The 2017 Marion County Fair!

AKA, There's more than corn in Indiana!
(oh wait. wrong place)

Woo! The 2017 Marion County Fair!
My first County Fair outside of Florida and my first fair in Indiana with a ride midway provided by North American Midway Entertainment (NAME)

I don't know... Isn't this some sort of symbolic reference.
Fields of corn in Indiana and then suddenly....rides? 

Once inside the odd side gate I ended up parking next to... I found myself in front of the Fair Cafe and Market Place.
But also, next to the animal areas!
(Somehow Rob... Who was basically following behind my car the whole way to the fair... ended up in the main central parking lot and I ended up on the other end of the fairgrounds... haha)

Lala llama

Yeessssssss!!!
<3 quack quack <3
🦆 🦆 🦆 🦆 🦆 🦆 🦆

Hello, Mr. Camel

Oh... and some Chickens!

It happened to be Dollar Day on the day of our visit. Not knowing what the ride lineup was gonna be, this was rather exciting since it meant we could cover a large number of rides without spending a bunch of money. Sadly, the midway was rather lackluster although not overly shocking as the Indiana State Fair, also held in Indianapolis runs about a month later... So in the end we got a 10 pack of tickets, 5 rides between the two of us and we still had fun.
(I don't know... I feel like it needed to be noted... So at the end of this post there is a somewhat long ramble about fate and trip planning)
With our tickets in hand... We quickly made our way to the first of two coaster credits to be found on the midway today <3

Behold this lovely... uh... Wacky Worm
NAME owns three of these beasts...
and now I've ridden two of them.
(And about 30 of them... overall)

But hey, plus one? Oh and look...
The row ahead of me has the lap bar zip-tied open...
(and the row ahead of that... and ahead of that)

But don't worry....my row was DOUBLE tied... open.

The second coaster was this Orient Express.
NAME owns five of these!
(two that I've ridden, haha)

Its very impressive, I know.
Edit: Rob thought I should mention that when we rode the Orient Express after going around a few laps some children were too scared and wanted to get off... they kept us on, and sent the train around like 11 times in total. "Too many"

This was my second time seeing the KT Enterprises Twister. I had seen it in Miami nearly 10 years earlier but had to skip it due to time limits...
We rode it here in Indiana... But the ride was clearly not being run properly. What you see it doing here, is all it did.
(the entire ride platform is supposed to rise at about a 60 degree angle, seen here in an older video)

This Kamikaze/Sky Master type ride by the name Screamer was closed. I would have used my Twister tickets on it, had it been open. :(

The older style Round-Up looked rather nice... Although since it was placed in the ride clearance area of the Ferris Wheel... it stayed flat the whole cycle, and never raised.
(hmm, a trend here?)
Skipped!

The Chance Yo-Yo also looked nice. I don't think I've ever seen so much Pink/Green/Yellow used at a single fair. haha

And yet, the Chance Ferris Wheel was so..... basic?
But we had to ride it, had to.

Hey look, Downtown Indianapolis

Overview of most of the midway
Not really a bad/small lineup.. Although a bit less than what I was hoping from a County Fair in the states Capital.

An older style Ring of Fire, with the lap bar train and going by the name Firestorm.
(or what Six Flags now calls a coaster.... hahahahahha)

Fun House themed to 1950's style classic cars.
Infernal Combustion.
Never seen one like this before

And back to lots of yellow and pink, this time on a Sizzler.
...Pretty sure this was the first time I'd seen a pink Sizzler.

...And before heading out to make our way down to Louisville, Kentucky where our hotel was that night (just under 2 hours drive) we had enough tickets for one last ride

Used on this lovely KMG Freak Out <3
One of my favorites

And... uh, it wouldn't be a random blog post if there wasn't a photo of me in it somewhere!
(fun things are fun)
Woo

*Long unnecessary ramble*

(But I guess it is my blog so I can say what I want?)

