Jarrett
Most Obnoxious Member 2016
Ah, the infamous Stricker's Grove in Cincinnati. This extremely small local park is well known for their lack of public days, choosing to remain more as something companies can reserve as a venue for outings and parties. As a result, their two classic wooden creds, Tornado and Teddy Bear, are known for being hard to get. Well I was able to get down there for this public day and add both to my count! My friend Patricia also wanted to get out of the house so I took her.
After a long drive out into the middle of nowhere, we were there!
The first thing you notice about Stricker's is that it's clearly designed for work outings as opposed to public days like this. The first thing you see is that big picnic pavilion up front, with the rides behind it.
The park was so small we could hardly BEAR it!
We did Teddy Bear first just to get all the **** out of the way. It was just a wooden kiddie cred but a cred's a cred, and an elusive one at that.
Meh, +1...
Next up was the park's classic of a crown jewel...Tornado!
Tornado selfie!
Tornado as a whole was fairly meh. The ride consists of classic wooden coaster airtime-less dips and high turns and not much else...except for one moment of utter insanity. Out of the second high turn, there's a dip into a double down. The airtime you get off of the second drop...OH MY GOD. It literally felt like there was a kink in the track and it just snapped forward, chucking you out of your seat and up into the old-fashioned buzz bar. It's just a short burst of airtime, but it's aggressive and unexpected. After that there's another turn and a bunny hop that provides some mediocre air and then the brakes. That double down is fun and may induce swearing, but it doesn't save an otherwise bland and boring ride. But it's hardly ever open to the public and that's why this credit is special.
Fun with filters!
While we were trying out different Tornado seats (and it's better in the back just because of that double down) I noticed two things. A. The ride is in a gorgeous area and you get a really nice view of typical Ohio scenery from the station and B. they have really relaxed standards for their employees. As you can see here, both of the Tornado ride ops had no personality, acted like they just plain didn't want to be there, and spent half the time on their phones (something that would get you in deep dootie if you worked at Kings Island). And as it turns out, EVERY ride op does this at Stricker's.
Just being artsy...
...and Patricia caught me red-handed!
We then went to hit up their Flying Scooters in an attempt to [strike]snap the $%&@ out of them or die trying[/strike] have a nice, relaxing ride on this classic flat ride.
And we had a great time and ended up snapping them anyway! :twisted:
Going to get some food, we noticed this grammatically incorrect sign!
After lunch, we decided to hit up their cute little train ride.
First the grill's sign, now this? Keepin' it classy, Stricker's...
Train selfie!
The train was actually really nice for what it was and you could actually get some decent views of the park and surrounding Ohio landscape.
This is their show building. I'm not sure when they use this but the 4-H county fair uses Stricker's as their venue so I would imagine they use this for something.
Welcome to Ohio...you have now seen all of Ohio! Come again!
Utterly random fake hippo
At one point in the layout the train hugs the banks of the Great Miami River.
Quite a nice view for such a small park.
It takes you pretty far away from the main park.
It takes a tunnel under the entrance! Better than Fury 325!
Finally, the ride takes you pretty close to Tornado.
The infamous double down!
A Tornado has been spotted in the area...
Rotting facades on the train's maintenance house.
These floorboards looked horrible.
But not as horrible as the next thing we rode! Patricia wanted to ride this sketchy ferris wheel...horrible idea!
Patricia had to keep me from getting distracted staring at the ride hardware.
This thing was not enjoyable at all! The view was crap and the thing felt so old and sketchy (even though I know it's safe) that we wanted off after one cycle. So while he was reloading part of the wheel we asked the ride op to let us off while he still had his phone away. There wasn't much to do at that park but there was plenty that was better than staying up there looking at concrete feeling the wheel rock back and forth. I'm an engineer, I know it's statistically impossible for us to get injured in an amusement ride accident, but I just didn't like the way it felt.
Stricker's Grove...tear down this wheel! For it is ****!
While waiting in line for the ferris wheel of DEATH we saw some kid get off this thing and just exorcismally vomit all over the place. Guess which ride we did next?
And I spun it to the point where I had issues getting out of the pod!
Patricia then went to lose at a midway game in a futile attempt to win a turtle.
Not seeing any point staying for the fireworks, we then hit Tornado and called it a day.
And we got a seat in the back and ended the day with insane split-second ejector!
Walking off I saw a little piece of wood from Tornado next to the exit path. I asked and they said I could keep it! I own a piece of Tornado now! Between this, my Son of Beast bolt, my pieces of The Beast, and my Kentucky Rumbler bolt, I should just start building my own wooden coaster.
Got a panorama of cars, bland buildings, Patricia, and a smidge of Tornado on the way out.
And Trish caught me taking said pano...
