Photos

This is the fourth installment in my Carnival series. All photos were taken at the 2005 Canadian National Exhibition, an annual fair commonly known as the CNE.

This ride is the Polar express. Tongapup, who has documented the CNE in 2004 and 2005, has a photo, The Seven Deadly Sins, with the ride's excellent signage front and centre.

I love the sheer glee on these kids faces!

How does it work? You sit in a small car that holds three people. All the cars are connected together, like a train. The train then moves backward at ever increasing speed as loud music blasts and the operator asks repeatedly whether the riders want to go faster. He takes the riders' screams for an affirmative answer and cranks up the speed. This happens over and over until it becomes truly frightening/exhilerating/sick-making (depending on your individual inclinations and tolerances).

As the ride goes faster and faster, eveyone is pulled to their left (the right side of the photo) by centrifugal force, and the person in the seat closest to the outside is often more than a little crushed by the weight of his or her fellow riders (there's a warning about this that's partially visible in the workshop).

No fancy links or philosophizing today, just the sheer adrenaline of the Polar Express. The photo was taken while I was on the ride, by the way, not observing it from safe, solid ground. It only seemed right. I had to twist around and take pictures of the people behind me since I couldn't see the faces of those in front of me.

For a look at the aftermath of this adrenaline rush, see the workshop.