WHEW! This is a SDC first for me! Projected crowd according to a citizen I asked today: 26,000! Actual on park as of 7:30pm tonight: 23,100! I personally have never been on park when it has been that full! (And I have been going to SDC since 1970.) About 2:30pm wife and I left Branson to go to SDC. When did we make it to a parking space? About 5pm! Did a quick walking tour of the park, saw the last 5 minutes of Frosty at The Boatworks Theater...actually thought it was cute for the kids. Saw the tree lighting thing, and the parade. Everything very nice. Long wait in line for a hot dog, chips, and Cokes, poor gal at the concession was working alone, and was running out of supplies! We parked in Lot 6, had a contracted bus service from Springfield helping bus people to the front gate. Never in my life had I been transported to the gate by a non SDC person! On the way out about 8pm got to where the old Wooden Nickel Restaurant is at Notch, noticed the overflow parking lot filled with cars and portable lighting set up...don't know if it was being used as employee parking or guest parking, but the whole pasture was full! A big conference of some sort in Branson and traffic was heavy Friday night when we got there, hard to find motel rooms too. Overall, everything busy on the last weekend of the season...watch out, 2014 is just around the corner!
(Did not have a chance to get photos ready, but will try to post some next week.)