It's the final countdown

[austin_dern]

Now for the stats-heavy review of the past week in my mathematics blog:

• How December 2015 Treated My Mathematics Blog, which was less big than November, mostly.
• Another Reasoning Puzzle From ChefMongoose and one offering locker access if you get it right.
• Reading the Comics, January 4, 2015: An Easy New Year Edition since there was no Jumble to solve in it.
• How 2015 Treated My Mathematics Blog, WordPress's little kind-of animated review.

And now back to Conneaut Lake Park, and pictures around the Kiddieland area within it.

The back side of the Blue Streak at Conneaut Lake Park. This is at the end of a tunnel which starts the ride, and which is recovering from its very-dilapidated condition. I was standing in the Kiddieland area, which has a couple of rides I now know date from the early-50s Allan Herschel company Kiddielands package.

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Mysterious abandoned path! There's an island that used to be part of Conneaut Lake Park's attractions and that they haven't been able to afford to keep up or run for decades. The paths to it are blocked off reasonably securely. Some parts of it are still visible despite the age and turmoil that's wracked the park. Yes, this is one of the parts of the park that looks most like a horror movie waiting to break out.

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Ride station for the Little Dipper at Conneaut Lake Park's Kiddieland. This is, if I'm not missing something on the Roller Coaster Database, the oldest steel roller coaster still operating. It dates to 1951. We couldn't ride this --- no adults allowed --- but we have ridden its twin at Quassy in Connecticut. Quassy's is a bit of a knee-banger, for people our size. We have to imagine it's evenmore of a rough ride here.

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The return leg of the Little Dipper ride at Conneaut Lake Park. Note the Alan Herschell logo on the front. This was the fullest I'd seen the ride, but it was after all an extremely busy day and a quite pleasant, sunny one.

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Comic foreground figures of Connie and Conrad Otter in the Conneaut Lake Park Kiddieland. The signs were, when we visited in 2013, our first hint about how to pronounce the name of the place --- Connie Otter, see? --- although we had to have that explained to us. I'm not positive they fully thought out the faces here, but it's too wonderfully homemade to be sour about. The park is a lot like this. If you aren't charmed, you might be unable to appreciate Conneaut Lake Park, and I'm sorry for that.

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Trivia: After the ceremony laying the cornerstone for the White House (on the 13th of October, 1792) the committee retired to Suter's Fountain Inn, in Georgetown, where a reported sixteen toasts were raised. (One for each state and one for the President.) Source: Washington Burning: How a Frenchman's Vision for Our Nation's Capital Survived Congress, the Founding Fathers, and the Invading British Army, Les Standiford.

Currently Reading: Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal, Jeffrey J Kripal.

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I am somewhat surprised to see the final photo not featuring your good selves. Did such a moment happen, and is simply being concealed from public view?

It's not the French pronunciation, then?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid the moment didn't happen. I was in the Kiddieland section by myself when I took this photo --- bunny_hugger needed to rest --- and we didn't have the chance to prowl back around it before it closed for the evening for its ``Ghost Lake'' haunted-manor makeover.

And, no, it's not the French pronunciation. Neither is the local Presque Isle, about an hour north on the Lake Erie shore. Still, there ought to be a Connie Otter fursuit.