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In the back of the Marketplace,
there is a huge candy company setup that streched across the entire right
side of the back of the building! It is absolutely HUGE!
Cleanliness wise, the MarketPlace
is very clean, except for those nasty bathrooms in the basement in the
back, which are FILTHY!
MarketPlace Cleanliness
Rating: 9 out of 10, 3 out of 10 for the bathrooms
Overall MarketPlace Rating:
7 out of 10
Leaving the MarketPlace,
we walked onto the Food Highway, which is the long area of food vendors
from the Lausche Building (Known During the fair as the Exploration Center)
to the Ohio Food Pavilion, a round building past the Celeste Center, wich
is left of the the MarketPlace.
In front of the Celeste
Center, there is a huge Sky Crane Ride, a very large ride that has a vertical
support tower with a control booth and and axel at the top, attached to
that axle is a large boom that is parellel to the support tower when vertical,
that spins on the axel with seats at either end, it was probably about
80-100 feet tall, yellow support and white boom. Pictures Of Sky Crane
to come soon
Food Highway Rating:
6 out of 10, mostly meat of some sort, but there is good taffy near the
MarketPlace
Next, we walked past the
Ohio Food Pavilion and the Ohio State Highway Patrol building and entered
the Nature area, run by the 
Ohio Conservation District. First park of this park is a big Smoky The
Bear Model, with a person inside that talks to kids, past that, there is
an opening that has benches, each with a different county name on it, its
neat to try to find a specific county, but i finally found Greene, and
that was enough. Next in the park is the Butterfly house, after going 
through
there, we walked around the pond, watching log splitting contests for a
few minutes, then shot holes in a card at the BB gun range. after all this,
it was getting toward 5:00 PM, so we headed out of the park.
Nature Park Rating: 9
out of 10, very clean and well-kept, but once again, filthy bathrooms *sigh*
Then we wandered though the
old commercial buildings that used to be old barns, got a bag of donuts
at a little donut stand outside of the commercial buildings, which have
open sides.
Commercial Building Rating:
5 out of 10, somewhat clean, but trash all over the floors, got a neat
State Fair Medallion though
After stopping at the foot
vibrator things, we headed BACK toward the midway and PAST it again *sigh*
to another strip of food vendors. Took half an hour almost to find something
to eat, then finally ate at a grill of some sort.
Food Rating outside of
midway: 8 out of 10
FINALLY to the main midway,
at about 7:30-8:00 PM, and VERY dark! entering we got 10 ride tickets,
and headed in, playing a few 
games
near the front. Now the rides! First off: Giant Slide, a 3-camelback-high
3-lane slide, a great
slide for the size!! But
when you are going up, the slide is on the left of the steps, and an almost
nonexistant railing on the right. At the top, you can feel the slide sway,
and there is almost no railing, just a couple support posts and a steel
bar across the top of the posts.
Giant Slide Rating: 7
out of 10 Tickets Used:1 Time: About 8:00PM
Next is the Red Scrambler,
A Big Eli catalog-model mass-produced Scrambler. I was the only person
on this ride, so it went very fast! It felt like it was gonna shred, but
that is half the fun! sit on the left of the car, don't touch the lap bar,
and catch the ride when it is empty or almost empty.
Scrambler Rating: 9 out
of 10 Tickets Used for scrambler: 2
Next, further up the midway,
is the combo house of mirrors/spiral slide, after going thru the miror
maze, you go up steps to the upper level, where there are funny mirrors,
then you go down a spiral slide. A very neat ride because it looks new,
and i've never seen one before.
Combo House Of Mirrors/Spiral
Slide Rating: 7 out of 10 tickets used:2
Next is Blue Scrambler, looks
the same as the red Scambler, just a different color, but it's NOT! This
one is lousy! It goes WAY too slow and it's not rough enough to be fun.
Blue Scrambler Rating:
2 out of 10 tickets used:
Next: The SteepleChase, An
obstacle course/spiral slide. You go up the ramp, then criss-cross through
various things such as rubber cords accross the catwalk, and spinners in
the floor, the whole obstacle course is open, but then you go into to middle
support post that has the slide spiraling around it, it is about 4 feet
wide, with an opening in the center about 1 1/2 to 2 feet wide, inside
is a tight spiraling staircase, going up it is a tight fit, and VERY steep!
you can walk it like steps, but it is easiest to climb it like a ladder,
then you get to the top, which is a round metal platform around the top,
with a roof over it and a spindly railing around the edges, you follow
it just to the right and there is the entrance to the slide, you put down
the canvas, get on it, and push off. Going down, it feels like you are
going to fly over the edge of the half-tube slide spiraling down, so I
kind of push down on the canvas to slow down a little. After about 3 spirals,
you VERY suddenly hit a straight drop about 50 degrees, it really surprises
you, because you see it from the ground, but forget about it on the spiral,
then you slide level into a big air cushion and stop.
SteepleChase Spiral Slide
Rating: 8 out of 10 tickets used: 2
UHOH Almost Out of tickets!!! Only 1 left! Made quick stop at ticket booth near the buckeye building to get 10 more tickets.
