Silver Dollar City - Miner's Mountain Express Construction

 

There has been an explosion of vertical construction since our last visit.

Here you can see the second lift hill on the left and a few of the helices in the helix garden

It is crazy how close the track is to the pathway to Wildfire

There is going to be some crazy air pops and laterals on this ride

They are continuing to add large rocks to the area

Are you able to follow the track layout in this photo?  It sure does weave in and out of itself a lot

One more look at this air time hill

A better straight-on view of the second lift hill

The viewing plaza next to the mast head tower

A hill peeking over American Plunge

The second lift hill

The track leading into the station fly-through has been installed

They are getting ready to pave the pathway under the mast head

They have installed supports for what will be the lead up into the station fly-through

Looking past PowderKeg's launch area

Supports for the curved drop after the second lift hill and some ground-hugging track here in the middle.  The track at the bottom is awaiting installation

Pile of track waiting to be installed

Still haven't installed the track exiting the station fly-through

Frame for the mainteance building

Looking at the helix garden from PowderKeg side of the lot

This is going to be so much fun

One last shot.  We will back again towards the end of October for another update

Oasis - Construction Update

 

The resort continues to rise

The elevator bank tower is even taller than last time

They have started to put the finishing details on the parking garage - including paint

This will be the parking for the entire resort - so hotel, amusement park and waterpark

 Hopefully they have a good plan for getting in and out of the garage

The main building continues to grow and is getting its walls now

This building is also getting walls.  Amazing how fast it is coming together

All right, we've avoided it long enough - the ferris wheel now has a complete wheel

The ride capsules will be attached on the outside of the wheel

It really towers over everything now - and has changed the skyline at the Lake forever

Here is a look at the wheel from Grand Glaize Bridge

Here is the progress on the main building from the other side

One last look at the resort area

One last look at the wheel, in all its glory

Mid-America Adventure - Fright Fest

  

Let's check out the scare zones and mazes at this year's Fright Fest...

First up is Deadwood Pass - a vampire-infested western town 

Some pretty cool screamsters in this area

Don't mind her smoky eyes, she's going through a phase

Sinister Clowns of the Black Top is over by the Log Flume

Some more fun screamsters in here

Troll Bypass was probably my favorite scare zone of the evening.

The screamsters in here were hilarious and they taught me how to properly bow to their troll lord

This short king kept cracking me up.  He was roasting everybody as they went by

Spider Alley always has fun visuals with the webbing

Zombieville seemed to have a lot more residents this year

Due to the nature of their characters they can't really interact with the guests like the other zones, but they were killing it tonight 

Heading into the Underground

This area was almost exclusively sliders

Really foggy here

Time to check out the mazes

First up was Oddball's Funhouse

It didn't feel much different than last year in layout.  Not a scary maze, but definitely fun with the different obstacles

Creatures of the Corn was a strong maze like last year.  It just seems to keep going and going.  It has to be the longest maze at the park in length

Listen I want to like Slaughterhouse, but it really needs a refresh. Also the cage thing is kind of pointless anymore

I did make a new friend though

Gordy's Gruesome Revenge was the new maze this year, taking over where Jingle Mangle was.  Honestly it's not much of an improvement.  I wish they would build permanent structures here for their mazes like at Worlds of Fun because the outdoor ones just don't work that well.

I had fun, but I think there's room to improve here.  Hopefully they have the team at Worlds of Fun come and help rethink the festival for next season to make it better