There's a casual 5K run/walk that the county parks system holds in mid-June. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger had thought for years about trying it. This year? Well, she's gotten rigorous about taking daily walks. The county called off the organized run/walk, obviously. But they did schedule a virtual race, everyone encouraged to find a five-kilometer stretch convenient them, ideally including some part of the River Trail, and walk or run that this morning. And so bunnyhugger did, spending about fifty minutes walking a loop from the end of our block and along the edge of the Red Cedar River. She's to get a commemorative t-shirt for her participation.
If that weren't enough --- and since she had to get up in the morning on a Saturday it was --- we had company today. EL, her old grad school friend, came over for an early afternoon coffee and chat. We did this outside, in the garden, where we could sit six feet apart and not staring right at each other, and could be interrupted some by the many squirrels in the yard. And it was a good chance to hear how Michigan State is planning for the Fall semester. They seem to have already accepted that there won't be a full term on campus, something bunnyhugger's school is trying to wish away. We'll hopefully have another gettogether soon.
So how about some last couple pictures of ride signs, and then go back into the night of our Halloweekends 2018 Saturday? That sounds good to me.
Close-up view of that mid-60s park map. Some of the park is still recognizable here, and it's reassuring to see that my supposition that Blue Streak's queue used to be on the other side of the loading station is borne out by the map. Cadillac Cars is still there, but the Sports Cars ride was demolished to build ValRavn. The Fascination area hasn't been that game since about 2000, but it's still a restaurant and midway games. The taffy shop near the Space Spiral, top-center, is still there, even a decade after the Space Spiral was demolished. The midway carousel used to be the Carrousel and just off to the side. Also they used to have a wax museum.
One last ride sign. The note at top says Sky Wheel, which would probably be the double Ferris wheel that Cedar Point had from 1961 to 1980.
Back to riding stuff! Here's the view from the Corkscrew station, looking out towards Power Tower. I love how many weird colors come together for this.
Peering from the Corkscrew station into the Himalaya.
Jack-o-lanterns set on the lagoon underneath supports for Iron Dragon. Beautiful and tranquil here.
A different view of the pumpkins and Iron Dragon, with ValRavn in the background. Either will do for your album cover.
Power Tower's peak serving as a tangent curve to Corkscrew's track.
Here, the Corkscrew track silhouettes ValRavn's.
And this? This is just Corkscrew's track, the blue pipes, with its support structure, the white ones, behind. And the clouds reflecting the light of the park beneath.
Millennium Force train coming in to the unloading station.
Millennium Force's lift hill, on the left, and part of its return leg, on the right.
This part of the return leg is a nice little hill that's more fun than you'd think such a gentle incline would be.
I, uh, I hope someone told the ride operator about this. (This is the transfer track, used to get a train off and on the ride.)
The ``Daisy Hill Puppy Farm'' themed area of one of the gift shops. Why photograph an element that ... seems unaware of what a puppy farm is? Because the structure here is rather old; bunnyhugger remembers it being in the gift shop the ... oh ... 15 years or so ago, before Cedar Fair had the Peanuts license. The area was used as a little stage area for their former licensed characters, the Berenstain Bears.
Trivia: Telstar One's orbital height ranged from 950 to 5600 kilometers. Source: How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village, Arthur C Clarke. (Wikipedia gives its altitudes as ranging from 952 to 5933 kilometers. I have no explanation for this discrepancy.)
Currently Reading: Piper in the Woods, Philip K Dick.
