Here’s a look at the design for the Pilgrims Plunge station.
What do you think?
Posts Categorized: Behind the Scenes
Tomorrow is “Take Your Dog to Work Day”
Thank goodness Friday is Eric’s day off!
Before anyone’s head explodes…
I give.
I thought the statement that I would reveal what’s being built next week was a clear indication it was not something really big.
It was simply something being built.
Near the highway.
In clear view of, well, anyone driving by.
Creating a bit of a buzz.
Alas, coaster enthusiasts, ye hardly know me.
You’ve been on top of the world guessing what is going on. Dreaming big. Posting bigger.
Finally someone old enough (sigh!) caught the puns.
We’ve Only Just Begun.
For All We Know.
Close To You.
…and I just added another one in this post (Top of the World).
Just a tiny bit familiar?
A brother and sister act…
No, not Donny and Marie.
Not Will and Natalie either.
That’s right … The Carpenters.
Carpenters. Hmmmm…
We have carpenters on staff.
Hard-working fellows.
They deserve a new workshop, don’t they? They’ve outgrown the old one.
That’s right — the carpenters are building themselves a new Carpenters Shop.
Meanwhile, It’s Going To Take Some Time before we announce what’s new for you next year.
We’ve only just begun …
Anyone driving by our Employee Parking Lot on Highway 162 the past few weeks has noticed some interesting activity.
For all we know, this might be the start of an exciting addition to the park for 2008.
Be sure to pass this construction photo along to someone close to you; we’ll tell you what it is next week.
“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.
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…
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:
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.
It’s a Wonderful Budget
No one looks forward to capital budget time.
Some departments get what they want; others need to try again next year.
Just like Christmas, it’s rare to get everything you wanted.
We announced our 2006 capital budget early this year: $13.5 million. …but that doesn’t mean everything was set in stone. When push comes to shove, we still need to work out the specifics and make it all balance out.
On Monday, Will looked…well, in pain.
He gently told his assembled staff of directors that some hard decisions needed to be made in order to finalize the budget for 2006. Even though the $13.5 million budget is more than twice the amount of our previous record capital budget, we were still–on paper–way over.
So something had to go. (No, not The Voyage. Calm down!)
Will presented three options that would get us back on budget. Several directors groaned. A few others blanched. We talked through the options carefully, cautiously.
Will looked sick to his stomach.
Then Joe, who has worked here all but one of the years since we opened in 1946, suggested Option #4: Will, I could wait another year for my department to move to new offices.
It was very quiet in the room.
Then Wayne spoke up. He could do without some of the food-service extras that were on the list. April offered she could wait another year for new warehouse shelving. And Vanessa suggested dropping her new storage building from the list.
One by one, each director came forward until the budget was where it needed to be.
It was amazing.
Heartwarming.
Sort of like a Jimmy Stewart movie.
Testy times
It’s back-to-school time. And the kiddos aren’t the only ones taking tests.
Will, Mrs. Koch, and our staff of Directors are taking tests this week, too. The online “assessments” are meant to tell us about our strengths and weaknesses (or, rather, opportunities for growth).
I plowed through all the questionnaires (the first one has 435 questions!) on the first day. (No doubt, that tells the analyst something about me before he or she even looks at my responses.)
Mrs. Koch has been out of town, but she’s back now and is determined to complete hers today. Meanwhile, a professional photographer drove down this morning from Bloomington. Mrs. Koch is slated to be the cover girl for a really nice regional home and lifestyle magazine. She and her home will be featured in their December issue. The giant black Christmas tree is already in place. Other decorations stay up year-round. Lots and lots of Santas.
In between shot set-ups, we were laughing about some of the “true or false” statements on the first questionnaire.
True or false?
Everything tastes the same.
I prefer showers to baths.
I enjoy listening to the symphony on the radio.
Must admit, I half-expected to be asked: Boxers or briefs?
Mrs. Koch says the last time she took such a test was back in the 1950s.
When she was a Catholic nun.
It seems the Sisters all took the Rorschach test. (That’s the ink-blot test.)
It wasn’t long before Mrs. Koch had us howling:
They called me in after I took the test.
Very concerned.
Sister told me, “Nuns shouldn’t think that way!”
What was I supposed to see in those ink blots? Angels?
I saw body parts. I probably said “pelvis” and that was all it took.
Good grief! I was a nurse and studied anatomy. What was the big deal? They never did tell me exactly what concerned them about my answers. (Sigh!) Maybe I’ll do better on these tests …
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