With it being midday we figured to do our last planned Dollywood souvenir-shopping and stow things in the car. This included getting something for ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger's parents. And also trying to get another loaf of cinnamon bread to be the next day's breakfast. There was a shop farther inside the park where an enormous line for cinnamon bread resided; good to know there were options even if they were long lines. Next to that we saw another shop, this one indoors, with cinnamon bread. There, we learned that this was the pickup place for people who'd put their orders in in the other line, outside. So if we didn't have a receipt or order number, well, all right, and we left trusting that we were not the first people in the history of Dollywood to make that mistake and that the staff were not laughing at us, long and hard. They're probably not still thinking of us, not like a month later now.
We got bread from the cafe we'd eaten at first thing in the day. And went to the main gift shop for another round of looking over and considering things. Among the amusing little notes is that in the wall of keychain- and mug-with-names options there was not a Jolene, which, yeah, I was expecting. But I did go and check, too, figuring either way the result would be good for a giggle. And there are items for the Jolene-named person who wants a Dollywood souvenir, including a messenger bag with Jolene repeated, first normal text, then small caps, then all caps, then all caps with JOLEEEEENE made longer. Pretty fun stuff.
The gift shop is also the main exit, just like in the joke. We were all ready for the hand stamp, or --- as Cedar Fair parks adopted last year --- a receipt given as you exit that you scan on returning. Turns out that Dollywood doesn't truck with any of that. You just re-scan the ticket that you entered with. Or the QR code on your phone. The system has the advantage of elegant simplicity, but invites the question of how do you know this isn't being used to get multiple people in on the same ticket? I guess they have to figure nobody's going to wait in the parking lot for half a day for their friend to ride Wild Eagle. They've probably thought out how people would hack the system.
We took the tram back to the car, our third experience (counting the night before) and getting to hear another round of different schtick from the person calling out destinations and stuff. The ride operator in-between asking where people needed to be let out would toss out trivia questions, things along the line of ``what is the fastest ride at Dollywood? No, not the tram ride, what are you jokers doing?'' Apparently the fastest ride is the drop tower which the guy said reached a momentary speed of [Something], greater even than their fastest roller coaster, [name], with a speed of [Something A Bit Smaller].
Back in the park we made good on the vegetarian corn dogs, giving bunnyhugger the chance at a park food she hasn't had since childhood and me a park food I'm ... not positive I ever had at a park. We were usually a picnic-cooler-in-the-trunk family. While waiting for them to cook we got chatting with the cashier and somehow the song ``Under the Boardwalk'' came up. Maybe it was playing on the park PA system. He observed that when you listen to the lyrics you notice the song is a little risqué. We agreed, although as I thought it over --- and confirmed by looking the lyrics up afterward --- they're suggestive but don't promise anything more than ``making love'' in what feels like the context they used in Hays Code-approved movies. Anyway, I have no reason to think I'm not basically neurotypical, why do you ask?
Also while we were eating this we sat down among some tables that a pair of ducks were patrolling. They sat down for a while just beside us, not quite asking for anything but also probably not upset if we felt like tossing them something. We didn't, and they went about their business unfazed.
Are we almost out of the Merry-Go-Round Museum? We are! Here's another half-dozen pictures and then I bet you won't guess what comes next! Unless you remember my detailed Halloweekends trip report from last fall.
Here's a couple horses tucked into the back exit of the Merry-Go-Round Museum, where people aren't ordinarily allowed to go. The platforms they're mounted on suggest to me they might be used for public exhibitions when that's needed; the front two look like they're on rollers. They might also be on rollers to allow for them being taken off-site for work that can't be done in the building, if there is, or to be taken on the elevator downstairs where we hear there's a workshop.
The plain side of one of the horses near the back door. You can see it doesn't look bad but it's a step below what the outer side of a horse gets. (See below if you don't remember what the outer side of a [different] horse gets.)
Small giraffe here set up by the basement stairs. I imagine it's from a kids' carousel, but wouldn't be confident in that. There were a lot of curious mounts out there.
Up front by the ticket booth is that wolf with the secondary mouse figure and one more skeleton hanging out there.
Wandering around out front and hey, here's a dog with a lot of nose for you to ride.
[ See above ] ``So how many jewels did you want on your mount?'' ``Yes.''
Trivia: In a March 1956 press conference Dwight Eisenhower promised that if his health failed he would resign the Presidency. Source: The Year We Had No President, Richard Hansen.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Sundays Supplement Volume 10: 1948, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.
