So our Michigan's Adventure trip, only the good parts since they far outnumbered the bad. First, the leaves. We discovered last year that the park is an autumn park. The leaves haven't yet reached their peak but they were in fine form, providing shade while still being all sorts of browns and reds and orange and everything. It's amazing how beautiful it makes the park. I mentioned the weather; it was once again a cloudless sky, helping it be quite warm. Though the wind was often enough to take the edge off that heat, most of the time.
The park was decorated much as it was last year. But they had a bit more, like they saved everything from last year and put a little more in. They also had a bit more programming. Particularly in what used to be the petting zoo they had set up a One-Room Ghoulyard, with a small stage and a couple of seats set up to look like school desks, and at some point a guy in zombie makeup was telling a story.
The most amazing thing, though, was the carousel. Sorry, the Scare-ousel. Because --- while it wasn't decorated --- it was running backwards. Like, instead of turning counterclockwise (as seen from above), it was going clockwise. Cedar Fair never runs rides backward, not even ones like a Musik Express that are designed to run backwards. And nobody runs a carousel backwards, not outside Something Wicked This Way Comes. The carousel didn't run any faster backwards, but it didn't run any slower either, and it's amazing that they have the gearing to run backwards at four rotations per minute. We would have guessed it was possible to run one backwards but at full speed?
Two disappointments. One is that they did not have a Halloween, or even a different, soundtrack for the carousel. It was the same CD of carousel music they always play (and that Cedar Point's Midway Carousel used to play all the time). I can't swear that every time we went past it we heard ``How're You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm'' but it felt like that. (At one point I quipped it was ``How're You Gonna Keep 'Em Down In Paris Now That They've Seen The Farm'' which comes close to scanning.) The other disappointment, of course, is that riding the carousel backwards did not make us years younger in body.
While walking past the costume show we stopped a moment to see the lineup of little kids in outfits. Three siblings(?) were all dressed as the Three Blind Mice, complete with sunglasses and canes, tapping around together. At that point I had them pegged (correctly) as the winners. A woman dressed as a fox (we had assumed she was a furry) pointed us to a girl dressed as a creepy goth-y doll and asked us, if we stuck around for the judging, to applaud for her as no one had the last time around. We were horrified that any crowd would refuse to clap for any of the kids, even if one particular outfit wasn't to their taste. We did applaud, certainly, and probably would have anyway. When the contest was done the kid came up to the fox --- our first real proof that the woman was the doll's guardian and not just a person offended by injustice --- and we gave her thumbs up and said how we liked her look. We did, too.
Now the Three Blind Mice we saw while in the queue for Mad Mouse. Which was the biggest surprise of the day: the Mad Mouse roller coaster didn't have a tremendous line. In fact, it was as near a walk-on as the coaster ever gets, a line just a couple minutes long. We would go around for three rides before the day ended, and while we didn't get the last ride of the day we were able to get a ride after the park's close. The Three Blind Mice, less their canes, were ahead of us the last two times.
Also a happy surprise: the food. Michigan's Adventure actually had some this time around. And Halloween-themed. We ate before we got to the Wagon Pizza to discover they had 'mummy pizza' --- an oval bread like you flattened out a French Bread pizza, tomato sauce, strips of mozarella and two olives for the eyes --- that we might go for next time. What we did get to eat was the Dessert Sweet Potato Fries, which I think we got last year also. Fries with marshmallow and crumbled Heath bars and there might have been honey. Something sweet and sticky. So very satisfying.
And if that weren't enough, the kettle corn stand was open! And we got some, even if it was only the middle of the day and we nearly finished it before even leaving the park. They also had some Apple Cider Kettle Corn which we didn't attempt this time. It was triumph enough to actually get some kettle corn successfully. We would go home feeling really good except about the train ride mistake.
In photographs we're back to the night before the Women's North American Championship Series, getting ready to play for fun and maybe a ranking in Indiana's championship next January. (We will not rate.)
Oh yes, I should put some focus on the trophy for the Women's World Champion, which as you see comes with the Key to Pinball, capable of opening any coinbox anywhere in the world.
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bunnyhugger patiently waiting her turn to go up and play in the side tournament.
The back row of pinball games, including on the near end the modern Kiss and on the far right of the picture the 1970s Rolling Stones, which I didn't know how to play then but do now.
bunnyhugger waiting around on some other games. We got to play that Stars in the side tournament and it was kinder to me than every other game of Stars ever has been.
So did you know there was a Queen pinball? It's from one of the boutique manufacturers and it's pretty fun. My first game you can see I put up 118 million, which is strikingly near the (non-pro-player) high score of 365 million. I thought I might be able to make a go at that. I could not.
Detail of the playfield for Queen, which has your traditional sort of fanfold layout for the basic shots. It also has some fun stuff like if you hit your flippers in time to ``We Will Rock You'' you get extra points, which is the sort of funny whimsy that pinball thrives on.
Trivia: East India Company records pinpoint 1806 as the year when British imports of opium into China finally exceeded in value the tea exported from it, and the balance of trade reversed from bringing silver into China to one that extracted silver from it. Source: A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped The World, William J Bernstein.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Sundays Supplement Volume 12: 1950, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.
PS: Don't you want to know What's Going On In Mary Worth? Is Stella still working for Ed? July - September 2024 Plus secret bonus furry content in a very indirect way!
