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"I don't want to deal with those..."
Saturday we didn't know what we were going to do. We knew we wanted to sleep in, we knew we wanted to have breakfast at the hotel, and we knew that we had a room booked for Lancaster, PA for Saturday night. Apart from that, nothing was planned. I looked at the map and at the possibilities. I knew that I would like to get back to Hersheypark, but that there was no practical way to get there early enough to make a full day ticket worthwhile, particularly on a Saturday. It turns out I was more right than I expected about that, but that's a topic for another trip report. I looked again. Lakemont and Del Grosso's are not exactly on the way to Hershey from Pittsburgh, but they are kinda sorta between the two locations. So we got onto US-22 and started heading towards Altoona. I was leading, and when they learned that there was no admission fee for Lakemont or for Del Grosso's, Mom and Dad...who were not in a mood to ride coasters today...followed.
You know, I think Pennsylvania is going to be a lovely state if they ever get it finished. Not that it is going to be finished any time soon judging by the amount of work going on. Almost the entire length of US-22 from Pittsburgh to Altoona is posted at 40 MPH, in a seemingly endless series of work zones. There is very little evidence of any work being done, apart from a lot of orange cones and signs warning of "active work areas", a concept which I don't quite understand, given that I didn't see any work going on, and in many cases it was miles and miles of "WORK ZONE - 40 MPH" with no evidence at all that there was any work going on within sight of the road. I wonder if this is Pennsylvania's attempt to fix a State budget problem through doubled work-zone speeding fines levied against out of state drivers or something. It was a slow, aggravating drive.
Lakemont's parking area was busy, but once inside the park it appeared that most of the people present were having an organized picnic lunch and riding the Go-Karts. We made immediately for Leap the Dips. Only one car was running, so we had to wait a minute or so for it to come back.
I last rode Leap the Dips a couple of years ago in the Fall. My parents have not ridden it since...er...well, earlier than that. They remembered the cold, rainy morning when the ride was running so slowly that an attendant had to ride in the back seat and push the car through the course to make sure it made it all the way around. I remember that with the addition of the guide steel the ride has picked up some speed. Mom and Dad took the front seat, I took the back seat, and none of us was quite prepared for the ride we got this time, on a warm July afternoon. From the top of the lift, the little car FLEW around the course. In some cases literally. Leap the Dips was easily earning its title, and proving that even a hundred years ago they knew how to build a decent ride. Leap The Dips was a gentle, nostalgic experience the last time I rode it. Now, under what are probably ideal conditions for the ancient ride, it can hold its own with the thrill machines built...well..twenty years later, anyway. But those rides are at least the equal of some of the stuff coming out of the ride factories today. Point is, Leap the Dips can be downright scary!
The park has changed a few things around. The Lakemont Park Museum is gone now, and the Leap the Dips merchandise is now sold, along with the ride tokens, from a counter on the ride platform. The restored Leap the Dips car now sits in an acrylic display case at the ride entrance. And much to Mom's disappointment, Leap the Dips shirts are no longer available.
The other thing I wanted to do at Lakemont was to ride the Skyliner. So I wandered over that way. Lakemont has a kind of a strange layout where the Skyliner is concerned, as all the park's rides are laid out in a grid just below the front gate. Then there is a big open area, then the Skyliner sits at the extreme North end of the park, overlooking the stadium where the Altoona Curve play. That open space contains several Go-Kart tracks. The odd thing is that there is a ticket booth across from the Go-Kart tracks. Okay, that in itself is not odd at all. What is odd is that the ticket booth ONLY sells tickets for the Go-Karts. The Go-Karts don't appear to be a separate concession (as is Leap the Dips), the ticket booth contains a Lakemont Park cash register...why can't I buy my ticket to ride the Skyliner there instead of walking back to the far end of the park to buy tickets?
Well, part of it may simply be Lakemont Park's pricing structure. A ride on the Skyliner is $1.50 (three $0.50 tickets) while an all-day ride pass is...ummm...well, it isn't much more than that, so most patrons have the all-day ride wristband. But I was there for only a short visit; I only wanted the one ride on the Skyliner, because I had other places to go. So I returned to the ticket barn, bought my three tickets, and proceeded to the Skyliner, where the attendant actually refused to take my tickets. Ummm...okay. Well, they were running a nearly-full load of repeat riders anyway, so I kind of see his point. The train parked in the station, and I climbed into the back seat.
Skyliner's train has had a bit of a makeover since my last visit. The outside of the train has been painted to honor the Altoona Curve, the AA-league baseball team that plays in the stadium adjacent to the Skyliner. From a rider's perspective, the train's interior has had some changes that are a little more significant. Last time I rode, the seats had been reupholstered with a fabric that looked to be a hard-wearing but very slippery nylon. They looked great, and I thought they worked pretty well, but the upholstery has changed again and is now a more conventional vinyl. The train still lacks seat dividers and other accessories, and I wonder if it isn't the oldest PTC train in the country with electric lap bars. The attendant checked the train, the operator gave the ancient control lever a shove, and the train rolled out of the station. The paint is peeling, and the ride feels like it needs some mechanical attention, but it isn't at all bad because the soft seats and the extra space from the absence of a seat divider compensates for a multitude of sins on the trackbed. Skyliner delivers abundant airtime, although the landings are a little on the harsh side. Part of that is by design, too, as the bottoms of several of the dips are flat. And of course Skyliner is extra special for that one spot where the train drops out from under you and then goes sideways for the trip around the inside curve of the "L". Why can't I have a ride like the Skyliner in my neighborhood?
Well, I still had my three tickets when the ride ended, but I also still had a long drive ahead of me. Not to mention that it was well past time for lunch. Time to get in the car and head North...
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Next: DelGrosso's Amusement Park
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