Our first question for our first new amusement park in over three years was whether to buy per-ride tickets or a pay-one-price wristband. Somehow this was a decision even though if we thought about how we might re-ride the Galaxi roller coaster it should be obvious which was cheaper. We had a momentary worry as ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger couldn't find her credit card, last seen paying for Thai food in Toronto, and we had to find a replacement card since their booth wouldn't take my Discover. Her card would eventually reappear, glad to say, so that one's safe and sound.
Before riding, though, we stepped out of the amusement park and to Carello's Carousel. The carousel may date to 1896 (the National Carousel Association's census will admit only to ``1890s'') but that is the mechanism that's that old. The original wood animals were removed, I assume sold, in the 1980s according to the National Carousel Association. The replacements are aluminum figures made by the Theel company, which made a lot of metal replicas of C W Parker carousel animals. Plus some original figures, including the reindeer we've seen at several Santa Claus-themed carousels. The replacement figures have what's termed 'park paint', a style which focuses on getting a layer of paint over the animal rather than particular expressive emotions or realism or such. bunnyhugger described some of the animals as being demonic or haunted or suffering a thousand-yard-stare and, mm. There were some bad faces there, yeah.
Ah, but speed? No complaint there. The ride was going at a good five rotations per minute, which is where a merry-go-round starts to be a thrill ride. The horses were fixed in place, the up-and-down motion of inner rows being an invention postdating the 1890s. bunnyhugger's mother, learning of this, would take it quite harshly, taking it as a more personal insult than I would have imagined. It seems she didn't realize the most important traits of the carousel were its age and its speed. We would come back for more photographs, and for a second ride later in the day, but we had accomplished the prize of riding the most historically significant ride in this little enclave within the amusement park.
For the amusement park proper, though? Galaxi was our first ride, our first new fixed-location roller coaster since 2019. It's a Zyklon Galaxi, twin to the Serpent formerly of Kokomo's and soon to be at Fantasy Island. One like it had been at Indiana Beach from 1971 to 2013; another had been at Funtown Splashtown USA in Saco, Maine, from 1978 to 2008. Before the 90s this particular Galaxi had spent eighteen years at Fun Forest Amusement Park in Seattle, in the shadow of the Space Needle. So the ride was what we expected, although it gave us lovely views of Lake Oneida and of the whole park, plus glimpses of the city beyond.
It also gave us views of the Rotor ride, which nestles up against it in a region that looks like they ran out of space. Rotors are among my favorite rides and there's almost none remaining. The Gravitron's taken its place and while that's good, it's not the same. The Rotor was not running, and there were trash bins pulled against the entrance and exit queues, and I worried the ride was standing but not operating. However, the ticket booth still listed its price. And later in the day the lights turned on, which would be an odd thing for a ride they don't intend to operate. Wikipedia's article about the Rotor ride claims it still runs, but I don't put much confidence in that mere claim. Anyway, we were not disappointed by the day at Sylvan Beach, but goodness would a Rotor ride have been nice, especially as it appeared the observation platform was still in place. That's probably not much fun without a crowd inside, but how many rides do you get to see from above, like, ever?
Some more of Indiana Beach's historical center. We could have done hundreds of photos there without breaking a sweat.
Wooden bobsled for one of the water slide rides, used at Indiana Beach until the 1990s. They had photos and videos of people using this and it seemed like a lot of people crammed onto a thing with no safety gear at all; seems exciting.
Cabinet full of miscellaneous park merchandise from many decades.
A more close-up look at some of the merchandise. Catching our eyes was that great key for the Indiana Beach Cottages.
More old park merchandise including firework casings, buttons, and the old cash card. We have one like it, from our 2016 visi, an we're no sure why. We think we needed it for the Frankenstein attraction.
Frisbe, vintage camera, roller skates, and a Covid-19 face mask made from a repurposed employee shirt, one of those things that reminds you how tired we all are of living through years that'll be in so many museum exhibits.
Better view of the roller skates; the bumper cars, turns out, used to be a roller rink.
Trivia: The backup pilot for Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov's 1961 spaceflights was Grigory Nelyubov. He was dismissed from the cosmonaut corps in March 1963 for drunken behavior and ``arrogance''. Source: Shattered Dreams: The Lost and Cancelled Space Missions, Colin Burgess.
Currently Reading: Pogo's Double Sundae, Walt Kelly.
