To break up our driving, I suggested we first stop off at Clementon Park in New Jersey, a park that had been closed but then purchased by Chicago businessman Gene Staples and reopened. When we had last visited, hardly anything in the park was operating. So I was interested in seeing what progress had been made. We arrived at the park at about 11:30. Although the forecast was for a mild and cloudy day, it was lightly raining. Unfortunately, nothing at the park had changed; only a couple of the rides were running. Admission was just $20 each, but since it was raining and there was nothing for us to do in the park, we got back in our car and headed for our hotel which was about an hour-and-a-half away in Perryville, Maryland. For dinner we visited a restaurant in nearby Havre de Grace, the Tidewater Grille. The restaurant sat alongside the Susquehanna River. A long railroad bridge spanned the river and across it frequently ran a fleet of Amtrak trains. Karen got a salmon salad and I got grilled salmon with garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables. We had an excellent meal. It was a good ending to an otherwise disappointing day.

We arrived at the understated park entrance at about 11:00 the next day. It was overcast and cool, but at least there was no rain in the forecast. Karen realized she forgot her season pass at home, but she had it on her phone's wallet app. Suprisingly, when we approached the parking gate the attendant flagged us through without even looking at my pass. There weren't many cars in the lot and we were able to park close to the front. The entryway was a staid colonial structure very similar to the one at Six Flags New England, resembling the front of an old plantation-era southern home. At the entrance gate, Karen's wallet app wouldn't scan, so we had to go to guest services. They said the bar code in her app was valid, but they had been having trouble all season scanning them. So they just printed her a regular ticket which we took to the gate.

The entrance midway was one of the prettiest in the entire Six Flags chain. If you didn't know you were in a park, you would swear you were standing on a typical street in colonial America with gabled brick buildings along a tree-lined cobblestone street. I decided to film my walk-thru at that point, worried that it might rain later. During the walk-thru I discovered that the Wild One was closed. And the Capital Railway, one of my favorite miniature railroads, was also closed. In fact (as has become common at many Six Flags parks), there were a lot of rides and concessions closed.

When I finished filming, we stopped into the main gift shop at the front of the park. As was typical at most Six Flags parks, the merchandise was all fairly generic. The shirts all had the large Six Flags logo with "America" tacked onto them. I was hoping for something with Wild One on it, but no such luck. Instead we headed into the park. In front of us was the Grand Theater which featured musical performances throughout the day. To the left of that was a small staging area for meet-and-greets with Looney Tunes characters. To the right was their attractive Wave Swinger ride. We took a right and spotted Minutemen Motors, the park's antique car ride, with no one in line. So we queued up for it and were on our way for a brief excursion through some bamboo forests.

After that pleasant ride we continued strolling down the midway, past the whimsical menagerie carousel and into Looney Tunes Movie Town, the park's kiddie area. It had the usual Six Flags assortment of themed kiddie rides along with the big fountain (which wasn't working) and also an indoor play area called the Looney Tunes Prop Warehouse. Heading out of that area brought us into the Mardi Gras section of the park where the station of the Wild One was located. The entrance to the ride was still blocked off. One of the trains was sitting in the brake run, and no one was around. So we continued on.

We followed a narrow brick walkway that ended at a large ornate fountain that was barely trickling. The walkway turned to the right and brought us under the coaster and out onto the Gotham City area of the park. To our right was the huge ugly red metal facade of the long-abandoned Gotham City arena which used to host superhero shows. In front of us was a wide expanse of midway with concession stands off to either side. Far in the distance was the lift hill of Superman: Ride of Steel, the first Intamin hypercoaster. Instead of heading off in that direction, we took a left through another passage underneath the coaster and ended up in the Chesapeake area of the park, next to Firebird, the steel "floorless" looping coaster, and Roar, the twisting wood coaster made by Great Coasters International. The ride was visually spectacular, with its typical GCI swooping turns. But the last time I rode it, it was pretty rough. And I didn't think it would have improved much in the intervening years. (This was Six Flags after all, and they had a reputation to maintain.) There were very few people in line and I was able to queue up for the front seat. After one train's wait, I was seated and sent on my way. I could see some new track that had been installed in a few places. But alas, the ride was just as rough as before, with the train shaking violently as if it were running on octagonal wheels. But I made it back in one piece.

