2016 Osceola County Fair

Because... rides.. and stuff, uh, like animals.
Even without my beloved Huss Top Spin showing up this year... I had a few hours to waste on a Friday before Deka came into town for our trip starting the next day.... So off to the County Fair I went!

Yay.

 Woo, the 2016 Osceola County Fair!

We got to the fair about an hour before the rides opened, so we made a lap around the grounds and saw the non-amusement County Fair.... things.

 Like the Country Bumpkin Band

(uhh....)

 And this giant inflatable Cow!

 Hello Mr. Turkey.

 <3 Quack Quack! <3

 Moo?!

 And... this sheep.

 Baby trees? And stuff.

 OH NO!

#Totaled

(Cow down, cow doowwwnnnn)

 ...Ditsy

Uh, the clown.

 Oh man! And there were Pig Races!!!

(And we might have watched two different showings...)

<3 <3 <3

 New this year at the fair was this Technical Park built 22 meter wheel.
(Dreamland debuted it at State Fair and Jeff and I were the *first* riders on it!) 

It may not look so nice in the daytime... but at night, its covered in LED and even the cars themselves glow!

 Strates Giant Wheel.

For now, the largest portable wheel on the East Coast...

 Overview of the ride midway from the wheel, woo.

 Oh hey, and you can see Mako at SeaWorld!

(and Kraken... and Manta)

 And the little Wacky Worm... that we skipped.

(but had ridden in the past <3)

Sadly, Strates failed to bring their adult coaster this year.

 We gave the Musik Express a pity ride.. and it was playing some awful sounding country song.. The Op looked at me and questioned if I liked the song.. and said he'd put on something better.

Yeah, I don't really think Kid Rock was much of an improvement :P

 Haunted House... thing

 Scary stuff, I tell you.

 New (for us at least) this year, was this ollddd kinda beat-up Chance Casino!

I'd never seen one down here before! So we took it for a ride, but the cycle was pretty lackluster and no real changes.

(Sam Pino used to tear it up with theirs in the 90's)

 Also new for me.. 
My first time encountering the Watkins Hustler!

(although I've been on many-a-Tempest)

Same basic ride, but the Hustler isn't on an angle.

(It was fun :) )

I don't think this, or the Casino were owned by Strates Shows but rather booked in by them...

 I also thought this take on the Rock Wall was rather neat. All 3 sides offered different climbs

(the non visible side was like.. a bunch of pipes)

 KMG Fireball!

Ugh... why bring such a fantastic ride... If you're just gonna run it in bitch mode?

Its almost amazing how BAD you can cycle some of these rides :(

 Thankfully.. This was located next door...

Mmm, Chance Zipper...

 With iPhone securely put away.... We took it for a ride :D
(#NeverForget)

 Oh.. and we did a quick lap on the Ring of Fire.. or as Six Flags would tell you, this AMAZING NEW ROLLER COASTER!!!!! (lololol)

And most excitingly of all...... 

ENTERPRISE!
My first time getting to see/ride Strates' Huss Enterprise. I've been to 11 or 12 of their stops since moving here in 09, never saw it... and was beginning to believe the ride didn't actually exist, despite still being listed on their website.

And with a silly 'No Single Riders' rule in place... 2 grown-ass-adults squeezed into a single car... 
while the other 19 remained empty.

Woo, Enterprise!
After making our second lap around the fair and getting another ride in on the Enterprise we made our way to what is typically our last ride at a fair. Anyone who reads these posts by now should know what it is too...

Yup, a Swing Tower... This one being a Zamp built Sky Flyer.

Woo, swings... and stuff.

(Oh, and a Sea Ray we skipped)

Yup, the 2016 Osceola County Fair and Kissimmee Valley Livestock Show at the Osceola Heritage Park

Other stuffs... and stuff.

Sky Flyer video (via Vine) - Video

An extra Enterprise photo - Photo

Woo

Osceola County Fair and stuff

So once again... we were in Kissimmee.. but at least this time there's a Huss Top Spin!

