Denver Colorado Trip Report: Part III

Hello again :} I hope you're ready for more Denver-y goodness!

This day was a little different from the previous 2. While days 1 and 2 focused on one park each, day 3 was our "credit whore" day! By that, I mean that I, Michael, Steven, and Tom drove around the Denver area & sold our bodies to all of the kiddie coasters peppered about. This day was the highlight of the trip for me. Our stops included Elitch Gardens ERT, Heritage Square Amusement Park, the Mile High Flea Market, and beautiful Lakeside Amusement Park. By the end of the day, we will have successfully ridden every roller coaster in the Denver area! 

Ready.........GO!

In through the out door!

After thoroughly conquering Elitch's the day before, we decided to head back just for the ERT on what I believe are the park's best coasters: Half Pipe, Sidewinder, and Twister II!

The rest of the park is very much still asleep as we make our way to the back.

These scenes painted onto the shop doors were a lovely touch. Again, Herschendification!

Intamin: The breakfast of champions!

ERT on Half Pipe is as good as it gets at Elitch's. Since many attendees skipped this morning's ERT to get an earlier start on their Denver sight-seeing, the boys and I pretty much had the ride to ourselves.

One-rider-per-car rides on Half Pipe are wild! While the the spinning of the seats are regulated by the ride to an extent, weight distribution also plays a roll. 

After a delightful marathon on Half Pipe, we headed over to Twister II to await its opening for the 2nd hour of ERT.

A rare occurrence of downtime during a scheduled ACE activity.

This brave ride operator tested Twister II for us! We soon recognized her as the same ride op who was operating the Top Spin yesterday when we broke it. She was instantly concerned for Twister II's well-being when she saw us coming. 

Ahhhh.........Exclusive Ride Time. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Fortunately, we did not break Twister II! after ERT, we decided to hit up the Spider again, hoping we'd have better luck today.

Success! The Spider gave a great ride! The modified car fronts are a lot more practical than the more-common Spider/Monster car fronts. Unlike the originals, the noses of the modified cars don't move, so there's no leg squashing when the car is locked.

After our ride on the Spider, we said our goodbyes to Elitch Gardens and headed out on our credit run! First stop: Heritage Square. The park started out as a Victorian-style downtown re-creation full of shops, restaurants, etc. Dwindling attendance figures and the subsequent decreasing number of businesses reduced the park to almost nothing. It was bought by a church at one point and is now thriving again on a smaller scale.

The Square is a pretty small operation.

A little cool. A little eerie. 

What's THIS I see?!!? My alpine-coaster senses are tingling!

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The alpine coaster will have to wait.

Heritage Square's amusement park is a small collection of well-maintained flats and a few kiddie coasters. 

In the unlikely event of an emergency water landing, your banana may be used as a floatation device.

Heritage Square has a lot of odd little things going for it: Swan boats, a portable zip-line, a primary-colored Eli Bridge Ferris Wheel to match their primary-colored Eli Bridge Scrambler, some kind of water....tornado...thing. 

Tickets for the park's rides, including their two kiddie coasters, can be purchased at the redemption counter in the video arcade. Seems legit. 

Speaking of legit, here is Heritage Square's ultra-legit Python Pit! It even has some legit theming & what looks like a pretty legit fire code violation...

The ride operator was kind enough to take our picture. She knew we'd be eager to document this proud day. 

It's good to be a whore. Credit 10 of the trip: accomplished. 

Just when we thought we couldn't get any more legit.

Some people, *cough*Michael*cough* count powered coasters as credits. While pre-occupied with the philosophical conundrum of whether or not powered coasters constitute "true" coasters (as I often do when I find myself in these kinds of situations), Michael coaxed me onto this Minor Mike oval, maypole-type-coaster.

Ok, enough dignity-sacrification (new word I just made up). LET'S GO SHOPPING!

Heritage Square's main shop boasts a wide variety of dead things encased in acrylic. 

I get that all lives are of equal importance or whatever, but I kind of want to draw the line at sea horses. It's the only dead animal for sale here that I'd feel kind of guilty using as a fashion accessory.

I mean, say you have a friend who thinks scorpions are cool. Get them an acrylic scorpion keychain and they'll probably be delighted. Now, say you also have a friend who loves sea horses. Get them an acrylic sea horse necklace, and you might not ever see them again. 

Heritage Square also sells inanimate objects, like these *adorable* auto skooter salt & pepper shakers!

Ok, now let's talk about that alpine slide! What a magnificent specimen!

As we walked in the general direction of the alpine slide, we saw the many empty Heritage Square buildings. A sad, dwindling business district or an ultra-legit ghost town? You decide. 

Lol. I don't even have a caption for this. Does anyone think I should hold a caption contest? 

