3147: Hiking

Hiking

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Title text: Every downhill walk is a waterslide that might have been.

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Explanation

On-demand delivery is a type of service where you can order a product and it will be delivered to you within hours, or possibly even minutes when the source is sufficiently local. The most well-known of these are food delivery services like DoorDash and GrubHub, where near-immediate delivery is highly preferred. Larger and less time-critical goods have similar services, such as Amazon, which can deliver many items well within the same day or by the next morning for most destinations that aren't particularly remote.

In the comic there's a vendor of waterslides that provides on-demand delivery using drones that fly the waterslide to a location you specify in the order, apparently complete with a water supply tank, and with a response time of minutes despite apparently being delivered to a wilderness landscape. While hiking through a terrain with lots of hills, Cueball and Megan order one whenever they're on their way up a hill, so that it will be delivered to the downhill side by the time they arrive at the summit, and they can have fun sliding down.

While technically feasible as shown due to the existence of heavy-lift quadcopter drones, it would still be impractical both because of the cost involved and also because installing a water slide in a way that would make it stable and safe would require serious planning and construction, not something that could be done rapidly, remotely, and purely through automation in this particular on-demand manner.^{[citation needed]}

The title text suggests that Randall considers walking downhill to be a waste, as that process could have been done by waterslide if only one were present. This may reference the fact that walking downhill is often surprisingly tiring, arduous, and relatively unrewarding compared to the uphill climb, even though gravity is now on your side, and may be considered a chore to be performed after the more tangible sense of accomplishment gained from reaching the top of the hill.

This strip continues a long theme of comics where Randall imagines a process or piece of infrastructure that would be wildly impractical in real life, but would be a lot of fun (for certain values of 'fun') if it could be achieved. Examples include 260: The Glass Necklace, 2935: Ocean Loop and 2973: Ferris Wheels.

Transcript

[This scene is in a mountain with many bumps. Everything is in one panel. The consecutive actions and speech text proceed roughly from left to right.]

[Cueball and Megan are both facing right, facing a hill. They are both wearing a backpack.]

Cueball: Okay, we're nearing the next downhill segment. I'll put in the order.

Cueball: ...confirming start and end points...

Cueball: Submitted!

[A waterslide with drones attached to it, flying down and to the right, with a wavy, dotted line heading down to the slide from the top, showing the direction it has arrived from. Megan and Cueball are standing together. Megan is pointing at the waterslide. Megan and Cueball are moved slightly forward from their last appearance, and on a side of the hill.]

Megan: Look, here it comes!

[The slide is on the downhill slope, with drones above it. Megan and Cueball are shown sliding down with dots around them, most likely showing the splash of water around them. Possibly riding on, or in, a long inflatable of some kind, whose front and rear ends are seen angling up out of the waterslide trough that also hides the two character's lower bodies. Some drones are near the waterslide.]

Cueball and Megan: Wheeeee

[The slide now is flying up and to the right with drones and another wavy dotted line, this time showing that it has been heading away from the point of use.]

[Cueball and Megan are depicted walking, ahead of their last appearance.]

[Caption below the panel:]

On-demand waterslide delivery has really improved the whole hiking experience.

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Discussion

But what if the drones run out of battery? --DollarStoreBa'al^converse 18:54, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

"what if the drones run out of battery?" What If the Amazon/UPS delivery truck with the '''What If? 2''' book you ordered runs out of gas/diesel/juice? Maybe they attempt repeat delivery. Maybe a refund is posted in 7 to 10 business days.

