Labor Day, now, we did our more-or-less traditional visit to Michigan's Adventure for closing day. This is one more tradition mucked up by the ongoing pandemic, as they used to run Labor Day until just minutes past sunset giving us a few moments at the park in darkness. And they used to be open the weekend after Labor Day too. But, rather than that, they open for several weekends through mid-October for Tricks and Treats, their new Halloween event. So we can't be too upset by that, but it did mean the end of season came sooner, and wholly in the sun. And with the water park open, so we didn't have a low-crowd day. Which is not to say the lines were bad, or even particularly noticeable, apart from a bit on Thunderhawk where someone needed their restraints re-set and re-set again, enough that at one point the ride operator in back just waited for the call to go out and re-do the restraints yet again, and said he knew that was coming.
We had --- once more --- beautiful weather, inviting the question of whether there's ever a just rotten day to visit Michigan's Adventure. Well, they've had to close for flooding a couple times so I guess there must be, but it never hits us, and that's fine as we see things. It was cool, but not quite cold enough to shut the water park (as they do when it's below 65 Fahrenheit), but cool enough that hoodies were just fine. The miniature railroad wasn't operating, I assume because they're setting up for the Halloween event. Also not running when we entered: the Mad Mouse. This would be the only (non-kiddie) roller coaster we didn't get to ride. It came up during the day --- we saw test rides from Wolverine Wildcat --- but by the time it was open, at the end of the day, the line was longer than we wanted to deal with. We got a last ride on Wolverine Wildcat --- a front-seat ride at that --- and trust we'll probably be able to get Mad Mouse during the Halloween event.
The whole of our disappointment was in kettle corn. The kettle corn stand was not open when we got there, not to our surprise. Nor was it open several times when we passed it during the day. But the last hour of the park's opening? Then it was open. We had just turned away from a late ride on the Mad Mouse to get to the stand and find they sold their last bag two people ahead of us. The group one ahead of us had a park employee in it --- she showed her badge --- and after a discussion with the kettle corn maker, paid for a bag to pick up later, when they were made. The kettle corn cashier then started, very slowly, making corn, including what seemed like a lot of checks on whether they had enough sugar and two failed phone calls to someone, somewhere, before finally turning the kettle heat on and pouring oil in. She finally told us it would be, like, fifteen or twenty minutes before they were ready and we weren't waiting for that. We went for some other rides instead.
When we finally got back, maybe ten minutes before the end of the day and the regular season, we were split on whether to get popcorn or get on Wolverine Wildcat. I told ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger to get in the line for Wolverine Wildcat --- you can see it tolerably well from the kettle corn stand --- and I'd get a bag. And I intended to, but they were still not ready. I understand that a big ol' kettle of corn is more complicated than pouring a half-cup of kernels into a pot at home but this seems like quite bad kettle corn throughput.
So, I figured, we could get on Wolverine Wildcat and in the ten minutes or so before the last ride of the season --- we did wait for that, and got a front-seat ride --- they wouldn't sell out. You, having read the lead sentence three paragraphs back, know what happened. They were not only closed but had somehow shut the place down and packed it up for the long break before either Tricks and Treats or the 2024 season. bunnyhugger was cross enough that when she got home she wrote a letter to corporate complaining about what are the rules of the Kettle Corn stand anyway? When do they open? When do they close? Why has it been so hard to get ever since the pandemic began? It's bags of popcorn, this shouldn't be hard.
We stopped at the hipster farmer market on the way back --- about two hours after we left the park --- and got a bag of popcorn from them, plus some other groceries. I think this was our first trip there since Roger died and it's so hard going through and not buying an overflowing bag of greens, but that's our situation for right now.
We had hopes of getting to Cedar Point the weekend after --- that is, this past Sunday --- but couldn't. This coming weekend we might, or might catch Tricks and Treats at Michigan's Adventure. Depends how long we feel like driving, I imagine.
My photo roll has got past Christmas so you know what that means ...
Our traditional post-Christmas event: the visit to Crossroads Village. Which was cool but, as the huge puddle shows, not remotely freezing. It had rained a good bit, so there was wet mud everywhere, but snow? Ice? Not even close.
But look at that, Christmas Train far as the eye can see!
This time around we got on the train first thing, catching it during twilight and the earliest part of the sunset.
The early hour means we could photograph things like leaving our steam trail in the dust.
And while we don't get the full glory of, say, Santa fishing, we do get to see it without terrible streaks of the train's motion.
Here's one of the perennial displays on the ride, Santa taking off and dropping one box over and over again, forever.
Trivia: Three days after Christmas 1961 there were 323 McDonald's restaurants in 44 states. This was when Ray Kroc assumed leadership of the chain from the McDonalds brothers. Source: Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, Marcia Chatelain.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine Volume 43: The Cheerful Earful Club, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.