I've gone to the Osceola Fair a few times now.. but only the years the Top Spin has shown up, seeing online that it was at the 2014 fair Jeff and I made sure to show up and take a few rides. Back in 2012 we got this amazing triple-cycle ride that was lovely.. this year it didn't seem to be running to its potential but I saw a video online a few days later showing it going full-out (I think we were there opening day so they might have been going easy on it)

Woo, the 2014 Osceola County Fair!

(moooo?!)

Wait no, I mean... Quack quack!!

((quack!!!))

And also... this little bunny :D

Bonus Ring-Tailed LEMUR!!!

Ok, onto the rides and stuff!

Mmmm...... the only full sized Top Spin traveling in North America and the only reason I'd wanna visit a Strates Show spot.

(and its run pretty well too!)

yaayyy! Jeff and I got stuck on the ride for a few minutes after it faulted midride

Oh yeah, and it was the second time in a week we'd been stuck on a Huss Top Spin having already been stuck on Deggeller's TS2 at the State Fair a few days before.... <3

Oh hey, look... its that Ferris Wheel that ruined our trip here the last time we visited the fair.....

We skipped the Wacky Worm having ridden it back in 2010 (lame, I know)

Zyklon was back and repainted since our last time seeing it.

It was running so well we rode it twice 

(and on a tickets day too!)

The Wave Swinger was ridden as well.

As was the Sky Flyer... that was sadly running a rather short cycle

ahahaha.... Yeah, the Happy Swing was skipped... but sadly Jeff and I have ridden two of them already :-\

And we took our first ride on the Zipper for the year as well.. 

(The one at State Fair never seemed to run when we were there and the Central Floria Fair one was closed as well....)

Well, maybe.... It all depends on if the Top Spin shows up. :P

woo woo

Off topic a little... I wonder how you pronounce

Fjölskyldugarðurinn

Osceola County Fair, for a few minutes

Osceola County Fair, my first visit although I'd passed it a few years ago. Didn't see what I was looking for and kept on my way.... This year would be the year I'd finally make the stop. Kinda odd having  just left the Florida State Fair not even 20 hours earlier!

Ok, lets do this..

Osceloa County Fair, woot. Doesn't have much going on for it..
but.........it has this.

The ONLY reason I'm here....

TOP SPIN!

(see how happy I am for once?)

having seen it SBNO 5 years ago or so.. And then having it be a 'No-Show' at the past say... 12 Strates fairs I've haunted... I tracked it down in Kissimmee. Damn. (but it was worth it for a well run Huss ride!!!)

From what I was able to find online it had really just come back on the road/rails last summer in Augusta, then it had a 'news worthy' incident at the New York State Fair... And it's made it way back to Florida.

So with that taken care of, it was time to stroll the midway, well, the part that still had power. It seemed like 4 or 5 rides were all powerless but were up and running later in the night.

 One of the two tracked dark rides at the fair, Ghettolovely.

Midway games and such...

 Musik Express was at the back end of the midway, we skipped it.
(had done it at the Seminole County Fair)

Hey look! Something Florida State Fair DIDN'T have for some reason this year.....

Zyklon was here, although was closed most of the night due to off and on rain.

Once it did open briefly, Jeff and I were on the second loaded car. Ha
Oh hey, and Strates new-ish Zamp Sky Flyer was here too, although rain ruined our chance of riding it, we had just ridden Reithoffer's last night

[RANT]Why have a wheel with 24 cars if you're only gonna load THREE per cycle, with at least 30 people waiting in line! Everyone was commenting on the horrible operations. Many even left the ride after 2 or 3 cycles of only moving up 10 feet in line[/RANT]
But the new-ish LED's look great on it...

Midway overview from the wheel, sadly EVERYTHING would close after we got off it.. Due to a massive rain storm that blew in. had we not waited 30 minutes for the wheel I may have gotten to ride the Zipper, Fireball, After Burner,  Sky Flyer, and the Top Spin a third time..... Oh well :(

PWNT

Yeah.....
 So that's about it... Even with the rain closing the fair way too early and not getting all my rides in.. I still got to ride a Top Spin run better than any other I've come across in the past 3 years or so. I miss when even my local Six Flags would run it well.. Now most parks run them with some craptastic one flip program and call it a "thrill ride", whatever.

 NOT AMUSED