Six geese a-laying
The Sunday after Christmas we'd penciled in driving to that house near Lake Victoria that decorates with a jillion lights and plays a low-power FM station and all. The heavy and constant rain suggested this would be at least a disappointing visit and we rescheduled for Monday.
We didn't have any trouble finding the place, and got there a little bit more than a half-hour before the scheduled close, just in time for the dazzling big ``House On Christmas Lane'' number. That's one aimed at any house that has an overly huge lights show and low-power FM broadcast and all, and the owners of the Lake Victoria Lights House got a recording that slips their actual street into the chorus of the song. Which is fun since many of the things mentioned in the chorus --- the Santa on the roof, the nativity scene --- the Lake Victoria Lights House doesn't actually have. Doesn't matter. The spirit of the song is true.
There was just the one other car there when we visited, and they left after not quite a half-hour. Since the show runs on a half-hour loop we infer that they arrived just before we did. The web site says the show ends at 9:30 weekdays, although it reached the end point and began a new loop at about 9:15, and kept going after that. When we did leave about 9:45 it was starting a new loop of the show, so either they don't count the week between Christmas and New Year's as weekdays (defensible) or they take a very loose view of what 9:30 means. Or maybe they were checking if people were still out there and not hitting the cutoff until everyone had left.
While watching the show we ate most (not quite all) of the kettle corn left over from Crossroads Village, which made a nice handshake between the two holiday events. Afterwards, we stopped at a conveniently placed Meijer's to stock up on hors d'ouvres for our New Year's Eve At Home.
Now, let's get back to Camden Park and something else that's must-ride there.
The Whip! is another vintage ride of the park. Wikipedia credits theirs as dating to 1924, and I could believe the building was a century old, but the ride sign and the car exteriors are probably not quite a hundred years old.
Peeking into the ride while the operator does the safety check on the current riders.
You can see the vinyl wraparounds for the cars here. Also, in the lower right corner, you can see the speed control lever, a nice simple heavy metal lever to dial up the power.
This is one of the smaller Whip rides we've been on, just eight cars I think it was. On the one hand, the part where you're whipped around the semicircle is the good bit; on the other hand, bouncing back and the buildup to the next turnaround is part of what makes that good.
Here the operator has the machine turned up to full speed while my camera has not the faintest idea where the focal plane is. I'm sorry but this is the best picture of the ride in operation I got.
So, in the gift shop, there was this thousand-dollar plush that represents ... I mean ... goodness knows what. The sign just reads 'NOT AN EXIT' and is meant to go on the door over there, which leads into the arcade and that I guess wasn't open and maybe not openable. They were fixing something or other up when we went in the shop.
Trivia: Some sources say the baseball catcher's one-handed catch was pioneered in the early 1880s by catcher ``Doc'' Bushong, who wanted to preserve his right hand for dentistry. Source: A Game of Inches: The Story Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball, Peter Morris. But as Morris notes, the advent of overhand pitching meant harder ball tosses, making a mitt necessary, and you can't have mitts on both hands and be able to throw.
Currently Reading: Archaeology, January/February 2025, Editor Jarrett A Lobell.