Monday of our trip was the only one which would not involve an amusement park. This is not to say it was devoid of rides. But we had an idea that our biggest goal, now that Great America was safely visited, would be terribly crowded the day before the 4th of July and less so the day after. (This would be right.) And the other park we wanted to get to we calculated Tuesday or Thursday would be best for a visit. This left us with time to simply sight-see, now. And ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger had found some letterboxes to search out and, more, an antique carousel.
Driving around for this would also confirm that we did not have air conditioning and while it turned out to be the last day of the serious heat wave for the week, I was resolved to change the car out. This is when I promised over and over that it wouldn't be a big deal, which it was.
Anyway. The carousel was and is the W E 'Bill' Mason Carousel, one of the very few British-made carousels we've ridden. It was made by the Savage brothers for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition and has horses from a bunch of different carvers. After the Expo it was part of a travelling circus and, over the 80s, restored and set up in this spot in Los Gatos, California. It was dedicated the 4th of July, 1991, so we missed that anniversary by a day.
And also part of the park housing this is the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad. Billy Jones worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad for decades and in 1939 acquired a one-third scale locomotive that was being scrapped. He restored it and began running it on his ranch, giving rides for free. After his death a preservation society moved the railroad to the Oak Meadow and Vasona Parks in Los Gatos, and from 1970 the ride's been running.
Now I know what you're thinking: a miniature railroad built and run by a quirky fanatic in California ... what does Ward Kimball have to do with this? The answer is he designed the logo for the Wildcat Railroad, a smiling bobcat wearing an engineer's cap. They sell T-shirts with the logo on it, although not in any size that I could wear the day we visited, more's the pity.
Is this an amusement park? Considering that we're willing to allow such ride-sparse things as Nelis's Dutch Village out in Holland, Michigan, to be a theme park you'd think maybe it is? But, no, just having two rides plus a snack counter seems too little for me, even if they have souvenirs.
So I'll cover a bit more of that, and the letterboxing, tomorrow, if all goes well.
And next up on the photo roll? Why, it's neither a furry convention, a pinball tournament, nor an amusement park. No, come early June we were struck with Covid, but after we recovered we were ...
Off to the Fairy Tale Festival! bunnyhugger put her old dragon costume back together again, a little improved again, and set out with me as entourage.
She also kept her camera with her, since the locale is a pretty and historic one.
Big ol' dragon plush taking a seat by one of the vendor booths here.
And an inflatable dragon watches over all from the second-floor balcony of the Turner-Dodge House.
That plush dragon again, seen from the other side. The vendor had a lot of plush figures. In fact ...
Here's some of the homemade glaceons and ... not-glaceons ... the vendor had. You can see other cartoon-inspired characters on the other shelves.
Trivia: In 1883 the New York Metropolitans of the American Association used only two pitchers --- Tim Keefe and Jack Lynch --- for the whole 96-game season. Source: The Beer and Whiskey League: The Illustrated History of the American Association --- Baseball's Renegade Major League, David Nemec.
Currently Reading: The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery Of The World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, Benjamin Wallace. So, like, sometimes people actually drink their 200-year-old bottles of wine and I've been trying to see if it says what they do with the empty bottles. Like, you'd have to save them, right? But how do you preserve them as used bottles?
