Friday, September 9, 2011

Rides offer spins, loops and whirls

By News-Sentinel Staff,

from: lodinews.com

September 8, 2011

The rides you have come to know and love will return this year at the Grape Festival.
Andrea Owen, marketing director for Butler Amusement, said 40 percent of the rides at the festival are geared toward families where children can ride with their parents if they are at least 3 feet or taller.
“These are rides which accommodate adults as well as children. ... This is a wonderful way to spend time with your child,” Owen wrote in an email.
But out of the 28 different rides at the festival, there are still many geared toward adults.
One of the most popular rides every year for teens and adults is the Ring of Fire, an upside down roller coaster for riders that are at least 4 and 1⁄2 feet tall. Riders make a loop in a “ring of fire,” and then the train pauses at the top before catapulting backwards.
“Love of the Midway is a burnin’ thing, and in this case, it makes a fiery ring,” Owen wrote.
For teens, there is the Orbiter, a ride with colorfully lit up arms that will twirl riders around. The ride features four arms with strapped in seats and riders will quickly spin around while lifted off the ground.
All riders will be seeing double after going on the whirling and spinning Super Round Up. About 42 riders at least 4 feet tall will strap into the ride while standing up, and the centrifugal force will push riders against the wall while the ride becomes vertical.
“All of this makes for a fun vertical spin in open air,” Owen wrote.
For younger kids that might not yet be tall enough to get on the rides, there is also Toon Town, a fun house designed for children. It features moving floors, mirrors that distort objects and a slide that goes from the second story to the ground.
Butler Amusement, a 40-year-old company, provides the rides at the festival every year and is the largest carnival company in the western United States. It operates more than 120 amusement rides in seven states including Washington, Oregon and Arizona.

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