Thank you, my dear ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger.
If there was anything disappointing to our second Gilroy Gardens visit it was that the monorail was closed the second day there. We were hoping to get better looks at what of the park it overlooked, especially now we had a better idea of the layout and features of the place. Also I hoped to pay attention to where the safety spiel called the place ``Bonfante Gardens'', a name it hasn't held since George W Bush was president. That's all, though, and it's not a big fault.
We went back to the Timber Twister roller coaster, just in time for the small, snake-themed coaster to go down. We decided to risk giving it ten minutes or so for a mechanic to come out and kick the exit gate, which always works in Roller Coaster Tycoon. The guy needed only five, so, bonus.
Another re-ride we took was on the Rainbow Garden Round Boat Ride, getting another lovely, tranquil ride floating through some subsection of the park. Not the lake with its swan boats, a ride we missed but appreciated. But still wonderful.
And here I have to break with chronology because I forgot we did this on Tuesday, not Thursday. One of the features at the park is an artificial waterfall, with a bridge behind it that offered a nice bit of cooling mist on a warmer day. But it also has an observation tower, at the top of the falls. The question was how to get to it. You might imagine stairs or a ramp of some kind, maybe both. No; the answer is an elevator, with a single glass side facing the falls so you can watch the water as you ascend. In theory. In fact, the ivy-covered elevator was fixed in place about two feet above the bottom level, powered off and apparently rusty, with what looks like a bicycle rack in front of the door, closing it off. bunnyhugger also noted the safety sign for the ride was one of Cedar Fair's style signs, rather than the Gilroy Gardens-styled signs that most of the other rides have. I'm so used to the Cedar Fair style ride signs I didn't register how that was out of place, and didn't photograph it. That seems like a shame since surely it'll be replaced whenever the elevator goes back into service, right? But from what we gather the elevator has been out of service a long, long time, not always in the safe configuration where the doors are shut and the elevator several feet off the floor so the mechanism won't let doors open.
bunnyhugger has described the park as being three parts carefully manicured, thoughtfully arranged, gorgeous park, one part Conneaut Lake Park. For the most part that's in the park's weird, homegrown, quirky and low-key nature. But in a few spots it's so in the park having just abandoned pieces, right where you can walk up to them (and, lore says, used to be able to walk into). It's a nice piece of exposed history in a park that's not yet a quarter-century old (as an amusement park).
To speak of a park that's not yet a half-century old (and might never be), California's Great America:
Catching THe Grizzly in the fine light of early evening here.
This caused me to realize I used to know more about Barney Oldfield than I could summon on short notice. Oops. Well, I was able to summon the important thing, that he was in the early 1900s and 1910s one of the first celebrity racecar drivers. Wikipedia credits him as the first driver to run a mile track in one minute flat.
Midway game --- the bowling ball one --- although what really interested me was that twisty road course sign. I keep meaning to check if it matches the twisty road course signs in some pinball games, like Road Show or Truck Stop, but I keep forgetting. Probably not.
At the Snoopy Boutique, giant plush Snoopy is face down in his egg and chips.
Oh and hey look, it's the happiest gull in the world!
And here's Lucy's Crabbie Cabbies riding on without us. Probably even if we fit in the cars our knees wouldn't have forgiven us.
Trivia: Animals used for experiments on Skylab 3/2 included two spiders, a swarm of vinegar gnats, six mice, and an aquarium of fish. The experiment measuring the circadian rhythms of the mice and gnats failed because of broken power circuits. Source: Suddenly, Tomorrow Came: A History of the Johnson Space Center, Henry C Dethloff. NASA SP-4307.
Currently Reading: Crosley: Two Brothers and a Business Empire That Transformed the Nation, Rusty McClure with David Stern and Michael A Banks.
