The rain started to let up as we entered the midway. Nothing much had changed. I hadn't ridden Predator in several years and wanted to see if the replacement steel Titan track had improved the ride experience. So we headed in that direction. In front of the park's theater building, a large tent had been set up. In front of the tent were Woody and Wally, the park's mascots, standing in the rain and waving to no one. Under the tent were two long wooden tables made to look like saloon counters. There was a game where you attempted to slide a beer mug down the counter and get it to stop between two lines at the other end. Next to the tent was a giant inflatable beer mug advertising Oktoberfest, which ended that day. I thought it was odd to have Oktoberfest in August. Usually it was in October. We continued on down the midway and reached the entrance of Predator, which had a chain across the entrance and a sign saying the ride would open at noon.

So instead we walked around the corner and headed for Ride of Steel (formerly Superman). There was a long line waiting for the queue to open. About 11:30, the queue was opened and we wound our way over to the station. The station rapidly filled with people. The queue for the front seat was filled. Since the ride had only one train, I opted for the third seat. The coaster track had faded considerably from its original bright red and blue color scheme. While I was waiting in line, I noticed the drive tires in the station looked pretty worn out. Within a few minutes I was seated. The ride attendant jammed the lap bar into my gut and knocked the wind out of me. As we were going up the lift hill, I heard a girl behind me telling her friend that she was terrified of this ride. Sure enough, as we crested the top of the hill, she let out a deafening scream that continued for the entire ride. The train was "hunting" a lot, shimmying back and forth. It was a lot rougher than I remembered. It did still deliver some great airtime on the hills, though.

We headed toward the far north end of the park, toward the Boomerang roller coaster. I wanted to check out the Beaver Brothers Cafe, my favorite eatery in the park, which sat right next to the coaster. But when we got there, the path forward was gated off. We could see the Cafe but couldn't get to it. A sign on the gate said we had to go to the Motocoaster at the opposite end of the park. So we doubled back. The pond next to the Boomerang used to feature paddleboats but now was filling with algae. A small sign on the fence mentioned that the pond featured the Darien Lake "sharp", a cross between a shark and a carp. There were dispensers along the fence railing, the kind you often find at zoos where you insert a quarter and get a handful of pellets. The irony of course was that hardly anyone carried coins anymore. The dispensers were all full. We followed the boardwalk path past the Anchor Bar eatery. In front of us was the Boardwalk row of food booths featuring the usual Six Flags offerings: hamburgs, hot dogs, chicken strips and pizza. The last time we ordered pizza at this park it was terrible. To the left of the Boardwalk buildings was a small billboard advertising the Beaver Brothers Cafe, and stating that it was open Wednesdays through Sundays from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm. That seemed like such a Six Flags thing to do: take your best restaurant, make sure it's as difficult as possible to reach and restrict its hours so that hardly anyone will go there.

Another typical Six Flags touch was nearby: an open grassy area with sidewalks leading to it that had been blocked off. It was where the giant Ferris wheel used to stand. In fact, some of the ride's foundations were still there. The park could have planted a few trees and placed benches there to create a relaxing shady park. But instead they just fenced it off. We continued walking north. We passed by a restroom that was closed. I'd rarely seen that in an amusement park. As we kept walking, it began to look like the park had fired its landscaping department. There were a few flowers scattered here and there, but planters mostly contained dying weeds. Many of the trees had dead or broken branches. It was a sorry sight. We passed by the back end of Viper, the big Arrow looping coaster. Behind it was the giant metal building that used to house Nightmare at Phantom Cave, and indoor roller coaster. It also housed a stunt show. But now it simply looked abandoned. Beside that was the pen for the park's batting cages. It too had been abandoned and now looked more like a dump.

Since we were almost there, we continued on toward Motocoaster, one of my favorite rides in the park. This particular ride was a prototype that the park acquired, but it was a lot of fun. The train was made up of a series of motorcycle-styled seats. You were launched into a series of tight twists and turns. On a standard coaster, the turns might have been painful. But because of how you straddled the seat, it all worked. The brake run was a bit abrupt, but outside of that it was really enjoyable. Next to Motocoaster was the park exit. So if you did want to go to Beaver Brothers Cafe, you had to leave the park. That was really odd, since the cafe was literally in the park. It made no sense to me.