I was going to write a transcript, but I can't figure out how to describe how this is supposed to be a time series in a single panel. I'll let someone else do it. Barmar (talk) 19:22, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

"how to describe how this is supposed to be a time series in a single panel" It is three moments in time, superimposed. "Slide is delivered", "Hikers slide", "Slide is removed". PRR (talk) 22:35, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

Four moments in time actually. You forgot "Hikers orders slide". 2001:9B1:40D0:C300:102B:825:C539:3F33 01:06, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

Five - there is "Hikers walk off afterwards". 82.13.184.33 08:13, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

Four - "Hikers walk off afterwards" and "Slide is removed" are happening at the same time ;) Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 14:43, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

^{[citation needed]} 82.13.184.33 15:42, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

I'd also like an on-demand ski lift for upwards segments 73.222.207.213 23:54, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

I feel like this comic deserves a parody of "Jack and Jill went up a hill". Barmar (talk) 19:37, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

This is how I learnt there were waterslides. 64.114.211.21 08:59, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

#todayyearsold RadiantRainwing (talk) 15:53, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

I'm not sure this would improve the hiking experience for me; not because I have anything against waterslides, but because the downhills are a valuable rest period in between unpleasant ascents. If it were over in a moment I'd still be exhausted at the bottom of the next rise. 79.77.240.136 19:18, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

And probably thoroughly wet, to boot. 92.17.62.87 00:05, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

I prefer ascents, and having bad knees don't like descents. Last summer I did a 1400m ascent to a mountaintop, with only 250m of descent. Lovely! On-demnd slides (they may be dry ones) would make the experience even better for me! IIVQ (talk) 07:38, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

This raises the possibility of drone-delivered escalators for ascending Mount Everest. These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 03:38, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

The location you have selected is outside of the geofenced area. 82.13.184.33 09:29, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

Othercomics like this have me missing the OTC/OTT more than most days. Would an on-demand-waterslide have helped in their journey? TimeLurker

Yeah, think of how fast they could have RUN down to meet the forty if they could slide most of the way! Seeing Cueball and Megan hiking this this make me think of Time as well. Orion205 (talk) 21:41, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

Freely approximating from a reasonable assumption of Cueball's height, and the actual design of water-tank shown (looks to be cylindrical, main axis being horizontal, but leaving out the convex cap-ends), I'd say that the water supply for the slide is delivered in a 7,500-8,000 litre container. Thus 7.5-8.0 tonnes purely of contents (not including the tank and necesary integrated attachments/etc), if pre-filled. With two drones tasked to carry it, that's probably 4t SWL (or more!) per drone.
Though the pipe from the container to the chute-top exits at the mid-height, so we'd have to assume either an integrated pump (further weight) or a pre-loaded pressurisation system. If the latter, it could mean the top half is highly compressed air, with a bottom-dangling sump-feed internally piping the forced water up and out of the exit nozzle; so perhaps halving the weight of water but now needing significantly tougher tank walls in order to be a pressure-vessel ...an increase of the still unconsidered dry-weight, whether steel or plastic or carbon-fibre overwrap...
Otherwise, only half the filled-tank contents would flow out (and underfilling would waste more of the carried weight. Though maybe you could initiate siphoning, either by a small starter pump or a smaller amount of releasable pressure.
Anyway, whether that's therefore enough water, to be practical, I'm not sure. Depends a lot on the assumptions made (and whether it's a dingy-width chute or a mere half-pipe, in cross-section). Although a little flow of water can do a lot of lubricating and object-pushing, if done right. You wouldn't have to release it for an extended time. It doesn't look like much water has made it anywhere near the bottom of the chute, with the passengers being in mid-slide.
But, still, that tank looks heavy, unless it's barely filled and just mostly pressurised and made of plastic like a Super Soaker reservoir bottle. Disproportionately heavy, compared to the chute. With the latter having several more drones supporting it, although that could just be for control purposes (and to deal with wind/aerodynamic forces, during both travel and accurate deployment) on the comparatively sail-like half-pipe structure. 82.132.218.186 16:53, 30 September 2025 (UTC)

A simple low friction surface such as found on playground slides could be substituted for the water lubrication. But probably less "Whee" 2600:1700:b39:3010:70ea:4d8d:1888:b6b8 (talk) 18:24, 3 October 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
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