Candy Most Dandy

If you follow my other social media, you might be aware that Beth and I went to Hersheypark yesterday. My dad lives near there, so we stayed at his house, and my siblings came to visit, along with my sister-in-law and my nephew Calvin. He's still not really talking, but he did bring toys to every person in the room. When we went to the park, my GPS directed us to the service entrance, and it took a while to get to the actual parking lot. We did get to see a bit of the town, with its chocolate-themed street names and Hershey's Kiss streetlights. We passed the Chocolate Workers Local union building, and I have to wonder if the Oompa Loompas are aware that such a thing exists. Seriously, I looked it up, and the union was formed in 1938, the year after a violent strike at the factory. Since it was the off season and there are still social distancing regulations (we had to make reservations in addition to buying tickets), we didn't expect it to be that crowded, but it kind of was. We didn't get to ride that much stuff, but it was fun. Beth had never been there, and the last time I went was in 1999, when the Great Bear was new. There have been some significant changes since then, mostly with the entrance area, as they merged the old areas with the German and Tudor architecture and added Chocolatetown. The Minetown area was also rebranded. I guess they're phasing out the historical Pennsylvania stuff that they installed in the seventies.

They moved the Carrousel (that's how they spell it, anyway) right near the entrance, so that was the first thing we rode.

The band organ was playing all kinds of Halloween-related tunes: "Witch Doctor," "Dem Bones," "Purple People Eater," "This Is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chopin's Funeral March, Bach's Toccata and Fugue, and the Munsters, Addams Family, and Scooby-Doo themes. Some of the horses, including the one I rode, were pretty jingoistic in design.

I believe they're all hand-carved. Then we rode Candymonium, a new roller coaster that reminded me of Nitro at Great Adventure, although that one opened nineteen years ago.

According to Wikipedia, they're both in the hypercoaster category. It's interesting to me that, for all the Hershey's chocolate theming in the park, most of the rides don't have anything to do with candy. This one is an exception.

We also rode the Tilt-A-Whirl, the Monorail, the Pirate (although we probably wouldn't have ridden that one if we'd had more idea of how long the line was), the Dry Gulch Railroad, the Whip, the Ferris Wheel, and Fahrenheit. That last one is a roller coaster installed in 2008, with really steep drops and a lot of inversions. On our way out, we overheard some guy saying he hadn't eaten any Hershey's chocolate that day, which honestly isn't surprising. They sell it everywhere, but if you're busy riding rides and such, when is there time for a snack? I did have a soft pretzel after Candymonium, and we ate at a nearby diner after leaving.

Today, we visited my mom on the way back home, and then had to drive in the rain on highways where the lanes weren't that clearly marked. We're back home now, though. There were a lot of Trump signs in rural Pennsylvania, which was disturbing but not surprising. I guess people are still clinging to their guns and religion.