Pennsylvania Parks and Diners

I made a promise to myself that on this trip I would not eat anywhere outside of a diner unless I was at an amusement park. Today I would go to a park that one, charms the heck out of me and two, has some of the best park food I have ever eaten.

Blands Park is about to get a name change. Beginning in 2001 the park's name will be changed to DelGrosso's, reflecting the family that owns and operates this park. Located in tiny Tipton, Pennsylvania, it is the kind of park I wish every small town had. It is just the right size for a town of 10-20,000, and it puts such a wonderful identity on this community. Townspeople come on Saturday and Sunday nights bringing their lawn chairs, coolers and picnic baskets, and gather in the pavillion for wonderful community concerts. The park provides a great summer place for local teens to hang out and have fun. There is *just* enough at this park to provide a perfect day for people of all ages!

And then there is the food.

I can only think of a handful of amusement parks that truly provide outstanding food, and Blands/DelGrosso's (hereafter referred to as DelGrosso's) has what I think is the best park pizza, the best sandwiches and the best potato salad I have ever sampled in a park!

Now I am a potato salad nut. Along with barbeque, baked beans and corn on the cob, it defines summer food for me. DelGrosso's potato salad is legendary, and so enamored am I with potato salad that on one of the two previous occasions where I've visited this park and they were out I asked if I could lick the bowl. So I was determined to arrive in time for lunch, when I knew there would be a fresh batch just waiting for me.

But first I faced a dilemma. Do I opt for a quick stop at State College and Ye Olde College Diner for an order to go of their world famous grilled stickies? Coming up on the turnoff here......what to do....OH WHAT THE HECK!

Ye Olde College Diner bears little resemblence to a diner on the outside. A brick facade and blue awning covers the 1920's original exterior, which was shoehorned sideways into a narrow space directly across the street from the Penn State University campus. The interior was extensively remodeled in 1998 with a postmodern retro look.

What Ye Olde College Diner is famous for is their grilled stickies. It is a loaf of what my grandmother calls "bubble bread" but for all intents and purposes looks like a brick cinammon roll. The loaf is cut into stick sized slices, buttered on one side and grilled until caramelized. They are absolutely delicious and one of my favorite diner foods! Unfortunately, service at the diner has deteriorated in recent years and the place has now developed a rather bad reputation for service. Still, if you find yourself travelling along I-80, it's well worth making the detour for an order to go of these heavenly sticky cinammon treats!

I arrived at DelGrosso's just after noon and met my best friend, Cindy Stout, in the parking lot. Cindy had driven up from South Carolina to join me for the remainder of my trip. I like going to parks with Cindy because we both like flat rides, we appreciate the entire park experience and not just coasters, and we travel at the same pace. We also share the same tastes in coasters and parks, AND we delight in finding great food!

And so it was that I didn't even have to say a word when we met. "One ride on the coaster and then we eat, right?" she asked. "Oh yeah, " I said. "I'm not gonna be cheated out of my potato salad today!"

We took one ride on DelGrosso's Galaxi coaster. The backseat is really the only place to sit on this ride as it provides a great moment of ejector airtime down the first drop. After that the ride is braked into submission, but that first drop alone is worth experiencing.

We headed for the sandwich shop in the middle of the park. I read the menu.....single serving potato salad, Bah!.......quart of potato salad...ahhhh!!! That's what I want! That must explain why they run out of it so quickly, people are ordering it in quarts! Cindy placed her order, a sandwich and side of potato salad. I stepped up to the counter......

"Two quarts of potato salad, please." Cindy looked at me like I was crazy.

Now I have to admit, I made a mistake. I thought for some reason a quart was pint sized. I got my quantities all mixed up! So when we sat down at our table and I pulled out these two giant quarts of potato salad, I thought Cindy was gonna fall over backwards. I'll admit I was a little embarrassed, but I refused to admit my mistake! Ha, I thought, I'll show you some fancy eating!

I ate a quart and a half of potato salad. I can't even remember if I ordered a sandwich or not, all I knew was that I had waited three years to try their potato salad and by god, I was gonna finish it. But I couldn't - I tried my Homer Simpson best but I was simply bursting at my belt and I conceded defeat. I will say that DelGrosso's does make a mighty fine potato salad and it was not such a chore to try and finish it!

We spent the next few hours riding all of DelGrosso's flat rides. This park is absolutely wonderful - it is pristine, and all of the rides look like they're brand new. Every ride, every building is maintained so beautifully, you can't help but notice the pride the DelGrosso family takes in its appearance. If I lived in this area I would be so proud to call this place my home park - I really love everything about it!

Our food odyssey did not end with lunch. At some point in the afternoon I insisted on trying their ice cream. DelGrosso's has a great ice cream concession stand, and they offer both soft serve and hand dipped ice cream. I had a chocolate cone and it was great.

