"So what do you do in the off-season?"

Do you get laid-off till spring?

Right.

We really do get asked that.

A lot.

It's sort of annoying...

Like we mothball the place and go sleep by the fire for six months.

Not hardly.

Within days of the park closing for the season, the dismantling begins.

It goes on all over the park and takes place quickly.



The trains are lifted from the track and taken to maintenance, for all sorts of off-season TLC.

Gets a bit cluttered for a while.



...but eventually everything gets put away for the winter months.

Signs come down.



And I don't know what this is all about.



Too bad my budget is shot for the season. Otherwise we could rent a helicopter for an aerial shot, just in case the trash cans spell out a hint for, oh...2009 or something.

"X" marks the spot

Indeed, less than an hour after yesterday's post went up, Mike sent the following:

X marks the spot where I took the photo. I think I was standing on a bench - no tree climbing sorry.



Another of life's great mysteries ... solved.

New Voyage wallpaper

Mike Graham from The Gravity Group took this photo of, what else, The Voyage.

I'll have to be sure to ask him sometime exactly where he stood to take it. I really do think I would have remembered escorting him for a shoot if it involved climbing a tree.

Yes. Definitely.

We bid goodbye to more "stuff"

Okay, so if the amount of emails I've received is any indication, those 19 porcelain urinals are going to be the hot item on Saturday.

It'll be such a relief to see them go.

(Sorry. After those puns, I'm flushed with shame.)

Rachel and Joe put their heads together and assembled the requested list of items, as it now stands. (Many thanks to them both.)

Here is the list of auction items, in no particular order.

Popcorn Wagon

Plush Animals

Wacky Wire games (3)

Dead Man's Curve games (2)

Tic Tac Toe arcade games (3)

Bowler Roller games (5)

Coin Changers (4)

Assortment of Roll-up Doors with Track

Steam whistles and other antiques

Disco ball

Spinning Wheel

Large Brass Horn (like a megaphone with no mouth piece, nearly five feet tall)

Assortment of 3'x5' American Flags (from the Avenue of Flags)

Gas-Fired Caramel Corn Kettle

Gas-Fired Candy Apple Stove, no kettle

Miniature Woodworking Shop (collector's piece)

Large Indiana flag (all wool; at least 10'x12')

Large amount of poly garland (some new, some used)

Large Copper Kettle (at least 100 years old)

Holstein Corn Roaster, trailor-mounted ($3,000 reserve)

Ditch Witch Trencher

Exhaust System

Electric motor 100 h.p. (from The Raven)

Children's crawl-through train

2 Roller Racers, new used

Miscellaneous vinyl siding

Assortment of Food Service Equipment

Tiller

Assortment of electrical supplies including some fixtures

Large amount of primitive tools (over 100 years old)

Wooden shoes and patterns

Oil painting by Wylie Rigsby

Assortment of track lighting

Ceiling Fans

Lark Motor Scooters, battery-operated with chargers (5)

80 lounge chairs

Headless Horseman costume

Snow-making machine

Toddler ball crawl

220 sand chairs

Broasters (2)

Flav-R-Savor Cabinet

Taylor Softech Ice Cream Machines (2)

Wooden Desks (2)

40'x60' Tent with poles ($6,000 Reserve)

Miscellaneous roofing

Porcelain urinals (19)

Hand sinks (4)

Turnstiles (2)

Washing Machines (2)

Singer Industrial Sewing Machine (may be used for embroidery and on leather and upholstery; used only 2 or 3 hours)

Tascan 4 Track Reel to Reel Recorder

Pioneer 4 Track Reel to Reel Recorder

2 DC Power supplies

Light Sculpture (2)

Base for Lava Lamp

Solar System Mobile

Rotating Police Light, red

Teal 2 well cassette deck

Approximately 200 light bulb bases, plastic/ceramic

Teatronics Tech Director Light Board (Channels 1- 12 work, others unknown)

Tapco 6 channel Audio Mixer

6 Channel Teatronics Lighting Dimmer, needs work

Indoor Ceiling Light Fixture (in box)

3 DC Car Effects Lights

2 Channel Bolen Audio Amp, operational unknown

7 Channel Teatronics Control Board

Lighting Controller, Superstar

2 Yamaho 1602 16 channel sound boards

Colortran Encore 24/48 Digital Light Board

Saluin Moon Beam Lighting Effect Unit/Controller

3 Color R-40 Boarder Lights (5)

The auction is this Saturday, October 21, at the Lakeside Picnic Shelter (use the Raven parking lot) at 10:30 am CDT.

Going, going, gone...

The directive from Will was to "clean house."

And we did.

So now we're hosting an auction.

Wonder who had this rattling around in the back of his closet...

A full list of items isn't available yet, but here's what's caught my eye so far:

Popcorn cart

Assortment of arcade games

Disco ball

Corn roaster

300 lounge chairs

Small children'’s ball crawl and crawl-through train

Snow-making machine

Spinning wheel, steam whistles and other antiques

Construction supplies (roll-up doors, vinyl siding, shutters, etc.)

Ditch Witch trencher

40' x 60' tent top/canopy

19 wall-mounted porcelain urinals

Here's the corn roaster in all its glory:



The auction will begin at 10:30 am CDT on Saturday, October 21. Just park in the Raven lot and head over to the Lakeside Picnic Shelter.

Rest or No Rest?

We're closed for the season, right?

And just when you think you can come up for air, Hollywood calls again.

