Sabbatical 1998 - Day 23

Something Goofy this way comes

Q: You've traveled over 1,200 miles on your motorcycle, ridden all matter of roller coaster and thrill ride.  What are you going to do now?

A: I'm going to Disneyland!

Yes, as if I didn't get enough of Mickey and friends in Orlando, I'm here on the Left Coast to do it all again.  Having visited Disney World so recently gave me an opportunity to compare and contrast.  For instance, Disneyland is in California while Disney World is in Florida.  Both climates are inhospitable.  Florida is wetter.  California is dirtier.  Florida is a swamp.  California is a block of concrete hundreds of miles across.  And they're both great vacation destinations!   I should be a travel agent.

I got to see Snow White!  Wow!  What a babe!  (and you can't tell me there wasn't something going on with all of those dwarfs.  ... it's got all the makings of some weird art school film (the art school is weird, I mean, not the film) or music video.) (People who work in art schools are, well, different.... I just thought I'd point that out for no particular reason.) ("Why am I speaking parenthetically?" he asked.)

All of these little kids were rushing up to the characters and asking for autographs.  I thought that was a pretty good gig, so I put on a hat that says "dopey" on it.  No one seemed terribly impressed.  No one asked for an autograph.  I started screaming, "Look, man!  I'm Dopey!"  To which one man replied, "Yeah, we know.  Now sit down and shut up!"

The new Tomorrowland is, like, so new, it's not here yet.  It will be here in about a day I'm told. First off, all of the structures have a new paint job.  Everything is a-glow (as the youngsters like to say) with gold, silver and "elemental, earthy" kinds of colors.  No, it's not like a big mud pie, but it definitely does not look like a set for The Jetsons anymore.  'cause it's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow....

Space Mountain remains the single most interesting thing in the area.  A new attraction called Rocket Rods won't be in service for another 14 tomorrows.  I was a bit disappointed because I thought they were "done" with the renovation and that everything would be open.  Nope.

One of the other Tomorrowland attractions that isn't done is the Imaginasium (or something like that.)  It replaces the long-standing show that used to talk about how SOMEDAY we'll use microwaves to cook our food. The new show concentrates on current technology and on how it might be applied in the future.  Unfortunately, not a lot of it was working today.  I did like the cool black-lighted room full of web browsing stations that were hard-wired to the Disney site.  The browsers were a yawn, but the black light made my white shirt glow in the dark.  Neat!  I wonder how black light technology will be used in the future?  What kind of cool posters will there be?  Will Indian music and burning herbs be appropriate atmosphere?

Now, I'm not hip to all of these new-fangled changes that they're making down at the Disneyland, but, I decided to try something new today. One of the restaurants in New Orleans Square was serving up elephant.  Yes, we're talking 100% Gumbo meat. I was under the impression that hunting and killing elephant (especially cute elephants like Gumbo) was illegal.  Apparently the flying variety elephants are so difficult to catch that they're no longer an endangered species.  You've got to take them out with surface-to-air missiles.  Anyway, the elephant was excellent.  I brought some home in the trunk.  Never at tusk.

Oh yeah.... and Splash Mountain and What's the Matterhorn and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and so on. Blah, blah, blah.  Lines were long and the sun was relentless so I went easy on the rides.  Safety Tip: Here in So. Cal, always remember to chew your air before attempting to breath it.

On Day 24: Ramblin' Guy.