From there we went for a more sedate experience. Nearby was the Exposition Center, a small amphitheater where a stunt show was about to begin. This wasn't like the Six Flags stunt shows of the past, where superhero characters battled it out across a hastily-constructed story. This was a demonstration of how stunts are done. An emcee introduced three guys dressed in black. One of the guys wore a green sweatshirt and he was a constant source of ribbing by the emcee. After every stunt, the guy would lie motionless on the ground. The emcee would extol the audience to yell, "Get up, Christian!" Upon hearing that he would hop back up. It became an enjoyable running gag. The emcee explained how stunt actors warm up and then she had them do some flips from a standstill. The stunts progressively got more involved, showing how actors deliver and take punches, how sword fights are choreographed, how performers fall off roofs. They were all techniques I learned decades ago when I was an actor, but it was interesting to hear them all explained and demonstrated. All the way through the emcee was warning about loud explosions, but none were forthcoming. The final bit was watching one of the performers rappel from the stage across to the audience. Then the emcee warned about the big explosion again. From a little tin shed over on the left that was partially buried in the ground erupted a massive flame. It was basically a giant flamethrower. But there was no explosion. And that concluded the show. The audience seemed to enjoy it.

Next to the amphitheater was the entrance to Steamtown, an area that had been remodeled in 2024. It previously had a western theme. With a few tweaks, the park made it into a steampunk area. The new attraction there was Steam Whirler. It was yet another Zamperla NebulaZ ride. In the past year alone, I had seen them at three other parks. Maybe parks liked them because they took up so little space, had a fairly high capacity (though they loaded slowly) and were fascinating for non-riders to watch. So we watched it go through its paces for a while and then continued on. Next to that ride was a large building sporting murals of clocks and gears. I have no idea what it was; the building wasn't labeled on the park map and there didn't appear to be any way to enter it. Next door to that was Electro Derby, a bumper car arena. And tucked behind all of that and easy to miss was Skywinder, a standard Vekoma suspended looping coaster that was at nearly all Six Flags parks. I was amazed that such a large ride could have been hidden so well. Opposite that was the station for QuantumCanyon Rapids that featured dinosaurs. I'm not sure what that had to do with the steampunk them. But the theming in general seemed pretty light. It basically just looked like a western town, as it had in the past. Some buildings had steam pipes welded to the walls. One had a scorpion made of piping. But that was about it.

We headed back into the Chesapeake area and passed Shipwreck Falls, their shoot-the-chutes ride, which was closed. We passed by Roar and Firebird, which had a Coca-Cola photo op in front of it. We walked in the direction of the Wild One to see if it was any closer to opening. It wasn't. We were getting hungry, but knowing Six Flags' standard menu of hamburgs, hot dogs, chicken strips and pizza, I didn't think there would be many options. Karen suggested checking out Johnny Rockets in the center of the park. We walked past the closed Capital Railways station and over to the large red and white Johnny Rockets building near the Looney Tunes Movie Town. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that they sold veggie burgers (the Impossible Burger)! It came with fries and a drink. We each got one. I got a vanilla milkshake, which basically was just a cup of soft-serve ice cream. Karen also got an order of onion rings. The total came to an eye-watering sixty-three dollars. That said, the food was quite good.

Refreshed, we headed back out and checked up once more on the Wild One. It was still closed. Next to the entrance was a plaque from the American Coaster Enthusiasts describing the historical significance of the ride. It was going to be really sad to lose this coaster. For the heck of it, I walked around toward the ride's exit and saw a ride attendant standing there. So I asked him about the status of the coaster. He said that they just didn't have enough help to run it, but they were hoping to have it operational at 3:00. (It was then 2:00.) I thought to myself that they should have closed Roar and put that staff on the Wild One instead. But at least this was encouraging news.

To pass the time, Karen and I walked back toward the Gotham City area. Along the way we passed by a coaster enthusiast who asked us if we knew anything about whether the Wild One would be operating. We chatted for a while and then moved on. There were hardly any people in Gotham City and about the only sound was the pop music blasting over the PA system. A replica of the Batmobile from the Tim Burton movies sat claustrophobically off to the side. We followed the path around past Joker's Jinx, an intense steel coaster that was basically identical to the Flight of Fear rides at Kings Island and Kings Dominion, except this one wasn't enclosed in a building. The giant knot of track sat out in the open. At least the coaster was running. Across from it sat the silent picnic groves and Penguin's Blizzard River, a tube slide that was closed. There was also a sign advertising "Boo Fest", a kid-friendly Halloween event that would be running until the park closed for good on November second.

