From the Horse's Mouth

After taking The Ride To Happiness we were feeling pretty happy indeed, and looked for more of the park's attractions. It's a fun park, with a bunch of whimsy to its decorations even if it is sort of the West Europe Nickelodeon Studios chain of parks. Like, anyone can have a flat-ride boat, with boats that go in a circle in a little water trough, but make the boats into ducks? That's different and fun to see.

We went next to Heidi The Ride, the wooden coaster that I had penciled in to be my 300th unique coaster before the Nigloland disappointment. Looking at the track suggested to us who made the ride, and going on it --- with its heavily banked turns and hills --- confirmed. It's a 2017 Great Coasters International ride; their personality is just that strong. It's fun, albeit short, but should do a lot to teach kids how fun wooden roller coasters are.

Really though the theming of the ride is the attraction. Not the signs and the monitors showing what I guess are clips of the specific Heidi adaptation they're promoting. That looks like an adequate, low-budget computer animated thing. It's the decor of the station that looks so good, done in a style that evokes the Alps Or Wherever setting that I assume the Heidi story or stories take place in, with furniture that looks hand-made and wooden sleighs and cedar chests and iron implements. The train is even done up to look like a wooden sleigh. It's all very charming.

And nearby was Plopsaland's other carousel. It's not an antique (I assume it dates to about the same time as the roller coaster) and it's not wood, but it works hard to look like wood. Specifically the animals and seats on it --- including sleds rather than chariots --- are made to look like wood sculptures, rustic and imperfect, though if you look at multiple models of the same animal you notice they have identical flaws. But it has the look of the kind of merry-go-round someone might make by hand in the Alps Or Wherever. It commits hard enough to this that it doesn't even have a center pole and axles from which the animals dangle. They're mounted on the rotating disc of the ride, and fixed in place, without any kind of rocking or jumping mechanism, just like the oldest of carousels. The only downside is it isn't run like the oldest of carousels, with the ride rocketing up to maybe two rotations per minute. In the old days you could get five or six.

Also a strange feature? Dinosaurs. Lining what looked like the path of a log flume were bunches of dinosaurs, pterodactyls and stegosauruses and triceratopses and all that. Why? We don't know. We considered riding the log flume to see but it takes a lot to get us to ride a log flume, usually an intensely hot sunny day with nevertheless short lines for the ride. It wasn't intensely hot so we kept bumping the log flume down to ``maybe later'' and we ran out of time to consider it.

But enough of that exotic park we'll probably only ever see the once; how about photos of Michigan's Adventure, which we might easily see twice this season?

Park flags outside the Shivering Timbers ride.

There's not much of a line for Shivering Timbers; here we're already at the station and you can see the blue train circling the helix at the end of the ride.

The purple tent here is set up for the Halloween Tricks-and-Treats event.

Wolverine Wildcat's queue and in the distance, lift hill, and one of the monitors that's not working.

They've been replacing the wood on Shivering Timbers, including some retracking, and it has done wonders at making the ride smoother and faster. For some reason they've got it replaced here on the lift hill, where the ride doesn't need to be fast or smooth.

Here's a close-up showing the Gravity Group logo for the new wooden track.

Trivia: A dill cucumber pickle is about 93 percent water. A fresh (such as bread-and-butter) pickle, 79 percent. A sour pickle is about 95 percent water. Source: The New York Public Library Desk Reference, Editorial Directors Paul Fargis, Sheree Bykofsky.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

PS: What’s Going On In Judge Parker? Why is April Parker in Norway? April – July 2025 in my latest comic strip plot recap adventure!

Finally let's resume talking Plopsaland De Panne.

The Ride to Happiness is the roller coaster that has a reputation, to the point it might be something an American roller coaster enthusiast might have heard of. That reputation is of an unbelievably intense ride, something unlike what you might have experienced otherwise. The station, and the ride, has this steampunk vibe, all gears and clockwork mechanisms and, like, a forge's furnace in part of the queue building. You also might get some of the vibe of the place by the sign put out front, delivered in three languages --- English as the first and largest text, the only place in the park where that happens, and French and Dutch translations beneath that:

Dear people of Tomorrow, welcome to The Ride To Happiness.

After many wonderful years of writing history, Tomorrowland has been searching to expand its horizons. This spectacular ride has found its course, created to stimulate all senses in a way that hasn't been done before --- as a true symbol of uniting the People of Tomorrow community around the world.

The 4 elements of nature work together to power this extraordinary machine. Kicking off with the first element Air --- known to blow harshly at the Belgian coast --- of which the force is collected for the next element Fire. The scorching fires are then controlled in the oven to be used in the next element Earth. The incredible temperatures can shape Earth's surface any way it desires, ensuring its path to flow perfectly for the last element Water. Finally, the 4 elements unite to fully power The Ride To Happiness.

Prepare for an unforgettable journey of a lifetime.

Tomorrowland, by the way --- designers or something of the ride --- is a big electronic dance music festival in Belgium, scheduled for a couple weekends later this month in Boom, Belgium. So despite all that text, and the huge monitor of a cybernetic woman introducing you to the ride when you get to the station, it's not some prog rock thing. Actually the music is more ... I'm not sure how to describe it. Softer, though, and enveloping and seeming out of line with a thrill ride. But the cybernetic woman congratulates you on being guided through the energy maze to this place and that you will have nature embrace your inner being so live today, love tomorrow, unite forever. The ride is full up to the brim with vibes, is what I'm saying.