At the base of the ski lift, these Canadian Geese Official Heritage Square Safety Mallards instructed us on proper alpine-sliding etiquette. 

Up we go! The ski lift gave us an exciting view of the sliders down below.

The left side of the slide is designated as the "fast" slide and the right side of the slide is designated as the "slow" side. This doesn't stop people from riding their breaks on the "fast" slide, resulting in some occasional cracking of plastic and/or reddening of cement. 

Well that escalated quickly.

Here's Denver from the top of the alpine slide. Elitch Gardens is on the left. 

The boys are ready to slide!

EXTREME POV W/ SPARKLY NAILPOLISH!!!

Whew! That sure was fast! What a great ride. :}

Ending on a high note, we left Heritage Square and the alpine slide & headed in to town for lunch.

Heading into downtown, we got a lovely view of Elitch's

Denver, home to many a food destination, boasts this diner that was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The menu was good, but there wasn't a whole lot on there I could eat. I ended up getting a big plate of fried cheese curds and a $7 cocktail that 'bout knocked me on my ass. I left satisfied. :}

Next stop on our credit-whorstraviganza was Denver's Mile-High Flea Market. The market is home to countless Latino merchants peddling cheap Chinese crap, as well as a tiny fair with a kiddie coaster!

This is a rouse. The rest of the flea market isn't NEARLY this nice.

This is the general gist of the place. Colorful, cheap merch in all shapes and sizes. And surely the items pictured here are officially licensed by Disney, the NFL, Hello Kitty Inc., etc.

The rainbow building was full of casual summer wear.

This shoe kiosk was giving away a FREE ASS with every purchase! You can see their lovely selection of asses on the left. 

"I already have an ass!" says Michael. 

The Dragon Wagon surprised us. It was quite large, looked great, and gave a pretty decent ride. And only 19 pesos $1.50 a ride!

I think this is the prettiest Dragon Wagon I've ever seen. 

Since there is no loose article policy at the flea market, I took advantage of the opportunity! 

Credit #11: Slightly more dignified than credit #10.

We walked around the flea market a little bit more just to see what else there was to see.

Here we have the panty aisle.

Hey, look! They have spare parts available for cars! Probably in case someone gets in a fender-bender in the parking lot. :}

Things were closing up shop as we were leaving. Here it looks like people can just pull up their vans and sell right right out of the trunk! SO legit. Does Heritage Square know about this??

After a day full of activities, the best was yet to come! Last stop: Lakeside Amusement Park!

*freaks out in the car*

The parking lot for Lakeside deposited us into Kiddieland.

They have some really adorable rides, like this tiny Rock 'n Tug-type-ride.

We were given a VIP tour & history lesson about Lakeside. That involved all of the attendees shuffling around in a large herd through the park during regular operating hours.

We attracted some attention. 

One of Lakeside's neatest old rides is this Eyerly Aircraft Hammer. This old classic, like all of Lakeside's rides, is beautifully maintained. Placed on a pedestal, if you will. This is preservation at its very best.

Lakeside is where art deco came to party. Eighty-odd years after the art deco movement, the party is still in full swing.

Beth, Tracy, and Michael aren't sure what to make of the fountain. I kind of think it looks like shelf fungus. :}

Lakeside took their turn-of-the-century Victorian architecture and crash-landed it into post-modern chic in the 30s and 40s. The result is one of the most eclectic traditional parks in the world.

Ahh, the crown jewel of Colorado amusement attractions! The Lakeside Cyclone!

Dennis is very proud of the Cyclone.

At the end of the tour, it was time to eat food and buy things!

Our silent auction for preservation was TOP NOTCH at Lakeside. Custom sculptures were crafted by Lakeside's Cyclone out of old maintenance workers bits.

Wait......what?

In addition, there were several beautiful classic postcards, collages, and classic artifacts.

Right next to the picnic pavilion is the park's extraordinarily-beautiful Whip ride.

Here's a crappy picture of ACE president Dave Altman presenting a plaque to the owner of Lakeside, Rhoda Krasner (after whom the lake upon which Lakeside resides is named), and her daughter Brenda, who is a licensed medical practitioner. Brenda manages Lakeside's concessions in her spare time. 

Okay, enough food and auctions. Let's ride the Cyclone!!!!

The Lakeside Cyclone is adorned with many of its original touches.

The Cyclone's dispatch and break runs are still operated by hand. The ride trains are some of the most beautiful old wooden coaster trains around. Adrian approves!

Our chariot: Vinyl seats with pipe handlebars and a home-made seatbelt. No lap bars! Also, The Flash works here as a ride operator part time.

The Lakeside Cyclone is a gem. Fun, well cared for, GREAT airtime in the front car on the incline after the first drop.