We opted to stay until early evening, then head for Lakemont just down the road. But as we started to leave we passed the pizza stand. Cindy had never tried DelGrosso's pizza, and even though we were already sick to our stomachs I insisted she try a piece. You can buy a slice for $1.00 or a whole pie for 6.00. My absolute favorites are their taco pizza and white pizza, but they aren't served in single slices. I don't remember what type of pizza we ordered, but whatever we had only reaffirmed my feeling that DelGrosso's has the best pizza of any amusement park in the country. Cindy agreed that it was delicious "but it's making me sick."

What to do when you've just eaten yourself into oblivion? Ride the backseat of the Skyliner at Lakemont, of course! The Skyliner is one of the most underrated coasters in the country, and the backseat provides a wicked intense ejection down the first drop! I love the setting of this coaster - Altoona's minor league AA ballpark is located right alongside the lifthill and final stretch run. A game was in progress the entire time we were there. I wonder if any coaster riders have ever been hit by a home run ball?

One ride in the backseat of Skyliner was all Cindy and I could handle on this trip. We knew our friend, Dave Sandborg, would berate us mercilessly and call us wimps, but we were so full and so afraid of that backseat, we opted to spend the remainder of our rides in the front. We rode this coaster over and over, often getting rerides without having to leave our seat!

We also covered the rest of the park as well, and two rides in particular were noteworthy. One is the Monster (or Spider, I'm not sure what they call it). Lakemont has, unquestionably, one of the most intense Monsters I have ever ridden. I don't know how they did it, but we consistently got a series of very intense triple whirls!

The other noteworthy ride is Leap the Dips. The world's oldest roller-coaster now has some serious airtime - it really does leap the dips! I used to think this was something I'd ride once for nostalgia's sake whenever I visited, but now I'm happy to ride it again and again! Leap the Dips has become a good-old fashioned thrill ride!

We closed out the night on Skyliner, riding it for the last hour until the park kicked us out. I enjoy myself everytime I come to this park. It's probably one of the two or three ugliest parks in the country thanks to a terrible makeover attempted several years ago by an inept corporate owner. But in spite of its ugliness I feel really comfortable here, and I actually have a real soft spot for Lakemont in my heart. And I really love the DelGrosso's/Lakemont combo. DelGrosso's is a great place to lunch and spend the afternoon, while Lakemont provides the perfect way to end the evening with night rides on the Skyliner.

We left Altoona and headed west on U.S. Rt. 22. By this time the effects of our gluttony at DelGrosso's had subsided and I asked Cindy if she would mind stopping at Dean's Diner in Blairsville. Cindy knew I was on a diner tour of the state and graciously indulged me.

Dean's Diner is a 1953 Fodero and is the last in a chain of diners owned by the Dean family of western Pennsylvania. This particular diner is one of the last to be built in one section. A matching dining room has been added to the original but nothing else has been changed or remodeled, as evidenced by the telltale pink and green colors so prevalent in the original modern stainless designs. The predominant color scheme here is light green and chrome, with pink diamonds inlaid within the green terrazzo floor. Two huge pie displays run along the back wall of the counter, and it was this feature in particular that would make Dean's Diner such a memorable experience for me.

Cindy and I both ordered the hot meatloaf sandwich dinner. I'd like to say that it was delicious - I'm sure it was. I'd like to say that I remember it. But to be honest I don't. All I could focus my attention on were those two huge pie displays and the irresistable looking pies being showcased on the shelves. I got up twice to walk up and down the length of the diner, noting every variety of pie being offered. And there were many, all of them several inches thick - apple, cherry, blueberry, lemon meringue, banana cream, coconut cream (the diner's most popular), and unusual pies like apricot, raisin, peanut butter cream, graham cracker cream, chocolate cream and......butterscotch.

My search was over. One look at that butterscotch pie and I knew she would be mine.

While we were waiting to order I overheard two customers at the counter ordering coffee and one of them a slice of butterscotch pie. I looked over at the pie counter only to see the waitress dishing out the last serving of butterscotch pie to her customer. Whaaaaaat!!! I looked at Cindy and my eyes bugged out! I jumped up and walked down to the other end of the counter and yes, praise Jesus, there was another whole butterscotch pie, untouched and with my name written on it. I walked back and sat down and breathed a sigh of relief. From there Cindy and I concocted quite a theory about late night holdups, that they don't involve money so much as they do our favorite foods. "Hand over the butterscotch pie and nobody gets hurt!" Cindy said I would be oblivious to anything once I had my hands on that pie, and after the police arrived they'd find me with my face buried in it. With guns drawn they'd say "Put down the pie and back away slowly." I look up, confused, my face covered in butterscotch pie. "Whuh?"

Cindy's father used to own a pharmacy in West Virginia, complete with lunch counter and soda fountain, and she has fond memories of the graham cracker cream pie that was served there. She ordered a slice of nostalgia while noting that nothing could possibly top a precious childhood memory.

My slice of butterscotch pie arrived and after one bite I cursed myself for being too full to order another one. It was even better than it looked. It is safe to say the specialty at Dean's Diner is their pies, and from now on I will never be able to travel down U.S. Rt. 22 without stopping for one of the ten best diner foods I have ever eaten, a slice of butterscotch pie.

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