Day 8

Day 8 was mostly about the state of Michigan, the second, and last, of the new states for me leaving six to go.  It was a very full day with plenty to do including 4 small parks and a couple of county fairs that were also on the route. The aim was to finish in Grand Rapids in the west of the state.

Our view from the hotel in Windsor. It was a nice hotel too ! (the Holiday Inn if you're interested)

A morning view of the Detroit skyline.

Driving through Windsor we spotted an alley covered in street art, so I jumped out and took some photos. You're welcome! I loved the Spy vs Spy one.

Our first park of the day wasn't really a park but a garden centre with some rides in it. Now I've ridden many coasters in parks and in fairs and some in unusual locations like pizza parlours but this was going to be our first in a garden centre.  

A nice selection of merch.

This was the coaster, a dumb Miner Mike ride. Unfortunately we'd gotten to the centre for it opening at 9am. It wasn't until we got there that we found out the rides open at 12 and there was no way we could wait around for it to open without missing some of the other parks. I did double-check the website and found the ride times on a section of the site I didn't spot when planning the trip, so a big mistake on my part. We did ask if they could open it for us but they didn't have the staff so early in the day.

So our only coaster in Canada on this trip turned out to be a dud. 

It's a nice centre, and an excellent concept because it's all indoors and not hot!

This is a real pain to get to and I'm not sure we'll be there ever again, but if you are considering the drive from Cedar Point into Detroit then it might be worth a visit, if you get the times right.

Back in Detroit after a slightly immigration than emigration process and time for a quick sightseeing tour in Detroit. This is the Joe Louis fist statue.

some other bits of art around the fist.

A nice little mention to Wally World.

This is the Detroit Michigan Theatre which at one time was one of the grandest theatres in the city. Now it's the grandest of car parks. I've poached the internal photo as I couldn't get in, the only entrance had a guy looking to jack cars hanging around it and I wasn't going to be a statistic :)

Steam rising from the street, which I've only seen before in New York. Here it's pumped like water or gas and is a utility in a small section of the city.

The next stop for Malcolm's dumb film locations list was the caravan park where Eminem grew up. It's located on 8-Mile which was the film title.

Our next stop was going to be Barrymore's FEC but when we got there we were told the rollercoaster wouldn't be open for another hour. So we skipped park #2 and headed to #3 which fortunately was only 10 minutes away.

Located in the Lakeside Mall is a small fun center called Jeepers, and that was where were headed.

For those who count simulated coasters there are 2 old Cedar Point rides here.

The coaster is a small python's pit ride which had been hijacked by a group of wristband wearing kids who were insisting on being continually sent around on the ride. The operator seemed relieved that we'd shown up.

The clearance was very minimal and it was very easy to touch the ceiling from the top of the lift hill.

Also worth a visit in the mall is a beautiful modern carousel. We were harangued by the mall security for taking photos of it, which was a bit odd but he was easily placated when we made it clear we just thought the ride was stunning.

Tal choosing the escalated rather than the carpeted staircase.

We still had time to kill before the rides at Barrymore's opened up so we stopped for lunch. All The Way Hamburger please Five Guys. Starting in DC this chain is now global and a little bit of trivia for you; they don't have any freezers.

CJ Barrymores is a large entertainment complex with a number of rides in its grounds. They don't have any pools so I couldn't drop the obvious Barrymore joke.

Their coaster is a looping zyklon ride. Not one of the nicest rides but this was running well and was immaculately maintained.

4-player air hockey, always good for groups. 

Our first fair was Seymour Celebration, hosted on a large expanse of dusty ground.

Local bands

There was just the one coaster at this fair, and one that we weren't allowed to ride. Whenever we see a dragon wagon ride we know that we're not going to get to ride it. But it's a new find so not a complete waste of time.

There was an ok selection of rides otherwise.

I've seen this dog on a rollercoaster before. It looks like the manufacturers have repurposed it for other rides like this kiddy pirate swing.

The second fair was the Oakland County Fair. This was significantly larger than the previous fair, and had buildings too. I wonder what was in the shed?

They had dinosaurs you could ride, although they wouldn't go anywhere.

Pig-racing. I feel sorry for anyone who'd bet on pig #4

This fair had 2 rollercoasters one that we could ride and one that we could not. This was the one that we were allowed to ride. A nice little bonus rollercoaster.

The one we could not was another dragon wagon.

Not a coaster despite what Six Flags might tell you.

This fair had a better selection of rides than the previous fair.

The Skywheel is quite a rare ride so I was definitely having a go at this, and on the plus side it was a genuinely frightening ride. The spiral drop as you rotate from the top all the way to the bottom caused the car to rock significantly which I was a little uncomfortable with. I also liked that they were cool with single riders. On the negative I somehow managed to get a handful of grease on my hand getting in which ruined my baseball cap. At least I didn't have any facial itches today, that would have been worse :)

Nice bright cartoony art.

Big Rock were the showmen. They run a great fair

This is a Cider Slushy, it was really just apple but it tasted good and was a nice way to undo the heat.

Newly born goats...

Newly born velociraptor...

...almost rhymes with tractor

So, time to discover the secret of what's in the shed?

It was just some craft competitions. Boo!

This was a little bit odd. A childrens show hosted by a farmer who having sprayed the goat's milk into the audience then sprayed it into the dog's mouth. Not something I've seen before admittedly.

This was a cool fair, not massive but a good size, with a good selection of things to see, and of course the bonus rollercoaster was a nice add too.

On the way up to our next park we passed this ghost house. It wasn't open but it was a nice leg stretch and photo opportunity. It's called Rotten Manor if you're interested.

Our final planned park of the day was Kokomo's, located in Saginaw.

Something had caught Tal's eye. I wonder what it could have been?

Yep, another zyklon coaster, this time without the loop, and it was better for it. It's a really good ride.

Elsewhere they have the FEC staple of go-karts and crazy golf.

This was a quick stop but a good one. There are further parks north in the state but this was as far north as we could go with the time we had. From here it was a long drive over to Grand Rapids.

Once again we broke up the trip with a stop at the State Capitol, this time in the city of Lansing. This one was quite nice with a bizarre egg shape dome. Considering our long day we were ahead of schedule so we decided to bring forward one of the small parks from the next day and so we were now hitting park number 5.

Craig's Cruisers is a chain of 4 parks in West Michigan and earlier in the year the Grand Rapids branch added a new roller coaster. It's also another coaster in a pizza parlour so it made sense to have dinner here.

I think I had 4 trips to the pizza bar, no complaints as I hadn't eaten all day. The fact we were the last customers and there was still a lot of food being cooked made it easier for us to stay longer too after all us eating was helping them out. One of the pizzas, Chicken Alfredo was really nice, 

As for the coaster, it was another SBF Visa spinner, which broke after we rode it, oops!

The trampoline park looked good

A new ninja turtles arcade game. I didn't even realise it was out yet.

Craigs Cruiser was a sensible stop, the food was great and the coaster, well let's just say it wasn't as good :)

We had difficulty getting into our hotel in downtown Grand Rapids as the whole area had been closed for an Independence Day fireworks show. Well that's what the policeman told us was going on. I'd like to think they were putting the show on as a thanks for us visiting their city.

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