My 12th credit of 2013 is one of only 5 existing roller coasters built in the 1940's. Three including the Lakeside Cyclone are still in their original locations. The others are Hersheypark's Comet & Six Flags New England's Riverside's Thunderbolt. Crystal Beach's Comet and Playland's Rocket are still in operation today, but one of them changed their name & the other one fled their country of origin!! Pretty shady stuff.

As the sun began to set, Lakeside began to light up. Each ride at Lakeside has its own custom neon-lit marquee & lighting package.

Denver: a tale of two Spiders! Lakeside's Spider boasts fully-operational tube lights on its arms and a flashing spider friend on its sign! 

When Lakeside switched to multi-ride ticket booths at their park entrances, the rides' individual ticket booths were repurposed as storage. Still, not an inch of neon has been allowed to burn out on this Tilt-a-Whirl sign, or any others for that matter.

What's this?!!? It's Lakeside's super-high-speed mouse coaster, The Wild Chipmunk!!

Lakeside's steel coaster pre-dates the advent of tubular steel rails. This 1955 Miler Wild Mouse coaster gives a great ride! It's aggressiveness is combated with cars that are flanked with not mere padding, but pillows! Credit #13 is a highlight of the trip.

The original hipster coaster: because wild "mouse" is too mainstream.

The park's Scrambler also has a proud lighting package.

Ahh, the Rock-O-Plane. One of Eyerly Aircrafts most popular "O" rides.  It's also a popular way to screw over your friends by making them ride with you & not explaining to them what it does. :}

A little something for you sign enthusiasts. I also have a good shot of the sign for the Satellite ride, which was down for the count that night, sadly.

The park's oval-track go carts are not to be left out of the neon-sign shenanigans. 

Even the park's carousel is decorated with beautiful colored lights. It's also populated with some unconventional carousel animals. I rode a small rabbit that probably died carrying my weight. 

We double-backed to the other side of the park to see how the other rides look at night.

We hopped in line for the park's drop tower, which gave us time for photo-ops of the area's rides.

One of the most beautiful Flyers in the world is surely the Hurricane at Lakeside. Sadly, it probably gives the worst possible ride. tsk tsk.

Lakeside's otherwise garden-veriety Ferris Wheel is jazzed up with their neon treatment.

ZOOM packs a punch, like Larson drop towers usually do.

There's that Loop-O-Plane again! Flailing around like one of those motorized spinner things they sell at Disneyland that now populate the country's Goodwill stores and garage sales.

Now here's something you don't see anymore: an original mirror maze! Though simple in concept, the Crystal Palace did not disappoint.

Fully-expecting to face-slam several walls, I impressed myself by not walking into a single one! But I walked at the pace of a 100-year-old and took a picture about every 20 seconds.

Alec made it out of the maze first. Michael came out last. There's still a piece of glass separating them.

The Whip is the one that made everyone whip their cameras out!

The ride's neon-fringed roof is just for show. It doesn't cover the cars or anything, but it looks good!

The best part about Hurricane is its sign.

The rides spins REALLY FAST for about 20 seconds, and then it shuts off, slowly exhausting its speed until it comes to a halt. Not a lot of rudder-action going on. :{

Still, the ride looks awesome. Even the back of the neon sign is lit!

After Michael and I disembarked from our Flyers, I ran around the circumference of the ride and took pictures of our friends.

"Smile, Tom!"

"Smile, Steve!"

"Smile, Dan!"

"Smile, Alexa!"

"Smile, Corey!"

"This b*tch is just sitting in the parking lot with her headlights on and it's too bright!"

Sorry, Ron!

We of course had to ride the Ferris Wheel.

View from the top. The park's "Tower of Jewels" on the right is missing a few bulbs, but they'll be doing heavy-duty restoration on it in a few months.

Though closed, the Satellite remains lit-up with its companions.

One of the park's largest signs is for, of all things, the bumper boats!

The prettiest sign, however, would have to be Cyclone's.

This is a rare case where the "DO NOT STAND UP" sign is actually relevant. Unlike a vast majority of roller coasters, one could actually stand up mid-ride on the Cyclone if they were unwise enough to do so.

This picture just makes me crack up every time. 

Congrats to Dan and Alexa for getting engaged at Pike's Peak the very next day! Can I be your flower girl?!?!?! :}

Our snack was a cornucopia of ice cream! They had fresh bananas, syrups, tons of chocolate toppings, all you could possibly hope for at a famous Lakeside Ice Cream Social!

Goodnight, Lakeside! See ya in the morning!

Okay, y'all. Tomorrow's the last day! The Denver Trip Report is almost a wrap! Good thing, too. I was at Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky on Sunday and I haven't even started on that report! Plus my ACE Coaster Con Road Trip starts next week! I hope you guys are ready for a FIFTEEN-PART Trip Report for that one! Stay tuned!! :}