We continued on past the awkwardly-named Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth swing ride, turned left and encountered barricades preventing further progress. A sign apologized for the closure and stated the park was waiting for parts from the manufacturer. In the distance sat Superman and further on Batwing, the intense "flying" coaster, both silent. So we turned back. I understood why hardly anyone was in this section; there were just three rides operating: Wonder Woman, Joker's Jinx and Harley Quinn's Spinsanity, a Frisbee ride.

We left that area and walked back under the structure of the Wild One. I found it so strange that unlike the original ride, none of the drops reached the ground. They basically rebuilt the ride so the lowest dip was ten feet high. That must have used a lot more wood and cost quite a bit more. I heard it was because of the lay of the land. But I can't imagine that it would have cost that much more for an excavator to dig a trench for the track. We moved on through the smallest section of the park, the Olde Boston section, though there didn't seem to be anything particularly Bostonian about it. There were just two rides: Pirate's Flight (yet another swing ride) and a teacup ride. There was also a Party Pavilion, but it was blocked off. The area looked a bit chaotic and threatening with spiderwebs and colorful flags haphazardly crisscrossing around the entire area. There were also small circus-like cabanas and various colored blocks. I assumed it was for Halloween.

We passed by the large Showtime Theater which was closed and had a sign out front declaring, "More shows coming soon". Karen spotted Chop Six, the park's Asian eatery that was sort of hidden down a hill. We checked out the menu and they did offer a vegetarian stir-fry. By then it was about 2:45, so we headed back to the Wild One. Sure enough, the ride had begun testing and we were the first in line. One of the ride attendants removed the chain and two kids went running past us up the ramp. Naturally the queued up for the front seat, so we got in line behind them. The station was otherwise empty. The station had signs that described the history of the coaster and how it was moved. The station crew sent out the red train first and then the blue. The kids who cut in front of us boarded the red train. As patrons noticed the coaster running, the station began to rapidly fill up. After the red train was dispatched, the blue train rolled into place and we boarded. After the red train hit the brakes, we were dispatched and rolled over to the tall lift. From the top of the lift, the track curved to the right and dropped steeply. We careened down. The bottom of the hill was remarkably smooth and we flew up into the first big camelback hill with wonderful sustained airtime. Each hill was like that -- smooth and filled with airtime. We sped through the powerful helix at the end and then hit the brakes. It was all over too soon. I was so happy we got to ride it one last time. We might have gone for another ride but by that time they were sending out full trains; the queue line got crowded quickly and it would have been a long wait. I really hope that another park saves this coaster. Judging by the crowd that turned out when it finally opened, this was the most popular ride in the park. By then it was 4:30 and we had a long drive to our next hotel, so sadly we bid farewell (forever) to Six Flags America.

In my opinion, this is the problem when massive publicly-owned corporations operate amusement park: profit and shareholder returns become the most important factor. But amusement parks are about the communities they serve. They're about helping people to briefly escape their working lives for some fun and excitement that they otherwise wouldn't get. With Six Flags America gone, where are the millions of residents in the Washington D.C. area going to turn? The nearest park would be Clementon, but that would be a two-and-a-half hour trip. Other parks like Dorney and Great Adventure are nearly three hours away. I suspect what the Six Flags Board members were thinking when they decided to close Six Flags America was that Great Adventure was close enough to the D.C. area. But six hours of driving doesn't leave much time for relaxing fun at a park.

Six Flags America (when operating properly) was a beautiful shady park with lovely plantings, world class rides and decent food. There were many family-friendly rides, like the train, Shipwreck Falls, the Rapids and the antique cars. There were plenty of kiddie rides. And lots of thrill rides. The one show we saw was both entertaining and educational. And the park was home to two of my favorite coasters: Superman and the Wild One. I'm not sure whether Superman can be saved because of its sprawling layout. I don't know which park would have enough land for it. Joker's Jinx would be easy enough to transplant since it takes up relatively little room. But my biggest worry was the Wild One. It was historically rare to save a wooden rollercoaster. It already happened once with this one. Would it be that fortunate again?

I'll miss this park, but I'm glad I'll have good memories of our visits to Six Flags America.