I’ve been going to this fair for three years now ever since I found out that Reithoffer Shows‘ orange unit was running the midway. The fair is located next to DeVry University just off of Rt. 1 in North Brunswick, NJ. Being that Route 1 is a pretty major thoroughfare in central Jersey this site gets inundated with Google searches like “what is the fair on route 1”, “route 1 carnival” and “devry carnival” when it comes around.
This year I went to the fair on the final day, Sunday June 24th. I was originally planning to go on Tuesday the 19th for the $10 wristband day but that fell through. I also decided to go to the fair during the day for a change as that Sunday was the Mets vs Yankees, R.A. Dickey vs CC Sabathia matchup that I did not want to miss. I arrived at around 4:15pm, paid the $4 admission and took a stroll around the fair to see what was there. There was…
- Tornado (Huss)
- Tango
- Wild Mouse
- Freak Out
- Himalaya (Wisdom)
- Zipper
- Giant Wheel
- Yo-Yo
- Power Surge
- Sizzler
- Starship 3000
- Orbiter
- Cliff Hanger
- Pharaoh’s Fury
- Tornado (Wisdom)
- Bear Affair
- Dizzy Dragons
- Fun Slide
- Merry-go-Round
- At least two funhouses
- A plethora of kiddie rides
- A ton of foodstuffs
- Multiple shows (including Sea Lion Splash and Wambalds Amazing Animals)
- Many, many games
Man this was a big fair! The youth sports program of North Brunswick must be loaded with how well this fair seems to do each year. I first took a round of photos before buying ten tickets ($11) to ride Tornado and Tango, two rides I might not see again this year.
I went on the Huss Tornado first and was put in a car with two others. Surprisingly, even though most people on the ride had wristbands, we got a pretty lengthy ride that lasted almost three minutes. The car I was in whipped around like crazy during the slower parts; I’d like to say I had a hand in that by shifting my body weight but who knows on this ride. Since I was riding solo in the seat (two can fit in a seat, four per car) I was thrown from side to side on most occasions, but that makes the ride more fun! Good ride overall, one of the my favorites. As far as Tornado’s appearance it was basically impeccable (it was only redone in 2010.) The backwall had been taken down however, most likely pre-sloughing for the jump later on that night.
Next I went over to the KMG Tango for a spin which was located in this little offshoot of the main midway along with Giant Wheel, Yo-yo and Zipper. Unlike Tornado I was treated to a pitifully short cycle, probably less than a minute. Don’t think it was worth $5.50 in tickets for that length but I knew it was going to be a short ride beforehand. Now it seems like all that bike riding I do has paid off as I rode this without holding on at all. I know that sounds like murder for any guy considering the interesting seating arrangement but I was A-ok afterwards. Good ride overall, I got really disoriented as it flipped and pretty much didn’t know what way I was pointing.
As for other rides: Yo-Yo, to the right of Tango, looked really nice with LED lighting and a white, yellow and blue color scheme. As I’ve noted before it’s probably the nicest Chance Yo-Yo rides around. Giant Wheel was a larger Chance wheel, no single riders allowed of course thanks to regulations aimed to protect people from themselves and shows from overzealous lawyers. Zipper seemed to have dark blue and white lighting with some orange and blue lights on the sign. It was like the boom and support had Yankees colors and the sign Mets colors…yeah, I obviously had the game on my mind.
Lining the back of the midway was Himalaya, Power Surge, Orbiter, Pharaoh’s Fury, Skooters. Wild Mouse and Cliffhanger. I noticed that Wild Mouse had lapbars with some grab bars instead of the usual overhead lapbar I’m used to seeing. Apparently Zamperla bought out Reverchon some time ago and kept the same design while modifying the cars…I honestly had no idea. The fact it was called “Wild Mouse” instead of “Crazy Mouse” (Reverchon’s original name for the coaster) should have tipped me off though. Sitting opposite of the rides above was Starship 3000 and Sizzler, the latter being down the day I went.
Next to Tornado on the left side of the midway was Freak Out, a KMG pendulum ride. Usually this fair has Wild Claw, a KMG Fireball model that travels with Reithoffer’s blue unit, but since Freak Out is on the orange unit it only made sense for it to be present at a fair that the orange unit is playing! Aaaanyway, Freak Out was pretty much your stock version with a white color scheme with multi-colored turbo lighting. I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen a Freak Out themed to anything other than the act of freaking out so I guess it works. As I was at the fair the decorative panels under the ride were being put away in preparation for the tear down. I heard this thing racks onto one trailer; that’s hard to beleive considering how big it is.
