Woo, the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden and Wonderland Amusement Park... Or, the unnecessarily long drive for a stupid looking Hopkins coaster. Today was originally meant to be a slow day exploring around Oklahoma City. A trip to the Zoo and maybe the science center with a stop at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and maybe a trip to White Water Bay, the Frontier City water park (we drove past the damn thing 4 times!) but a day before leaving for the trip... Rob still wanted to do something more than just hang around for the day....
Anyways, lets go...
Woo, the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden
(also Science Museum Oklahoma but we didn't go inside)
Damn, I didn't know how big this place was gonna be....
This might just be my favorite 111 year old zoo
(same age as Canobie!!)
Happy Happy Hippo?!?
Too bad we didn't get to see them
Sad sad James :(
This adorable little meerkat wanted to know what was over there...
IT WAS A GRIZZLY BEAR!!!!
:D
And a super playful black bear! :3
This almost makes up for not seeing the hippo!
This giraffe... I don't know... it was being a giraffe.
The OKC Zoo is pretty big and has two modes of transportation within. One can either take a boat down the shores of "Zoo Lake" (Northeast Lake).. or you can hop on one of these...
Uh, road trams?
In the little history museum within the Zoo it shows they once had a Sky Ride as well.
We passed on the tram and just walked on our own.
Miss Cheetah was giving us the "bitch please" look...
So it was about time to leave
But not before taking a quick ride on the "Centennial Choo Choo", a Chance C. P. Huntington train to nowhere.
Ok, here's where things get fun. If you read the PT.1 introduction you'll already know what happens next... if not, well, now you will... At the start of this update I mention how along with the zoo we were gonna sight-see around the city
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""at this point it's like 2 weeks till take off and Rob starts pestering me on "do we really need a full day in OKC?" So I head to the internet in search of something more adventurous, a fair? a waterpark? an overlooked amusement park? I didn't really see anything and just let it go..... Flash-forward to pretty much.. the day before leaving. I jokingly say "we can go to Wonderland in Texas.... Its only 4 hours... each way" "oh, and the park is only gonna be open for 3 hours" I guess I wasn't really ready for Rob's reaction to be "LETS DO IT!"""
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Ok, so there you have it. We were about to set off on a 270 mile drive to Amarillo, TX for an amusement park that would only be open for 3 hours and then have to immediately turn around and drive 270 miles back to OKC for our hotel and maybe 3 hours of sleep before our departing flights early that morning!
So four hours later and some pretty neat landscapes seen in passing.. Also a neat looking indoor water park, we arrived in Amarillo with a just over an hour to kill before Wonderland's opening. Wonderland is located within Thompson Memorial Park, a large city park also featuring a golf course, a "water park" (if you can really call it that), a mini golf course, open land, picnic pavilions, and the Amarillo Zoo. Oh... and did I mention some 170 miles into the drive my rentals "service engine immediately" light came on, FANTASTIC! Miles from any sort of civilization and fears of being stranded.... we continued on (having no real choice at this point) with a much needed pit-stop... some lunch.. and a car now in working-order we hit the road once again.
We had rushed here for the chance of making it into the zoo before closing, sadly not being able to find the zoo's hours online... we arrived just 15 minutes before closing and were unable to enter the facility. lame!
Driving into the park itself you drive right along side the bizarre looking Texas Tornado.
This ride is straight up someones first NoLimits or RCT coaster! But more on that later...
Uh, the Amarillo Zoo?
While we couldn't go inside, we decided to walk the perimeter and as it turned out able to see 10-15 different animals, including the tigers and bears! The zookeepers were in the process of moving the animals to their sleeping quarters / backstage areas at the time but we still made the most of it.
While not the most flattering shot, it was still nice to see some of the animals before the amusement park opened for the night.
Mr. Horse was not amused.
And the Black-Handed Spider Monkey was ready for bed
(ignore the coaster in the background)
Ugh, well.... that was a waste of maybe 20 minutes, just an hour or so until the park opened. So we opted for a round of mini golf.
Wonderland Golf opens an hour before the park and we were the first (only?) players.
Had to pass the time somehow....
HIPPO THEMED HOLE!
Annddd I got my one-and-only "hole in one" on it!
((and even got it on video!!))
ugghhh! This was super annoying. Even worse was the fact that there were thunderstorms in the greater-Amarillo area and we could see them rolling in! At this point Rob and I were kicking into Fight or Flight mode with a game plan to RUN to Tornado first and make sure we got on it..... seeing that as the one key to making this side-trip worthwhile. Too bad things didn't work out that way....
Anyways...........
Wonderland Amusement Park...
