Boy, it's taking forever to use up scans of slides from April, 1974 - a slide lot that is generally full of underdeveloped (i.e. dark) images. There are four more after this, and then I'm FREE!
That being said, this first one isn't too bad - it's a nice view of the Autopia, showing how that ride went over water, and through "woodlands" for a very pretty ride. Looking at the two yellow vehicles, I'm guessing that the second car kept bumping the car in front. I used to hate that when I was a kid! Sometimes you'd really get rear-ended pretty hard. But it was just a fact of life on that ride, as you can see to the extreme left, cars just had a way of bunching up.
Here's one of the "too dark" photos, it looks like our Skyway gondola has just launched from the Tomorrowland Terminal, and is heading toward Fantasyland.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Some of you may have noticed that our friend Melissa has been silent for a while; I got an email from her, and she gave me permission to share it with all of the Junior Gorillas. Here it is:
The days have all been running together so much lately that I hadn't realized how long it's been since I visited the fine primates at Gorillas Don't Blob. The old cornea trouble has been flared up like a pair of pants from 1974 for the last month or so, and my vision is so blurry that all the images on the blog look like double exposures of the Bloblong Blobsled Ride at Blobb's Jell-O Farm and Amoeba Ranch, and the text looks like a font based on doctors' handwriting (I proofread this comment one letter at a time!) My regular doctor can't fit me in until January, but another doctor has squeezed me in next week, so fingers and eyeballs crossed. Feel free to share or summarize the whole magilla with the junior gorillas; I just didn’t want anyone to worry. Ook ook, Melissa
It goes without saying that I miss Melissa and hope that her cornea troubles are taken care of SOON; and that she will be back with us in two shakes of a lamb's tail. Or even one!
Major-
ReplyDelete".. it looks like our Skyway gondola has just launched from the Tomorrowland Terminal, and is heading toward Fantasyland".
If you're referring to the yellow gondola - that one would be about to return to the Tomorrowland station.
Thanks for sharing Melissa's missive. I was wondering where she had wondered off to; I hope she is soon on the mend and will return to her usual, unique self.
Thanks, Major.
I don't think we've ever seen the Autopia from this angle before. Is it taken from the Monorail? I don't think it was taken from the PeopleMover. I don't remember it going this far out in the tulies. I love the gumball yellow color of the cars. Gumballs of this color taste like Juicyfruit. Although, these cars are shaped more like Chiclets than gumballs... I bet the cars still taste like Juicyfruit though. I think we can see a yellow PeopleMover train through the trees. I'm sure it doesn't taste like Juicyfruit though; too pale. Probably tastes like banana.
ReplyDeleteThis photo may be too dark, but we can still see a yellow, Juicyfruit-flavored Bobsled going over that Alpine bridge. I don't see Fudgie; maybe the pic is too murky. Or maybe he was gone by this time?
Major, thanks for sharing Melissa's email. YES, I have been wondering about our Melissa every day! And yes, i was getting worried. Needless to say, we're all sending positive thoughts your way, Melissa, and hoping for a quick and favorable outcome.
And thanks, Major for today's pics.
JB, that first pic was taken from a PeopleMover vehicle. The Monorail and the PeopleMover both went out that far into the boondocks (ha, ha.....tulies and boondocks were both words that my grandmother would use!), and they even ran pretty much parallel to one another at this point. But the Monorail track was to the west of the PeopleMover track. If this had been taken from the Monorail, we would be seeing the People Mover track in the foreground. Hopefully, that all makes sense!
ReplyDeleteMelissa, if you are able to decipher the comments at all, I am sending positive thoughts your way, for a speedy recovery! January? Geez! I'm glad that you were able to get an appointment much sooner than that!
Melissa, I hope you will have a quick recovery. My thoughts are with you and thinking of the day you will be able to comment again. We miss you.
ReplyDeleteThe first photo is really wonderful. Love that there are the waters below of the Fantasyland River where Motorboats once cruised. Now it is filled in and there is less activity in this area.
Thanks for the pics and text, Major and thanks for informing us about Melissa.
Melissa, thank you for letting us know, we have been worried! We miss you! Looking forward to your speedy recovery, the photos are too good to miss!
ReplyDeleteMajor, thanks for sharing the message!
