Our day at Michigan's Adventure, off and on with JTK and sometimes more people, was another fun one. We got a couple pictures of him and family, including some action photos on the Corkscrew coaster. This from figuring out how to turn on burst mode on the camera, not one of our usual competencies. I think I mentioned one of JTK's kids warmed up to the idea of riding Shivering Timbers, the biggest roller coaster at the park, and was enthusiastic afterwards. So that bodes well for their riding anything in the future.
I did get a roller coaster ride with a kid, though. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger and I got rides on Zach's Zoomer, taking separate seats because even though we fit together in some junior wooden coaster seats this one isn't anywhere near big enough for us. A couple of kids --- who'd asked me, in the queue, whether I was riding --- lined up behind us. While the gate was open one of them hopped in, next to me, to my surprise. Their friends asked what they were doing and they answered, reasonably, riding. They asked if my seat-made had asked to ride with me and the kid answered that ``I don't have to ask''. Fair! The kids agreed to meet up after the ride. So that was nice and the first time I've had a seat-mate on Zach's Zoomer to my recollection. Also nerve-wracking: the ride makes many more right turns than left, so I worried I was in danger of crushing the kid and I clung with all my might to the side of the car. I'd have ridden on the other side if I knew what was going to happen. But we got through without any injury, and while the ride photo wasn't that good I don't think they were getting one anyway. (Someday I think about getting the ride photo package, just to capture all the ways that I have the same goofy look on my face every roller coaster ever.)
The sky was overcast, a rare weather condition for our trips out there. It was also wet, with evidence of heavy rains recently. The supports for Wolverine Wildcat, for example, were not under water, but they were sitting in larger puddles than usual. Nothing that interfered with the day, I think they had that pump running at the end of Thunderhawk's queue but couldn't swear to that now.
A good bit of our activity was with JTK and family. Also, occasionally, insects. At one point a yellow jacket started to hover around me. JTK's kid pointed to it and said, ``a yellow jacket''. I explained, ``no, no, this isn't a yellow jacket, it's a blue hoodie'' and I tugged on my hoodie. She repeated this and I did too She pointed to the bug flying around my pop, and said that's a yellow jacket. ``No, no, that's my soda pop, see?'' And then said to JTK how ``kids just love it when adults pull this stunt on them, it's like their favorite thing in the world.''
Also we got kettle corn. In the middle of the day, for a change; we've always liked having a bag to eat on the drive home but given how much trouble we have had getting kettle corn we decided to get it now even if we had to put the bag in the new Wolverine Wildcat storage bin. We had kettle corn left over for the drive, just not as much and not as hot as might be.
Mad Mouse excluded we had a good day full of riding with only reasonable waits, including when we went back to Wolverine Wildcat. As we got to the end of the day we waved goodbye to JTK and company. And then it was time to get our final ride for the season. Our second Shivering Timbers ride was rough enough we weren't up to doing that again, and while we could have gone around to Wolverine Wildcat again, or Corkscrew, we were plagued with indecision. And then picked Zach's Zoomer, getting not quite the last ride of that coaster for the season, but still, that all-important after-the-park-closes ride.
On the way out ... at our August visit the parking lot attendant told us park maps were at Guest Services, and we forgot to check. bunnyhugger doubted there were any physical park maps, with good reason. Cedar Fair has been trying to push people into using their app to better spy on their customers, after all. And Michigan's Adventure is a park that has, to the best of my knowledge, never had any park map on display within the park itself, not even at a fixed station. But while our day was ending I noticed among the many families with strollers for their kids one with a folded-up, well-used park map.
So on our way out I stopped at Guest Services, in a line so ambiguous as to make bunnyhugger uncomfortable, mostly of people turning their day tickets into season passes. The Guest Servicer thought for a moment and then disappeared to the far opposite end of the counter section --- the parts normally used for people coming into the park, early in the day --- and brought back one neatly folded pristine map! She said they were just about out of them, which implies, first, they do still print out maps, and second that they print out almost exactly the right number of maps. I'd have liked a second, to have a spare, but felt that we had a triumph in getting one at all.
While there were no former aircraft fuselages converted into recreational vehicles to be seen, and while we didn't get to ride Mad Mouse, we had a great visit.
On the drive back we did not encounter any of the severely heavy eastbound traffic we'd seen going to the park. I'd guessed, probably rightly, that it was people coming back from their Lake Michigan or Up North weekends, although I thought it weird people were coming home before noon on Labor Day. I'd expected more of a rush and no, it was the normal traffic as far as I could tell. We got home at a reasonable hour and could confirm our plans for the next thing to do.
Here's some more of the attractions at Sylvan Beach.
Sylvan Beach's Himalaya ride, with what sure looks like a 70s art package on it. Also I love that Harvey Comics H up front on it.
The disco ball that makes the center of the ride. Also you get some idea of the backdrop which I don't think I have an adequate photograph of, behind it.
The cars have these little chrome skier figures on it.
Inside of the Himalaya; you see what I mean about the art and also how it was hard getting photographs when the sunshine was that bright.
Back to the Theel carousel that was Sylvan Beach's own ride.
More of the park's carousel (nad a glimpse of the operator), a carousel that isn't as historic as the one in Carello's Arcade but does have (so far as we know) its original horses.
Trivia: Fruitport, in Muskegon County, Michigan, was founded by Edward L Craw in 1868 and platted as Crawville. It was renamed Fruitport in 1869. (It's in an area that grows fruit and was on a lake port.) Source: Michigan Place Names: The History of the Founding and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities, Walter Romig. A separate entr on Fruitland, a township in Muskegon county, says that was a land of ``chiefly grapes and peaches'' so I imagine Fruitport to be similar.
Currently Reading: High-Speed Dreams: NASA and the Technopolotics of Supersonic Transportation, 1945 - 1999, Erik M Conway.