Looks like this guy won
The entire front and right side of the fair was lined with kiddie rides and family rides including two Sellner spin rides, namely Bear Affair and Dizzy Dragons. You know a fair is big when there’s two different Sellner spin rides! Games and vendors also took up the spaces in the middle of the paths made by the rides. Restrooms (aka a line of Port-a-Johns) were also located near the front. DoD3 Protip: If you need to use a port-a-john on the final day of a fair…just hold it in; I’ll just say that it wasn’t a pleasant sight. Best part is that the portable sinks outside the toilets had no soap left. Luckily I had some hand sanitizer which I poured generously onto my hands to kill off any germs…make myself feel better.
When I arrived the crowds were pretty light, but by the time I was ready to leave they were building quickly. I ended up spending nearly three hours at the fair before leaving, picking up a couple of slices of pizza on the way home to prepare for the game. Turns out I could have just went to the fair at night and not miss a thing: Dickey ended up choking, giving up 5 runs to the Yankees. The Mets managed to tie it up but then our wonderful bullpen gave up a run, leading to a 6 – 5 Yankee win. I’ll be honest, I was expecting to see Dickey kill the Yankees lineup so that I could celebrate a win while bathing in schadenfreude, but it just wasn’t to be.
Finally, here’s a video of Tornado:
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Yay! About time lol. Well yeah, sounds like you had a pretty good time there..during the day I see. Yeah, this year’s fair there got a bit better..though they could’ve had the Wild Claw there but Freak Out is kinda the same experience..only smaller. Wowee! I went on the 2 Final nights of the fair, well of course it was my birthday weekend ya know. 😉
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So My 1st time was Saturday night (June 23rd..the night before my birthday..and which they also were doing a spectacular fireworks show that night), I went with my old cousin (she’s hot btw) who returned home to Elizabeth after spending 4 years And Graduated from some major college in Miami, Florida. Along with 3 of her guy friends. One of them named Oscar has his own car and drove all of us there. We planned to arrive at 8:30pm (the time the sun sets and the rides’ lights turn on) but we got caught up on some heavy traffic along the NJ Turnpike. So better 15 mins late then never I suppose. And parking wasn’t that harsh either. As we all got to the entrance, my cuz and her friends all paid $4 to get in. But since I got their MegaPass (Official discount ticket that’s good for Free Admission and UNLIMITED RIDES..which were sold @ Walgreens a month prior to the event) I had no problems getting in. Once I’ve set foot past the entrance gates, I went to one of the nearest ride ticket booths, so I can exchange my MegaPass for the Unlimited Ride wristband. Then we all walked around the fair for a bit to see what this year’s fair had in store..and to see how much tickets each ride there cost. I was excited to to see the Tornado and Zipper in action when I first got near them.
So my cousin’s friends (except my cousin, sadly) bought a few tickets for the rides and my first ride of the night, was 1 round on “Zipper”. I went on with Oscar and it was his 1st time ever lol. It was weird that the ride only loads one car at a time, with the cars Facing the Giant Wheel. (its LED light patterns were beautiful) On the ride’s counter-clockwise rotation, the ride flipped us about 6 times in a row before we reached the other side of the boom. In its clockwise rotation, it didn’t front flipped us at all. But at least he had fun lol.
