Stricker's Grove

Visited: August 9, 2026

Attending: Just Brian

Setting the vibe for this little park

Stricker’s Grove is one of the few remaining examples of a dying breed: the private picnic park. It’s normally only available to companies that rent out the space for private employee functions. I’ve been to one in Pennsylvania, but there used to be lots more. Stricker’s is only open to the public on two days of the year, and since I happened to be within shouting distance on one of those two days, I didn’t want to pass up the chance at a hard-to-get credit. Parking was free, but general admission was $22. That’s on the higher end of what I’ve paid for a single credit, but I’d been pretty frugal on this trip, so what the heck. Although Strickers also has a junior coaster, I decided it was close enough to a kiddie credit that I wouldn’t bother.

Tornado

Pretty much exactly what you'd expect an old wooden coaster to look like

Tornado is an in-house model built by park owner John Stricker. It’s a fairly simple figure-eight layout, a copy of another coaster at Rocky Glen Park. The whole experience feels like a much older coaster, even though this one is from the early 90s. There’s no queue, just a ramp leading to the platform, so I ended up queuing on the midway for longer than I would have preferred, given the heat and humidity. There’s also no air gates, which makes the platform look strangely barren. There were only two ops, one at the control box and one doing everything else. I tried not to think about their ages too much. The coaster could really use a paint job, but that’s true of a lot of wooden coasters, even ones at bigger parks.

I opted for the back row, because I wasn’t expecting much from this ride. I was joined by a rather chatty teen enthusiast who was also trying for a rare credit. The ride has PTC trains, with seat belts and buzz bars, but I still wasn’t expecting much. And for the most part, I was right. The first drop was nice, the turnaround had some rumble in it, but wasn’t particularly painful. It was mostly just a figure-eight layout. However, on the second lap, the train steps up to cross over the center. I was expecting a properly curved hill, but the train just stayed at the higher level for a couple of seconds. Just as I started to be disappointed, the bottom dropped out and I slammed against the buzz bar. The other enthusiast was equally surprised, as we both shouted. There was one more bump that was also a surprise, and then it was back in the station. I almost don’t know what to think about the experience. It was a surprise, and that was definitely fun. It probably wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t been in the back car, or if I'd known anything about the ride before boarding. It’s not a good enough surprise that I’d tell people to go out of their way to experience it. Despite all of that, in the moment, it was awesome, and I’ll probably remember it for that. So I consider that money well spent, but I probably won’t make much effort to do it again.