Leap the Dips

Jill and I went to Lakemont Park to ride the world's oldest roller coaster. Leap the Dips opened in 1902. It was closed the past three years but reopened three weeks ago. We wanted to ride it last year, but they couldn't get it done in time.

It's a side-friction coaster. It doesn't have the normal roller coaster track with wheels above, beside and underneath the track. Coasters with upstop (underneath) wheels wouldn't be invented until 1919. This only has wheels on top and on the sides, so when it hits bumps, it lifts off the track. It's only 41 feet tall (12 meters) and drops 9 feet (3 meters), so it's not fast or terribly thrilling, but it does give a wild ride. When it bounces, that back seat has fun airtime.

The park is more of a city park than an amusement park. It has three roller coasters, one of which is a kiddy coaster. It has small rides such as go-karts and paddle boats. There are no major rides or midways.

There were more employees there than visitors. All employees were wearing masks, which made us feel safe. They wiped down the coaster cars after people rode. We used hand sanitizer after riding as well. We rode Leap the Dips twice, in the front and back seats. It's really fun. There are no restraints, so you bounce around a bit. We rode Skyliner twice too. It's got one moment of incredible airtime. The rest of the ride is pretty fun and slightly bumpy, but the seats are comfortable.

We want to go to two more parks, Knoebels and Idlewild. The former apparently is strictly enforcing masks and distancing. We'd go in the middle of the week, so it wouldn't be busy. Idlewild has a coaster we want to ride that was not operating when we went last year. We have to time it right to go. It has to be on one of my days off and that coaster has to be running. We might not visit this year because of that. Of course, is masks are not being worn and distancing not being enforced, we'll leave.