The day after KennyKon was Sunday, of course, and we had to drive home. After showering and I hope not damaging the barely-attached towel rack even more by leaning against it while brushing my teeth, we did our cleaning-up. I hid all four decaf coffee packets so that maybe housekeeping would give the next guest a couple caffeinated coffees. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger handled check-out herself, I think failing to get a coffee because the lobby didn't have any. (My recollection is it did have a guy who was just sleeping in the lobby chair, feet kind of blocking the door, the kind of thing that can happen anywhere but that feels symbolic of a disappointing stay.)
So, on to find somewhere to eat. And we thought to go to an Eat-n-Park, which is what Pittsburgh area Big Boy restaurants turned into. This was a slightly momentous occasion for us, as we planned it to be our first time eating inside a restaurant since the pandemic began. It was also a bad moment to go to a restaurant because it was like noon on a Sunday, so the whole population of the world was there. Also we needed to take like five turns around the restaurant to actually find the entrance. So, instead, we drove off away from Pittsburgh and got some Impossible Whoppers from a Burger King in Mars, Pennsylvania. I also, in a dumb moment, identified this tiny town as the home of Mars Inc, the candy maker. No, not at all. Mars the candy maker was named for its founder, Franklin Clarence Mars, and more or less comes from Minneapolis, later moving its headquarters to CIA, Virginia. I apologize to bunnyhugger for my mistake.
Since I wasn't taking Monday off, we had to get back no later than midnight. But that would be plenty of time to stop somewhere and stretch out and not do the same sort of long, continuous drive we had to do on the way in. There's one compelling place for us to stop, roughly halfway between our home and Pittsburgh. You know what it is ...
But before we stop in at Cedar Point let's take in a couple pictures of Gilroy Gardens. When last there, we were driving around the 1950s side of the antique autos track. How's that looking now?
Oh hey I heard of that movie! ... (Gymkhana is, Wikipedia tells me, an equestrian event with speed pattern racing and times games.)
Didn't know we were going to the scenic overlook and get a view of the majestic Gilroy Gardens parking lot, did you?
Ah, and here we come to the gas station, winning our hearts with those rounded corners and glass block windows.
Uh-oh, a car wash tunnel? Nobody told us this was going to be a wet ride!
Look at that, just like in a cartoon, bright green teeth are going to threaten us with a wet time!
The car wash was a fake-out, but this California Highway Patrol guy on the motorbike? That's the real deal. See bunnyhugger slowing down to the speed limit while she's in view.
Trivia: The flight readiness review for Skylab 4/3 held on the 14th of November, 1973, approved the mission for launch two days later. Source: Skylab: A Chronology, Roland W Newkirk, Ivan D Ertel, Courtney G Brooks. NASA SP-4011.
Currently Reading: The Wright Flyers 1899 - 1916: The Kites, Gliders, and Aircraft that Launched the 'Air Age', Richard P Hallion. Is it always funny when someone reports the top speed of the storm (such as the one that destroyed the remains of the 1901 Glider) has to be estimated because the weather station's anemometer blew away? At least when it's not in service of a serious disaster.
