Friday at Halloweekends promised to be our first full day and with the sunny skies and warm weather --- I think it was in the 60s --- probably a crowded one. Still, we used our season-passholder early-admission not to ride something but to find food. Specifically, the burrito bowl place which did turn out to be in the Frontier Town. And, better, which were covered under our meal plan so we could walk in to the empty restaurant, get a lot of food, and take it right back out to eat in a wonderful noontime sun.
With that done --- and I didn't feel seriously hungry the rest of the day so this might be our best meal option at Cedar Point --- we could get into riding and Halloweekending. The Mine Ride was the nearest ride and I noticed the signs on it still list the Quicksilver Express, at Gilroy Gardens, and could point out how we'd been there.
And after that, the Sky Hawk, the rigid-pendulum giant swing ride that brings you a hundred-plus feet up in the air. Almost no line, too, a surprise given it's a good ride and it is a good thrill. Part of the joy of it for me is that it's one of the few rides giving a few moments of free fall, at the top of the swings. This was quite disconcerting to some of the kids in the row past us but, you know, they'll come to love it, I'm sure.
After the Sky Hawk we noticed something that must have been there forever without drawing our attention. This is a little building --- it's got swinging doors like a cattle barn --- that sits between the maintenance shed for the Mine Ride roller coaster and the parkgoer-accessible areas. I assume it's some convenient spot for maintenance stuff for that part of the Frontier Town, but I'm not sure how it never attracted our notice or exploration before.
At Halloweekends we always try to ride all the roller coasters at least once, sometimes excepting Woodstock Express as a kiddie coaster that's not so fun when you have adult knees. Also sometimes excepting Top Thrill Dragster, because it always has a huge line for a 16-second ride. Not a problem anymore, of course, but we could see where they were building the new tower for Top Thrill 2. And, as ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger asked, wondering if that's really the name they're going with? You get the alliteration but nobody called the ride Top Thrill for short; it was Dragster or TTD. But they've got the merchandise out with that name and logo and surely they wouldn't be doing that unless it were the name they're going with, right?
Also: we spotted some nature! A chipmunk, particularly, with cheeks stuffed full that we saw in front of one of the better gift shops. I could get one okay picture of the chipmunk before they vanished. bunnyhugger I think wasn't even able to get that.
After rides on the two operating carousels --- bunnyhugger hugged one of the rabbits on the Kiddie Kingdom to break the news more gently about her Bayol carousel rabbit --- I noticed something curious among the kiddie rides. They have a Junior Whip, a too-small-for-adults version of the early 20th century ride. (Cedar Point had a full-size Whip at some point, but the Tilt-A-Whirl has taken its place for providing a similar sort of ride experience, while taking up much less space.) A full-size Whip is a sort of rounded rectangle track, with cars at the rounded edges rotating and being whipped back into place before resuming the straight parts of the path. Their ride, the Roto Whip, is a circular ride, little cars (still Whip or Tilt-a-Whirl shaped) going around in a bigger circle. Well, this time I noticed the tracks, showing the metal worn down by many, many rides, is not a circle. Or even a ring. It's a pretty well-defined oval or ellipse. I don't remember noticing the Roto Whip being ridden --- the Kiddie Kingdom rides share operators and only a couple run at a time --- and we wouldn't see it run. But now I'd like to understand how it moves that we get this wear pattern in the metal it runs along. Although I guess I don't want to understand deeply enough to check YouTube for ride videos.
Put aside my wondering at the mysteries of the Roto Whip. Enjoy some of the spectacle of Gilroy Gardens as we knew it.
Riding on the Panoramic Wheel, the park's Ferris wheel. It's not much larger than what you get at a county fair which might be part of why bunnyhugger was warm to riding it.
Looking in on the axle of the wheel. I believe we got the ride to ourselves.
Looking down! You see some of the forests we went through to get into the queue.
And now a look out across the amusement park ... which you can barely tell exists, from here. Quite the view. You might see a little clearing area at the center-right of the picture (where the darker, shaded trees start). If I have my bearings right, you're going to see that again and from a different angle.
Looking over at one of the buildings where they hold events and activities and educational stuff.
And I think that's the building that the monorail and the train also run through, over there.
Trivia: By 1901 the British population consumed 259 million pounds of tea annually. India and Sri Lanka were able to produce this, plus another hundred million pounds of extra tea for surplus. Source: Tea: Addiction, Exploitation, and Empire, Roy Moxham.
Currently Reading: Michigan History, November/December 2023. Editor Sarah Hamilton.
PS: Reviewing _Popeye and Son_, Episode 7: Redbeard, an episode I like more than you were maybe expecting me to say.
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Date: 2023-12-19 12:27 pm (UTC)