Day 5

Day 5 was initially going to all be in Ohio spending most of the day in Kings Island with an afternoon stop at Strickers Grove, a small private run park on the outskirts of Cincinnati, and to start the day off we'd visit the B&M manufacturing plant  on the east of the city.

However following the miss at Kentucky Kingdom the day before we dropped the plant and headed back South for a quick second attempt at that park, sacrificing some morning time at Kings Island however a lot had been done there the night before so we were comfortable we'd get everything we wanted to.

A breakfast staple, Cracker Barrel which we like a lot despite it's country vibe and overly cluttered gift shop. They sell a lot of tat!

We arrived back at Kentucky with much kinder weather and everything running. Whoo! We got there for opening so a queue was waiting for us, however a big chunk of that lot headed into the water park.

We started the riding with Lightning Run, a decent sized rollercoaster from American company Chance Rides, who are more famous for their silly little children's rides (of which I've admittedly ridden many). This ride was alright, and I'm surprised there haven't been more of these built.

This is a bit harsh, although it sounds like the G-Forces would be pretty good. 

Kentucky Kingdom was rescued by the owners of nearby Holiday World a few years ago. They offer the same free soda fountains as they do there. 

The park has a large wooden coaster called Thunder Run, it's a bit odd as it looks like it misses it's second hill after the first drop choosing to stay low instead. It's a bit like the old Hurler coaster at Kings Dominion before it got the Rocky Mountain make over. 

I'm not sure what I thought of this theming found around the rapids ride.

T3, which has both a weird name and a weird sign is the park's SLC coaster. I enjoyed it, I'm not sure the rest of the group did. 

So we'd ridden 3 of the park's coasters, but the best one is located at the rear of the park, and it's the second Rocky Mountain coaster of the trip.

Storm Chaser opened in 2016, and was built on top of Twisted Twins, a duelling coaster that ran for 9 years previously.

This was the second worst of their rides that I'd ridden (Outlaw Run at Silver Dollar City being the worst). It was just too violent and not a pleasant experience. I was disappointed because it looks incredible but some of the little hop hills have a profile I'm just not good with, throwing me up in the air then quickly pulling me back down. 

I'm not sure what they're building next door to Storm Chaser but it's no surprise the manager doesn't like dark rides, which the park is lacking, so it won't be one of those.

The newest ride at the park was Scream Extreme, a spinning ride that looks like a car-less version of the enterprise ride that it replaced. It wasn't bad at all and since riding this one we have one in the UK at Margate.

Oh, somewhere else in the park we rode a kiddy coaster, no point posting that one though :)

Kentucky Kingdom isn't a bad park, not great, but still worth a visit if you're in the area, which if you're visiting Cincinatti or Holiday World you're close enough.

Our second park was Stricker's Grove which was the keystone of our trip. Everything we planned including why were out in July was to allow us to visit this park. It's a private park that only opens to the public on 6 days of the year, and today, Independence Day, was one of those days. 

It's a small park where you buy tickets for each ride, or you could buy a wristband. We were here for the two wooden coasters that they've built.

Someone had the bright of idea of having Snickers at Strickers. That someone didn't take the heat into account. Needless to say the bars were consumed immediately after this was taken. 

The 2 wooden coasters are Tornado (the big one) and Teddy Bear (the small one)

It wasn't a surprise to find other enthusiasts at the park today. They're easy to spot because they are happy to promote parks, coasters and clubs on their shirts (something I've long grown out of). We did speak to some of them but conversations tend to stick to coasters ridden, coasters being ridden and some justification for the hobby; I'd quickly get bored. 

Tornado was my 200th wooden coaster, which is a bit of a landmark for the hobby as there aren't that many wooden coasters in the world to ride, in fact I think it's a little less than 200 currently. Yes, here I am talking about coasters ridden having criticised it :)

I did prefer the smaller Teddy Bear coaster though.

We were pleased we got to visit Stricker's. It's a tough park to visit and the coasters were running really well, probably a benefit of having such restricted operating hours. 

These are the other days the park is opened.

So from Strickers we headed back to Kings Island where they not only hang llamas but also die them orange to cause further distress to the poor creatures.

The flying coaster, Firehawk was the one new coaster that I had to ride, new at this park but I had previously ridden it at Googoo Lake before that park sadly closed. 

The two Kings parks have little Cirque shows. Nothing that the du Soleil crowd need to worry about but still entertaining, and a chance to get out of the heat. Of the two the one here was better featuring a spaceship that turns into a BMX half-pipe.

That's Banshee, which replaced the Son of Beast ride that was famous for being a wooden coaster with a loop and not being smooth at all. I think they did a good job choosing this for its replacement.

That's Firehawk, the flying coaster previously ridden.

The racing coaster looked good, I didn't ride it.

The Backlot coaster at this park was closed all day with no explanation as to why.

Vortex is an absolutely huge corkscrew type coaster. I didn't ride it.

Firehawk does look good too. Rather oddly the splash zone is fenced off so there's no chance of getting the spray. A bit of a miss by the park I think.

A couple of kid rides, one steel one wood. I didn't ride either.

I did some things, like the wave disko.

and I had more goes on Mystic Timbers. The ambulance isn't theming unfortunately; someone passed out in the queue and needed reviving.

This is Vortex, it has sooo much track and looks like something I'd create in Rollercoaster Tycoon.

I tried riding the train ride to see if we get any good shots of Mystic Timbers which it goes around. I failed miserably, either getting blurry shots or just shots of track, which is rubbish.

Some of the ride gift shops contain headache pills; an excellent advert for the ride experience.

With it being the 4th July we got the firework show which was OK. The downside is that the rides towards the rear of the park such as Beast, where we were waiting, are closed until the show is over and the fire-warden has completed his post-show checks. Some people were a little impatient but we bided our time and got our ride. 

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