Our second day at Gilroy Gardens was coming to an end, and we were getting to think of what the last things we wanted to do were. One was obvious, and to get on the Replica Antique carousel again. This time the ride operator seemed baffled by us and we thought we had gone in the exit lane or something. I don't think we did, though, it's just the entrance queue itself has two entrances and we somehow used the one nobody was expecting. We had no trouble feeling weird and awkward about it as if it were our fault anyway.
And we got on the train, for the nice long slow ride around the whole park. The miniature train, your typical CP Huntingdon ride, has ... I'm sorry, why is there a carousel rooster in the station? We don't know. It's standing on a pile of hay bales, where it should be easy to see, but it's also a fair bit away from where parkgoers can go, even if they're on the train. It doesn't seem to be a spare for the carousel, which as far as I remember hasn't got menagerie figures. It's just another piece of the park having personality, and maybe is something you get to understand when you truly know the park.
And then there was something I wanted to ride. I love a swinging ship ride. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger not so much. There's so much we both like riding that I rarely feel the lack. Gilroy Gardens has what in any other park would be a swinging ship ride. Or, if it were the 80s, a swinging space shuttle ride. (The space shuttle ride at Great Adventure is how I discovered I love this sort of ride.) They don't do either. They instead have the Banana Split.
So if you're imagining a huge swinging ship ride, only the ship is bright yellow and has a stubby square black end? You've got it right. Also add in a stream of people talking about how they want to ride the banana, or how much fun they had riding the banana, or how they feel queasy after riding the banana? Do you get it now and why I had to insist we ride this? And bunnyhugger indulged me. We didn't go for the outermost rows, with the deepest swings, but ... my, that's a happy feeling, and the absurdity of the banana split boat and the gorgeous setting was just everything we might have hoped for.
This wasn't our last ride, but it was our last new one. We went back to the Garlic Twirl for another ride in the teacup-like ride with the most beautiful queue. And then went back to the carousel, supposing that if we made it while it was still running, great; if not, not. We were in time to get the last ride, though, and if that's not a great way to close out the day, what is?
And now some more of California's Great America, also getting near the end of the day.
Gold Striker and the Star Tower in the setting sun.
The side of the carousel facing away from the pond, that is, the non-romance side. Random guy for scale.
And a side picture showing off the palm trees grown around it. Same random guy for scale. Yes, I tossed off an ``under the big W'' joke, because I am old enough to have seen It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World and agree huh, there's a lot of people who used to be hilarious there.
Going in for a Gold Striker ride before the park closes.
The queue was appealingly short and oh, look back at that gorgeous play of light, shadow, and inclined track.
Look at that, the ride knocked someone's sock off!
Trivia: L L Bean died in 1967 at age 94. Source: The Grand Emporiums: The Illustrated History of America's Great Department Stores, Robert Hendrickson.
Currently Reading: Crosley: Two Brothers and a Business Empire That Transformed the Nation, Rusty McClure with David Stern and Michael A Banks.
