My sister went there on a Saturday

We always resolve to get some amusement park trips in early in the season. This year, we did it for Cedar Point. We also managed it for Michigan's Adventure. Once we were a week out from Anthrohio and any reasonable concern for Covid-19, we ... had a surprisingly packed schedule considering we don't do things. Part of it was the park was still closed midweek. But the best day we could find to go was Friday the 10th, forecast to be pleasant but not hot weather. Also to be the last day before the water park opened, so the crowds should be a good bit smaller. Michigan's Adventure would close very early, at 4 pm, so we'd have to leave early to get there at all, but, we could do that. It's not quite two hours to drive there, after all ... or it shouldn't be, anyway. Catch is the highways leading west from Lansing are all closed for construction. And the surface road I drove instead ... had some construction too, yes, but also had an accident that forced everyone off the road into a long, twisty, confusing path through back roads and trying to follow the trail of cars that were all following their phones' directions. This got me so frustrated and we would get to the park maybe a half-hour past our original anticipated time of noon.

Nevertheless. Our calculations were spot on. This was not a busy day at Michigan's Adventure. Even with the school groups that were there, it was a light-crowd day, the sort reminding bunny_hugger of the good old days when there was never a line for the rides. The park didn't attain that ideal, but there were no significant lines, the ones where you get heat stroke while waiting.

The park had gotten some light renovations over the winter. A new sign out front, drawing sarcastic applause from the amusement park fandom. A redesign of the main gift shop that makes it a bit more prominent but also puts it a little out of step with the rest of the midway. (I kind of like it being out of step, as that suggests a more interestingly wrinkled park history.) New paint for the Corkscrew and Mad Mouse roller coasters. And some new track for Wolverine Wildcat, their oldest wooden roller coaster.

Michigan's Adventure replaced a couple segments of the track on the coaster. This technically changes it from a wooden roller coaster --- where the track rests on a bed of wood --- into a hybrid, as some segments are chunks of steel rail --- but most of the coaster is still wooden. And the support structures are all wood so that's all anyone will suspect it of being. The retracking was meant to make the ride less rough and, to my surprise, they didn't retrack the parts I had thought were roughest. They did replace some of the track along the rise after a drop, and that's ... yeah. That's made quite a difference; the ride is almost uncannily smooth in those patches. Feels really good while keeping the layout intact, although the parts that I thought were harshest didn't feel changed.

The one substantial disappointment is that Mad Mouse never opened. It's had trouble in the past, and I'm not clear why since it's a model of roller coaster meant to run a lot of trains all at the same time. (One season there was only one day we ever saw it running and that only part of the day.) We saw it running test trains several times, including one near the end of the day that we thought might mean they were about to open for a half-hour of riding, but, no, just never happened.

As we were waiting for Thunderhawk some guys asked bunny_hugger if Superman was tight. This left me really baffled. It left her more briefly baffled. She was wearing her hoodie from Darien Lake, and they were asking about the Superman: Man Of Steel coaster there. She thought they meant was it a good ride, but quickly worked out, this was a bigger guy, he was asking how the seat restraints were. They's planning to get to Darien Lake in a couple weeks and I hope they can make it and have a good time, as the Man of Steel coaster there was a lot of fun. Great setting too, with the ride going out over a lake so much of the track.

We spent a good time at the petting zoo, which returned to Michigan's Adventure after being absent in 2021 (and, we assume, 2020). A lot of the time was with the rabbits, who mostly were staying out of petting range. One was a Flemish giant with an absolutely enormous dewlap, one large enough to smuggle a mini-rex out. Also, in one of the farmyard enclosures, bunny_hugger was finally able to get close enough to one of the fluffy chickens to pet it. The chicken would rather not be petted, thanks, and walked away in a comical goose-step, we assume so their big fluffy legs wouldn't drag on the ground.

Though we had only about three and a half hours at the park, they were good hours. We had the time to get to everything we hoped for, and even to start going to the flat rides we often overlook. The Trabant, for example, on which we got a ride disappointingly short, as though they were afraid to get the thing up to full speed. This was more than compensated by the next ride, the Tilt-a-Whirl, on which we got a lot of good spins. And a lot of ride time. Too much ride time, really; we both reached the point where, oh, that was enough for us, really, and somehow it was still going on. It is very rare to get a ride at Michigan's Adventure that feels like it's going on too long, but, here was our chance. So, very satisfying but we were glad there wasn't more to it. Still, I had to go get a big drink of water, and rest a bit before going on to anything else. The result is we didn't get a last ride on anything; we just walked around the park. Well, we tried to get to the bumper cars, but were too late.

There were disappointments, all small ones. Mad Mouse. The shortness of the hours. That the kettle corn stand never opened. But, wow. This was just fantastic, as nearly a perfect day as we could have hoped for. We hope to get back to Michigan's Adventure this season, of course, but it's hard to imagine having a better day.

Friday at Anthrohio is still on my photo roll. Hope you like these pictures even if they don't have bunnies in them.

Anthrohio again had little plastic eggs with treasures hidden around the con and, unlike previous years and Motor City Furry Con, we never saw a one of them. Just these baskets for returning empties and explaining the rules.

These 3D-printed hamsters in bell jars were ``moderators'', designed to mark spots to return empty eggs. At one point this was surrounded by similar smaller plastic figures but I somehow failed to photograph that.

Of course any given table would become covered by cards and stickers and stuff to take for free. Also, QR codes, in case you need some QR codes in your life.

Trivia: The Edison Electric Illuminating Company was granted permission in April 1881 to dig the subterranean tunnels needed to electrify lower Manhattan. They were required to pay for five city inspectors, to be paid $25 per week by Edison, to monitor their progress; the Tammany Hall appointees only appeared on Saturday to collect their pay. Source: Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World, Jill Jonnes. (Edison had supposed the ``inspectors'' would be steadily demanding further bribes, but the salary was all they took, by reports.)

Currently Reading: Moon Launch! A History of the Saturn-Apollo Launch Operations, Charles D Benson, William B Faherty.