Enchanted

Posted On August 11, 2026

A Throwback Tour Through A Magical Forest

Where Time Stands Still

And the Fun Never Stops

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This is on multiple levels a survivorship story.

One of those stories being my own.

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Seventeen Years.

It seems like a lifetime ago, yet at one & the same time, just yesterday morning, when surgeons wheeled what was left of me into an operating room at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital.

“We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. “

“Better, stronger, faster.”

(Well…Maybe not faster.)

So, to celebrate, I did something I haven’t done in since I can’t remember. I went with my wife, daughters and granddaughters to spend the day at Enchanted Forest Water Safari in Old Forge, N.Y.

Upon our arrival I discovered that mine wasn’t the only surviror’s celebration.

Apparently 2026 marks Enchanted Forest Water Safari’s 70th year.

Which, I imagine, as amusement parks go,

has been a remarkable survivorship trip of its own.

Once I entered the park it was like taking a lifetime of footsteps backwards through time.

Everything was as I remembered it.

Childhood memories flooded back over me.

I felt like a kid again.

Recalling a long ago world of magical tales in mystical lands.

I wanted to relive every enchanted moment.

There was still even a circus show!

Unfortunately, I didn’t actually get to take any circus pics. The circus performers came on at noon. I chose that time to sit and watch from a nearby picnic area vantage point while hooked to my survivor’s lunch feeding tube. I will note however, that the high wire motorcycle acrobat act was a performance well worth the price of admission all by itself.

(Author’s Note: For the 1st time ever, I used my new computer’s AI on the two pics below, which are mine, to erase all the people. An AI assist came in handy in this instance. I’m not sure about all of either the AI or crowd photography protocols & rules, but there was actually a comfortably large crowd at the park, none of whom I had permission to photograph. Do you know just how hard it is to snap photos without people in them in the midst of a bright sunny summer day a crowded amusement park? It’s nearly impossible! )

I don’t remember when I last visited Enchanted Forest. I’m sure my wife & I brought our three kids here when they were young, but truth be told, much of that time is too survivorship haze shrouded for me to recall. Luckily, my oncology team proved far more adept at putting me back together once I fell from the wall than did all the king’s horses and all the king’s men.

All of the rides I remembered from childhood visits to the park with my parents were still there.

Who else remembers riding those rides as a kid?

I remember standing as tall as I could,

hoping I was tall enough to ride every ride all by myself.

I really wanted to ride the boats and ring the bell with my granddaughters.

But alas!

As it turns out, after all these years, now I’m TOO TALL!

There was a new roller coaster.

It looked like fun.

However, living with multple sclerosis & vertigo, discretion being the better part of valor,

I didn’t dare ride it.

Instead, determined to ride something besides the train & the carousel, I opted for a ride on the Tilt-a Whirl.

Which, all things considered, may not have been the wisest choice.

After the circus show, rides and some lunch, my wife and daughters took the grandkids over to Water Safari.

There were many fun looking rides there.

Some I remembered. Others I did not.

While the grandkids swam & splashed, Grampa opted instead for a nap on a bench in wooded shade by a kindred spirit’s house.

We ended the day with a gondola skyride.

The views were quite grand.

Reminding me that we indeed inhabit an Enchanted Forest.

In a magical land.

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Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO