Thursday at Halloweekends. First thing we noticed checking in at the hotel was the signs now said the Hotel Breakers would close Monday at noon, not Sunday. We had never imagined staying over Sunday night, although I guess if we didn't need to be anywhere Monday and the extra night didn't cost anything it might be nice to sleep instead of closing a ten-hour day with four hours' driving. But it did also mean that we didn't necessarily have to move the car Sunday morning for when we would finally leave; we could, and in the end did, cut through the Hotel Breakers to get to it.
The big crowd we expected for the day, given the weather, didn't materialize. The weather was great, warm enough that we didn't even wear jackets, just our hoodies. The feel was quite a bit like how Fridays at Halloweekends used to be, a decade or more, with only some of even the biggest rides open. Also only some of the food: we had heard rumors of a burrito bowl place somewhere in the western areas and we spent some time walking back and forth seeing no sign of it. It turned out that it was there, and we'd find it easily for Friday lunch. Probably it was closed Thursday night, when only segments of the park were open and running.
Eventually we went to get cheese-on-a-stick and cheese fries for dinner. We'd got the meal plan for next year and that was applied to the remainder of our season. So we could get food for free, although the rules are weird. We can't, for example, just get cheese-on-a-stick, as that's not a meal, by their lights. So we have to get the cheese-on-a-stick plus the fries and then that's already paid for. It's a bit odd to get more food than you quite want because that's the cheaper option but that's where we are. And I guess when we're there all day that's fine. It's not like we have to eat four too-big meals.
We did get to see a good bit of the decorations for Halloweekends, some of which were new. The Boardwalk, for example, as a new development this year had its own original setup as The Bonewalk. Nice. We also saw that the Jack Aldrich Theater was for some reason not hosting any shows this year. The venue usually hosted whatever the Midnight Syndicate's show was. But Midnight Syndicate was performing outdoors this year, on the stage outside the Iron Dragon roller coaster. Given that Midnight Syndicate's shows are often built around using the confines of the theater to build a ghost story I'm not sure how their performances even work in the open. But we ended up not standing around to see one of them, so whatever they did to adapt we don't know. I haven't heard anything about what kept the Jack Aldrich Theater from being used for anything; maybe renovations? But what would have needed the extra weeks of Halloweekends to work on?
A happy carousel discovery: the midway carousel's band organ was running again. And playing a variety of Halloween tunes, different from the ones we'd hear at the Merry-Go-Round Museum. We thought they just had a rotation of a dozen or so songs --- we stood around listening until we heard repeats --- but we were wrong. They had a random shuffle of many Halloween-y songs. An unhappy carousel discovery: Cedar Downs, the racing carousel with the horses that move forward and back as well as in the circle, was closed, not operating all the whole weekend.
When we went past Millennium Force the ride sign promised there was a wait of fifteen minutes or so. That seemed unlikely but also probably the best offer we'd get all weekend, or would have all season. Turns out it was right, too, with a lovely short wait. We had similar luck with ValRavn --- and even got put into the front row, center, best spot to enjoy the seconds of staring down that are the selling point of that coaster. Wild Mouse too; we'd get several rides on it this year, including one on the cheese-themed car. Lore has it that the cheese-themed car spins faster than any of the six mouse-themed cars and I can say, from having observed several test runs (so every car went with empty loads) that yeah, the cheese car does appear to spin more. At least when empty. We'll wait for further evidence.
One of the later things we did was ride the Cadillac Cars, last survivor of the three antique auto rides they have at Cedar Point. This was shaping up to be a regular enough night until I saw a traffic jam up ahead. Turns out one of the cars had broken down! There were ride operators gathered around, looking at the opened hood and fussing with ... things ... while the rest of us waited and watched. I know, you're as curious as I am how you do engine repairs on a car that is stopped in place on a metal rail, right? But we were far enough away not to be able to see clearly. I was fully expecting them to have to take the car off the track.
It looked like they pulled something out and put a replacement in, but given that these are gas-engine cars that can't have been just, you know, replacing a bad engine. I don't know what took place exactly but the car lurched into motion again. And the ride continued to an ordinary conclusion while we tried to figure out what the heck did happen.
This was late enough we had time for one last thing before the end of the night. This would be leaping onto Iron Dragon, getting its last run for the night. Very fine night all around; would do again.
In photos, now, I'm still back at Gilroy Gardens on our Thursday, second, visit. Here's the ongoing proof:
Here's that Circus Tree, the great arch that stands over the entrance to the antique autos ride. But this angle makes clear that, yes, they're decorated for Christmas or at least festivities.
This time around we started on the 1950s side of the autos ride. You see what the cars look like from above here.
Peeking over to the 1920s side. The 20s cars are four-seaters while the 50s cars are two-seaters.
Billboards along the ride. Porcella's, I learn, was a succession of stores originally opened in 1898 and owned by the same family; in the early 20th century it was a dry goods store, and (after a while as a barbershop) became a clothing-and-music-instruments store, then finally a music shop, finally closed in 2020 as the pandemic hit a couple months before the most recent Porcella had planned to retire. No idea if this billboard predates the shop's closing.
Statue of an eagle or something like that along the ride path. Not sure its specific deal.
And here we're coming up on the gas station, the rare common point between the 20s and 50s sides of the ride.
Trivia: Between 1885 and 1905 the number of magazines in the United States almost doubled, from about 3,300 to about 6,000. Given the number of magazines that went out of publication it is plausible that eleven thousand magazines were published in those two decades. Source: The American Mail: Enlarger of the Common Life, Wayne E Fuller.
Currently Reading: Modesty Blaise: The Girl In The Iron Mask, Peter O'Donnell, Enric Badia Romero. So I get to the title story and have to say, it slaps. Some billionaire jerkfaces foiled in an earlier story decide to drive Modesty Blaise insane, by trapping her in an iron hood and dropping her deep in a pit, and they're amazed and horrified to watch --- by TV from their crew recording the whole thing --- that she gets her bearings, climbs out of the pit, and even knocks out the three-person crew on the site there. It's all done with enough cleverness to be believable as a story even if I kind of doubt an iron-hooded person could really climb out of a fifty-foot-deep pit and knock out three hired hands.