Fun Spot 2010

This past Saturday was a blast. Rock had spent the last couple of weeks trying to talk himself out of this impending road trip, but I think he knew (I certainly knew, though I let him work it out on his own) that it was just a matter of time before we headed out to the funnest spot in New Hampshire: Fun Spot! (side note: I am appalled that Word doesn’t think funnest is a word). He was starting to drive me a bit batty talking about Fun Spot all the time. I would try to steer him faster into the direction I knew he was headed: “well why don’t we take a day off and go up some weekday?” and “why not go this weekend?” and “it’s been so long since you’ve gone, you might as well.” All such helpful hints and suggestions were considered and then met with a “meh.” So Rock does the next obvious thing. He wakes us up on Saturday morning, completely decided to head to Fun Spot…if I really wanted to go too, of course. And he says I’m the indecisive one. I wasn’t intentionally trying to torture him, but since I had not woken up with the indescribable urge to drive to New Hampshire for three hours, I was a tad…hesitant.

The thing with Fun Spot is (as I told him) I always have so much fun when I’m there…but I don’t spend weeks thinking about the place and I don’t get as nostalgic about it as he does. See, Fun Spot is one of the largest arcades still featuring 80’s arcades, and this is a big deal to Rock. As a child of the 80’s, he remembers where and when he first played several arcades (it’s actually kinda weird). I grew up playing Nintendo but I didn’t grow up with any arcades around. I can see how stepping into Fun Spot for him is like stepping back into a magical childhood world that he lived through. For me, it’s a magical childhood world but I’d never seen it before.

It's about what you'd imagine...lots and lots of arcade games

This is now my third time to Fun Spot and each time I’m surprised at how quickly the time flies and how much fun I’ve had and how many games there are that I still have not been able to play. I’ve noticed I’ll head for the same machines though: Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pacman, Burgertime, Contra, Gauntlet, Warlords, Donkey Kong, just to name a few.

The place has another claim to fame, which I particularly like. Several parts of the documentary King of Kong were filmed there. If you have not seen this documentary, do so, now. I think you can watch it instantly on Netflix if you’re a member. Even if the subject matter didn’t appeal to me, I would still say that this is an awesome, funny, interesting, heart-felt documentary. Seriously, go watch it. Now!

As I write this post I can’t help but remember all those arcades, my personal favorites and all the others I haven’t even tried yet. I think next time around I won’t wait for Rock to plod through weeks of indecision. As soon as he mentions he’s getting the urge to visit Fun Spot, I’ll pick up the car keys and head out. Maybe he’ll come to his senses by the time I’ve warmed up the car.

P.S. I do sincerely apologize to Rock, who was sweating bullets while he drove, for turning up the heat throughout the three hour drive cause I was freezing... I feel really bad about that, to this day...poor critter