So how did ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger do at RLM Amusements? She won her first game, Robo-War, with a killer score, her best score ever on that table and good enough she felt embarrassed having won by that much. She won her second game, too, on the electromechanical Fast Draw. And then on Space Shuttle, beating one of the other women at the thirty-person tournament. And then on Total Nuclear Annihilation as well. She took a loss on Dungeons and Dragons, knocking her out of the tie for first place, but her winning ways resumed on Dracula and on Avengers: Infinity Quest.
At this point she got called up on Baby Pac-Man, against one of the strongest players, the one who'd finish qualifying in first place. Despite my attempts to give her advice she didn't win or even make a convincing showing. She also lost on Buck Rogers before taking a win on The Uncanny X-Men. Then two more losses, on Iron Maiden and on Tales From The Crypt, the last apparently cheating her out of a multiball, the second time in a week that's happened. But then she won on Getaway using that same ball-saver strategy we've just been learning about. And then on Labyrinth, with a quite good game versus a merely okay game by one of the other women.
She ended up with nine wins, a great finish by any count. She qualified for finals in sixth place. Had she gotten even one more win she'd have been in the tie for a first-round bye. She hadn't known; she hadn't been following the standings and before her last round expressed to me worries that she was not going to make it to playoffs. She usually plays with less stress if she isn't thinking how she has to win this game and here's a fine example of that.
So she was in! After a bunch of ties for the last playoff spot and for the last first-round bye were settled four-player groups were drawn up, for PAPA-scoring qualifying. This would be a set of three games, the winner of each game getting four points, second place two points, third place one, and last place zero. The two people who get the highest number of points from the three matches move on to the next round. And bunnyhugger, as one of the high seeds, got the choice of what games they would play. This is known as driving the bus, and bunnyhugger kind of hates this, since if she flops on a game she can only think how she drove the bus off a cliff. Still, her fate was now in her hands.
Continuing at Kings Island on our Wednesday visit, through to a shocking moment.
Diamondback splashing down at just the right spot for the spray to reveal the Eiffel Tower within. (The train's moving away from the camera here; there's baffles on the back to make a huge spray that doesn't affect the riders.) You can see the next train on the lift hill, to the left.
And another shot of a train just splashed down, here with the flume shooting in the direction of the lift hill.
And now ... mmmm. WindSeeker. I made good on my resolve to take a ride on it, since it's been ages since the ride was getting stuck at the top of the tower and it'd be great to see the park from that high up, right?
So after we were stuck at the top of the tower and let down very slowly they closed the ride, of course, and you can see people doing inspections and, I assume, diagnosing what the heck went wrong. Racer's in the background; I got a lot of views of the trains far beneath running like toys and I'm sorry I am a responsible enough rider that I didn't take out my camera to photograph or film that view.
After this we considered going to The Beast --- you see the tracks in the tiling leading up to it --- but the line was fairly substantial so we went over to Banshee and The Bat instead.
Evening silhouette photograph of Diamondback and the Backlot Stunt Coaster props.
Trivia: When he set off to France in February 1778 as one of the diplomats representing the United States, John Adams had no knowledge of European politics or diplomacy and could not speak French, the language of diplomacy; nor had he ever seen a King, Queen, or Foreign Minister of any great power; nor had he ever set foot in a city of more than 30,000 people. Source: John Adams, David McCullough.
Currently Reading: Seriously Curious: The Facts and Figures That Turn Our World Upside-Down, Editor Tom Standage.
PS: What's Going On In Mary Worth? Why is Popeye in repeats? December 2024 - March 2025 plus some stuff about Popeye.
