It's a long way to go

Our drive from the Merry-Go-Round Museum to Cedar Point took us past the pyramid overhang, the thing that used to be a building and that they demolished the building out from underneath. It's a joy to see that again and now I've finally got a mental map of just where that is, relative to the ways we take out of Cedar Point. We were ready for the moment of hitting heavy traffic into the park --- Friday was still warm and sunny and clear --- but, no matter how close we got, we didn't find traffic. We drove up to the entry gate and barely had time to fish a season pass out of the wallet for it.

The Hotel Breakers parking lot has an attendant who checks your name; only people staying there should be able to get into the lot. They took our name and he didn't check it against anything, just wrote it down. This was a point of very mild anxiety for us. bunny_hugger could not find the e-mail confirmation of our reservation, and while the Breakers has never asked to see it, we're both of a generation that feels more comfortable having it on hand and, ideally, printed out. This was not really a satisfying answer whether we were going to have a hard time checking in.

If we were to have a hard time checking in, it wouldn't be for the line. In past Halloweekends Fridays, the Hotel Breakers lobby has had big, sluggish, furry-convention-registration-line check-ins, sometimes swallowing the hour of early admission we'd be entitled to. Not so this time. Whether because we were there about 4:00 or, more likely, because all the sensible people had checked in Thursday now that this was an option, we had maybe one person in line ahead of us and got our room in no time. We barely had the chance to see any of It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, playing on endless loop for the kids on a TV in the lobby. (Also all that we've sen of It's The Great Pumpkin this season, as we failed to watch it while carving with bunny_hugger's parents or on Halloween night itself. We're going to get to it, don't worry.) We had some odd trouble getting the elevator to register the button press, but that was all.

So we got where we wanted to be, in much less time than we planned on. After a fair bit of mulling over how warmly we needed to dress --- and reminding ourselves it's no big deal to go back to the room and put on something heavier if we needed --- we set out for the park, to see just how bad the Halloweekends crush on yet another suspiciously warm, pleasant October weekend day might be.

Some more Michigan's Adventure as we approach the end of the day.

Shivering Timbers coming back to the station. We thought it was riding pretty smooth, something that left us surprised when our next visit was rougher.

Lakeside Gliders, the flying scooter ride. bunny_hugger and I got separated, in ride cycles, so this is the rare case where I could take pictures of her on a ride.

There she is, getting ready to head out.

bunny_hugger flying that thing like she's the star of an 80s action show.

Later, gang.

bunny_hugger telling the attendant she'll take one more ride around the block, thank you.

Trivia: In the latter half of 1946 United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration head Fiorello LaGuardia launched ``Operation Carrot'', offering Polish displaced persons new sets of clothing and a sixty-day food ration, free and clear, if they voluntarily repatriated themselves to Poland. With the program's success at reducing the size of refugee camps came charges that the repatriation to Communist-dominated nations was helping the Soviet Union dominate the world. Source: The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War, David Nasaw.

Currently Reading: Apollo Pilot: The Memoirs of Astronaut Donn Eisele, Donn Eisele, Francis French.

PS: I bet you're wondering
What's Going On In Gasoline Alley? What's with this Terrence Smiles guy? August - November 2022 gets explained in a couple hundred words, all for you, if you want them.