Valleyfair

Today was my companies annual Valleyfair day. This is the day that they rent out the entire park and open it just for employees and their families. The pluses here are pretty obvious. The lines are nonexistent. You can literally go on a rollercoaster, walk around to the line and get right back on. Try that on a regular Saturday.
In the past they've also offered prizes ranging from $20 to 10% of your annual pay. They've also offered cruises and vacations. A girl I used to work with won a trip to Tahiti for two, airfare, accommodations and an extra week of vacation so she wouldn't lose any pay at work.
I said 'in the past' because this year there was no mention of any of this. It's been a tough year for us and this might be a reflection of that. Understandable but kind of sad.
Also sad was the state of the park. The rides this year were very rough. We went on six different roller coasters and three of them made me wonder if they were up to code. There was all kinds of rides that needed paint. Hopefully it was just end of the season issues.
Also sad (but for a different reason) is this list:

• Corkscrew - Steel Looping (1980).
• Excalibur - Hybrid Wood-Steel (1989).
• Wild Thing - Steel Out & Back (1996).
  
• Mad Mouse - Steel Wild Mouse (1999).
• Steel Venom – Steel, Inverted, Launched (2003).
• Renegade - Wooden (2007).

That's when the various coasters were built. The Corkscrew is almost thirty years old? How did that happen? I remember when Excalibur was built and there is no way that it was twenty years ago. Holy cats, that's depressing.
Still I don't want to gripe too much about a free day at an amusement park. We had fun and that's what counts.