Kennywood

For my first post in quite a while, I chose to write about Kennywood, the historic amusement park. Kennywood is a historic park because it has many old, wooden and rickety rides. This week we had our first visit to the park in several years, needless to say it was a lovely visit full of memories. 

Our first and last ride was on a contraption called the Kangaroo. The Kangaroo has eight booths which, with a squish, can each fit four (we tried, we’ll come back to that). Another ride that we rode was, unimaginatively, named the Racer. Predictably, it was a ride in which there were two cars on either side of the track which raced each other. Unfortunately my dad and I lost against my mom and brother. There were some other competitive rides. We went on one where we all shot at ghosts with ghost blasters. Daddy won by far the first time, with 78 ghosts dead! The second time I was on the ride I got 79 ghosts, so we both had the satisfaction of victory. Of course instead of saying 79 or 78 they count by tens so everybody feels good about themselves. Even if Jack only manages to hit one ghost he still gets ten points. Between riding the Kangaroo and the Racer we rode, the family famed, Jackrabbit. I have memories of riding Jackrabbit the last time we came to Kennywood. It seemed so much less scary this time around, even though I still don’t really like large coasters.

Rides that we competed against each other were not the only ones we had fun on, though I did both of those particular rides twice. There were a few rides that I did not manage to scrape up enough courage to go on. One of these was called the Black Widow, named after the spider. This giant contraption has the design of a giant pendulum, again with the spider theme swinging and spinning from it’s web. I was not on this particular ride so the story is second hand but from a good source. The source said that about half way through the ride Jack exclaimed aloud, declaring, very plainly for all to hear, “Jee, this ride is really overhyped” and then screamed at the top of his lungs as the ground came at him in what he thought was a brush with death and what everybody else thought correctly was the best part of the ride.

Kennywood has the last wooden Möbius coaster in North America, the formerly mentioned Racer. Two cars, running on the same track at the same time built in 1927, that should scare people more than any other ride in the park. Kennywood is also home to a ride that is the last of its kind in the world. The Turtle is an iconic little ride formerly known as the Tumble Bug. The Turtle is, compared to some of the modern-day rollercoasters, relatively tame. It has a circular track with six cars going over several bumps and getting progressively faster before slowing to a stop with all the occupants sloshing around on the cold, metal seats. Rides like it used to be a must-have in just about every park, but now, it is as far as we know, the only one left. The Merry-go-round in Kennywood is also a historic landmark, built in 1926. Maybe we can return for its 100th anniversary. 

There were a few things at Kennywood that we simply had to do and one of those was getting fries with cheese at the Potato Patch restaurant. It has become a family tradition to get them because they were Grandpa Dan’s favorite thing to get at Kennywood. As we were waiting in line to place our order we watched the workers jamming a potato into a machine and pressing down on a lever ending with the potato sliced up into un-cooked fries. Unfortunately, just as we were paying, my mom spotted Jack and my dad coming near us fresh off Black Widow and we had to share the cheesy fries with them. Unfortunately again, that ruined the whole trip and I sulked for the rest of the day… Just kidding!

To end the day we rode Ye Old Mill, a slow floating boat ride.We did some thinking and got our hearts set on having one last ride. We circled back to the reliable Kangaroo, where we saw a guy and three little kids fit in one booth. We decided if they could fit we could fit, so we tried and squished and squashed until the bar came down and none of us could move. During the ride we bickered for space and eventually, by the third bump, we were all comfy. I can’t wait for our next visit!