Ever since I met Greg in July 2020, we’ve been hitting up parks, big and small, for whatever new credits we can manage to find. The funny thing is, perhaps the closest park to his house, Adventure Park USA (APUSA), has a credit that has eluded him for some time now – Wild West Express. It’s not due to a lack of effort either. We’ve had bad luck during several stops to the park in both 2020 and 2021 with it not operating, or arriving on a day when all outdoor attractions were closed. Well now Greg can finally say, he’s travlled west, as in the Wild West Express Credit. Well, we did travel west to get to the park too. I digress!
Two "Wild" Rides
Although it was raining pretty hard on my way over to Greg’s house, the skies cleared up by time we made our way to APUSA. If we missed out again due to rain, I was going to give up trying! Thankfully, that was not the case.
Pulling into the parking lot we saw a few flat rides operating and a train dispatch on Wildcat. Now, we were also planning on riding Wildcat too, but we today was about Wild West Express and we had yet to see anything happening with the ride from the outside.
After walking in, we saw a sign with closed attractions. Wild West Express was not listed. Before heading out to the ride, however, I checked with the park staff about their rules with filming on-ride footage with a chest mounted GoPro. They granted me permission and I filmed two point of view (POV) videos during our visit. I will be uploading these to the site’s YouTube channel later in the week.
While on the topic, however. Always parks about their on-ride filming policies. Some will allow you to do so with proper harnesses or specific equipment. Never film without permission, especially using handheld devices such as cellphones.
Wild West Express
We made our way back to Wild West Express first thing. We didn’t see any staffing or riders and I think both of our hearts sank for a moment. That’s when a female ride operator emerged to give us entry to the platform. Greg was finally getting his long overdue credit. We took the front row so I could film.
Sitting on the right side of the train, the ride felt forceful with its tight turns and sudden dips and dives. I was hoping that my footage wouldn’t be all over the place. After the ride, I decided to check to see if it was usable and realized nothing filmed. Back on we went.
We sat in the front again, but this time, I sat on the left and Greg on the right. Man, the seat change was a difference maker! It was a lot more forceful and Greg noticed the difference too. Getting off the ride, before I even shared my views, he said that he enjoyed the ride on the right better because it was tamer. I laughed and admitted to him I liked the left better due to the extra forces.
Thankfully the footage recorded on the second ride. We stopped for a few minutes so I could take some still photos and then we made our way over to Wildcat.
Wildcat
As we approached, a family was just boarding the train. We waited back and I shot some stills at this location too. When their ride was coming to a close, we made our way up the ramp for our first ride. I sat in the front for the POV and Greg sat behind me.
Greg was a little chatty going up the lift hill and he joked when we got off the ride that if I wanted to ride again, he’d be quiet. I laughed and said okay. The footage was good and the chatter didn’t bother me. Still, I was up for another ride. We got back on and sat in the same arrangement once again.
The footage from the second ride turned out a little better as I had my harness pulled up closer to my neck. The train, which you can see in the gallery below, have a thick padded bar on the hood. On this second ride I was able to film over that a little bit better for what I think is better footage.
As we walked away from the ride to go into the arcade, the both of us joked about how smooth Wildcat felt. I said it’s smoother than Hersheypark’s Wildcat. Greg laughed. There’s no argument on it being smoother than Lake Compounce’s Wildcat either! That one hurts!
Final Ride Counts
Wild West Express (2)
Wildcat (2)
One "Adventure" Leads to Another
I’m full of wordplay with these headlines in this report, aren’t I? Well, on a day that Greg and I planned to get him one new credit, another credit opportunity presented itself. During our ride to the park, we noticed the Howard County Fair right off Interstate 70. And guess what? We saw yellow coaster track. I didn’t care if Greg wanted to or not. We were going before heading home. And we did just that, but before we did, we decided to head inside and enjoy some of APUSA’s non-ride offerings. We did some bowling and arcade games. We thought about another round of mini-golf, but since we both have long drives ahead of us tomorrow, we didn’t want to be out too late.
Adventure Park USA - August 9, 2021
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your commercial and/or non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): n/a
Greg
Captain
New Credit(s): Wild West Express
