Hmm, somehow I never posted these....

Well, better late than never? maybe??
So... Whats better than working till 5am? Using a *free* day and going to the 2012 Florida Strawberry Festival!" (eww, strawberries!)

Sweet, I might hate Strawberries, but I love me some rides!

yaayyyyyy

Ok, so... Were just gonna skip past the Tractors and Cows and Pigs... and all the other crap and just get right to the ride photos.. and stuff.

OK, rides!

Brand new KMG Speeeeeed, it was closed most of the night... So I never got to ride it.

But the first thing I did ride was....

 The extremely clunky MegaDrop. I love me some drop rides but I don't know what was up with this one.. I even gave it second and third chances.. but it kept just being.... bad.

And it got worse when..

I found my first Zamp Nitro in seven years, closed, the whole night :(

Good thing the KMG Freak Out was open!

And it just kept getting better from there on out!

SPACE ROLLER

You've returned to my life, and I thank you so much for doing so.

Having been MIA at the Florida State Fair the past 2 years and seemingly dropping off the amusement-radar all together.... The amazing Mondial Top Scan has returned <3

And with my day made.. it was time to sample the rest of the rides on the fairly large midway.

Full sized Rev Spinner, hadn't seen this one since Santa's Enchanted Forest or the Meadowland's Fair  :)

 Simple and fun, worth a reride too, woo

<3 SKY WHEEL <3

Also something that was lacking at the Florida State Fair this year, making me have to ride it some 4 times here in Plant City (just in case :( ) Ah, one of my all time favorite classic rides. I still tear up sometimes at Fun Spot standing where it's Sky Wheel once was.

Hmm, now this one seemed like I'd seen it in a past life or something... Not just any ol' portable flume... but in fact one I had ridden nearly 10 years earlier!

Oh yeah, its Fiesta Fiasco Shows! And while it may have new logs on it now.. its still the same ride I just couldn't get enough of at Revere Beach back in 02 and 03 <3 

I didn't even know they still owned a flume!

(((Sun goes down now)))

Woo, rides at night.. with all their flashing lights and stuff.. yaayyyyyyyy

:O Magnum was here, and running pretty long cycles banging out TIESTO <3

Mondial Shake = :D :D :D :D

Crazy Dance = ...not so much

and while better than Wade's 'Twister' its still not a HUSS

 (although it ran a nice long cycle with multiple changes in speed to keep the cycle interesting)

Yo..................yo

One of the few rides left on the midway without LED's and it still looked great.

And now back to the negative. 

Anticipointment 101 right here....

My first Power Surge in 5 years... And I'm told the boom is broken.. So the main arm never rotated... meaning our whole ride cycle remained without a single inversion. One of the few rides Zamp makes right (and was original) and it wasn't even working right :'(

And with that the night was winding down with just enough time for a few more rides.

An overview shot from the Eli Wheel 

(a must have for any major Floridian fair it seems)

The nice and smooth ARM Vertigo

And of course I saved time for one last ride on....

Ah.....

Also,  EWWWWWW

 Oh hey, and Joey

 (cause I know you're the only one even reading this..... I'm about to go on a Dollywood adventure... So I'll send your box-o-crap once I get back from that... and stuff)

2012 Florida State Fair video... in HD :O

Yup, that's about it....

 

So many good flat rides... And most of them are so much better, at night.

COW DUCKS

They don't quack..... they moo.

 Happy Leap Year / Leap Day!

 ((I know, I know... I keep saying I'll have a real update sometime soon... But this time I mean it!))

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

A very MARTA moment

Thanks to the Megabus GOFREE sale, I ended up in Atlanta for the day (by day I mean...8 hours)... And during the day (8 hours....) I ended up on the MARTA and in College Park (Via WIKI, in 2008 College Park had the highest crime rate in Georgia.) I also had a lovely walk past "new" World of Coke, the Georgia Aquarium, CNN Center, Five Points, the Under Ground, "old" World of Coke, the State House, and then by car a trip to Hip and Trendy 'Little Five Points' (not to be confused with regular Five Points, heavens no.)

Anyways... Here's a very MARTA moment for Deka....

 YAH YAH YAH! I'ma do mah THING, welcome to the MARTA

Trainsssssss!

And planes too. I guess.

 [RANT]

Can we please, please, plleeeassseee get these signs for the Monorail? 

BEING STUPID = DEATH!

[/RANT]

Mmhmm