Photo 1 is very nice, I like those trees with the pale bark. The whole image could be a tilt-shift. There are two skyway tubs passing each other, one red, one blue and they look like one big one in two colors. I agree, this is taken from a PeopleMover train.
I remember those pile-ups, did the driver in front stop on purpose to cause a jam or is he having mechanical trouble? Even though the engines had speed governors, there might be some that were lower setting by chance or accident. Part of the charm of the ride is the route through the forest, over hill, over Dale, over Chip, that and wondering where the subs went.
The second photo has the trademark Tomorrowland colors, I’ll take that even if it is a little dark.
Thank you Major, very nice views.
JG
Nanook, no, I said our gondola (i.e. the one “we are in”) has launched from the Tomorrowland terminal! Not the yellow one.
ReplyDeleteJB, if we have seen the Autopia from this angle before, it was not recent; it’s always nice to get a different view of things, even when those things are familiar. Juicyfruit, boy I used to love that gum. Haven’t had it in decades. I also used to love Fruit Stripe gum, which I guess they just discontinued. Good eye on the bobsled, I forgot to even look!
TokyoMagic!, I still don’t know what “tulies” means, or rather what the origin is. Because it is an unfamiliar word, I am frightened. Thanks for the info about the Peoplemover view, I think that I assumed that the first photo was taken from the PPLMVR, but I didn’t mention it.
K. Martinez, yes, one of the things that differentiates Disneyland from WDW is the many levels, and areas of “woods”. As far as I know, most of Orlando’s Tomorrowland is pretty flat.
JG, I’ll have to leave it to the experts to ID the trees with the pale bark. All I know if that they have no scale. The Skyway gondola colors are very toylike, I’m sure that if they were small, babies would want to eat them. I’m sure that every scenario possible has happened on the Autopia, though I do remember that my car died on the “highway” once, and a kid slammed into me. I had to wait for a CM to come out and pull the starter cord to get my car going.
Major-
ReplyDeleteOh... you were thinking the 2nd image was taken from a gondola - in which case, yes, it was departing the Tomorrowland terminal. I'm so used to seeing images taken from Skyway gondolas containing a telltale sign of [a part of] the railing, I assumed the image was shot from another location. Carry on.
Hi everyone, just a quick tip for Melissa (and others with visual difficulties) that some might not be aware of. Most desktop browsers have a simple zoom in/out function built in where if you hold down the [Ctrl] key and then tap on the [+/=] button it will incrementally enlarge the text and images on the web page. Keep tapping and things will get pretty BIG. You can also reduce the zoom level by holding [Ctrl] and tapping the [-/_] button ...these are both next to each other next to the [Backspace] key. Just think of them as "increase" "decrease" text size. The zoom level will show up in the URL bar and if you click on it this will usually reset the zoom level back to normal (100%). Works on Firefox and Chrome for sure but probably most other browsers as well.
ReplyDeleteOh and if you need more screen real estate [F11] will take you in and out of fullscreen mode.
F E E L B E T T E R F A S T M E L I S S A
ReplyDeleteMS
ReplyDeleteJB....most of the time those 'jam-ups' were driver caused. It just seemed to be a natural thing for kids to turn them into bumper cars. Those vehicles took a lot of hits and could fail. So there were a couple positions that CMs 'manned' along the route to watch for stalls as well as to correct freeway mayhem. If you look closely at the picture there is a CM standing on the other bridge over the sub pool in the background. Some cars went slower than others though they were set for the same speed. KS
WE WISH YOU A SPEEDY RECOVERY MELISSA!!
Major, the tules are bulrushes or swamp weeds. Getting out into them takes work, and is usually taken to mean you are far afield of where you should be in the main channel. Also used to conceal Moses.
ReplyDeleteIn the San Joaquin Valley, tules were common in the inland wetlands, and also lend their name to the infamous tule fog that arrives in winter up there, which I do not miss one bit.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tule
As Anonymous notes, browser zoom on desktop PC is built in and can also be activated by holding down CTRL key and spinning the mouse wheel, if you have one.
JG
Melissa, we miss you!!! I can imagine you commenting on today's pictures with something like: VROOOOOOM!
ReplyDeleteBut it isn't the same without you....so please hurry back to GDB and all your friends! Love and hugs to you!