silver dollar city: my version

Since everybody else is putting up multi-picture posts, I guess this is one more bridge I'll jump off. I got a little camera-happy this weekend, probably to the chagrin of those around me.

When we went to visit Golden's family for Labor Day and to celebrate her Dad's birthday, the decision was made to go to Silver Dollar City. We weren't really skipping church, because we went to the Wilderness Church at the park. Interestingly enough a lot of people came up with the idea to visit the park on that exact same day. I don't know exactly how many people were there this weekend, but it certainly seemed like a lot.

There are a few rides that I was interested in going on, one of which was the Powder Keg. This is a new ride and apparently goes from zero to some high mph value almost immediately, thus creating a powder keg affect. When we got to the line for the ride, though, we saw that it was rather long. No one in the group, including me, thought that it would be worth the wait. Later, there was talk of mechanical difficulties with the ride. It was probably best that we didn't get on that ride.

We were able to do other things besides the Powder Keg, though, including the Wild Fire. In my opinion an amusement park really isn't much of a park unless it has a good classic steel coaster, so Wild Fire makes Silver Dollar City worth a visit.

We also went on a few other coaster rides like Fire in the Hole and Thunderation. Both are fine, but really aren't incredibly exciting. Golden enjoys quoting some recordings that riders hear because those recordings are the same as when she rode it as a kid, but I didn't have the same memories to draw from.

One tradition that Golden's family follows almost every time they go to Silver Dollar City is to eat lunch at The Mine restaurant. It is a buffet place that is build to give you the impression that you are actually in a mine. The plates and cups are metal and utilitarian and the tables and chairs are very simplistic wood creations. The lighting is from lamps hung on the walls and there is even an interior pond that runs through a small waterwheel to give the impression--well, I am not completely certain the impression that it is supposed to give.

There is also a table that is rigged to rise slowly when a switch is thrown and confuse the people eating there. This was the first time that I have seen people eat at that table and not have the table rise on them. The waitress seemed a little busy, so maybe no one had time to flip the switch.

One of the things that Golden had decided she wanted do to was get kettle corn from Silver Dollar City. We saw a stand for kettle corn but decided we would wait until later to pick some up nearer to the entrance to the park. Once we got to where we thought kettle corn could be bought around the gate to the park, we found out that the kettle corn stand was no more. Golden's Dad volunteered to go back across the park and get the sought after corn. I volunteered to tag along. The corn was good, but I am still not sure it was worth all the exercise.

I asked Golden if the park was everything she wanted it to be. She commented that it was. I then asked if we were set for another five years. Apparently we will be going to Silver Dollar City again some time before five years is up.