Wanting to broaden my park and coaster credits, but not wanting to have to fly again, I teamed up with Coaster Team members Adam and Ellen to head up to Maine for Funtown Fest, a supposedly lightly attended but loads of fun event. Taking the day off on Friday to make the trip seemed like a good idea, even though the event wasn’t starting until Saturday evening. Leaving Thursday right after work, I met up with Adam in Newark, who would drive us to Norwalk, Connecticut. After switching cars at Ellen’s, she drove the rest of the way that night to our hotel in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Our hotel was straight out of Friday the 13th, a little family run motel in the middle of the woods turned into a Days Inn. Ellen liked the bathroom, and they had cable with plenty of channels, so all would be ok.
Friday morning we woke up and continued our drive, stopping off at Canobie Lake Park for the day. We got there shortly after opening and found the parking lot full. We were parked in an overflow grass lot next to someone’s house. It was not looking good, and none of us were happy. Luckily once inside the park, we found most people at the new waterpark area, consisting only of a tipping bucket play area. Our first mission was to get me on all the coasters, seeing how I was never at the park before. We made our way to the Yankee Cannonball, which had a completely filled queue and was only running one train (because they’re still afraid, some 3 or 4 years after 2 trains bumped). Our wait was about 40 minutes, and then I was off towards the front of Yankee Cannonball. The ride was a normal older PTC coaster, not airtime laden like the current Gravity Group, S&S, or Intamin woodies, but also not a snore fest like Dinn coasters of a few decades ago. The ride was actually a lot of fun, even though the wait was too long to have any of us desiring a second ride.
After riding the Cannonball, we decided it was a safe bet that we could take a break from crediting to stop for some food. We were going to eat at a restaurant by the Boston Tea Party Shoot the Chute, but we couldn’t figure out how we got a table. So instead we stopped off at the Italian restaurant nearby. This restaurant must read TPR and knows everything about Elissa, because this place actually had prices on the menu for plain pasta with no sauce AND a side of garlic bread. I decided to get spaghetti with meatballs and a garlic bread stick, Adam and Ellen each had pizza. Afterwards, we were still hungry, so Adam got some Mexican food and I got some fried dough. Then it was off to fulfill my blood/alcohol deprivation by swinging by the pub for a Harpoon IPA.
Food and beer levels rebalanced, it was time to return to credit whoring. The park only had 1 credit left to achieve, as the Galaxy was removed earlier this year, so we headed over to the Canobie Corkscrew, a standard Arrow corkscrew (hooray!). About 20 minutes later, I had my ears boxed good and we were free of riding bad coasters. We stopped to look at the tipping bucket for a bit, then made our way over to the park’s dark ride, the Mine of Lost Souls. Apparently it was Sally’s first ride or something, and didn’t have guns to shoot stuff. It started off a really cool mine ride, similar to Calico Mine at Knott’s or Flooded Mine at SDC. Then the Grim Reaper shows up, tells you your soul belongs to him, and he sends you to Egypt to see Imhotep. Definitely a strange storyline.
We then walked back to ride some flats on the other side of the park, such as the Cuddle Up (where we got line jumped by like 10 teenagers, told them they were morons, watched one hit his head on the handrails, laughed at him, and then proceeded to line jump them to take the last opened car on the ride). We also hit my last operational Caterpillar credit in the country. Funny how 4 months ago I was never on one, and now I’ve seen them all. It didn’t run as fast as Idlewild’s, nor did it have the blower, but the canopy at Canobie was pristine.
Then New England Coaster Team member Ed “Grampy” Nelson and his son Brian showed up. We decided to get some ice cream and stopped off at the ice cream stand. I got the Fat Man on a Dirty Sofa, which was Vanilla ice cream served over a whoopy pie, covered in hot fudge and whipped cream. It was delicious, and I felt like an ACEr. We then decided to ride Yankee Cannonball again, this time Brian and I managed to get a front seat ride. Still a little bit of air, still not rough, still fun, still a long wait. Then we had managed to time it right that the Vertigo Cinema 180 show was about to start, so we mad our way over there for some retro riding. It was great seeing the newest and greatest things ever, such as the Santa Cruz Giant Dipper, Dune Buggies, helicopters, and the newest innovation in roller coaster technology, the Python at Busch Gardens Tampa! The ride is still affective, and some people had to sit down and close their eyes. We then took the cruise around Canobie Lake at dusk. It was nice to see the park from the water, as well as the rich yuppie houses surrounding the lake.
Finishing our day at Canobie Lake Park, we stopped to ride the replacement for the Galaxy, the Zamperla Skater. Its like a giant sized Rockin Tug that seemed very popular with the patrons to the park, as the ride always had at least a 4 cycle wait. It was a lot of fun, not too disorienting, and somewhat thrilling. Best of all, the restraints didn’t hurt like those found on the Disk-O. Riding everything we wanted, we decided to grab some German sausages (which really ended up being giant hot dogs) at the Dancing Bear Saloon. Afterwards, we said goodnight to Grampy and son and headed to our hotel for the night, the Staybridge Suites back in Massachusetts. This would be the nicest hotel of not only the night, but also the entire season thus far. Two bedrooms, kitchen, living area, two full bathrooms, and free internet. I was happy. The living room came equipped with a DVD player, so I put the Fantastic Four in for our evening entertainment. Then it was off to bed, the following day we had to prepare for bad traffic getting into Maine.
Now for some pictures. Days 2 and 3 will be updated later this week, as my picture cd won't cooperate.
