Richardson Adventure Farm full of fall activities
Clutching a Rice Krispies tulip pop and beaming, 4-year-old Carter Weisenburger headed toward the Richardson Adventure Farm parking lot with his family.
Asked about his visit to the Spring Grove farm, Carter said what he liked best was "the little version of the slide." His 8-year-old brother, meanwhile, favored the main attraction - the World's Largest Corn Maze.
"I liked the mystery part of it," Grant Weisenburger said.
"It was kind of like a giant game of Clue, wasn't it?" said his mother, Heather Weisenburger.
All told, six members of the Weisenburger family had ventured out from Huntley to take it all in on a breezy, beautiful fall Sunday, including grandparents Ed and Cheryl Weisenburger, their son, Kurt, his wife, Heather, and Carter and Grant.
"We had fun, didn't we?" Ed Weisenburger said, adding that it was his first visit to the farm at 909 English Prairie Road, Spring Grove, while Cheryl had been out for the farm's first tulip festival in May.
"There's a lot of fun things for kids to do here, and it was a lot of fun to watch them," Ed said.
"There's a lot of things for older people to do, too," Grant said. "There's something for everyone."
One step beyond the admission gates, it's clear that the Huntley family wasn't kidding. The list of fun activities is long, from corn cannons to a carousel and live music on weekends, concessions and food trucks, a train ride around the grounds, a 50-foot-tall viewing tower, ring toss games, pedal carts, a sliding hill, a petting zoo, pig races, a zip line, Zorbing,
a 150-foot tubing slide, paintball target shooting, a gift shop and, of course, the 28-acre corn maze and its 9 miles of trails.
"It's great to be within an hour's drive of millions of people, but there are also a thousand other things folks could be doing besides coming to our farm, so we work really hard to provide a great experience," said George Richardson, one of the fifth generation of owners along with his brother Robert and their wives, Wendy and Carol.
A sixth generation, George's son Ryan and his wife, Kristen, bought into the business in 2007.
Much of the fun at the adventure farm is included in the price of admission, which is free for those 2 and younger and ranges from $15 to $22 for all others, depending on age and day of the week, October through Nov. 7.
Some activities, like the zip line and Zorbing, are available for an additional fee. All details are outlined at richardsonfarm.com.
On the Sunday when the Weisenburgers visited, the crowd roared to select 50-Cent (a Pound) to face off with Piggy Buffet and Corny in the 4 p.m. pig-racing finals. All were soon to be winners, though, as children in the audience clamored for a chance to feed them their post-race vanilla crème cookies.
General admission hours of 3-9 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 9 p.m. Sundays continue until Nov. 7. Parking is free.
The final Maze until Midnight of the season will be Oct. 22-23.
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