After getting our stuff settled in at the Gerber Family Guest House we made the long drive to the Clubhouse Arcade. It's maybe a mile or two, a short enough distance we could probably have walked it in case of utterly un-drivable weather. If that were the case, of course, then probably many people would not be able to make the official start time of 11:45 am Sunday. This left us with a bit of fun speculation: what would we do? ... As ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger understood the rules, any women who had qualified by playing sanctioned tournaments, either open or women's, and who had not already turned down an invitation to play would be eligible, if they happened to be there. So we speculated on the fun of AJH's mother, who would often way back in the old days be roped into playing Special When Lit tournaments to fill out the small grouping some, being pulled back only this time for the state championship.
The other side of that, though, is that the same logic applied to the open tournament. We imagined most players would be staying in or near Fremont, but what if someone had to come from farther away? Had to get through worse weather? Decided the chance to play just wasn't worth driving through all this? ... Well, that's why there's alternates invited, but it's not like alternates are immune to weather and giving up on this nonsense. Would we be wise to get to the open tournament early Saturday morning, just in case some of the already invited players and alternates missed? FAE would be higher-ranked, and would be invited in first, then me, then bunnyhugger (we believe; we didn't check standings), but still, think of the story that would make.
To get ahead of myself, well, first, we did not get up and out and over to the Clubhouse Arcade early enough Saturday to fill in the gap. Nor would it matter. While it was snowing and kind of lousy to deal with, all the regular players made it. I don't know how many alternates made it, but, there wouldn't have been a place for us. Nor would there be one for AJH's mother on Sunday; everyone made it through the lousy weather. Ah well.
Friday, though, that was a day for practice. We got over to the Clubhouse Arcade and bunnyhugger and FAE had nothing to do but practice. Me, I didn't even have to do that; I could just play for fun. While I spent a little time on some of the games scheduled for tournament play I realized, oh, I should take time on other things, and I used it for two silly little goals. One was playing Creature From The Black Lagoon to get to the Super Mode, which you get --- on Pinball Arcade --- by shooting the right ramp twelve times. Turns out on the real machine, at least this instance, you need it seventeen times. I got close some, but never made it, alas.
The other was playing the new table Star Wars: Fall of the Empire, which has been a drain monster for me on location. Here, they had one on free play; I could keep on going until I worked out something. What did I work out? I don't know. I eventually had one okay and one genuinely good game, but I still suspect the table is mostly random movements. Maybe if and when I ever figure out how to bring the ball under control.
So, by the end of the day, bunnyhugger and FAE had notebooks full of observations about where skill shots might be or what tables were looking treacherous or whatnot. Me, I was home with a high score #3 on Spider-Man and the observation that a high score bunnyhugger had put on Congo nearly a year ago was still there. So a day of some accomplishment.
Another half-dozen pictures for you of Cedar Point back on a rainy day in June.
Baseball lamps in the former Chickie and Pete's, testament to the days when it was a sports bar. Probably they survived the Chickie era by being overlooked, so who knows how long they'll last?
A toy! So it turns out there's people who leave miniature rubber ducks at amusement parks for other people to discover, which is a fun bit of whimsy until you reflect on how oh, they made something that someday, someone will have to throw out.
Stage set up in the main midway --- near our ceremonial brick --- where at the right time of day the Peanuts characters come out and do sme fun stuff.
And now what you're here to see: a roller coaster we couldn't possibly ride! This iis Siren's Curse, with its main gimmick, the spot where the track comes to its horizontal end and then pivots to drop straight down.
Construction fences around the roller coaster, teasing folks with what would come to be.
Here's a long line of people lined up in hopes that Millennium Force (background) would be open soon.
Trivia: In Spring 1920 Woodrow Wilson had recovered enough to be taken for occasional rides in the country, but had to sit in the front of the car, because if in the back, Chief White House Usher Ike Hoover claimed, ``he would slide down and topple as the car rolled along''. Source: The Year We Had No President, Richard Hansen.
Currently Reading: A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II, Maury Klein.
