Astroland Rocket 2007Two days ago marked the fifth anniversary of the closure of Coney Island’s Astroland Amusement Park. The park was closed on September 7, 2008 when their lease with Thor Equities was not renewed for the 2009 season. Joe Sitt, founder of Thor, had big plans for the property (not good plans, but big plans nonetheless) but we all know how that dog and pony show turned out. Luckily, Zamperla stepped in to bring rides back to the lot, albeit not without some controversy along the way, namely the chopping down of Astrotower.

With the tower gone, there is effectively no remaining artifacts of Astroland left in Coney Island aside from the park’s former bumper car ride which currently resides at Deno’s Wonderwheel Park. However, as the Coney Island blog Amusing the Zillion points out, there is one part of vintage Astroland that was promised to be returned to Coney Island…the Astroland Rocket.

… Five Years Since Astroland’s Closure, but Where’s the Rocket?

TempestOnce again I was informed about a fair to add to the carnival list. It was in Mendham which is a fairly quick, back road drive from my place. I didn’t have much time to visit, on top of that scattered showers were popping up throughout the day, but I pressed on. It would likely be the final fair of 2013, after all (but not the final carnival trip report!)

I did a once over on Google maps, and headed off, confident in my newly found navigational skills. Well, I took a wrong turn and had to load up the GPS on my phone…hrmph. As I drove into Mendham, it started to rain. Wonderful. So I grabbed an umbrella from the backseat and ventured out to the fair. McDaniel Brothers Shows was doing the spot, and the fair had:

… Trip Report: 2013 Mendham Pastime Club Labor Day Carnival

Kenilworth Fire Dept Carnival 2013It’s amazing how many fairs happen close by that seem to fly under the radar. There’s a lot of towns close to each other in my area of NJ and as the years go by I’ve been finding out about more and more carnivals happening within a 10 mile radius. Kenilworth Fire Department Carnival is one of these new fairs for me despite being a 20 minute ride.

I headed over on August 22nd, leaving at about 8:15pm. Again, I pretty much just memorized the route and headed off. When in Kenilworth, I thought I had gone too far down one of the main roads and quickly made a right; turns out this was the exact turn I wanted! Mr Navigator over here is two for two now! There were a lot of “no parking” signs around so I ended up parking a block away. The fair was being done by Blue Sky Amusements and had:

… Trip Report: 2013 Kenilworth Fire Dept. Carnival

Zumanjaro: Drop of DoomThe much anticipated release of Six Flags Great Adventure’s 2014 plans have been announced this morning. The park plans to add Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom, a record breaking 41 story drop tower strapped onto the front of Kingda Ka, the tallest roller coaster in the world. There you go, two tallest X in the world in one place!

Zumanjaro will feature three gondolas on three separate tracks, each gondola holding 8 riders each. Riders will be hoisted up 41 stories in 30 seconds and, after a short pause, will drop at speeds up to 90mph. Man, this ride is going to be something else! Even a drop tower like AtmosFEAR at Morey’s Piers has a great drop at only 140 feet high; a 400+ foot drop is going to be truly intense!

… News: SFGAdv Record Breaking Drop Tower – Axing Rolling Thunder

Sizzler - Hillsborough Rotary FairSo, in late July someone contacted me asking to add an event onto the annual carnival list; the Hillsborough Rotary Fair. I did a little sniffing around and found that Majestic Midways was (likely) doing the spot and would bring in a good deal of their rides. I’ve seen Majestic before, but only in abbreviated form at the St. Barts Italian Festival in Scotch Plains, NJ. Hillsborough isn’t too far away so on August 15th, I decided to head over and check out the festivities.

Before leaving, I glanced at Google Maps and then winged the 30 or so minute trip. I got a little tripped up as I approached the location; the field I thought the fair was in had no fair! I eventually pulled into a shopping center parking lot and saw a ferris wheel and drop tower in the distance. I then drove in the direction of the fair, navigating the maze of roads that made up the Hillsborugh Promenade strip mall. I entered the fair at about 8:45pm, and the fair had:

… Trip Report: 2013 Hillsborough Rotary Fair

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