Ride the Flume
25 October 2014 -- 298/365
Warwick, Rhode Island
The site of the old Rocky Point Amusement Park was open to the public today. The site is being turned into an open spaces recreation area. All that remains are the towers of the old Skyliner ride, and the handful of ride cars they had on display. The one you see in today's photo was a log seat from The Flume, one of the most popular rides in the park. Also on display was an aerial map of the site. A volunteer was asking people to identify their favorite spot and she would then place a stick pin on the map in that location. She was getting frustrated, though, because everyone was identifying the location of the old shore dinner hall, or the clam shack, or the bandstand, or their favorite ride. She kept trying to get them to identify their favorite spot as it is today, but the crowd was having none of it. Finally, I said to her, "I don't think you understand. People aren't here today for a celebration. They are here for a Wake." She was, unfortunately, too young to understand how many first dates happened here, or how many first kisses were stolen in the Tunnel of Love or on the Skyliner. The popularity of the site does make you wonder how they mismanaged the finances so terribly that the amusement park failed.
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, boost black, boost white, protect highlights, and details. A levels adjustment was added in PSE.
