austin_dern | The summer sun is fading as the year grows old

Wednesday after Christmas we did another traditional seasonal thing. This was going to Crossroads Village. Last year they had the place open only for driving through. This year they had a more normal schedule, allowing people to walk around and even running a show in the opera house. And, most important, running their carousel and Ferris wheel.

And also ... the train ride. They were once again having the hourlong ride in their antique locomotive, on cars a hundred-plus years old, going past many light displays while they play Christmas songs. Did we want to do that? Spend an hour enclosed in a train car with who knows how many people? The cars are hardly airtight --- usually they feel drafty --- but that's nothing like being in the actual open. Still, everyone was to be masked while riding, thanks to this mile-long museum piece coming under federal regulation. And we had those N95 masks which bunnyhugger's father brought us last year and was insulted we weren't wearing. We couldn't make everyone else wear N95 masks, but ... as long as we had this, and if we could get some reasonable spacing in the car? Which, in past years, we usually could? We bought tickets, but kept in mind that we should be ready to ditch and eat the cost, if things were too crowded before the train left.

The village seemed about normal levels of busy, probably because it was a tolerably warm day and what else are you going to do that week? They had everyone go through the same gate, at the railroad station, with a conductor counting off groups of people and sending them to specific cars. We think we were accidentally counted in with a different group, so it's possible we overloaded our car by two people. It didn't seem too crowded, although I admit for once I was thinking how nice it would be if it were twenty degrees colder out.

The train hit almost all the familiar, expected light shows, with many of the familiar, expected comments and songs along the way. And the great turnaround at one end to the Twelve Days Of Christmas, and at the other end to the views of the hot air balloons (they no longer talk about those as how Santa delivers to the southwest) and the juggling dragon (they no longer explain his origin as an intended-Halloween-show) and all. Apart from wearing the masks --- which did so much to keep our faces warmer and maybe limited how much the windows fogged --- it felt like it might have in a sane year. Also we finally remembered to bring a dishtowel so we could wipe the windows clean of condensation, and take slightly less awful pictures of the lights moving past outside.

We did not go to the show, which looked like a repeat of the polar follies performance we saw in 2019. We didn't have the time, although I'm not sure if we had got there a half-hour earlier if we might have anyway. Possibly; the opera house is never that crowded for its performances.

We did go on the rides, though. They had the Ferris wheel, the fastest in Michigan, which granted is not much competition. But six rpms is a good speed; the one at Michigan's Adventure runs at maybe four rotations per minute, and the one at Greenfield Village we hope to someday go fast enough to measure. We rode the Ferris wheel early in the night, as one of the first things we did, and then came back after the train ride for not quite the last ride of the night. That second ride we had all to ourselves, at least until the ride operator got a running start and leapt onto the fast-moving carousel. I'm not clear why he did that, other than to impress hose watching.

We would also get a ride on the Ferris wheel, just the one, though. That was also a ride to ourselves and I think it's the only time we've ever gotten onto that ride and gone around --- quite fast --- without stopping. Kept us from being able to take any night photos from an elevation above the carousel building, but that's all right. It feels so good to be on a thrill ride.

They had the model railroad building going, and it was even open. It had one main track and two small side tracks and those were lovely to see, but also had enough guys hanging around watching that I didn't want to linger. More, though, the kettle corn stand was open, and even still had popcorn. So finally, finally, after a year of missing all the places that sell kettle corn, we got some. A nice big bag that, unfortunately, had to sit closed and cooling while on the railroad car. But it still tasted great to fill out our night, and our ride home. We were eating bits of it for almost a week to come.

I'll have pictures of Crossroads Village soon. For now, please enjoy pictures of the Potter Park Zoo yet.

A waterfall of lights hanging above one of the pathways. This was animated, and I took a little movie of it, but any one still looks pretty much like this.

Shock and horror! The snack stand was closed. We would have to go back to the gift shop to get hot chocolate.

But at least the ``trees and ornaments'' light fixtures were in place outside the snack stand. They did not flicker on and off this year.

Trivia: Fourteen bidders made offers of at least $1 billion each to buy the Federal government's 85% share in Conrail for the 1984-85 auction. Two of the bidders were railroads. Source: The Men Who Loved Trains: The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry, Rush Loving Jr. (Norfolk Southern won, but would withdraw its bid before taking possession; Conrail would have an initial public offering instead.)

Currently Reading: Miscellaneous comic books sent me by a friend. Archie Comics really taught me to over-estimate how often aliens were going to pop down to Earth and just mess with folks.

PS: From my Fourth A-to-Z: Open Set, a little more old wine in a new skin.