DelGrosso's Amusement Park

Tipton, Pennsylvania – Saturday, June 7th, 2008_______

DelGrosso’s Park is quite possibly the smallest amusement park I had ever been to that wouldn’t be classified as an FEC. I doubt it would even be widely known by enthusiasts if it weren’t a twenty minute drive north of Lakemont Park, thus making it easy to couple the two small parks together to get a full day’s outing on a very reasonable budget. The place should continue to grow in the years to come, although the Revolution, the Arrow Dynamics Loop-and-Corkscrew coaster the park bought used from defunct Libertyland was still sitting in parts in a field across from the parking lot. I actually was only able to spot the cars and a single piece of dirty white track; the rest of the ride was nowhere in sight. I assumed that monetary limitations and difficulties with reassembling a structure that had originally been welded together were the cause for the delay, but I later heard that another factor involved was they couldn’t find room to place it anywhere. That must be a rather embarrassing thing to discover after making the purchase, as presumably those questions should have been asked before the check was signed.

It was formerly known as Bland’s Park, a family name but a rather unfortunate moniker regardless especially as their main claim to fame is the saucy food they serve using homemade ingredients from their nearby sauce factory. (Although arguably DelGross o’s is only a small improvement.) The amusement park proper is located across the highway from the parking lot and water park, where you then take a bridge to get to the other side. The whole area is located in the bottom of a large forested valley, typical of this part of Appalachia. Temperatures were also going to be very warm, so we needed to be careful to take it easy and not fatigue, a state of mind that seemed like a perfect match for a park like DelGrosso’s.

The biggest drawback for the park is that unless you’re a local, if you’re visiting a park this unassuming then chances are you’ve already done enough other parks or carnivals that you won’t find much of anything you haven’t already done before. You’ve got the swinging ship, swinging chairs, Paratrooper, Round-Up, Flying Bobs, Dodgems, and of course a central carousel under a pavilion rounding out the lineup of flat rides. There is an exception to this rule but I will get to that one later.

The big ride that brought us here was the hot pink and yellow Crazy Mouse, a standard-issue Zamperla spinning mouse coaster that opened in 2004 to replace an older Pinfari Galaxi. While it was nothing new to us and most definitely a big step down from the Exterminator the previous evening, I always find these coasters fun and worth riding many times if there’s no need to wait in line (the one advantage DelGrosso’s version has over Kennywood’s). The spinning element is good for an anchor attraction at a small park because it increases the unpredictability and uniqueness of each reride.

Unpredictability was true even for us experienced riders, as I’ve yet to figure out the full mechanics of how to get the best spin. I know that a 100% frictionless pivot will actually produce much less spin than one with a bit of friction in it due to the inertia of the car. My dad and I tested out several seating configurations to maximize our spin cycle, and I was rather confounded when the usual enthusiast adage that weighting a car unevenly produced the fewest results on multiple occasions. I tried positioning ourselves on the outer right side, figuring that when we hit the first switchback after the pin flipped the locking mechanism we’d throw the weight of the vehicle around the outside of the first curve whip-style… but nothing. Our ride with the highest RPM actually ended up being the one in which we were both evenly seated across the center divide. Perhaps a degree holder in chaos theory might make sense of this, but I found it utterly baffling.

Next was the exception I mentioned earlier. If you’re a traveling enthusiast stopping by quickly to add a couple more coasters to your list, the one other ride you have to make certain not to miss is the Space Odyssey. It’s a high-speed spinning Caterpillar ride (much like the one at Idlewild without the tent; I’m not sure how old DelGrosso’s is) set inside a large dome. When the ride cycle starts up they crank up some tunes and start the lighting display, which at the warp speeds they set this ride’s cycle the multi-color strobe, tracer and disco ball lights do some really interesting things to your retinas. It’s an all-out multi-sensory assault that will likely satiate even the most extreme cases of ADHD. Epileptics beware!

After sampling several more pedestrian flat rides my dad and I concluded that with the temperatures steadily creeping upwards now would be a good time to stop for some lunch. It is in the category of food that DelGrosso’s marks its territory apart from the competition. As the park is run by the local spaghetti sauce factory they have an unusual advantage of economies of scale, meaning they’re able to sell better food products for a lower price because ‘that’s what they do’. It’s the fact that it’s a fair value (real world prices rather than Fantasyland prices) that I think is what garners their menu the most praise. DelGrosso’s Park is generally offered as one of the contenders for the Best Food award from the Golden Ticket Awards, and would likely place somewhere among the five winners if only more voters could make their way out to Tipton. My dad and I ordered a meatball hero and a hot sausage hero to split each way; the meatball hero was the winner probably because it featured DelGrosso’s signature sauce, and while I didn’t change my practice of voting for Dollywood for Best Food in 2008, you could certainly do much worse. Obviously I’m not a food critic which is why I generally leave that information out of my park reviews, but I would be remiss if I didn’t make clear that if you’re stopping by DelGrosso’s on a credit run, this is the place you want to schedule your lunch or dinner stop.

With most of the rides checked off in under a half hour we took our time at the picnic table. Once finished, the question became, “what else haven’t we done?” Well, as it happens DelGrosso’s has two roller coasters on offer, one the Crazy Mouse and the other the Pinfari Wacky Worm children’s coaster, situated right next to the bridge at the entrance. Despite being possibly the most common production model roller coaster in the world I had never done one of these rides before, and DelGrosso’s seemed like it would be the right place to try one, because, well, we had already pretty much sold out just by coming here, and the Wacky Worm simply was one of the largest rides. I tried rationalizing it by wondering what the series of tiny bunny hops across the upper level felt like in person, but in reality it was just because I finally had a list and, with nothing to lose, I wanted to fill it out. I think this was the first time I ever said, “let’s ride the kiddie coaster just for posterity,” and unfortunately it would not become the last.

I also did the Moser Freefall ride installed next to the Wacky Worm, not even for posterity but because I just wanted to try out everything and there wasn’t much else to do. Despite it being taller than an S&S Froghopper, based on my memories of those rides it didn’t seem as effective. Some more Crazy Mouse, we then returned to the parking lot to find a very hot car broiling in the 96° heat to take us to the next park of the day. ______

Next: Lakemont Park

Previous: Kennywood (Part 2)