Elitches Turns Lakeside

Sounds like the headlines on National Enquire, though I'll have to admit it isn't as exciting as "Pit Bull Eats Motor Home."

Elitches is in a sad state. It appears they sold way too many season passes this year -- it's very rare to see someone enter with an actual ticket, and... well... when their rides break, they just kind of sit there... the place is starting to look like Lakeside. One difference -- at least Lakeside has a new coat of paint every once in a while. Eltiches? They didn't even bother to power wash this year. For me, Elitches peaked last year.

Now, on the other hand, I brought my brothers to Lakeside a few weeks ago and WOW! They're really been fixing up the place. Like seriously. We're not just talking about yet another coat of paint. We're talking rides being completely restored, motors being replaced, ALL the neon lights on rides they've restored replaced and working... There was something else I saw that really surprised me -- you know those three pigs on the pole at the Star Ride? There's new high-voltage direct-bury cable installed! (There are three transformers on a telephone pole next to the star ride that have some new, rather expensive power cables going to them.)

Not only that, when I brought my brothers, there were no parking places left in the main lot and people were parking all over the place behind the temporary rides... I got one of the last places in the park!

The only thing I wasn't too keen on was the fact they shimmed the Sattellite tower -- I guess they decided that even though the ride was designed to lurch around, it gave the impression that the ride was ready to break. They also replaced the air hoses -- I bounced at the resonant frequency of one of the arms and the air hose didn't burst, so I guess it's good! (It's kind of an under-damped system.)

And, lastly, the operators at Lakeside are definitely a much higher class than the guys at Elitches. I think it has something to do with actually giving the operators responsibility... Eltiches "safeness" has somewhat backfired. The operators are board out of their heads and oblivious to anything that goes on -- it took a whole two seasons for an operator to finally yell at me for crawling around on the frame of the Thunderbolt while it was in operation -- ok, ok... for using the resonant frequency of the hills to get my car to swing out past horizontal, putting sheer stress on the adjustment mechanism and high energy impulses on the shock absorbers. (BTW, if you want to be completely exhausted and battered in 2 minutes, that's the way to do it -- It's like a power workout times ten.)

Ok, ok... I'm using technical terms to make it sound like I was really putting the rides through their paces... It wasn't nearly as abusive as I make it sound.

I don't know what happened, but Lakeside is shaping up and Elitches seems to be going down the path that landed Lakeside in its pit.