ValleyFair! A Great Year!

Photo courtesy of Theme Park Review

Photo courtesy of Fred Biedermann

This is just a short thank you to the people of VF. The final weekend was fantastic with completely brakeless nighttime rides on both Wild Thing and High Roller!!! If *any* of you nay sayers think Wild Thing doesn't measure up to a brakeless Magnum, Steel Force or Mamba, come ride this thing at closing next year. You're in for a big surprise! And High Roller, my goodness - *why* isn't it run like this all the time! The front three rows had amazing airtime, but the backseat - WOW! They were far and away the best rides I've ever had on this classic coaster. It was so much fun we couldn't get enough! Thank you!!!

I'm also glad VF decided to hold Halloweekends for the first time this year. Even though the park closes in September (remember it gets cold awfully early up here) last Friday night was *the perfect autumn night* to spend at the park. The temperature was perfect and the coasters were flying completely brakeless! And the decorations were great - I particularly loved one of the big tombstones that read "Six Flags Rumor." I also liked seeing the old discarded coaster cars in the High Roller graveyard. There was alot of whimsy and humor to the decorations and the band of roving spooks were hilarious (though the Haunted House was *not* - it scared me to death!)

In short, it was a great year at VF. In particular I wanted to mention how happy I am that all of the flat rides received some much needed TLC prior to the season opener. The Monster ran great all year, as did the Tilt-a-Whirl, Scrambler, Enterprise and Trabant. Chaos is the only flat ride that really needs fine tuning (and some music!) to avoid so much down time. And while I'm really sad to see the Wild Rails being dismantled I'm looking forward to riding the Mad Mouse in 99. I think it will be a good addition to the park.

Photo courtesy of Theme Park Review

I've seen VF grow from a pitifully tiny, bare bones park that I scoffed at in 1987 to a nicely managed regional park that Twin Cities residents can be proud of. Thanks for a wonderful year! Mark