June 30, 2017

Star-Spangled Summer (SDC)



Welcome back to Silver Dollar City.  It's Star-Spangled Summer Fest.  We started our day by watching the first show of the day for the Sons of the Silver Dollar - a very talented vocal trio.


There is a huge shop set up in the Frisco Barn for the festival.


Lots of different crafty things that you can purchase and make.


The Harlem Globetrotters Experience is back in the Red Gold Heritage Hall again this year.  The show opens up with guest contests versus Globie, their mascot.


Next four members of the Globetrotters come out and perform some trick shots and dribbling.


Their fun is soon interrupted when Cager from the Washington Generals appears.


The fun continues after Cager leaves with some blatant goal tending.


They also help some young fans spin balls on their fingers.


We thought the show was a lot better this year.


The Champion Cloggers are back again this year.  They are performing at the Boatworks Theatre.


There are a lot of new cast members this year at the Saloon - including a new pianiat and drummer.


They have added a new segment that features a song from the musical HAMILTON.


Also there is a new Charlie and the old Charlie is now Mean Murphy.  I thought the cast did a great job, the show is very entertaining.


In the Opera House, Chris Perondi is performing his Stunt Dog Show.


He has additional trainers that help him.


This is his high flying dog.


They also had a distance jumping dog that jumped over 3 kids and their mascot.


Time for a couple of dogs that jump rope.


What's a dog show without a triathlon.  The 2 dogs flew through this course.


It was a great show.
Star-Spangled Summer runs through July 16th.

Time Traveler Construction (SDC)



We've got a huge update today for you.  First we'll take a look at the backside of the station from the Culinary Arts School back porch.  The main change is the addition of the evacuation staircase on the TNT side of the building.


We're going to change things up this week and start with looking at the footer garden that will become the entrance and exit paths for the ride.  These footers are directly behind Poke Mary's.


The footers continue down the hillside that used to be home to the TNT switchbacks.


Panning out you can see that there are a lot of these smaller footers in this garden.


Down at the bottom of the hill you will notice that the footers get much larger.  That's because these footers are for track segments.


This here will be the foundations for the walkway bridge from the station.


Looking from the TNT queue you can see the current state of the footers for the track leading back into the station.


Another look from the same area.


One final look at the footers in the area before we move on.


Next we will focus on the station itself.  The north side of the station looks really good with all of the window treatments.  It really helps the building blend in with Echo Hollow.


For some odd reason the installation of the siding has stalled.


Here's a good look into the two large openings which are predicted to be the maintenance bays.


Here's a look into the exit doorway from the load platform.  It sounds like track will be installed in the station soon - maybe we will be lucky and see that in our next update.


Looking on this side of the station, you can see that the painting has not progressed.  This makes us think that this was just a test paint area for the building.


The main change this week is the addition of the evacuation staircase on the south side of the station building.


Here you can see bottom of the stairs.


The stairs go all the way up the side of the building with 3 openings - two on this side and then another around on the east side of the building.


Before we move on, we should mention that there are a lot of wood panels ready for installation staged in the bottom level of the building.


Before we go look at the track, there has been progress on the building on the side of the hill that we are guessing will be the power plant for the launch sections on the ride.


Lots of twisty track has been installed.


This swoop is going to be a lot of fun.


Here's a close-up of one of the track segments.


A new tall support has been installed.


It will be interesting to see where the track goes from here.


Lots of footers down by the TNT swoop.


Another support has been installed here and some more straight track on the inner track loop of the new ride.


More footers on up the hill near TNT


Another view of those footers.


One last look at the area.


Yes, you can see the track from the Echo Hollow stands.


There are still plenty of track pieces on the back lot.  They had a couple loaded on a truck ready to be moved.


August 16th will be here soon and then all will finally be revealed.
All signs point to this ride NOT being called Wild Mountain.

That concludes this week's update.  There will not be an update next weekend as we will be on the road visiting parks on the East Coast.  We will return with our next update on the July 15-16 weekend.