After our 1st round on “Zipper” Oscar and my cuz’s other friends decided to go the “Tango”. Even my cuz tried to get me to ride it but I refused to go on it lol. But Then I said, if the ride does appear at this fair next year, I’ll ride it with my best friend. And the ride started, Me and her chuckled and laughed at the guys riding it, holding onto the bars and one yelled “My Balls” in Spanish lol. My cousin shouted “punks!” at them as the ride ended, haha. I felt sorry for one of the guys xD And that was the only ride they went on. (except for Oscar who also went 1 round on Zipper with me) After that, Oscar and the other guys head back to the car to chill while me and my cousin are still at the fair. So I figured, I got the wristband so I might as well have fun on the rides myself while I’m here celebrating my 22nd birthday. So I then went on the Orbiter, then Wild Mouse, Pharaoh’s Fury (lucky I got on one of the ends of it hehe), and of course, the ride I was daring myself to ride since it last appeared there 2 Years Ago…TORNADO! 🙂
Though I went alone, which was kinda sad for me but at least I got to to enjoy it. So I sat in on car, with no other 2 riders next to me. And as soon as the ride started, I started yelling OMG, why am I doing this?? xD The ride went like a wild bronco, with the power of an 80 degree angled HUSS “Break Dance” (which I never rode in my life) combined with the speed of an “Enterprise” or “Round Up”. I didn’t think it looked fast while I was in line for the ride. But myy goodness, was it FAST! The worst was when it lasted for about 3 minutes lol! But wowwweee what a ride! I loved it 🙂
And after that, I went on the “Freak Out”..which kinda made me a lil sad that the “Wild Claw” wasn’t there this year. But “Freak Out” does give an experience like it, only less seats and lower height while in full swing. And what was weird about the ride was how it ran. After the 1st round, the ride slows down, the floors go back up, and you’d think it was over and the harnesses will release you. But after about 5 seconds the floors go back down and you’re still strapped in for another short round. Worth a ride I suppose. 🙂
And as I got off the ride, the fireworks started shooting into the clear night sky over the Giant Wheel, such an epic sight. My cousin wished me a “Happy Birthday” (even though it was the night before lol) and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I blushed lol. And we watched the entire fireworks show together until it ended. After the amazing fireworks finale, it was time for me to go on one more ride, and it was The Last One OF The Night because my cousin wanted us to leave soon so she could get some shuteye for work the following early morning. Which was a bit of a downer but at least I had fun. 🙂
So my last ride of the night was one Last Round on “Zipper”. We walked up towards the ride’s overhead lighted sign and my cousin asked this young good-looking male ride op if it would be possible for him to get someone to ride with me. “I’ll see what I can do. Have him stay right by the exit gate and I’ll let him know.” We thanked him of course. 🙂 And once the ride op finally got me someone to ride with I sat next to a young male teenager. We both had a lil chat and asked ourselves if we’ve been on the “Zipper” before. We both said yeah and we were a bit surprised, hehe. And then finally the ride started in a counter-clockwise rotation. Then ride has us back flipped only twice. The teenage boy’s face hit the cage door..and I saw that happened haha. Then in its clockwise rotation, it felt hard! It held us upside down for about 3 seconds then wildly front flipped us about 4 times. My goodness, that felt hard! Though that’s one of the reasons why the “Zipper” is my #1 fave! 🙂 Though I felr sorry for the kid who bumped his head on the cage door.
And as I got off of it. My cousin laughed at me and said “OMG, that was scary! How was it? I got a lil dizzy after watching you go through all of that” hehe. I told her, “Maybe next year you’ll ride it with me, huh?” “We’ll see” she replied. But wow, what a perfect way to end the night. And so after that, we walked up to some food court near the fair entrance, and bought myself a beef shishkebab (small chunks of grilled meat on a stick..and boy they were small)..with some bbq sauce on it..it’s too bad they didn’t include some bread with that. But what also got me a lil iffed, was that it costed me $4. My goodness, $4 for such small chunks of grilled meat on stick? “Carny food” sure is expensive nowadays. Then we head back to the car to meet up with Oscar and the guys, for Oscar to drive us back home safe (and glad I did. He speeded like he was “Speed Racer” on the Turnpike. Lucky no cops didn’t pull us over.) And got home, ate some leftover pizza from last night, watched TV and fell asleep. 🙂
BUT THAT’S NOT OVER YET..STAY TUNED FOR -PART 2- (MY ACTUAL B-DAY AT THIS FAIR) COMING SHORTLY.
Haha, you need to start up a Blogspot blog of your trips as they’re pretty good reads.
And what the heck man, you didn’t go on Tango? I rode it without holding on and I came out fine. The seats actually have handles around where your thighs are; holding on to those (instead of the metal harness part) helps a lot more. I think too many people tend to lean forward on this ride as well, getting your butt on the bike seat helps.
Heh, Hey thanks, that sounds like a good idea! But I got some questions about it though..Do you get paid to run and post updates to this site? And is it very likely that I could get paid to do a blogging and carnival/fair ride site similar to this? I’d like to do this kind of thing to earn a little extra money, since my job fairly pays not as much but it’s been pretty much sustainable. I work Mondays (sometimes Sundays) to Fridays from 6am to 4pm and it pays me $8.75 an hour.
