An Indiana Amusement Park Is Making a Gravy-Themed Roller Coaster and It’s Kind Of Awesome
Shoot through a giant can of cranberry jelly, dodge a whisk and rolling pin and hit a speed of 37 miles per hour.
DebbiSmirnoff/Getty Images
Is gravy … a thickened sauce made from meat juices and pan drippings that you can put on a wide range of foods to make them extra delicious? Widely regarded as an essential element of a Thanksgiving meal? The inspiration behind a new rollercoaster in Indiana? Or – all of the above?
Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, a holiday-themed amusement park in Santa Claus, Indiana, a town in the southwestern part of the state that calls itself “America’s Christmas Hometown,” has just announced the centerpiece of its new Stuffing Springs section: a family roller coaster called “Good Gravy,” that it’s billing as “America’s graviest coaster.” The coaster, which will cost an estimated $10 million to build, is set to open in May 2024.
The theme park, which has been around for more than 75 years and offers rides, entertainment and games in four holiday-oriented sections — Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July — says Good Gravy is “a 1,500-foot wild ride to save Thanksgiving dinner.” Hitting a speed of 37 miles per hour and open to riders of all ages who are at least 38 inches tall, the Steel Family Boomerang Coaster straps riders into gravy-boat shaped cars (two riders per car) for an exciting ride that includes a sharp 77-foot “spike” you scoot up only to hastily drop back down backwards.
With a backstory about saving Thanksgiving when Grandma runs out of gravy, the one-minute-five-second ride includes a race through a tunnel shaped like a giant can of cranberry jelly and the dodging of massive kitchen items such as a chicken timer, a whisk and a rolling pin and ingredients including a bottle of milk and a “box of Ruth’s Stuffing.” (That last one is a reverential reference to Stove Top Stuffing inventor Ruth Siems, who hailed from Evansville, Indiana, not far from the theme park.)
“We’re excited to add a coaster to our lineup that caters to the entire family, just like Thanksgiving dinner!” the park’s fourth-generation owner Leah Koch-Blumhardt tells Attractions Magazine. “The experience will be smooth and gentle enough for grandparents and younger children to enjoy, yet it’s still dynamic enough for the thrill seekers.”
“This coaster might be a little corny, but that’s exactly who we are,” Koch-Blumhardt adds. “We’ve always been as cheesy as grandma’s potatoes au gratin. We’re stuffing this ride full of puns and giving families pumpkin new to talk about.”
Lovers of roller coasters, holidays and puns now have so much more to be thankful for.
Related Content:
This Costco-Themed Birthday Cake Is So Dang Cute