Next is The Ghost riding
dark funhouse. It has kind of a round car, running on a trrack rail in
the center of metal plating track. You go up a spiral ramp, powered by
a cog motor in the car, like that of Jumbo Jet Schwartzkopf Coasters, then
go over, and into a gentle drop, you go thru several turns, hills, and
hidden people in costumes jumping out, you also go up and around the front
of the ride on the outside, then back ing, into another drop, a couple
turns, through a curtain, and suddenly into the platform.
Ghost Riding Funhouse
Rating: 7 out of 10 tickets used:2
The following rides are in the best order I can put them, after all, this review is being written in November, and the Fair was in August.
Tilt-A-Whirl: A standard
Tilt-A-Whirl. This was a FAST one! Add the maniac op I got, jerking the
spin lever around like crazy, and you've got a VERY fast and wild ride!
Sit in the middle of the car, hopefully with nobody else in your car, and
when it doesn't spin, lean hard to the right, also keep your hands OFF
of the lap bar for the best ride.
TIlt-A-Whirl Rating:
8 out of 10 Tickets Used:2
Next, on the way back toward
the north side of the midway, Blue Scrambler again. Same as the last ride,
only slightly more rough and fun beacause it was loaded full.
Blue Scrambler Rating,
Second Ride: 6 out of 10 Tickets Used:2
More toward the north, on
a small dead-end path to the left, is The Thriller Walk-Through Dark Funhouse.
Good thing I had a light! I had to go ahead of two girls that were in front
of me because I had the flashlight. At least my white hat glowed in the
dark in the black light! A very nice funhouse, just make sure you have
a flashlight!
The Thriller Funhouse
Rating: 9 out of 10 Tickets Used:2
Afetr going orund the north
side, we headed back south. Next ride: Back pretty close to the entrance
to the midway, The 5-Camelback-High Goliath Slide, higher than the previous
slide, it overlooks the Blue Scrambler looking over the back rail at the
top. Going down on the canvas, you actually rise up off the slide on the
4th and 5th camelback, then skid to a stop on the canvas floor at the bottom.
A very good ride!
Goliath Slide Rating:
9 and 1/2 out of 10 Tickets Used:1
The Final Ride! The Red Scrambler
again! Just past the Goliath Slide, it is the same one I rode at the start
of the midway tour. By Myself on this ride again, it was a VERY wild ride!
at the end, it started slowing down and I thought it was over, but then:
ZOOM! The op had almost stopped it to make me think it was over, then had
pushed the power lever FULL FORWARD! So it accelerated VERY rapidly to
full speed again, since I had scooted to the left side of the car when
it slowed, I was rapidly un-scooted back hard to the right! The ride continued
another 3-5 minutes, before finally slowing down and stopping. Best ride
i've ever had on a Scrambler!
Red Scrambler Second
and Best Ride: 10 out of 10 Tickets Used:2
Wanting to go by the helicopter ride pad, we walked back to the north side of the midway, and turned left past the Celeste Center, where there are some additional small rides and the helipad. The helicopter ride costs $20.00 for the regular tour, and the helicopter is done to look like the BatCopter. Be sure to hold on your hat whenever one takes off while you're standing at the fence! at the 2000 Fair, I had to chase my hat all the way to where it stopped at the Celeste Center north wall!
Back on Food Highway (Now the Highway of closed food stands!) we found the taffy place still open and got a bagful. The SkyCrane had the boom locked sideways, so nobody could try to get on it. Walking back toward the exit tent (same as entrance tent) we stopped and got some cheese fries to eat, stopped at the Charmin Bathroom by the exit, used the last foot vibrators, and walked thought the gate. Walking back to the van, we passed the waiting shuttle tractors, which have passenger trailers. They STINK from the deisel engine! At the last minute, I snapped a picture of the entrance/exit tent, and got in the van. Driving back on I-71S, I snapped a quick picture of the fairgrounds lights, then we were off!
Other things include getting
to the Ohio Food Pavilion JUST after it closed, but managed to get a t-shirt
at their gift shop.
Outside the Ohio Food Pavilion,
there was a huge dumpster spilled ALL OVER the ground, a very uncommon
sight here, at what is usually a very clean fair. All the bathrooms except
the Charmin one were filthy, there was trash all over the ground, and to
top it off, THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE PINFARI LOOPING STAR COASTER THEY HAD
LAST YEAR!!! I was really irked about that.
Overall a pretty good fair,
lots of new insane rides, just somewhat bad weather: Bright and clear,
but near 100% humidity. Also, the fairgrounds was not as clean as past
years, last year, 2000, was the best Ohio State Fair I had ever been to:
Excellent weather, VERY clean, and some great rides. We actually got to
the midway at a normal time of about 2:00 PM, and they had the Looping
Star, A Pinfari Single-Looping Coaster. Hopefully next year (2002) will
be much better. The Ohio State Fair is, after all, the largest State Fair
in the country!
Despite the cleanliness
problems, and bad humidity, I give this year's Ohio State Fair the rating
below.
Overall OSF 2001 Rating: 9 out of 10.
Would have gotten a 10 out of 10 If
it had been cleaner, and if they had had the Looping Star.