And wow, heh..well lucky for you. 🙂 I don’t know how you’ve managed to gone through the “Tango” with a bit of pain (since I hear it’s been a bit of a “ball buster”), but wowweee! I just wasn’t quite ready for it this year. 🙂 All that mattered to me about that ride, was the “after” part. As many guys’ “eggs” got scrambled during the ride. I’ve been hearing them saying that as they exit the ride lol! Hmm, if I were to really go on it next year..with my best friend perhaps I should have a “cup” on me for it..just in case, hehe. And besides that, with the metal bars, would the ride’s full forces cause your head to jam left and right onto the sides of the metal bars? I’d like to know if that could happen. I’d like to hear others’ “Tango” experience before I finally get to try it out firsthand. And I wish I still had my old bike now. My mum had to sell it to help pay for my “always drunk” stepdad’s 1st DUI charge. :-/ (it’s a long story)
I don’t get paid anything, this is just a personal site. I have some ads running but unless you have a site that gets a ton of traffic (as in 1000s of hits a day) then they don’t really make much. Something like Blogger (Blogspot is Blogger now apparently) is free so there’s no loss and after a while it might turn into something big. I think you can add Google Ads to Blogger as well.
As for Tango, no cup is needed. Just hop on and enjoy, it’s not as bad as you think it is. Just make sure to hold onto the handles and not the metal harness thing. And no, you won’t hit your head on the bars as they’re pretty far apart. They don’t actually hold you in anyway, all they do is hold two seatbelt type straps that rest on riders’ shoulders.
Aww, that sucks. But speaking moneywise, I thought it would be a good investment. Oh and I I found more info about some blog sites that Does “Pay Per Blog”
http://www.ehow.com/how_2100793_paid-blog-paid-blogging-networks.html
And I’m kinda having trouble finding the handles you were talking about in one of these pics? Can you put up some good picture of Tango’s seats with an arrow pointing to the part I need to hold on? So that I’ll know when I’ll finally ride it with my best friend next year. 🙂
I forgot about this comment!
Look at this picture: http://www.domainofdeath3.com/news/wp-content/gallery/2012-nbysf-1/tango5.jpg
The handles are sticking out of the pink section at the bottom of each seat. They don’t look like much but they help a lot.
Ah, I see. That would be quite a challenge for me to keep my grip on those, haha. Wowee, I can’t wait til next year. Thanks for the info:-)
AND FINALLY, HERE’S -PART 2- (June 24..my birthday).. Sorry It took me a while to finish it. I had a lot of things to handle but I finally get to finish this once and for all. Enjoy 🙂
Ok, so I woke up at around 9am, my parents called me to say “Happy Birthday” over the phone, and asked me about my plans for that day. I told them it was gonna be nothing much, even though Sundays are really work, church, and “chill” days. So I watched an “On Demand” movie. And after that I just showered, got dressed, and drove to the Woodbridge Center mall for a 2-hour stroll and “gawk” (window shopping) at some cool stuff in some of the best stores of the mall. There was nothin good to watch on TV during the day so I figured, “why not?”
Then, around 3pm my best friend texted me “Happy Birthday” and asked me what I’ll be doing to celebrate today. “I’ve already celebrated at the fair last night” I texted back to him. Then, he texted “Well, I just got out of church now. Why don’t come over to my place in 30 minutes so we could chill together?” “Sure that sounds cool! I’m exiting the mall right now. I’ll be there in about 30 minutes as well.” I replied.
I drove back to Elizabeth without any problem on the way, I got to my friend’s place just in time as he arrived just a minute later. “Dang, how’d you get here so fast?” he said with a chuckle. “Hey, I got here a minute before you did” 🙂 Heh, we never stop “being bros” to each other hehe. So I went in to his place and stayed there for a while, and watched him play CoD (Call of Duty)
At around 6pm that evening. my friend’s parents got an phone call that someone on the phone told them to come to some location in East Orange. Apparently, that felt a bit of a downer, as I thought I could stay at his place until he goes to bed at midnight. Then he and his parents got dressed and left to wherever in East Orange to need to be.
I went back to my house..watching BORING TV..for another hour or so. And then something in me shouted “Hey! What am I doing watching boring TV? Even though it’s a Sunday, today’s still your birthday! You gotta do something fun tonight at least! Why not go to that fair again tonight?” “That’s right, I’m going there again” I said to myself.
So I finally shut off my TV, grabbed my blue “Naruto” headband (stuffed in my pants pocket), my car keys, my cell phone and my wallet, then drove off solo to the fair via Route 1 & 9 (mainly, Route 1) and just a mile before I got there, it began in rain a bit and I said to myself, “Ohhh no..say it ain’t so..Not tonight, please don’t rain tonight..” I’ve arrived around 8:45 PM and Just as I finally parked my SUV in the parking lot (just a little closer to the entrance this time) and exited my vehicle the rain stopped. Though the sky was kind of overcast, which is alright..only if my real night didn’t get rained out.
