First fair of 2019! I had planned to go to the Middlesex Fire Dept and Saint James carnivals the weeks prior but, well…that didn’t happen. First time I had missed the Middlesex fair in eight years – no good. Anyway, rides for the OLP Country Fair were once again by Blue Sky Amusements and the fair had…
- Polar Express
- Vertigo
- Zipper
- Paratrooper
- Sizzler
- Chair Jet
- Monkey Maze
- Fun Slide
- Toon Town
- Tip-a-Canoe
- Quad Runners
- Flying Dragons
- Elephants
- maybe like one more kiddie ride?
Saturday was going to my photo night as the Friday forecast called for storms to roll through during prime-time fair hours. Weeeeell, Friday turned out to be a nice night, and while Saturday was nice for the most part, it started to get rainy after about 6pm – hours ahead of the forecast. Wonderful. The kicker is that I was actually there on Thursday to grab something to eat and didn’t bring my camera because “meeeeh, Saturday will be nice! I’ll get all the photos then!”
The carnival was smaller this year with several rides taken out of the lineup, most notably the lack of a Ferris Wheel. While walking around I actually overheard several people remark about there being no wheel.
All of the major rides were lined up in the back row with Monkey Maze flanking the north end of the lot. Paratrooper was running this year and it looked fantastic! I like how not only the outer edge of the bonnets have lighting but the undersides as well. There was a big line for it on Saturday night. It was kind of weird, it seemed like the lines were big for most of the rides, but the rest of the fair was on the slowish side. Maybe the drizzle cleared out most of the bystanders leaving the families that had bought tickets to get their rides in.
Polar Express was playing (louder) music this year with the ride op blowing the horn to the beat at some points. Zipper was next door and had a massive line because it’s an awesome ride (and slow loading, but more because it’s awesome.) Blue Sky’s Zipper looks better in person than in any photo I’ve taken of it. Chair Jet was in its usual south corner spot; looks like this swing really hauls for a family-style swing ride! The other swing ride, Vertigo, was on the opposite side of the lot.
For the most part I was just dodging intermittent raindrops, but it started to pick up in intensity after about a half an hour. I had gotten enough photos for a trip report, so I decided to grab some zeppoles and head out. Later that night it rained like heck; must have been a lovely teardown. Could be worse, it could be a grass lot!
11 Comments
And you also forgot to mention,
“..the lack of having Spin Out like last year”
And it seems as though for every OLP every year, it always tend to get rainy on the Saturday of the fair.
Though, it was supposed to be the night to celebrate my best friend/dojo mate’s 26th birthday at the OLP fair.
Oh well, the only thing we did pretty much as karate together that afternoon. And then we went to see Avengers: Endgame later that rainy night.
I think people were commenting about the wheel because it’s been there for years; not as “good” as Spin Out, but a staple of the fair. Rain and the OLP fair does seem to go hand in hand, though. lol
At least they had the Zipper. That’s the only “ferris wheel” type of ride there was.
And I think the OLP fair is never fun without it. 😀
By the way, I biked past OLP today and Polar Express and Sizzler are still hanging out in the lot.
Wow. Were they racked in their trailer?
Racked. I remember years ago, before BSA started doing the fair, the Hang Ten ride was left setup in the lot for like 3 days one year. It was strange seeing it sitting there with cars parked around it for church services. lol
Gee, I wonder what happened to that #HangTen ride, which I only rode 3 times in my entire life at State Fair Meadowlands in 2006 and 2008?
Last I heard it was owned by Robbie Megerle and setup in Carolina Beach, NC. He owned it while it was at the Meadowlands as well. When it was at OLP it was owned by Cookes Amusements, at least that’s what the scenery panels had on them.
Wherever it is or whatever happened to it I’d say…RIP..
Although I saw a newer version of Hang 10 somewhere online that’s currently owned by Deggeller Attractions.
We had help issues this spring, we didn’t get our h2b workers until June which caused a lot of issues with putting up and moving the bigger rides. The polar express sat set up there until the following Wednesday.
I was personally moving the rockstar, vertigo, spin out and orbiter (when we were on Long Island bc it’s not approved for NJ yet)
I figured that may have been the case; didn’t want to put out speculation though. Your Orbiter looks pretty badass, you think it’ll be in Jersey next year?