For summer vacation last year, we went to Branson, Missouri. While at Branson, we visited Silver Dollar City. I had not been there in many decades!
Maybe I am just a big kid, but I totally enjoyed Silver Dollar City! The boys rode several rides, I chose to ride two very tame ones…the train and log ride. That was enough for me!
I mentioned in an earlier post how much we enjoyed our tour guide on the VIP tour, Terry Wayne Sanders. He made sure we had a wonderful day. We would have been fine without him, but it was an amazing experience with him! We all agreed that SDC (and Terry) was the best thing we did on our vacation.
Terry arranged for us to meet June, the longest serving employee at SDC and the official candy maker and candy creator! We walked down back stairs to a nondescript door. Inside we found June and Fred hard at work making candy.
June was making some rather large chocolate covered cashew clusters. She worked as she told stories of her fifty plus years at SDC. Dressed in an 1880s era dress and cap, she ushered us through the process they use in the candy department. She showed us the storage room and the candy inventory room. We sampled some of the most delicious offerings such as Tiger Butter, Time Traveler chocolate and caramel gears, chocolate covered nuts, jelly beans, cinnamon bears, and candied nuts. All were delicious!
We met Fred who was packaging candy corn. Although retired, he still comes in three times a week to assist. There are a total of five people employed in the candy department. I had hoped they would be looking for a sixth person, but no such luck.
For me, this was the best part of the day! Of course we went to the candy store and purchased a little bit of everything! As part of the VIP experience, they kept all our purchases up front for us so that we didn’t have to carry things all over the park.
Lunch was included in the VIP experience. We chose to go to the BBQ restaurant. The food was amazing. The chicken was tender and tasty. The corn had cilantro and onion in it and was probably the best corn I have ever eaten. The coleslaw was good too, but honestly I didn’t have room to eat it!
While we were eating, it started raining, so Terry gathered rain ponchos for us, and we headed out.
We went by the glass store and purchased a few glass items, followed by a glass blowing demonstration. Again, we left our purchases to pick up at a later time.
The boys road more rides, but eventually the rain became too heavy for our day at SDC to continue. The caves and several rides were closed for patrons’ safety. We ended with delicious ice cream while Terry gathered our goodies. He walked us to the gate, but before we left he treated us to pastries to take home for breakfast the next day.
It was a wonderful experience. The funny thing was we saw June and Terry the rest of our time in Branson because they were both on billboards all over town! Terry has some hilarious videos on the internet. Just search for Terry Wayne Sanders.
As always, I have not been paid, nor received any benefit from those individuals or companies featured in my blog.