 So back at the end of last year, or the start of this year... When Rob and I were first talking about doing an Ohio/Indiana coaster trip.... There was a plan/idea to do the trip we ended up doing in the end of June, at the end of July and start of August... So we could line it up when both the Indiana State Fair and the Ohio State Fair overlap. I had issues getting time off from Disney in that time frame... So June it was (Typical I take a week in June and a week in August) as luck would have it, Rob found that while we were in Indianapolis, the Marion County Fair would be going on and we quickly added it to our itinerary. June comes and goes and we have fun at the fair.... But then the end of July comes and a shocking and horrifying (disturbing) event happens at the Ohio State Fair, on its opening night. It was pretty eye-opening to us both and we quickly chatted about our original trip plans. Not to say it would have been us, or that we would have even been there that day or whatever... But it was still just... a thought. damn.
Since that incident I haven't come across a KMG Afterburner again in my travels, although if one does appear in Central Florida again. I would still ride it. It truly is one of my favorite rides and I genuinely feel safe on both amusement park and carnival rides, having ridden Afterburners hundreds of times over the years.

How the Mighty Have Fallen: CFF

That... Central Florida Fair... thing
Remember when this fair used to be really, really good?
Yeah, me neither.

Continuing a birthday tradition of mine.. I made a half hearted visit to the fair. What was once a dominating midway is now a third of its size and seems to be shrinking, yearly now :(
That being said, we made the best of it.. and since it was still a fair, had fun.

The 2016 Central Florida Fair!!!
Oh wait, half the ride models shown here don't even come to the fair anymore...

Uh, the actual midway
Well, mostly just kiddie land.. but still.

Super Cyclone!

Yaayyy! After missing it at the State Fair.. because it wasn't ready for some reason.. despite the fact it was cycling with staff on it our whole visit... We got on it at Central Florida.

Although it still took two takes to get it right.. Since on our first attempt... while already seated in the train locked and ready to go... Everyone was removed from the ride and it went out of service for a few hours...
(but in the end, we did mange to get our ride...)

Zombie Apocalypse... I think the apocalypse ended before we got on the ride.. since there wasn't much going on inside it.

Observation Tower was at the far end of the kiddie midway this year (where the Mulligan used to always be) while odd to be in the kid area... Its was nice being along side of the lake.

Jungle Twist!
Is it sad that the best coaster at the fair ended up being this unsuspecting kiddie spinner?
Its actually pretty fantastic. I first came across one at the State Fair of Texas and now Wade is traveling with one.
(For sure one of those "don't judge a book" coasters)

Pirate!
(rrrrrr)

Fireball, uh, skipped.
After my lame ride on the one at the Osceola County Fair earlier this year, I've just kinda been.. uh.. over them.

Music Express was back again this year...

:3 We saw the bear show! :3
(although it was hard to get a good photo of the bears... so here's one of the empty stage area)

Oh.. And they had the giant portable slide this year.
So I rode it.
And stuff.

Opa! Uh, Mighty Mouse.
Given the courtesy ride.

Enterprise, woo

<3 Mega Drop <3
With some pretty sunset action going on

Basic Ferris Wheel, sunset, palm tree photo... because, Florida.

O-Town

Some of the adult rides on the midway from Mega Drop.

PIRATES!
(RRRRRRRRRR!)

HIT IN 2000!
Wait no, Wade doesn't even bring Hit to Central Florida anymore...

Luckily their banged up Super Himalaya still runs better than most any other!

Music Express was run better than the last time it was here
Although without directional changes or switching the cycle up.

haha, Fighter.
Remember when this was super flashy... and uh, worked right?
(lololol)

Gravinception

Fireball.. Looking pretty cool covered in LED's

Same for the Orbiter... And since we had ridden everything else we wanted to.. we took it for a ride.
I do enjoy the Orbiter but I tend to overlook them in favor of more exciting rides. 

And since there was no Swing Tower ride here to end our night... We jumped on Mega Drop once more.. because, well, I love me some drop towers <3
Woo? maybe?? 2016 may not have been as awesome as say... 2010 or 2011... But here's hoping 2017 is at least on par with this? :/