Enjoyed a nice morning and early afternoon in the park today. Basically had a very nice stroll playing with my new camera and shooting pictures like I've wanted to do for quite a while in the park. Watched their new welcome show. It was nice that they gave out free t-shirts as part of it, but I miss the flag raising and the veterans' procession that they used to do. I don't miss some of the cheese, a bit sad that the street troupe isn't part of the opening anymore. In fact, I didn't see any of the street troupe at all. Just Terry Sanders and Whoopsi Daisy. I hope that's not a trend for the whole season.
As I posted earlier, they had over 19,000 Thursday, which is a ridiculously busy day anytime. Today was much more modest and was actually nice crowd wise. But there were signs that they weren't ready even for what they had. Powder Keg opened with only one train running and a full queue and the line going all the way down the hill. No clue if they got one running later or not.
After wandering a bit I heaed up and took a ride on the train, where they were doing one of the old routines I used to do (Yankees with the "fight um" routine) but no Ma on a 30 minute schedule. They guys out there had been there a while and they did a decent job, getting some good laughs.
I then took a ride on the Flooded Mine which has obviously gotten a lot of love, TLC and freshing up for it's 50th. (Steve, I told you there, but I'll say it again- you and your help did an incredible job! And it was great to see you) Fresh paint, new lighting, old effects and stunts working again that haven't in a while, and so much more. I'm actually regretting not taking a second ride. I can't encourage you enough to take some rounds on it this year. And skip the new guns for at least one ride and just enjoy looking.
Did some more walking around and shooting photos around the park. There are many places showing signs of fresh paint and investment in the off season and I tried to get photos of as much of it as possible.
Ate lunch at the new Percy's eatery- my review is on the thread for it- and just had a great time seeing the park, shooting photos, and saying Hi to people. I headed out at 1pm, before the rain came in, but it was a great half day. Hoping all goes well and I can make it out on the 1st to see some friends playing out there, and looking forward to a great season.
Photos (all 400+ of them) are available to see, if you'd like on my photo pages at Smugmug. Direct link to them is:
https://sirwillow.smugmug.com/Amusement-Parks-Roller/Mid-USA-TX-MO-OK-etc/Silver-Dollar-City-March-24-2017 (there's still about 100 photos left to upload as I write this)
