My wife and I decided to head south for the City yesterday just for the hell of it... SDC trip #7 for 2018.
We read the heavy attendance warnings and were fully aware of the impending crowded day before us. The SDC website even had suggestions for Saturday visitors and what route to take coming to the park. They wanted folks to come through Branson West (our route) instead of coming from the east, and encouraged anyone who could to come early.
A couple of weeks ago we visited on a cold day when there were maybe 1000 people in the park total. So why not also experience 20,000 people in the park?
We arrived at 8:30 a.m. and the entrance road was already very busy, almost backed up to the fork in the road that early. We zipped into our preferred lot at the bottom of the metal stairs and were the first car parked down there. However, before we even gathered up our stuff and locked the car the lot attendants were already beginning to park cars in our lot. Wow!, that was quick.
As well as knowing that Mercy and ACE would be in the park, we saw several school buses unloading at the time and quite a few obvious Bluegrass fans heading in as well.
Went through the ticket scan pretty quick and into a busy Gazebo area. We were lucky enough to grab a couple of seats to watch the Pickers at the Gazebo before opening. The Pickers participated in opening ceremonies as well. There was the pledge and the anthem and then the stampede to the thrill rides. We never even looked to the right down Valley Road heading towards TT and instead went left down Hugo's Hill Street for PK, etc.
For the second time this year the crew at PK were running three trains at opening. The operators were doing a great job loading and unloading and things were running smooth as we got front row seats for our initial morning ride.
Of course we knew things would get crazy busy really fast yesterday morning, so I asked my wife, "FiTH or WF?". She chose WF this time. Walked right onto that one and took two back row seats for that awesome pull down the big drop. FiTH was already backing up far out of the building, so we took off for Wilson's Farm.
Things were going well until we entered Wilson's Farm. Stunningly the crew at the Barn Swing had started up the swing with only one side swinging yesterday. The line was already winding through the railings and so they decided they needed to close off the ride to incoming visitors, empty the queue, start up the second swing, and then reopen the ride. That was a real head scratcher. We bailed on that one.
Upon arriving to OR they were still testing the ride and it had yet to open. Not good. We decided to wait a few minutes as we saw a ride operator riding one of the trains as it came out of the barrel roll, and that short wait paid off as they opened the ride once that train entered the station. Great timing for us as we got to ride in the front. Walking back past the swing we noticed they were still trying to empty the queue with the single swing and the operator at the closed chain was giving lots of explanations to quite a crowd gathering around the area. "We have to close the ride to start the 2nd swing, yada, yada, yada..." over and over to raised eyebrows and eye rolls from those being turned away.
We were over at Fireman's landing 15 minutes later and overheard someone saying (while looking at their phone app), "Outlaw Run is still closed". I guess I should have stopped and informed them that the app was wrong, but we were in a rush to get up to the Boatworks for some Bluegrass.
The group called Farm Hands at the Boatworks were very experienced musicians and we enjoyed a few tunes before heading towards the Heritage Hall. We passed through the Frisco Barn and were surprised what we saw in there. In past years during the BBQ Fest the barn was always full of wares that they were selling for grilling and BBQ purposes. Yesterday the Frisco Barn simply had maybe fifteen or twenty dining tables set up in two rows for folks to sit and eat. I like that. An indoor eating area for overflow from the Heritage Hall BBQ Fest. It was roomy in the barn too, as there was absolutely nothing in there but the rows of tables with tablecloths.
We stopped in the Culinary Craft School for some quick munchies with the pretzels, dips, and crackers. There were quite a few members from ACE inside the Culinary School, like more than a dozen. Maybe a complimentary cooking session with the school was part of the ACE experience? We saw many, many people wearing shirts of different types referring to ACE throughout the park yesterday. One of the shirts that quite a few of them wore stated something about riding TT in the dark. Must have been late last night they gave the ACE folks a night ride on TT.
The Heritage Hall was already fairly busy with people eating BBQ at 10:50 in the morning. Man, those folks must really like some BBQ. We grabbed a couple of seats and watched another band for a few songs. Interesting that this group was more of a country band than bluegrass. They played a cover of a Johnny Cash hit and then a Willie Nelson hit song. They all wore cowboy hats and were dressed in the cowboy western style. I wanted to catch the bluegrass group at the Dockside theater at 11:15 so we cruised on back to that area hoping that the theater wasn't already full.
I think most of the show goers were in the Opera House for the featured group at that time as we easily found seats for Remington Ryde at Dockside. They were an entertaining bunch who mostly kept the show pretty lively. I tend to doze off on the groups who slow it down for too long and drone on and on. This group was pretty peppy though and the lead vocalist did a great job. We stayed for the whole 30 minute show.
Of course by now the crowd was getting bigger, all of the rides were swamped, and the eateries were bustling. It really wasn't too bad in the park before noon though and we were pretty much able to do most of what we wanted. The veteran SDC group Horsecreek Band is back at the gazebo for the festival and we took a whirl up the walkway heading towards midtown and on to Main Street and the Gazebo at noon for Larry Sledge, Butch, and the gang.
There was quite a crowd coming from the entrance and onto Main Street now, a steady stream of folks four and five wide.
After 30 minutes of Horsecreek we chose to mosey around a few shops near Main Street, watched the shenanigans of the Street Troupe (Hatfield/McCoy love potion skit), and went partially down Hill Street for some shops around there. We then poked around Homestead Ridge and the animal area waiting for the Pickers at 1:30. Visitors were still steadily pouring in, so of course we weren't gonna go back down any hills and back into the park. There was a good crowd for the Pickers, but no problem finding a seat. The guys played a little longer than the 30 minutes and we were heading out of the park around 2:15.
The wave of visitors continuing to enter the city was amazing. We were swimming upstream against a strong current of eager SDC arrivals. We eventually made our way out though and made the walk to our parking lot. A lucky, lucky young fella and his girlfriend were part of a steady stream of vehicles circling our lot hoping for a parking space to open up. As we walked down the metal stairs many cars passed our little car parked right up front and this lucky guy drove up just as we approached our car. I waved at him and signaled that our spot would be available. Some smiles, clapping, and fist pumping ensued between the young couple as they waited for us to back out. Obviously the new arrivals were desperate for any parking spot to open.
Earlier we saw a sign attached to the Gazebo promoting some kind of Mercy employees dance on the square from 8:30 - 10:30 pm. There were a huge amount of cars coming into the area as we worked our way out. On our way towards Branson West we noticed several SDC employees alongside the highway holding signs pointing the fresh arrivals to grassy parking areas off 76 highway west of SDC. There were cars filling them up and we saw a white bus full of people leaving one of those improvised lots . The City and Mercy Health must have planned for large groups to visit not only in the morning but also in the late afternoon and evening hours. SDC was prepared and ready to receive those folks in the afternoon.
It was a fun day in the City and we were glad we went ahead and visited. Also glad we left when we did.
Will be ready for another visit next weekend for Rhonda Vincent and the Rage. Hopefully we can manage to do all of our Mother's Day stuff on Saturday so we can enjoy a much quieter day in the park on Sunday.