What a great day! Stricker's is really not that much to write home about but we still had a great time! If you're planning a road trip and happen to be at Kings Island around the time they're open to the public, definitely don't miss these two rare creds! But don't fly all the way across the world for them. But you can still have fun here! Just don't intend it to be a whole day.
After a long drive out into the middle of nowhere, we were there!
The first thing you notice about Stricker's is that it's clearly designed for work outings as opposed to public days like this. The first thing you see is that big picnic pavilion up front, with the rides behind it.
The park was so small we could hardly BEAR it!
We did Teddy Bear first just to get all the **** out of the way. It was just a wooden kiddie cred but a cred's a cred, and an elusive one at that.
Meh, +1...
Next up was the park's classic of a crown jewel...Tornado!
Tornado selfie!
Tornado as a whole was fairly meh. The ride consists of classic wooden coaster airtime-less dips and high turns and not much else...except for one moment of utter insanity. Out of the second high turn, there's a dip into a double down. The airtime you get off of the second drop...OH MY GOD. It literally felt like there was a kink in the track and it just snapped forward, chucking you out of your seat and up into the old-fashioned buzz bar. It's just a short burst of airtime, but it's aggressive and unexpected. After that there's another turn and a bunny hop that provides some mediocre air and then the brakes. That double down is fun and may induce swearing, but it doesn't save an otherwise bland and boring ride. But it's hardly ever open to the public and that's why this credit is special.
Fun with filters!
While we were trying out different Tornado seats (and it's better in the back just because of that double down) I noticed two things. A. The ride is in a gorgeous area and you get a really nice view of typical Ohio scenery from the station and B. they have really relaxed standards for their employees. As you can see here, both of the Tornado ride ops had no personality, acted like they just plain didn't want to be there, and spent half the time on their phones (something that would get you in deep dootie if you worked at Kings Island). And as it turns out, EVERY ride op does this at Stricker's.
Just being artsy...
...and Patricia caught me red-handed!
We then went to hit up their Flying Scooters in an attempt to [strike]snap the $%&@ out of them or die trying[/strike] have a nice, relaxing ride on this classic flat ride.
And we had a great time and ended up snapping them anyway! :twisted:
Going to get some food, we noticed this grammatically incorrect sign!
After lunch, we decided to hit up their cute little train ride.
First the grill's sign, now this? Keepin' it classy, Stricker's...
Train selfie!
The train was actually really nice for what it was and you could actually get some decent views of the park and surrounding Ohio landscape.
This is their show building. I'm not sure when they use this but the 4-H county fair uses Stricker's as their venue so I would imagine they use this for something.
Welcome to Ohio...you have now seen all of Ohio! Come again!
Utterly random fake hippo
At one point in the layout the train hugs the banks of the Great Miami River.
Quite a nice view for such a small park.
It takes you pretty far away from the main park.
It takes a tunnel under the entrance! Better than Fury 325!
Finally, the ride takes you pretty close to Tornado.
The infamous double down!
A Tornado has been spotted in the area...
Rotting facades on the train's maintenance house.
These floorboards looked horrible.
But not as horrible as the next thing we rode! Patricia wanted to ride this sketchy ferris wheel...horrible idea!
Patricia had to keep me from getting distracted staring at the ride hardware.
This thing was not enjoyable at all! The view was crap and the thing felt so old and sketchy (even though I know it's safe) that we wanted off after one cycle. So while he was reloading part of the wheel we asked the ride op to let us off while he still had his phone away. There wasn't much to do at that park but there was plenty that was better than staying up there looking at concrete feeling the wheel rock back and forth. I'm an engineer, I know it's statistically impossible for us to get injured in an amusement ride accident, but I just didn't like the way it felt.
Stricker's Grove...tear down this wheel! For it is ****!
While waiting in line for the ferris wheel of DEATH we saw some kid get off this thing and just exorcismally vomit all over the place. Guess which ride we did next?
And I spun it to the point where I had issues getting out of the pod!
Patricia then went to lose at a midway game in a futile attempt to win a turtle.
Not seeing any point staying for the fireworks, we then hit Tornado and called it a day.
And we got a seat in the back and ended the day with insane split-second ejector!
Walking off I saw a little piece of wood from Tornado next to the exit path. I asked and they said I could keep it! I own a piece of Tornado now! Between this, my Son of Beast bolt, my pieces of The Beast, and my Kentucky Rumbler bolt, I should just start building my own wooden coaster.
Got a panorama of cars, bland buildings, Patricia, and a smidge of Tornado on the way out.
And Trish caught me taking said pano...
What a great day! Stricker's is really not that much to write home about but we still had a great time! If you're planning a road trip and happen to be at Kings Island around the time they're open to the public, definitely don't miss these two rare creds! But don't fly all the way across the world for them. But you can still have fun here! Just don't intend it to be a whole day.