SKT employees, Lonnie Stieben and Cathleen Smothers, along with Lonnie’s 7-year-old granddaughter, Courtney, journeyed from Clearwater over to the beautiful Grouse Valley in an SKT service truck to participate in the Dexter Bar-B-Que Parade, held at High Noon on Saturday, July 13. And it was a gorgeous day!

Before the parade, we enjoyed perusing the new “treasure” shop in downtown Dexter, “The West Riley,” operated by Dexter natives – a mom-and-daughter duo – Rose Ann Riley and Kendra Riley. It was their grand opening day. In fact, our purchases were some of the first via their new Square credit card processor, powered by none other than SKT High-Speed Internet. It was a lightning-fast transaction, and we can all thank Christy Heinen, the SKT Customer Systems Engineer who installed the store’s Internet just recently.

Then, it was next door to the Dexter Senior Center where Donna Martin took our order for a delicious lunch of “Walking Tacos.” We got there before the lively crowd and even purchased some home-made baked goods to take home. Before we knew it, it was time to line up for the parade.

After throwing as much candy as humanly possible at the parade, we stopped at Henry’s Candy Company , where fourth-generation candymakers Robyn and Tammie, along with another helper, were busy making saltwater taffy (watch a video and read their feature story). Courtney had a hard time making up her mind which candy to buy but ended up with Tutti-Frutti drops – a good choice, which she generously shared on the way home.

It was great seeing many of our Dexter friends, and we congratulate them on another successful Dexter Bar-B-Que. We’re so glad we got to be part of the fun!