Tornado

I drove us to Cincinnati to visit Stricker's Grove, a small amusement park that's mostly only open to company picnics and outings. It's only open to the public three or four days a year. Today was one of those days.

We met with a friend of mine, Bryan. He and I had been to around 10 amusement parks together. He's a fun guy. He and Jill knew each other from around 20 years ago because we all worked on the same amusement park enthusiast website, but they hadn't met until today.

There are two wooden coasters at the park. They were my 394th and 395th coasters. We're planning on going to a park in New York in two weekends, where I will get No. 400 if all goes according to plan.

This park also has a Bubble Bounce, a rare spinning ride that has tubs like teacups that you can spin. It's on a circular platform that lifts up on one side, so if you're on that side, you get tossed up a little. It's really fun. It's the first one I'd ever seen.

After that, Jill and I drove to the grounds of the former LeSourdsville Lake/Americana Amusement Park. I visited it in 2002, the last year it operated. It had a standout wooden coaster called Screechin' Eagle, which I rode nine times. My mom worked at that park as a teenager, and she wanted to show it to us when we visited her dad that year. What a lucky visit. It was sad seeing it as a community park instead of an amusement park, but at least it wasn't sitting there in ruins. There's one part of a ride still standing, a sky ride station. That's in extras.