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Too busy with Christmas things to write. I mean apart from Reviewing _Popeye and Son_, Episode 8: Olive's Dinosaur Dilemma, over on my humor blog, where Olive faces no dilemma. Sorry to spoil that but it's true. Anyway as there are not two lemmas for you, please instead enjoy two doses of Gilroy Gardens pictures. You're welcome.
Climbing the steps to the Train Station, no longer obscured by the Circus Tree here.
Train arriving ready for our tour.
Did I mention the carousel rooster set atop a pile of hay for some reason? Because they have a carousel rooster set atop a pile of hay for some reason. And it's a good bit back of the public-accessible area, so you have to zoom in to photograph it.
View of the back of the swinging Banana Split ride. Could you resist an attraction like that forever?
Here's the Garlic Twirl, the ride that made us realize this was a really wonderful place.
Another view of the Garlic Twirl ride.
View from the train of the Arch Circus Tree, the one guarding the entrance to the antique autos ride.
And here's the channel the train takes within the Monarch Garden, the building that the monorail also passes through.
Looking up, inside the Monarch Garden, towards the pedestrian trails within.
And here we're done with the ride and getting a look at Spiral Staircase #2 from the other side, with the obscured carousel behind.
Another look at Spiral Staircase #2, before we start walking the path to ...
Yes! The ride that's on everyone's lips, the Banana Split.
Trivia: Apollo 8 emerged from its transearth injection and at 89 hours 28 minutes 47 seconds into the flight (on Christmas day, 1968) achieved two-way radio phaselock. Two-way voice communication was not achieved until 89 hours 33 minutes 28 seconds, however, and telemetry synchronization was not achieved until 89 hours 43 minutes 0 seconds. Source: Apollo By The Numbers: A Statistical Reference, Richard W Orloff. NASA SP-4029. Among the problems is it appears the spacecraft was set for high-bit-rate transmission, erroneously, so that a configuration command was incompatible with the carrier power. The line ``please be informed there IS a Santa Claus'' was delivered about a minute after two-way voice communication came back.
Currently Reading: Michigan History, January/February 2024. Editor Sarah Hamilton.
