SAVE HOOT GIBSON

Monday, June 28, 2010

Big one coming ...

Another dose of 1983 media coverage is being scanned.


Just a reminder to the last of the cool people. You can now FLY Hoot and Chief to anywhere in the world so you can treat us to lunch in your country! That's right! If you pay for our travel + expenses YOU can enjoy our ridiculous rants IN PERSON while we eat food !!!!!!!!!!!! Is that an amazing deal or what?!!!!!

You can:

1. Feed Hoot and Chief
2. Talk about Horizons
3. Let us tell you bedtime stories about our adventures.
4. Watch us act like assholes in the airport!
5. Watch and giggle as we try to understand your religion!
6. Tell us that Michigan is another country and we'll believe you!
7. Buy us clothes (or white gowns) and see how we sport 'em as only we know how!
8. Shower us with money so you can see just how fast we can waste it and relieve you from those shallow pressures of "want"!
9. Feed Hoot and Chief and end up famous on our blog!



Sunday, June 27, 2010

Our cheap 'lil "poll"

I added this cheap "poll" to the blog at the beginning. Where would you live? Well, Nova Cite wins with Mesa Verde second and Brava Centauri third. We didn't see that happening but our readers have decided. Nova Cite it is!!!!

I always liked Mesa Verde, hence the name of the blog, but would I really like to live in the desert? Probably not. Nova Cite may be more appealing to the average person. Sea Castle and Space would have seemed more dangerous to me..........Chief and I aren't about danger:)

The future may start in Nova Cite. OR West Milton Ohio.

Did you say ice cream?

Let's take another look at the voice activated refrigerator. Here again we find "annoying boy of tomorrow" bothering his poor father just like they do back here in the past.




We know that when the brat says a food word the fridge responds by opening the correct drawer. If he were to say "human head" one would hope that nothing would happen. If so...Dad would be going away for long time, Johnny.

Let's take a behind the scenes look at this food drawer.

WHOA! All of this just to open a drawer? No, my friends. There was much more to it than that even if you never noticed it from your ride vehicle. Remember that Horizons was all about the details. I've come up with this handy diagram for you:






1. This little air cylinder would push the drawer out.
2. The light would come on just like refrigerators here in the past.
3. This high tech looking device would shoot a blast of fog out of the drawer.
4. The duct tape would keep this rig working by providing an ultra strong hinge for the red fog hose. (Universal probably uses Scotch Tape)

It's as simple (and cool) as that and that's pic #195 from my collection! There's plenty more trust me.

As for future parenting, why do you suppose that kid is so rotten? They certainly don't spank their kids but I did find something out.

As a disciplinary measure they tie their children to a tri-apple tree. And at night.........



The Road Runners come.......meep.......meeep.....

Monday, June 14, 2010

Under the Sea

Here's a real treat, folks. Chief and I loved these things! They're the "water ripple" projectors that cast those lovely patterns under the sea. The projector in the foreground is angled down, the farther is up a few degrees. The way the ripples crossed over each other was pure magic.



I think these were in the transition from sea to space. LOOK at all of that cool stuff! Hey! There's a disk on the floor!

Sweet! The disks would rotate in front of the projector lens.

That pattern is great. The disks were heavy and probably 1/2 think. Maybe 3/4. Maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about.

"Water Ripple Reflection"

Damn I miss that ride.

More Water Damage



Some of you have asked just how bad the water damage was over the "space" area. The answer is pretty clear in this shot. I was seated in my vehicle when I took this so it was plainly visible to all passengers.




I was trying to get a pic of the airlock door and it wasn't until I got home that I noticed this. Of course, we had to see for ourselves so we made a trip to the catwalk. That's when we discovered the rotten ceiling.

These "skid marks"........ah never mind. I just wanted to say skid marks.

If Disney wasn't willing to fix the show side we new they'd never keep that ride running even with updates.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Time..

Time had us by the balls. Test Track was running almost every night and would open to the public soon. We had progressed to the point were we could stay in the ride as long as we wanted. We were at the top of our game yet the "top" also meant the end.

Chief and I had become masters of our obsession. We had learned how to feed our hunger. It became so regular to us that it was totally comfortable. Comfort, dear friends, often leads to sudden chaos.

I guess a good story is worth nothing if it doesn't have an ending.


Tarzan must have smelled REALLY bad. There's no way Jane would have been with him. The Tarzan stories are nonsense.



Thursday, June 3, 2010

Outta Space


Here's another one of those "If this was all I had I'd kill myself" pics. It's not even a good in ride shot but it sets us up for some better material.



this one was a little better but not really. the only good thing I see here is that I was the only dork to shoot a pic of the truss they're working so hard on. It doesn't look like THAT would hold an entire Space Station together but then again I'm a caveman from 2010 not a future man from 2083.





Aaaaahhhhh... from up on the catwalk above the scene, things look much better. Here's a shot down at the astronaut.

This was the highest point in the show building and only from here could one tell just how massive this show building was. It was like looking into the Grand Canyon only better because we knew there weren't bears roaming around.




From way up here we were able to see where the truss connected. We crawled out onto the platform behind those black curtains and realized that there was a mechanism that would lower (?) the lady in the roboty thing for maintenance. The platform creaked and was very wet.



Looking up we can see why. Chief and I noticed that the Horizons show building had a seriously leaky roof. Giant ceiling tiles, water logged, would come crashing down on the catwalk! We found water dripping down on broken pieces and we realized that maintaining this show was no longer important to Disney. The end was coming and quick.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

more from Friday night

THUNDER CHIEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If any one wondered what Chief's last name is...it's Chief......first name, Thunder!


Here, Kyle is holding an actual Carrot from the Nova Cite garden ( a gift from chief and I). Chief is explaining the virtues of the egg shaped plants that grew in the planters right in front of your ride vehicles in that same scene.






Chief, as you see is wearing the same jacket, hat and backpack that he wore on our adventures twelve years ago! I guess I decided to hit myself in the eye because he ROCKS.

Folks, that man named Chief is my best friend. I don't think a man can love another man more. He is my brother yet better than a real brother somehow. He's always been the only man I can trust and, I don't know if he remembers this, is my sons Godfather (even though I'm not Catholic)

Ed is my dear friend. I love him.