Elysburg, Pennsylvania – Saturday, July 14th, 2012
Twister at dusk.
The large helix in the middle of Twister I find to be a very beautiful element, both as a spectator and as a rider.
Twister's funky sign.
Twister is a blur.
Twister at twilight.
Helix with tilted composition
Blur.
Twister through the trees
Twister
Wandering around the back of Twister's superstructure.
Twister looming overhead.
I like this shot: Twister racing around a final curve in a blur.
Another blur at the bottom of the second drop.
Upper part of the helix.
Going down.
Streaking out of the tunnel on Twister.
Twister shrouded in darkness.
Knoebels' miniature railway on a late night ride.
Knoebels Campground sign... perhaps I should stay here some day.
Phoenix's cuppola lit up at night.
Phoenix at night.
Best way to end the night is with a lap on the Phoenix... or two.
Farewell Knoebels... I hope to return soon!
So originally I planned to just find a WalMart parking lot and sleep in my car for the night. However I realized that I didn't have so much driving to do from Knoebels to Dorney and spending 12 hours sitting in the car really didn't appeal for me, so I looked for the cheapest hotel in Allentown that I could find on Hotwire. It ended up being $61 (excluding taxes and fees), not great for my budget, but when I checked in I had to laugh at how "business luxury" this room was. It's such an irony in this country that my two options for the night were either semi-illegal car sleeping, or a room with two HDTVs and more pillows and comforters than I knew what to do with. Is there not a sustainable medium between the two?
Nice review. I was there on a really nice Fall Sunday in 2012. Thanks for the photos of the Carousel Museum. I missed that when I was there, I’ll have to make sure I find it next time. I really enjoyed the park also. The sky ride wasn’t as happy as the one at Lake Compounce perhaps because it’s missing a Boulder Dash as you pointed out. My favorite thing was their Fascination, I wouldn’t mind crossing over to the other side mesmerized by the sound of those little rubber balls softly bouncing between the wood and plexiglass. I’m surprised you had no comment on the pricing structure the park uses. It’s fascinating in it’s own right. Free admission but All day wrist band for rides not including roller coasters, hand stamp for roller coasters, tickets for rides that do not accept wrist band or hand stamp, ticket for rides that do not accept the kind of ticket you purchased and cash only for attractions that do not accept either kind of ticket, wristband, or hand stamp. And tickets required for non-riders. I thought that was fun. I didn’t uncover the key for the snap on the flyers either but I did manage to just keep the flyer up flying high along the trees, which I preferred but never have seen anyone else do, I felt like was a defying some law of flyer physics. Those things are fun. I hope to go back there sometime.
Looks like you stayed in something like a Hyatt Place. Very simply put, the cost of consumer goods has fallen enough at this point that rooms like you’ll see at a Springhill Suites or Hyatt Place are actually affordable to the average person travelling. For a more basic room (and probably more chances for hookers/meth labs in adjoining rooms) there’s plenty of non-chain motels off the grid in cities like this who don’t do e-booking and might be cheaper, but they’re pits.
Realistically, if you’re in a position of travelling and can only afford $40 instead of $60, the place that’s charging $40 can be hell on earth and you’re not going to have an alternative.