I have lived in the Chicago area all my life, so it is the Gurnee park.
From around 1978-79 to 1984, I lived in Chicago, so it was I-90, I-294, to I-94. The reason I said 1978-79 was that I vaguely remember going on Southern Cross. From 1984 on, I'm in Naperville, so it was I-88, I-294, to I-94. Both ways, our first sign that we were close...Sky Trek, American Eagle, Highway Sign, Grand Avenue.
I have gone there with family, my 8th grade school trip, a couple of church teen groups, and then finally, the last few times for a private group of the clients we had for my job.
Family: 1978-1979 to probably the late 80's (One year for an entire weekend. We went to the Wisconsin State Fair in a downpour, then stayed at the Holiday Inn Gurnee).
School trip: 1989. I remember my friend and I going on the Hometown Fun Machine, when there was some lightning in the air. We eventually made it to the Pictorium to watch the movie and to stay inside for a little while.
Church teen groups: 1992-1993. What fun trips they were.
For work: 1998-2000 and 2002-2003. 2001 was missed due to 9/11 (It was set for 9/14) and I was going on vacation the next day. We had McDonald's as a client for my job. So in mid-September on a Friday, we had a private gathering for employees and vendors. It was closed to the general public. We would be in the park, yet the message board would say "Welcome McDonald's Closed to the Public" one or two words at a time. It was a different situation than usual with faster lines for the rides and the park opened around 3:00 PM. We lost our client at the end of 2004, and my job was cut in early 2005, and the office closed a couple of months after.
Rememberences:
In the earlier days, we always started with the Rue Le Dodge, before the rest of the park opened (Orleans Place & Carousel Plaza was opened first). After several years, on Logger's Run/Yankee Clipper, we had a system for the big drops. We would all duck down as far as we could go to have most of the water go over us. One year, I was in the back of the boat. Everyone ducked but me, and I ended up with a faceful of water.
The Sky Whirl was usually the last ride for us. This was always a time for us to talk about the day and see the night sights. It was that way until that was taken down. After that, the last ride was the Sky Trek. We would always look to see where we parked our car, a look at the park, a look at the highway, the highway sign (I miss the original sign with the back-lit lettering before Six Flags decided they want more of the sign, didn't care about the present signage, in which the background is still white at night), and we would see the Holiday Inn across the highway, with the green script Holiday Inn wording above the building.
We usually ate in the Farmer's Market area for a late lunch/early dinner.
On occasion, we did stop at the McDonald's on Grand Ave on the way in.
Everytime I walked in the park, and when the Columbia carousel music started playing, it felt like I was in heaven. I would have that music playing in my head before going.
