With Monica leaving for Washington DC and the oppressive heat in our house, I decided to take road trip by myself. I looked up local parks on rcdb and realized how close Lakmont Park and DelGrosso’s Amusement Park were. I loaded up the GPS and headed out with the AC blasting in the car.

I turned on KDKA for the Pirates game and was able to keep the station for the whole trip. The Pirates won in 10 innings, good stuff. Anyway the ride up was pretty boring until I got around Altoona and RT22 opened up some.

Lakemont Park

I pulled off 22 and saw the ACE Coaster Classic Skyliner behind the beautiful Altoona Curve baseball field, I had no idea it would be right outside the park. I found the free parking lot and made my way to the gate where I paid just $5.95 to get in for unlimited rides.

The first thing I noticed about the park is how badly it needs some landscaping, there is hardly any shade anywhere and the grass is burned out. Lakemont has a very sleepy atmosphere, things move pretty slow here and the park is really spread out.

Skyliner

Skyliner was my first ride. Walking up to the station I could hear the young ride operator yelling out directions, warnings and bad jokes. “If your lapbar should fly open and you fall out, Lakemont is not responsible for your death.” This kid was honestly wild and out of control, more on him later.

The ride is in decent shape, and runs just slightly better than Conneaut Lake’s Blue Streak. it rattles, it gives some airtime and its fairly fun. The layout is mediocre, drop, turn, drop, turn, drop turn etc and never seems to start. That said, it is worth the trip.

Back to that young ride operator. I have pictures, which I am sending to the park, of him riding the coaster basically standing up. I also have photos of him riding on the train’s step right up to the lift hill where he then got into the train while it was heading up the lift. I overheard him walking back to what I assume is the break room talking to his trainee saying something to the effect of “If we don’t have fun, the guests don’t have fun.” Great attitude, wrong example for the young kids on the ride.

I ended up taking four rides, one of which was due to a brake overrun. My favorite seat was the front, smoother ride and lots of airtime at the top of each hill.

Leap the Dips

Leap the Dips, another ACE Coaster Classic was closed, it looked like tons of work was being done to it as there were tools and new wood spread out everywhere. I guess I will have to take another trip someday to get a ride or two.

Model Railroad Display

As I was leaving the park I came accross the model train display, it was a 50c donation to see the trains. They had three layouts, and some nice people working and showing off the trains. They are all volunteers.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed my short time, for only $5.95 it is definately worth the stop just to ride Starliner a few times and hopefully get a lap on Leap the Dips.

DelGrosso’s Amusement Park

After the sleepy Lakemont I was expecting more of the same from DelGrosso’s, in fact I was expecting less. Boy was I wrong. Upon pulling up to the park there were people everywhere, and someone was directing traffic into the parking lot. The place was packed! I was impressed with the modern waterslides, go cart track and brand new infrastructure. Everything looked great.

Crazy Mouse

Or Exterminator in the open. The ride is actually quite different in the outdoors, and honestly was just as fun as Kennywood’s Exterminator. I shared both of my rides with a young kid and their parent and we spun and spun. The ride is run well, the trims are wide open and capacity was solid. It was really popular, looks like a real winner for the park.

Final Thoughts

I really liked this park, it was clean, well decorated and cheap. I had a slice of pizza which turned into two, the girl said they cut the pizza too small. Nice touch, and good pizza too.

I made it back home six hours after leaving Pittsburgh and crashed with Penelope in my air conditioned bedroom.