Wisconsin Dells

Saying "farewell" to Illinois it was time to head into Wisconsin. This state takes its name from the river that flows through it and which had probably burst its banks given the state of the surroundings on the way there.

Flood damage a plenty

The area had been hit quite hard.

This is Little A-Merrick-A a tiny little park in the south of the state, which had amazingly opened up just for us. Their season wasn't due to begin until the following week.

The park had been quite fortuitous in that the park had pretty much survived the weather.

The car park just beyond it hadn't.




Like Kiddieland, the ride has a decent collection of older rides and well maintained too. They also have quite a good collection of coasters.

Mad Mouse lived up to its name! It really was quite insane.


We spent a lot of time watching riders holding on for dear life especially coaster Bob. But our laughter quickly stopped when he tripped getting off the ride and face-planted very heavily. Schadenfreude is very funny until it involves someone you know. (that's not Bob btw). In an attempt to lighten the thread up here's someone I don't know faceplanting.



Genius!

Meteor is the main coaster, and similar to Kiddieland's.

The ride seemed to be well received. It wasn't a big coaster and could easily be copied elsewhere, so why not here in the UK?

Now is Chris enjoying this ride or has just grinning like a loon because he's remembered he's left the oven on back at home and there's nothing he can do about it




I'd ridden one of these coffin coasters before, and this one was just as much of a squeeze and just as jarring.

This little coaster kept breaking whenever Matthius rode it (that's not Matthius btw)
When it reopened 4 of us got to ride it before it broke a second time.

Hats off to the park for keeping it running for us, they could have easily given up with the number of times Matthius was breaking it. (That's not Matthius btw)

That's not Matthius....I mean Mario.... btw

Matthius celebrates completing a lap without breaking the ride. That's not Matthius...oops, yes it is!

At this point myself, Jeppe and Martin said goodbye momentarily to the coach group and joined up with Duane (he of rcdb fame) who was happy to take us to a small family centre nearby for another credit.

Knuckleheads used to be the site of a greyhound race track but when that closed was redeveloped into a small entertainment complex with bowling, a bar, and a small collection of amusement rides.



Small being the key word.

They do have a coaster, minor mike.

It's quite small too. (Now I don't know what is going on with my camera at this point but they're being uploaded the right way up, just not displaying correctly. If you've been reading this site in a single session then your neck needs the exercise anyway so be grateful!)

and it has a wickedly tight curve where you know this has been bent into shape to make it fit.

From Knuckleheadz we then headed back towards the group who had headed towards the Dells, which is best described as the mid-wests take on Vegas with lots of entertainment complexes and parks but without the tack and excessive neon.

Riverview Park is like a permanent fairground with a small collection of rides just plonked on a large open space.

A dragon coaster on concrete



Lots of rides on concrete

Another coaster with a little piece of theming on concrete. I'm not sure if Paul is clambering for a better look or just airing his balls.

Even the food places are on concrete. Nice name though.

Rather unfortunately the few patches of grass can't be reached because they're surrounded by..............yes you've guessed it, concrete.

A Welshman once vanished here and rumour has it he's been chopped up and sold as candy. I couldn't find any proof though.

From Riverview we walked up the road to Timber Falls to ride the final coaster of the day, Avalanche.

This was the reception we got as this armada welcomed us by shooting us with water cannons.

Unlike Riverview, this park does have a little bit of theming being previously known for its crazy golf course, that was before they built the coaster around it.

The coaster has a half-length train but that doesn't mean it runs half as slow. In fact it's more twice as quick.

Of course you're not going to get an idea of just how fast this is from just a single photo but it is relentless.

A shot of the park from nearby

A shot of the park from slightly further away. If you squint you can just see it on the right of the shot.

A shot from even further away. I didn't take this one though. Just a thought, would someone with vertigo be feeling it if they were this high up? At what altitude does vertigo disappear?

That's Riverview, way off in the distance.

You could see here just how much rain had fallen in the area.

Local river tours were taking advantage of the situation by driving into the worst of the spray. Not quite Niagra, but exciting all the same I suspect. I don't know as I never did it.

But from this mark on a bar nearby, its not the first time the area has been flooded and in fact its been a lot worse previously.

A small shop full of tack and trinkets you don't need.

Back to the park for more goes on Avalanche, which I did like but like Nascar could have benefited from turning right every now and then :D

The final stop for us was Mt. Olympus, the biggest park in the Dells. This park has quite a collection of wooden coasters and go-kart race tracks.

The biggest coaster is Hades, which we had an ERS on at the end of the night. Choosing to ride it beforehand I'd been set a challenge of riding it with my hands up. No sooner had I left the station than I realised why it had been set. I was out of my seat on a twisting drop and landed on the lap of the person sitting next to me, which is quite insane considering I was strapped in.

Hades is a very powerful ride for sure!

Once we figured out where the station was Zeus was pretty decent too. Unlike most parks the stations are located up ridiculously high staircase.

No, I have absolutely no idea what they were trying to do. I think it was to ruin my photo but they made it better!

Over use of the word "ride"?

Another staircase. I don't think this park is particularly wheel-chair or climachophobic friendly (fear of stairs people).

An example of the ridiculous race tracks that this park has. I can only imagine they'd be quite dizzying. We were due to have a mini grand-prix tomorrow so wasn't in any particular hurry to ride them.

Some of the lighter riders would need a push to get up the hills.

Cyclops was quite a good ride and just like the mythical creature I didn't have an eye for a good photo.

This was the best drop, which occured midway through the ride rather than on its first drop. A nice surprise!

There used to be a watersplash ride here but I eated it. Only the entrance gate remains, which looked a little bit odd.

The park did have an upcharged swing, which meant that you had to pay extra to ride it, not that it had some sort of boost.

Pegasus is the smallest of the wooden coasters but still a fun ride.

Little Titans as well as being an oxymoron is one of two steel coasters in the park.

Suitable for titans of all sizes.

At the far side of the park is a large impressive looking building that houses the indoor section of the park. The theming here is something else.

It was just a shame that the attention to detail didn't exist inside. This is Opa, the other steel coaster, which was just a mouse coaster and one that didn't spin all that much for us, although others rated it.

I'd ridden one of these things at a Legoland park before and its quite fun, but I suspect it doesn't go quite as close to the ground as this.



The swing in..........full swing.

Getting ready for our ERS we heard stories of a smell of burning coming from the Hades ride, and when we got there the ride had stopped on the lift hill and the riders evacuated, rather annoyingly including the trip organisers.


Lucky gits! It did of course mean we didn't get to enjoy Hades at night, and some of the group had chosen to wait; a bad mistake.

Outside the park is this amazing piece of theming. One of the go-kart tracks actually goes through it too!

At night a small group of us decided to head to a nearby bar (actually quite a walk) for some drinks and entertainment.

Some nice theming en route

We ended up in Marley's a Jamaican themed bar, which was pretty good.

As part of the evening entertainment a catwalk contest took place and Lee, in our group was chosen as a judge.

He seemed to be taking the competition very seriously.

Having hit 4 parks in a day and consumed quite a bit of alcohol, I slept well. Fortunately the next day would be spent at Olympus so I was under no urgency to ride everything having already done it. This meant I could relax.

next