June 2008 vacation - part 2

So, Thursday night we had dinner at the Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge. Now, this is dinner theatre, southern style.

Before you get to the main event, about 50 minutes or so before show time, you are escorted to the Carriage Room. Here, an opening act consisting of four musicians - a fiddle player, a bass player, a guitar player and a mandolin player - do a few rousing numbers with some humor and a lot of down-home charm. The performers there on the night we went were outstanding. A lot of fun.

After that, you're all escorted to the main area which is a huge tiered arena with a large dirt field in the center. The sides are broken up into the "North" and the "South", where a number of friendly competitions both by the regular performers and some of the patrons are done while supper is served.

What's for supper? How about some creamy vegetable soup for a start, with a delicious biscuit? Then, a whole rotisserie chicken, a slice of barbequed pork, some corn on the cob and an herb potatoe. Finish it off with a delicious apple turnover - and all the tea or soda you can drink out of a Mason jar. Oh, forgot to mention - all this meal is without eating utensils. Yup, you eat with your fingers. And it is finger licking good.

The competitons include horse riding, pig racing, chicken chasing (this with the kids helping out), ring catching, horse-shoes with toliet seats, ostrich racing and more. A lot of fun and the two hour show and dinner goes by very quickly. All in all, a whole lot of fun. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Oh, and who won? Well, we (the South) were ahead until the final round. Then the North pulled out the victory. Ah well.