Photo courtesy of Phyllis Withers

Dear Diary, Today I woke up feeling old. Oh, cursed, wretched flyer back. And my arms, oh my poor freakish arms. They are so bumpy and blotchy and itchy from the sun it feels like thousands of neverending pin pricks. And my feet. I'd feel better just chopping them off and walking around on bloody stumps. This was the first time on this trip that I really felt the effects of all that riding. I hate being old. Cindy and I emerged from our caboose as senior citizens. No summit scaling for these old coots. We could not take a full day of nonstop coastering today, nor could I handle a sweltering heat. Thankfully the weather on this day was picture postcard perfect. I cannot describe how beautiful the weather was on this day. Perfect temperature, perfect skies, and perfect vistas on our drive. We drove toward DelGrosso's, but first a quick pit stop to State College and Ye Olde College Diner for a takeout order of their world famous grilled stickies. The Diner has changed! Gone is the hideous brick exterior with bland blue awning. In its place is a fully restored diner, complete with stainless steel exterior! Inside is a stunning renovation with beautiful wood planked ceiling and recessed lightning, backwalls of stainless steel with soft satin finish, soft pink and white marble counters with mirrored walls and beautiful glass tube lighting behind them, and maroon, black and beige tiled floor. The diner looks great! Unfortunately, the attitude is still the same. Indifference toward customers, unbelieveably slow service (even for takeout) and a personal gripe, no diner golf shirts or t-shirts for sale, despite them both being displayed as such. Apparently the owner refuses to reorder them despite getting numerous requests! We finally got our grilled stickies and I still think these are one of the best breakfast treats and fun diner foods I've ever had. Cindy thought they should have a glaze for dipping, but Cindy is insane. We arrived at DelGrosso's just before one o'clock, only to find Sean Flaharty and his mom getting ready to leave. Sean looked like his mom did the night before, like someone who's ready to go home. Poor Sean, he looked beat. The others in his troupe soon followed and we said our goodbyes. Dave Sandborg showed up during this time and the three of us headed inside the park and immediately met up with Tim Melago, Greg Legowski and Mike Saunders. I really like the name change to DelGrosso's. It suits this place. Blands always seemed like a stupid name to me, a contradictory name for a park that excells in quality. The DelGrosso family should be proud to put their name on this park. There isn't a lot to do here but what they have here is first rate. Everything - the rides, the coaster, the grounds, the food - all are exceptional. We only rode the coaster once. Why? Because that wretched knot in all of our backs nearly put us out of commission! The Zyklon coaster really is all about the first drop - after that the ride goes nowhere. I'm not sure why the park brakes it so heavily because it seems to be in great condition. Mike said farewell and took off for lands unknown, and we made our way around the park and did the other flat rides. DelGrosso's has a fantastic tilt-a-whirl! In fact many of the parks we visited on this trip had outstanding tilt-a-whirls! We then broke for lunch. DelGrosso's pizza is my favorite park pizza. Chris Murray seemed rather indifferent to it, but the white pizza and taco pizza are truly outstanding. I almost always get the white pizza now, which has no sauce but instead an olive oil base. They load it up with cheese and onions and, tragically for me, banana peppers and jalapenos. Cindy, Dave and Greg tried to make me out to be a wuss but it really was hot! I could only manage one piece. Dave reneged on his promise of a pepperoni switch! We soon headed for Lakemont. Poor Greg Galley came away thinking Lakemont was Pennsylvania's black sheep. I really like Lakemont. Yes, it's ugly but I feel comfortable there. The problem with DelGrosso's is that there isn't enough to keep me there for more than a couple of hours, but I could spend a good part of the day at Lakemont. I like their rides and I could ride two of their coasters - Leap the Dips and the Skyliner - all day. Lakemont's Spider (I think) is THE BEST! The spinning action on this two car per sweep (!) thinggy is beyond description. What's so great about it is that it's completely unpredictable. You get constant spinning, but occasionally you get in this groove where you whirl intensely for any length of time. After Tim and Dave left, Cindy and I rode it one more time and we got a wild spin that had to have lasted at least three or four full ride rotations - it was every bit as intense as Conneaut Lake's Twister! I also like their Tilt-a-Whirl! Unlike last year, Lakemont's Tilt-a-Whirl gave us a constant whirling! The cars look brand new this year. When I see things like this I really feel encouraged about this park! The Skyliner has been painted!!! It looks SO pretty! It's awesome, totally white, and a beautiful looking ride. There is nothing pretty, however, about the extreme forces in the backseat. Despite being aware of our Coaster Con injured bodies (or perhaps because of it!), Demented Dave insisted we each try a backseat ride. OOF! UGH! The drop off the first hill in the backseat isn't normal. It does unnatural things to my body. First it launches you out of your seat. Then about halfway down, it throws you forward into your lap bar. Unfortunately the big soft cushiony lap bar isn't what goes into your stomach, it's the small, hard steel grab handle sticking out from the lap bar that socks you in your gut. OW! That really hurts! Cindy said it moved her spleen. One ride in the backseat was all we could take, but we got lots of rides in other seats on the coaster. Greg had to head home and after one ride on the Toboggan, so did Tim and Dave. By this time my arms were fully baked and screaming from the sun's glare. We did our second Spider ride and one last trip on the world's oldest roller-coaster. Leap the Dips is so special. I just love it now. I didn't know the story about the reason why the metal strips were added to the wood's track and sides. Tim told me that wood apparently isn't as strong as it used to be when Leap the Dips was originally built, and because the wood on the rebuilt coaster was quickly being torn apart, metal strips were added to preserve it. The result, as those who've ridden it know, is a much faster ride. Now it leaps! It dips! It leaps and dips! I also like doing the Leap the Dips shuffle around the turns. Cindy and I made it into a kind of dance coming into the station! We left Lakemont sadly. I did not want to go. Had the sun gone down or clouds moved in we would have stayed and continued riding. However my arms simply couldn't take being exposed to the sun anymore. I just wanted to lop them off and throw them into the sea! The minute we left Altoona a front moved in, clouding the sky. We ended our night by stopping at Dean's Diner on Rt. 22 in Blairsville. Dean's Diner is known for one thing: pie. And oh my goodness, do they know pie. Their butterscotch pie is pure bliss, one of my top ten diner foods (along with Ye Olde College Diner's grilled stickies). The rest of the menu is just okay, but it's worth stopping if only for dessert. This was an easy day, and necessarily so. After so many days of coaster riding and travelling and parks and rides and ERT, we needed to take it easy. I know Cindy and I made a conscious effort not to push ourselves too hard on this trip, and we definitely did a good job of pacing ourselves. But I can't imagine what others must feel like - those who woke up early for every morning ERT and travelled early in the morning to get to SFA early. These long trips can easily wear a person out if they push themselves too hard. Fortunately, we're old.