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Lakemont Park is a roller coaster ride back in time, very, very old roller coasters and travelling rides all freshly painted and smartly plated up for your amusement and amazing value when I last visited the park admission was just $9!

Leap The Dips is the oldest surviving roller coaster in the world, opening in 1902 this kinderlin kruncher is a side friction coaster in which you traverse the rickety figure 8 route in a splendiferous chariot contained within on a comfortable couch of the utmost velour luxury. Joyous and enchanted voyages await those who dare to take on this matchstick marvel

Often lost on the murky shadow of its famous brother is Skyliner a rather honest wooden coaster that was thankfully saved from extinction when it was relocated from Roseland Park in the 1980s the L shaped, out-n-back up-n-down airtime-n-fun Skyliner borders the Blair County Ballpark home of the Altoona Curve, Skyliner is definitely the most thrilling cheerleader well over a barely legal age as the train supports the team with "Go Curve" painted on the side

Elsewhere is an illustrious assortment of retro flat rides, Octopus, Skydiver, Twister, Tilt-a-Whirl spin people around in every direction imaginable.

No self-disrespecting seedy carnival is complete without a Chance Toboggan coaster and Lakemont is no exception to that pact. Encasing yourself in what can only be described as an unforgiving utilitarian version of a children's pedal car, you are unceremoniously hoiked upwards, vertically through a funnel of despair where the darkest secrets ever known to mankind rape your mind, scaring you deeply for all eternity. Reaching the precipice of reason, you begin the eternal spiral to hell itself, helter-skeltering down to the fiery underworld at an alarmingly ever increasing speed only to take what has to be the most ridiculous bunny hop and unbanked turn back into the station ever conceived, leaving both your innocence and rib cage shattered in a billion tiny fragments of dejection and you questioning the ethics of humanity