[coasterdave]

Those that have been around the boards afew years know that I set a goal about 4 years ago to hit coaster #400 and did not make it. So three years ago I did the same thing and missed it and luck would have it I said last year was going to be the year and fail to get it. I was thinking it was life the Holy Grail would have been easier to find and did not set any goals this year and yea luck would have it that I crept up on it.

I am not really going to go into details about this trip but will say that it had changed alot leading up to my depature thursday evening and luck would have it good old work got in the way and a meeting lasted longer then expected and it threw off my trip so I packed it in and saw Termmy friday and decided to head up to Kennywood and then Cedar Point, but a funny thing happend on my trip up for I decided to start at Idlewild so I could see and ride their mouse. So rolled into Idlewild for a few hours to enjoy a really nice looking park.

Saturday May 23rd around 10:32 I arrived at Idlewild:


So I figured I would like this place from what I have saw.



Reminds me of another wooded PA park walking down this road.



Standard Ferris Wheel



I have always been a fountain fan



Just thinking of what people thought in the early years when walking up and seeing this coaster.



Easy name to recall



Set of Old School and snappable Flyers



Entrance to the Wild Mouse



A mere Fence is between you and the coaster.



Riders enjoying the Rollo Coaster



One of the slides on the water park side of park.



Caterpiller with the Mouse in the foreground



The Mouse running



The Spider



Natural Beauty of Park



One of the shortest flumes I have saw.



Get abit wet it seems



Funny thing is there is a sign on this outhouse telling you that this is only a prop and not a real on.



One of many Paratrooper rides I will see in the next two days.



Yes the Mouse is in abunch of trees.



A Vekoma Mouse waiting



Scene from the Mister Rodgers Ride



The very strange Mouse


Then off to Lakemont

[swampfox43]

Idlewild is one of those storybook parks. Classic rides in a beautiful setting. Those photos really brought back memories of my last time there, 1993. Damn! That was 16 years ago! But we went specifically for the Mouse opening (before there were ANY trim brakes on this baby). And Rollo Coaster was a surprise of a gem for a jr. woodie. Seems like the Caterpillar was covered when I was there. Maybe I'll dig out my old videos. Thanks for the memories.

Hope you reach your goal. If you can't do it in the state of PA, you can't do it anywhere!
PS: when I first rode Skyliner at Lakemont (1991) it was in my top 5 wooden coasters. It was running out of control. Wouldn't come close nowadays, but it's still a classic and lucky to have been relocated.
Have fun, be safe.

[coasterdave]

The great thing about Pa. is that you do not have to go far to be at another park. I decided that Lakemont was up next and let out of Idlewild at around 1 pm or so. I think I took every backroad in Pa. to get there. I guess my gps decided to take me on a tour of Pa. but arrived at the park around 2:30 ish of so after hitting a moajor rain storm.

So enough of me babbling and on to the pics!


View walking into the park



The Octopus



The Til-A-Whirl



Park was abit empty



World's oldest operating Coaster



Pile of bad wood took off of coaster



The storage shed for the other cars.



Notice all the new wood that has been replaced.



Side Friction car on track



The Skyliner



The Turn Turn Around



Up the Lift



Train on the course



The Tobogan



Not a bad deal for the Holiday?

So at this point in the trip I needed three coasters to hit #400 and Delgrossa had only one that I cared to even ride so I fired up the GPS and figured I could be at Waldameer by 7:30 that night. Yea it is what you young people call a no-brainer and I was on the road again.

Next stop Waldameer.

[coasterdave]

So I arrived at Waldameer at around 7:30ish and headed off into the park to decided which one will be the magic number. Yea that was already decided before I left Lakemont. Hades was #300 many years ago during a trek that I went on with Rideworld. So I figured I might as well have another Gravity Group Woodie be #400, I was hoping the other two adult coasters where working for I did not really wanted to hit the kiddie coaster to make up if one was down. It is pretty creepy seeing a grown man riding a kiddie coaster alone. So on with some pics!



Decided to start this off with a pic of a slide that they have.



See that the Paratrooper is a ride that is at alot of Pa Parks.



Would hate to need mouth to mouth from this cat....I mean frog.



Look at waht is lurking on that side of the park.



Comet was nearby so I figured what the heck.



