Adventureland Amusement Park
Altoona, Iowa
July 18, 2013
Page One






Kicking off our big summer trip this year Bond and I headed west into the vast cornfields of Iowa to start it off at Adventureland just outside of Des Moines.  Bond had been here before in 2000 but he was unable to ride any of the coasters because he was just four months old at the time.  This time thirteen years later he was ready to go and ride some coasters.



Adventureland's entrance pays more than a little homage to Disneyland and The Magic Kingdom as you enter under train tracks into a square with an Iowa version of "Main Street U.S.A.".

Bernie Bernard is Adventureland's mascot and he met us as we walked into the park.  So Bond and I stopped for a rare photo of us with him before going coaster crazy.



As I said earlier Adventureland was just the start of our trip.  Our big plan was to loop through the plains states after Adventureland visiting Missouri for World's of Fun (I'm not going to do an update for WOF as I have already done two this year), Kansas for All Star Adventures & Joyland Amusement Park, Oklahoma for Frontier City and finally two days back in Missouri for some night time rides on Outlaw Run at Silver Dollar City.  Joining us on this adventure was our friend Chris who goes by the name "DiceGods" on the Negative-G Forums and several other friends including "Spencerman" from the Forums who is an Adventureland local.

Oh, one change to Adventureland since my last visit in 2008 is this block of stores and games.  During the winter of 2010 the roof of one of the buildings collapsed due to excessive snow and that started off an electrical fire that ended up consuming the entire block.  Adventureland quickly cleared the site and started the rebuilding process.



Soon the store and bingo parlor were back up and Adventureland even threw in a new spinning ride to the arcade.  I'd show you the spinning ride but the lure of coasters drew us deep into Adventureland.




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Paul B. Drabek