Open 7 to 10 yet by 6.30 there were a good 100 people standing around waiting to get in... I don't see why they couldn't just open at 5. I guess the park knows what its doing, its been around some 60 years... Seeing how busy it was getting at the entrance we agreed it might be better to knock off the parks low-capacity wild mouse, Cyclone, first... due to our extremely limited time and my want to leave as soon as possible so we could get to our hotel before 2AM
Once the rides opened Rob and I were first in line for Cyclone. I've now been on 4 of these old school Miler mice (only 2 are still operating), I'd take them over any MS or Mack mouse any day...
After Cyclone we jumped on the parks Big Splash Log Flume, due to lack of line and the fact it was Hopkins' first flume (New England pride, yo) We raced off to Texas Tornado... to find it closed.
So we jumped on "Big Coaster" or is it "mouse trap coaster" or is it "Zyklon", the park seems to use all 3 names!
Its one of five operating Zyklon Z64 and rather fun.
After seeing that Tornado was stilllllll closed.... we still quickly made our way over to the parks newest coaster, Hornet.
Ah, Hornet... the stupid-fun Vekoma from the now closed Six Flags AstroWorld. It was built over part of the parks former parking lot.. as well as some grass and a sidewalk, but it was fun nevertheless and we rode it twice. With Tornado still not open and hope fading we took in a few of the parks other rides to pass the time.
Rattlesnake Rive Raft Ride didn't seem to get riders that wet... and much like the flume was a Hopkins first. In this case it was their first raft ride... So New England pride kicked again and we took a ride. Oddly enough this ride lacks any sort of seat belt or grab bar. (not that they were needed, it was just surprising in this day of even Ferris Wheels having restraints.)
OH LOOK, ANOTHER HOPKINS RIDE... and another first for them....
Sky Rider was Hopkins' first monorail.. and I really wanted to ride it for obvious reasons... but it moved incredibly slow and we really didn't have time (but I have ridden Hopkins' other Monorail, at Santa's Village)
blah blah blah Shoot the Chute blah blah another Hopkins built ride, but for once.. not their first.
I wanted nothing to do with it... looking at the four hour drive I was about to make and really not wanting to do it wet.
Somehow Rob talked me into it... Ugh
At this point we saw Tornado making test runs but it still wasn't taking riders so we rode a few flats in waiting... Texas Intimidator, a Moser Flipping Action Arm (run fantastically!), the Huss Pirate Ship, and the Chance Yo-Yo (also moved from AstroWorld)
And then we saw this...
Texas Tornado was now open!
OH and guess what, it was the first Hopkins Coaster!!!
The funky-est looking double-loop coaster... ever. It was surprisingly smooth despite looking like something a kid could have drawn on a piece of paper... OH WAIT, taken right from the parks own website!
The original design was discussed and drawn on a napkin at a cocktail party at (IAAPA)
Yup....
It's also the only steel coaster running with these bastardized PTC "steel coaster" trains!
But again, the ride is actually a lot of fun and both loops are pretty intense and due to their misshapen-ness provide awkward forces and definitely made the effort involved with getting here... worth it.
Sadly, Tornado (along with a few other rides) are not included with the pay-one-price pass and require extra tickets along with the entrance fee and rideband, so we only rode it twice. Taking both a front and back seat ride. I would have gladly ridden it more but those storms were still in the area and getting closer.
Before heading out we took a pretty good ride on the parks Huss Rainbow and Ferris Wheel.
Woo, the Wonder Wheel. I wonder where the roof for the car at the top went?
Ah, Wonderland Amusement Park, Amarillo, Texas.
A small, but amazing park in the middle of nowhere. Someday I hope to get back here. This park is a true gem as far as I'm concerned and well worth the time and effort it took to get here (including the drive back to OKC and unfortunate events that took place along the way) Oh yeah, and the fact we were outrunning thunderstorms the whole way back! Seeing nothing but clear skies ahead and massive amounts of lightning in the rear-view meant it was time to get out of Texas.
Come 3AM we made it back to our hotel, packed our stuff up, and tried to get a couple of hours of "sleep" before it was off to the airport. Rob was flying back to New Jersey in the morning... and I was off to St. Louis by way of Atlanta!
I guess this is the end of the The Rob and James show. Part 6 will just be "The James Show", I guess.
Conclusion PT.1
With the main part of my semi-epic adventure with Rob across Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas over I was soon to be on my own. I had driven some 1,570 miles (I took a before and after photo of the mileage!), racked up some 41 new counties, 5 new parks, and some 17 new coasters, including a new top 3 woodie! As well as visiting a zoo, finding some good old fashioned roadside America, drove down one of the most famous roads in the country and I took one of my first coaster-friends along for the ride with me. <3 good times.
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/362670379434668032
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/362689868842815489
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/362749376285790208
Bonus random tweets -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/362578555558830082
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/362832535983632386
Part to five is now finished, just four more to go?
Part to five is now finished, just four more to go?
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