Train two is resting for the night.



Next up is the spinning Steel Dragon



ALot of twisted track in this spinner.



Nice looking trains also



Nice banked turns to add in the spinning



Had a pretty good drop ride



Even had a ride that is themed after the Beach Boys.



And parks in Pa. love those swinging ship rides also.



Had a Wacky Shack and I am a real ig fan of Dark Rides.



Wacky Shack Goodness



Even had scary short man in a mirrir...Scary indeed!



Not a top spin or a wet ride. No idea myself.



Drop Tower had a good lighting package.



So here comes #400 atlast.




Here is the lift and track under structure.



This is the part across the road and wow it is.



Mega Disk-O is the new fad in Pa.


Will say that a night ride on ravine Flyer 2 is pretty darn great. I would put it ahead of Voyage in my view. It was a great coaster to be #400 and let me also say that all my 400 have been in the US. I have not rode one coaster outside the US to date. I had even thought about trying to get 500 in the US but that might be a stretch.

So i was at a cross road in this trip. I could either pack it in and head home or add another day on. I decided that I was just two close to Darien Lake and Fantasy Island to pass it up and had been up for close to 40 hours and decided to head out and find an over priced hotel and get some sleep.

Next stop is Crappy Darien Lake.

[bgwfreak]

Congrats Dave! I might be half way to 400 by year's end if I can manage to find a job.

[Jay]

Ravine Flyer better than Voyage.. are you sure you haven't been smoking something?

Sucks that you did not get to DelGrosso's, it is a much much nicer park than Lakemont, and the food is awesome too.

The Idlewild Wild Mouse is probably my favorite mouse out there by a mile.

Finally.. what no pic of you and a sign? Got to have the sign pic: (Arnolds Park REPRESENT)





(Let me defend myself for a sec, I just did the sign pic to make fun of all the silly ACErs [sorry Max!] who take themselves way to seriously and do sign pictures... ..ah who am I kidding there is absolutely no excuse for a sign picture)

Congrats on getting #400 Dave here's hoping #500 will be a bit easier to attain. You might have to (finally) leave the country though.

[coasterdave]

So after searching around for a hotel for an hour the night before. I will tell you that I will make sure I have a hotel reservations next Holiday. I was off to Darien Lake to sample what they had to offer and I wanted to get the other Ride of Steel clone. And once again after many two lane roads I was at Darien Lake. I will go ahead and say that I was not impressed with operations of the park one bit. It seem to me that they opened and still had alot of things that needed to be addressed and I hope that they do get fixed since I thought the park has alot of potential.

On with the pics:


Nothing like a SLC to greet you while walking into the park.



Seems almost every park has one of these today.



And we spy a Vekoma Boomerang also.



The Moto-Bike coaster themed to OCC.



The Large Wheel



The sign and notice the line?



Seems these folks have a problem reading the sign?



The wonderful view of the SLC from across the lake.



Seems the Rapids will not be operating today.



The Arrow Looper was waiting.



You seeing a theme here with the closed rides right?



Park needs all the help it can get!



Predator waiting for the Prey.



Seems these trains are not on the tracks.



Took a mere 10 plus minutes to dispatch one train each time it was in the station and no I was not waiting twop hours to ride it.


So after afew hours at a very unclean and crappy operationwise park it was off to Martin's Fantasy Island.

[Jonathan]

LOL

[coasterdave]

So the last stop of the trip is at Martin's Fantasy Island since it was right down the road so to speak from Darien Lake. I was here for the Silver Comet and whatever else they have here and on with the pics:



Always a sucker for some falling water and could not resist upon entering the park.



The Merry Go Round at front of the park.



The Main reason for coming was the Silver Comet.



Third swinging ship in the last three parks.



And what would a park be without a Giant Wheel?



Standard Zamp Spinning Crazy Mouse



Talk about one kick butt ride!



Turn around for Silver Comet



Train Speeding through course



Underrated coaster operating today.



Another Super Disk-O ride


So I had entertained the idea of heading to Seabreeze after Fantasy Island but decided to call the trip and head home. So I began the 14 and ahalf hour trip back to NC at around 4 pm that Sunday.

So final mileage is 1826 miles in 60 hours with 13 new coasters added to total. But after four years of trying #400 is in the books and began the search for #500.