Here's a news release we just sent out:

HOLLYWOOD RETURNS TO SPENCER COUNTY

SANTA CLAUS, IN-----Just a few weeks after the departure of the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" television production crew from Spencer County, the producers of the popular NBC primetime game show "Deal or No Deal" are planning to visit the town of Santa Claus this weekend.

"We just got the call this morning and are working with businesses and attractions throughout Santa Claus to get ready," says Melissa Miller, the director of the Spencer County Visitors Bureau. "It's a little bit crazy, but we're all frantically trying to decorate for Christmas before the TV crew arrives Saturday morning."

Santa Claus resident Skip Allen received word this week that he was selected to be a contestant on "Deal or No Deal," which is hosted by Howie Mandel. Allen, who is the general manager of Santa's Lodge, auditioned twice for the show, first in Evansville and then in Metropolis. He and his family will be flown to Hollywood later this month for the taping of the show, which will air on Christmas Day.

"We're encouraging everyone in Santa Claus to go over the top with their Christmas spirit this weekend," says Miller. "Since this show will air on Christmas, it will feature a 'day in the life' of the town, so just about anyone might end up on TV!"

By the way, the Extreme Makeover show that was shot in Spencer County will air on November 12.

In case you lost count

Surely, you've all memorized the stats for The Voyage by now, so you know about it being the world's top air-time wooden coaster.

A reporter just emailed to ask how many "moments" of negative-g riders experienced with each lap this season. (He admitted to losing count after 21.)

Checked in with Korey Kiepert of The Gravity Group and here is his response:

When looking through the airtime numbers for The Voyage, we had previously used a criteria that anything less than 0.25 Gs would be considered airtime. Using that same criteria, there are 24 locations of airtime no matter whether you sit (the front, middle, or back of the train).

A million thanks

This very kind email arrived yesterday from Mark A. of Valley View, Ohio:

I would like to personally congratulate you on hitting the million attendance mark for 2006. I took my family to your park for our first overall visit in June of this year. Coming from Cleveland, Ohio, it was well worth the drive! Since we have season passes to Cedar Point, we wanted to start to visit parks outside of Ohio. We were very impressed with how clean your park is and how each and every one of your employees made us feel at home.

The second day we visited your park was on a Saturday and I remembered your web site telling us that is was going to be a very busy day. It was, but I felt your staff did an excellent job of dispatching guests through queues and even though I could tell the park was crowded, we were still able to accomplish everything we wanted to do that day.

You have found fans for life as we will be back next year. We want to thank you very much for a lovely trip and I am thrilled that you reached this milestone. We wish your park the very best for 2007 and look forward to seeing you then.

Well, well, well ...

We did it.

Morning memo

This email just arrived from Will:

As of Saturday, our attendance total is 999,017. We need 983 people today to reach 1 million.

Time to check the turkey

The folks at Sellner are still working on those birds.



They're located in Minnesota.

Gives a new meaning to cold turkey, eh?

Please excuse the view, but if you'd like to take a gander at the tail feathers, here they are:



That slogan shows a lot of pluck: "Whirling since 1926."

Wow. Eighty years of dizziness.

Finally, here's how the still-in-the-design-phase bird looks.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

If you like your ride reviews with an international flair, you might want to pick up a copy of Kirmes & Park Revue, a really nice German trade journal.

Here's a blurb from their website:

THE VOYAGE

Schon als die ersten Konzeptzeichnungen im Internet auftauchten, kannte die internationale Szene nur noch eine Blickrichtung: "The Voyage," Holiday World, Santa Claus, Indiana . . .

Lots of folks around here speak some German. Often it's just an occasional word or phrase while other times it's entire conversations.

My mother-in-law grew up speaking German, right here in southern Indiana. I remember being terrified when, as her daughter-in-law-to-be, I heard her chatting on the phone in German with one of sisters. Every so often, I clearly understood a single word: Paula.

Never dreaming I would one day marry a fifth-generation dairy farmer with a "dutchy" accent, I chose to study French as the other half of my double major back in college. You can just imagine all the good that's done me over the years...

So when I see "Blickrichtung" in reference to The Voyage, I don't know whether to cheer, faint ... or call an attorney!

Notes from a past employee

Julie worked for Vanessa in our merchandise department for eight seasons.

It seems Julie has moved on and is now a music teacher in the Indianapolis area.

Here's a portion of an email she just sent to Vanessa:

In my first grade class, we have been talking about high and low sounds. We have been drawing "squiggle lines" and pretend we are on a roller coaster. If we are on top of a hill we make high sounds, and if we are at the bottom, we make low noises. The reason I am telling you this: I am grading some "squiggle" papers right now and someone wrote "Holluda Wrd" on hers which she told me was, "Holiday World." She even drew people on her rollercoaster/squiggle.

We also did a lesson where we had to sing a wish using a magic wand. About half of my kids wished to go to Holiday World. I heard more Holiday World wishes than Disney. :) It must be a big deal since that could be their ONLY wish!!!

I just thought you'd like to hear some of those warm fuzzy stories. They always make me smile! I have told a few kids that I used to work there, but I don't think they believe me!

Will we make it?

There's something about a nice round number.

Like, say ... a million.

That's the goal we set for attendance this year.

For the first time in our 60-year history: one million guests.

My first season with the park, we barely topped 300,000. That was in 1991.

We're closing in on a million, but we're not there yet.

Two days left to the season. The weather forecast looks perfect.

We just may make it.