And what is the ride itself? ... Well, the roller coaster is a short one --- all the Plopsaland roller coasters are --- but it's a pretty intense, curving, topsy sort of ride. And what elevates it further is that the cars all spin, and are released to spin almost right away. The experience is much like if you put spinning wild mouse cars on an Arrow megalooper of the 1980s. In fact, the ride is pretty close in length and speed and inversion count to Kings Island's Vortex, though it's not so tall as that one had been. I'd call this more intense than Vortex, although just how intense varies, depending on your luck in the spinning. We got several rides on this over the day, and avoided doing a real session on it because it would be just too much for that. Also you start the ride with a low-speed inversion, the track doing a heartline roll before you get to the launch. These are always unsettling.

It is a really good ride. And the theme and presentation is so very different from any American roller coasters. It's amazing.

And now, getting into the photo reel, since we're done with the Fairy Ball what comes next? ... Go on, guess.

Establishing shot. Exterior, my car, outside the Mad Mouse ride. Labor Day. So, looking like maybe not too heavy a day at the park? We'll see.

Here's the park's tree, and Ferris wheel, against the cloudiest sky we ever thought we'd see at Michigan's Adventure.

Maker's plate for the Scrambler, a ride we don't get to nearly enough considering it's pretty hard to have a bad ride on one.

bunnyhugger here was snagging a picture of the charming cartoony figure of the safety warning figures, cartoon stick figures who are smiling when they're letting the restraint bar keep them safe during the ride and unhappy when they unlatch it and stand up. Note the Big Eli logo on back of the cars.

There's Thunder Bolt, the Himalaya ride, which for 2024 lost its roof. Now it's protected from the elements only by the elements themselves.

Trees outside the Scrambler and Thunder Bolt already starting to change colors for fall.

Trivia: The British Naval Intelligence Office cracked German naval ciphers at the start of World War I, thanks in great part to the accidental capture of three German cipher books, one from a merchant ship in Australia, one from the light cruiser Magdeburg wrecked on the Russian coast, and the third from a torpedo boat salvaged from the English Channel. Source: To Rule The Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World, Arthur Herman.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

I must once more beg off writing up the European Vacation in order to tend other matters of great importance. Please enjoy more pictures from the Fairy Ball, though.

We poked back around the woodland trail in full darkness.

Here's the sort of path we were following by night.

And here we emerged onto the Court of the Fae, illuminated only by the overhead lights.

The Moon Grove looks even more remote in portrait mode.

They had something or other going nearly all the time, with the drawback being you couldn't avoid missing a lot of stuff.

Fairy lights in the darkness doing a very good job of being the trail.

Moon Grove as the wedding dancing was going on and, you can see, they were bringing out the light sabers!

Meanwhile here's a woman demonstrating fire dancing moves.

That's an exciting event!

Swinging the flames around some.

Yes, there's fire-swallowing.

And some dancing with the fire.

Trivia: Two of the final projects of Terry Toons were Saturday morning cartoon pilots: The Ruby Eye of the Monkey God, a jungle-adventure cartoon, and Sally Sargent, about a 16-year-old secret agent girl. Source: Terry Toons: The Story of Paul Terry and his Classic Cartoon Factory, W Gerald Hamonic.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

My humor blog has been another week of Robert Benchley and some very slight other stuff. Also a joke based on a thing bunnyhugger has been facing. Want to read all about it? Here we go.

• MiSTed: The 72 Hours Saga, Part 46
• Robert Benchley: Isn’t It Remarkable?
• Statistics Saturday: MacBook Computer Case Colors
• Robert Benchley: Do Dreams Go By Opposites?
• Robert Benchley: My White Suit
• What’s Going On In Gil Thorp? What’s the problem with Clambake? April – June 2025
• Robert Benchley: Wear-Out-A-Shoe Week
• MiSTed: The 72 Hours Saga, Part 47

And now let me share a normal amount of pictures from the Fairy Ball last year.

Swordfighting at the Moon Grove! I don't know if this was merely a demonstration or if it was actually for some prize.

Much like a small convention they set up things like palm-reading booths and some vendor stations.

Some of the many signs made and not yet put up even as the event was under way.

This was a small circle very useful for navigating. The bike stand is on the right, with the Moon Grove below.

bunnyhugger examines the entry arch. Note the Christmas lights --- the fairy lights --- to line the path inside.

bunnyhugger composing an ode to the entryway.

Drum circle that was going on as we went to walk the path through the woods.

There's the drummers on the right; I can't tell what's going on in the background. Hidden behind the trees was a crepes truck, though.

And here's the walkway. Those probably aren't actual ghosts draped up in the woods.

This seems like an unproductive bridge until you remember it's probably a lot of fun to ride a bike over.

Following the fairy lights through the woods here.

And we came out the path near the Moon Grove where, it happens, the wedding ceremony was going on, with the exit right behind, like, everybody. So, we stayed back rather than intrude, and maybe appeared as blurry visions in the background of other people's pictures.

Trivia: Greenland ice core studies indicate that between atmospheric lead levels rose from 0.5 parts per trillion to 2 parts per trillion in the first century AD, reflecting Rome conquering Britain and mining the island's lead. Source: Molecules at an Exhibition: The Science of Everyday Life, John Emsley.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.