Negative-G - Worlds of Fun 2012 Page One

Worlds of Fun
Kansas City, Missouri
August 3, 2012
Page One

I hate it when summer comes to an end because with my Sunday-Wednesday work schedule once schools go back in session and parks stop weekday operations it seriously limits where Bond and I can go. So at the end of the summer we try to go to a few places that are a little too far to go after school starts. So Mike Galvan came down from Chicago to my humble rural Illinois abode and we trekked across Missouri on a great voyage to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri where we were to meet up with Greg, Gump and Travis.

Being great adventurers it was nice meeting a fellow world traveller like Phileas Fogg; whose adventures which are chronicled in the book "Around The World in 80 Days" which was the basis for Worlds of Fun's globe trotting theme.

The Grand Carousel at Worlds of Fun, Kansas City, Missouri

The Grand Carousel at Worlds of Fun, Kansas City, Missouri

It's been a couple of years since our last visit to Worlds of Fun and the big change since then was the addition of the Grand Carousel just inside the park's entrance.

The Grand Carousel at Worlds of Fun, Kansas City, Missouri

This is a classic 1918 hand carved Marcus Illions Carousel that ran at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition in 1926 and then ran at the now defunct Geauga Lake Park from 1937 to 2007 when that park closed. Now I'm not sure why the park lists this as a ride from 1918 when all the history I can find on it starts at 1926. Maybe some of it's 64 jumping horses date back to 1918.

Before coming to Worlds of Fun from it's previous home Cedar Fair; the company that owns Worlds of Fun and many other parks, fully restored this classic. It's nice to have a local park (for me) with a classic carousel that has been properly cared for unlike one of the other parks in Missouri.

The Grand Carousel at Worlds of Fun, Kansas City, Missouri

As many of you may know this year has been an extremely hot and dry one for us here in the Midwest. When we arrived at Worlds of Fun at opening the temperatures were already in the 90's and ended up around 103 Fahrenheit. As a result we had to take care to drink a lot of water and of course keep cool in any way possible.

How did we keep Bond cool? Take one glass of ice water (with ice), dump it into his hat and then put the hat on his head and voila a cooled off, but wet Bond.