Oh, baby, make me know you love me so and then

[austin_dern]

So, more stuff has happened. I haven't had time to write about it. Please, take some pictures of Elitch Gardens instead.

Half Pipe, the skateboarding-themed roller coaster that was, sad to say, closed as we passed it, and passed it again, and again. It's a shuttle coaster, the car rocking back and forth rather than making a complete loop (as you'd guess from the picture).

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Half Pipe doesn't have a train, really; it's got two circular pillars of seats that spin freely during the roller coaster ride. I'd seen this on Roller Coaster Tycoon 3; bunny_hugger never had and found it a challenge to her idea of what a roller coaster was.

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Thunderbolt, a Matterhorn ride very like the one at Michigan's Adventure, which also had the problem with getting all its lights working simultaneously.

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This was our chance for a second ride on Twister II. Here's some of the approach queue and a nice view of the middle leg of the roller coaster.

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Walking underneath the roller coaster track and getting several hills in a row in the picture.

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Approaching the ride we pass a picture of the original Elitch Gardens Mister Twister. Its mirror's at Knoebels and, wow, it really does look like that.

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Of course I'd take pictures of the inner hardware; here, of the electrical system shutoff stuff.

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I don't know what this is but it's definitely hardware. Probably a power transformer or similar system.

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And this box, says the white writing on it, 'Turn off Orange Breakers Only'.

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Peeking at the Twister II roller coaster loading inside the station.

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And a look from the station out at the Denver skyline. The rain had cleared up enough to give us a really gorgeous evening sky.

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Up into the Twister II station and looking at the transfer track, for trains going into maintenance or just not needed for the current crowd.

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Trivia: Bishop Paul of Middelburg's proposed 1514 reformation of the calendar would have the changes made retroactive to the 1st of January, 1500, the time that a mean conjunction of the sun and moon occurred as seen from the Roman meridian at noon, on the first day of a jubilee year. Source: The Calendar: The 5000-Year Struggle to Align the Clock with the Heavens --- And What Happened to the Missing Ten Days, David Ewing Duncan.

Currently Reading: Apollo Pilot: The Memoir of Astronaut Donn Eisele, Donn Eisele, Editor Francis French.