Boardwalk Rides

I've had a Floating World series block in progress for quite a while, my general daytime scene set in Asbury Park.  It's been delayed by having to divert to other prints, and by various things going on in life, but most of it is worked out now.  I have to deal with all the figures (a model would be very helpful for some of them, as well as some from a planned beach themed block) and a whole lot of architectural details, for which I have plenty of photo references.  I could have advanced that today, but today was sunny and mild, and we won't have too many days like this coming the rest of the year.

So rather than sit and work inside, I decided to drive down to Point Pleasant and gather material for another planned Floating World print, one devoted to rides.   There were a lot of things I liked about the boardwalk when I was very young, but the rides were at the top of the list.  Not that the rides were very exciting by adult standards, mostly just the little kid rides where you sit in a miniature sports car, fire truck, airplane, boat, etc that goes around in a circle for a few minutes.  As I got older, I had less interest in rides (though I never got tired of bumper cars), so I figure a ride themed print should focus on those kiddie rides.  I have a few photos and sketches going back to when I was working on my tower print, but I will need more for this new print.  The last time I went down to Point in the off season hoping to collect ride references, they were pretty much all gone for a major board replacement project.  However, I was hoping to have better luck today, figuring that they were possibly still operating just a few weeks ago and maybe hadn't gotten around to putting everything away for the winter.  It was pretty much what I expected- lots of free parking, no one on the beach but a fair number of people walking the boards, and though some of the rides were missing, there were a lot more in place than the last time I was there.  The gates around the ride section were locked, but that was expected, too.  Despite having to deal with obstructed views and shooting through the fence, I got some useful photos and a few sketches.  Also stopped in the Tiki Bar for a minute to take a few mental notes, but that print is still a ways off in the future.