There was one eatery in the park that we knew had vegetarian options, so we made the long trek back to the Crossroads Cafe. It began raining again and unfortunately Crossroads had no inside seating. But they did offer veggie burgers. So we each ordered one. Karen asked if we could get cheese on them, and the attendant said that would be $1.50 additional each. That was pricey for a slice of cheese, but we agreed. We stood under the leaky overhang waiting for our meal. It took them about fifteen minutes to microwave our burgers. When they arrived, we had a bit of a surprise: the burgers were topped not with sliced cheese but instead were drenched in orange nacho cheese sauce. We stood under the overhang and ate, since there was no dry place nearby to sit. The burgers and fries were good. The sauce, not so much.

By the time we finished, it was about 1:30 and the rain had stopped. Next door was the entrance to Predator. So I headed over there to take a ride but found it was still blocked off. The park had replaced the "Open at 12:00" sign with one that simply read, "This ride is CLOSED". Since our mouths were still burning from the nacho sauce, we walked over to the Perry's ice cream stand. At least they had seating under a roof. They offered only one size of either cone or dish. So Karen got a dish of cookies and cream and I got a dish of bourbon carmel pecan, which was absolutely delicious.

Since the weather was holding up, I filmed a park walk-thru and then met back up with Karen at Perry's. There was one ride I wanted to try before we left. It was all the way at the other end of the park in the kids' section, Rowdy's Ridge. Along the way we passed by Shipwreck Falls, the park's shoot-the-chutes ride. It was running, and I was surprised it had a few passengers. When we arrived in Rowdy's Ridge, I noticed a coaster hidden by trees that I'd never seen before: Hoot 'n Holler. It was a small Zeirer kiddie coaster. It wasn't running and was completely hidden by trees and shrubs. Next to it was the ride I came for: Moose on the Loose. It was very similar to the one I rode at Santa's Village in Canada. I got a big kick out of that ride, and so I figured I'd like this one as well. It had a long line which moved slowly (usually with just one person per moose). It took about 20 minutes before I was seated and on my way. The grounds through which the ride traveled were unkempt, with overgrown grass and weeds everywhere. But more disturbing, the ride was rough. It felt like I was being repeatedly kicked in the groin; the version in Canada was completely smooth. There were some small stunts and statues along the course but most were hidden by overgrowth. I was really glad when the ride ended.

It was about 3:30 and we called it quits. As we headed for the park exit, we passed by the gazebo near the center of the park where a band was playing, an unusual combo of saxophone, accordion and guitar. Woody and Wally were standing there waving to the few people wandering by. As we were leaving, crowds were entering for the evening concert. Heavy rain was predicted. I wished them well; I certainly had no desire to stay in the park. I was glad it didn't cost us anything to enter. And I couldn't understand why Six Flags was hanging onto this park. They seemed to be completely ignoring it. There was an enormous amount of real estate at the center of the park that used to be home to Barracuda Bay, an early waterpark. That had been completely abandoned, fenced off and left to rot. I couldn't understand why they blocked off the section of midway where Beaver Brothers Cafe was. There had been some shops along that section. The bucolic path alongside Predator and the lake had also been blocked off. I was glad they had a veggie burger, which was more than I could say for many other Six Flags parks. But there was just no compelling reason to be here. It was visually ugly, with bodies of water filled with algae, neglected landscaping and cracking pavement. Even a sunny day wouldn't have changed that. I knew Six Flags didn't own the property. Ironically, it was owned by the investment firm EPR Properties which had recently acquired about a half dozen parks from Six Flags, including the Great Escape. However, Six Flags stayed on as an operator at Darien. I couldn't figure out why. The park sat on 1200 acres, much of which was empty. There didn't appear to be any desire on Six Flags' part to add anything new. The chain had just closed Six Flags America; they could have brought over rides from that park. Maybe since they didn't own the park, they contractually couldn't. So I don't know what's going to happen to Darien Lake. It used to be one of my favorite amusement parks. But as it stands now, I don't see any reason to return.