he hit the brakes and the 4 of us walked away with yet another kiddie coaster credit. Many have referred to this as credit whoring and we agree with assessment. We will also continue this practice until we’ve ridden every single coaster on the planet.
The other rides:
Rock-O-Plane: 5 out of 10
This looks like a ferris wheel but the riders are placed into a cage that is free to flip. Riders are given some control, which comes in the form of a brake lever. It was a lot of fun but it looked like a carny ride so we lovingly called it the death cage. It’s the best flat ride in the park Bumper Cars: 4 out of 10
Each of the parks that we visited on this trip had great bumper cars and Arnolds Park was no different. The cars were fast and the course included whackable support columns. I was actually hit so hard by a 12 year old girl that my car stopped working for a couple of minutes. Another young girl used this opportunity to take advantage of my drifting and whacked me nice and hard again. This put the car back in gear and started a 4 minute period of blissful revenge. Every girl under the age of 15 was treated as the enemy. Boji Falls: 3 out of 10
A log flume that’s themed to a dumpster. It includes the authentic dumpster green paint job along with authentic dumpster stink. You don’t get very wet and this is a good thing because the water has an alien substance floating on the top of it. It does however have a drop and that keeps it from getting the dreaded 2 rating.
Tilt-a-Whirl: 3 out of 10
There was a lot of tilt but not much whirl.
Trabant: 3 out of 10
This is your run of the mill wobble wheel. I haven’t been on one in years so it was a treat for me. The ride went on a little long though. It seemed like we traveled forward for about 5 minutes and then it slowed down and we thought that it was over. Instead the ride gathered momentum again and went backwards for another 5 minutes or so. I still can’t believe that I actually complain about a ride being too long.
Ferris Wheel: 2 out of 10
Great view of the park and the lake but it’s a ferris wheel so it automatically gets a low rating.
Train: 2 out of 10
This is my first trip on a propane powered train. There’s no roof so you get unobstructed views of everything around but since it’s a tiny park there isn’t a lot to see. The train looked more like a high speed commuter train, which was better than the steam locomotive that most parks have.
Tilted Room
Since it’s not a ride I’m not going to actually rate it. If you like whacky floors and disorienting walls then you’ll like this attraction. Be careful though because it smells like some people may have become lost and finally gave up and used a whacky corner as a restroom. Mirror Maze
This falls into the same category of the tilted stink room. I was however hoping for a maze that was a bit more complex. The wife was able to lead the group without taking a single wrong turn. If you know the wife then you’ll understand why this is such an extraordinary feet.
This is a quaint little park with a handful of fun rides. If the park wasn’t so far off the beaten path we would defiantly return more often. The 4 of us had a great time.
|
