We headed south to Laconia today and on the way – specifically at a tiny and somewhat dilapidated gas station on Route 3 – we found this:
In 1961, very near this gas station, an American married couple named Betty and Barney Hill claimed to have interacted with aliens. Their story is a bizarre one that has never been fully explained, and inside this gas station is a memorial (of sorts) to the curious incident.
The walls of the gas station shop are covered with printouts and clippings like the examples shown above, mostly but not all about the Hill encounter. It’s a bizarre display since most of the are mounted so high up as to be unreadable, or so faded by time they are illegible. From what I have read these were created by enthusiasts years ago, and the memorial has somewhat fallen into disrepair in the decades since.
This is quintessential ‘weird tourism’ and I’m glad we stopped for a look (and bought gas!) because to be honest I’m not sure how many more years it’ll exist. As for the Hills… maybe that’s a story for another blog post one day.
Our destination today was a place we’ve been many times before: the mega-arcade Funspot. It was brutally hot today, and we were looking forward to many hours in air conditioning playing games.
And so we did! I was particularly interested in pinball today, especially the newer tables that have seen a resurgence in popularity this last decade or so. Funspot continues to increase their pinball collection and there’s about 50 now including a dozen or more from the last few years, all of which I played.
The new machines are computer controlled, and have all sorts of elements – screens, moving magnets, ramps or tunnels that change position or shape – that weren’t possible with the technology of a few decades ago. They play fundamentally the same as pinballs from yesteryear but are much more complex and dynamic and – I’ll admit – difficult! Ultimately they’re fun though, and if you haven’t tried a recent table from a company like Stern I recommend you do.
As fancy as the new tables are this doesn’t mean the old ones are forgotten! Funspot still has dozens kept in great shape that are fun to play. But I can’t deny they feel a little… simple after playing the newer ones.
They’ve got a lot of loaner tables as well, as well as a pinball club and league that meets weekly and has regular competitions. I’m not very good at pinball, but I think with practice I could be ok, and if I lived closer their club would be very attractive.
Of course I played a lot of video games as well, including the unusual Us vs Them laserdisc game which I don’t recall ever seeing before. It’s not a great game, but it’s apparently very rare with fewer than 20 known working cabinets. I believe this is the only laserdisc game at Funspot right now and at 41 years old I’m amazed it still works!
That’s some weirdo contorting himself while playing Track & Field. Moving on…
No visit to Funspot is complete without the ticket redemption machines, and we probably spent half our time there playing these guys. As I had before, I ended up doing best at these retro spinning wheel machines and walked away with a truly monstrous string of tickets:
In total we ended up with over 3000 tickets, which was enough to redeem for a yo-yo and about $5 worth of candy! Not bad for $80 😉
We spent almost five hours at Funspot and it was great. It’s always great, and I don’t doubt we’ll return again one day. If you’re ever in this area, it’s worth going out of your way to visit.
Our roadtrip ends in a plain but comfy hotel in Laconia, with the drive home awaiting us tomorrow. We’ve got nothing planned for the trip back, but who knows what the road will bring us?