I finally got to the main entrance, paid $4 and stepped past the security gates with no probs. I walked towards the Tornado (Huss Flipper) and saw that the back wall (the ride’s scenery) has been taken down, perhaps to prepare for the scheduled “tear down” by 11pm. I then purchased 5 individual tickets at a tickt booth near the ride and went for one, final round on Tornado. It felt weird to me that the ride ops don’t play any good music as they did the night before and that the ride has no background at that time. I went solo on one car. Rough..But it still was a Great ride, no doubt about that! I do hope it’ll come back again next year’s NBYSF 🙂
I then walked over to ticket booth near the Tornado again, just to buy 8 individual tickets for 2 Final rounds on -Zipper-. As I head towards the ride, I see about 50 in line for the ride. “My goodness, look at the line. I doubt I’ll find someone to ride with me tonight” I then head towards the ride op, and asked the guy “Today’s my birthday, though I came here alone. I was hoping if you could find me someone to ride with.” “Just walk up to any person and ask someone who can ride with you”, he replied. “Ok I’ll try that” So I walked up to any person in line, from the 1st person in line, to the last person in line.
I then head towards to ride op and he asked me, “No luck?” “Nope”. So he then told me to stand near the exit gate for about 15 mins, and finally he found me a “Zipper buddy” lol. So went through the exit gate, put on my blue “Naruto” ninja headband and stepped inside the cage, with a young Afro-american teenager. It was his first time. Hehe. As the ride was still unloading and loading more passengers..one car at a time (with the cars facing the Giant wheel)..I don’t know why ride ops do that instead of just filling in 2 cars at a time.
So we chatted a bit, as the young teenager next to me was kinda nervous hehe. “Hey, I felt the same way on my 1st time as you do. Now I’m a -Zipper- Addict :-)” I told him. The cable finally started rotating counter clockwise, as it hurled us up, over the top of the ride before the boom started rotating clockwise as well. Followed by a series a back flips once we reached from one end to the other. And the teenager made some shrill screams (like a girl terrified) as he held on to the bars tightly. And I was going “Oh yeah! Lovin’ this!” and of course, letting out my inner ninja by making “grunt” sounds 🙂 Then, the ride got wilder. As the whole started changing direction, our car just started doing multiple front flips. And it was funny how the teenager screamed on every flip we’ve been through. And the worst was the ride “dive bombed head first” to the ground as we pass around one end. the another series of front flips. Then our car did a couple more flips as the ride finally stopped. What a “fight” for me! As for the teenager, he loved it too. Though he did felt a little nervous once we’ve stopped at the top of the ride, as more people are unloading and loading.
Well that felt great indeed, I thanked the ride op for getting me on it with the teenager, and I went towards him again I said, “Hey, today’s my birthday, on this final night of the fair, can you get someone else for me so I can get on it..just one last time?” “Sure, no prob.”, he replied. Thanks ever so much, let me go buy 4 single tickets again ” “Hurry back.”
I ran to the nearest ticket booth, which was right beside the Tornado and Freak Out. I stood in line for about 3 minutes and got my last 4 single ride tix for my one final round on Zipper. I then hurried back to the ride’s exit gate for the ride op to tell me to get on once he has found someone for me to ride with. And after a ten minute wait, the ride op, yet again has found someone for me to ride with. And this time, it’s with a young adult male (in his 20s, maybe), who had to work until 9:45 and arrived to the fair before the final hour. He too, came alone.
It was also his 1st time ever on the ride. Though he had tried to get on it before but he couldn’t find anyone to ride with him. Lucky for us that we both got to ride it together. As soon as the ride op made sure the locks were finally secured, the ride finally started (the boom first then the cable) rotating counter clockwise. Though it was only one back flip, the rest of that rotation kinda didn’t got rough. And in its clockwise rotation, it just did 2 front flips. “The worst part of the ride is the front flips!” “I agree, but I love this ride nonetheless!” And it stopped us near the ground or platform.
Once we’ve finally got off, we “hi 5d” and thanked each other. And the ride op told me “Have a nice birthday..hoped you enjoyed it” “Thanks for making it happen. Hopefully I’ll see you and this ride next year with my best friend. “Yeah”. He was surely inj a good mood I’ll tell you that. Then I finally left the gate and drove back home about 45 minutes before the fair shuts down and tear down begins. It was a nice 30 minute drive and got home safe and prepared for bed for work the following morning. Wowweee! And I then finally realized that I rode the Zipper twice on Saturday night, and again..Twice on my birthday. 2 and 2..22! Isn’t that epic?! 😀 I guess you can say, that my birthday weekend got “Zipped”..the right way! 🙂 Happy 22nd to me! 🙂