I’m starting this blog again because I lost it earlier after writing all day. Majorly pissed me off.
What I discussed was my fun-filled day at the 40th Annual Czhilispiel in Flatonia, TX. If you want to know more about this fun festival check out their website here:
http://flatoniachamber.com/czhili/
The day started off with a 5k. The pre-registration was $20 and included a T-shirt, a koozie, and a ticket (wristband) for Saturday (Friday and Sunday are free). I was wanting to do better than my previous time at 39 minutes and 36 seconds. I made sure to only drink one glass of wine the night before, picked out what I was wearing, and set my alarm clock for 7:35am. Packet pick-up was at 8:00 and the race started at 8:30. I wanted Speed to go with me to cheer me on and to hold my packet after I picked it up. The Monday before a couple that we know up here, Barney and Betty, were parking their trailer up at the festival and we did the same so we would have a place to hang out, eat, and go to the bathroom. I’m so glad that we met them and had the inside advice to park and hang out. I knew that Speed would go and hang out in the trailer, and that was fine with me. For the pass two weeks we’ve unfortunately had to wake up early and travel to two funerals. Those days Speed had no problem taking his cup of coffee and getting breakfast some place along the way. But this day he decided that he wanted a bowl of Frosted Flakes. I’m early to everything we go to, whereas Speed takes his sweet time and makes us late. We parked the car and walked in looking for the packet pick-up, when I turned the corner the runners were trotting up the hill. Damn! I thought maybe I could still go, but by the time I found the pick-up place they were way gone.
When I found the area there was a shy 14 year-old girl with the packets, and I asked if I could pick mine up, and she said sure, and I quickly found mine with my name on it. I decided to just take the packet and go home, but first a glimpse in the bag. The shirt and koozie were there, but no wristband. I asked the girl about it and she had no idea, so I then asked her if she knew who I should ask. Again she had no idea but pointed me to the direction of a group of people across the tent. I walked over to ask them and they didn’t know either, a man walking by over heard me and said I should ask the people at the ticket booth. I walked over to the ticket booth and got the attention of an officer. He suggested I ask someone in the Chamber of Commerce building (on the other side of the tent), while he’s saying this he sees an individual, yells out “Jimmy” and get the attention of a man with a clipboard (what is it about a clipboard that makes people look official?) I gave him the same line I gave the others and he said he didn’t know, and as I walked away he said that I should ask the announcer. He walks me over to him, and he has no idea, and says that the main guy who heads up the 5k will be back in a bit and I should wait and ask him. I thanked him for the info and walked back over to Speed who stayed over at the ticket booth. When I do this the officer sees me again and tells me that I really should go over to the Chamber. I tell Speed that I’m walking over there now. As soon as I walk in all I can think about is “Oh, it’s so warm in here” (Did I mention that it was 47 degrees that morning?) I find someone and ask them, and then they ask a nice little old lady. She then tells me she can take me over to the head honcho (my word not hers) of the 5K. When we walk out, Speed is standing there with his hoodie over his head, back to the wall of a concession stand, holding his cup of coffee with a sour puss look on his face. I tell him that if he’s that cold to go to the travel trailer to get warm. As we walk over there little old lady (LOL) tells me that her son George is down from Philadelphia and running in the 5k. We walk to the finish line when a guy pulls up on a bicycle, and LOL tells me that’s the guy I need to talk to. As I’m waiting for a good time to talk to him the runners start to come in and LOL tells me that the first runner coming in is her son, George. As she goes over to congratulate him I begin to watch how the process of finishing is working. Apparently the head honcho has a stop watch that he started when they began running (which technically isn’t fair for people in the back of the starting field) As a person crosses the finish line he yells out the time on the stop watch to a woman with a clip board with nothing but number slots to write the times. Mean while each person who crosses gets a card from another woman, these cards are numbered, first place getting #1 and so on. On the other side of the card the runner fills out their name, age, and time, which if you don’t hear you have to go and ask the woman writing the times down. Now I’m no professional 5k runner, but this seems not only confusing, but also completely inaccurate. So I’m kinda glad I didn’t go. When the head honcho finally had a break I asked him the same question “where in the hell is my ticket?!?!?!” (not really but by now I’m sure you’re feeling my frustration) He points to a woman who can help me since he’s obviously busy and low and behold she has a handful of wristbands!!! BINGO!!! I walk over to her and tell her the situation and she hands me the holy grail, the wristband that I have been coveting this whole time. Once I have it in my possession I get to the trailer as quickly as possible because I’m cold!!
We get home, and since I’m already in my workout gear, I take the dogs on a jog/walk down the dirt road that runs along our property. Afterwards I shower up, and while waiting for our friends, Donald and Daisy, I make a Jalapeno Popper Dip I found on Pinterest. Here’s the website for it:
http://www.simply-gourmet.com/2012/08/183-jalapeno-popper-dip.html
I substituted the mayo for greek yogurt, not because I wanted something healthy, but because I didn’t have it. Speed hates mayo and if he sees me using it in any recipe he won’t eat it. He feels the same way about sour cream, which I think is absolutely insane! Once this dish is out of the oven we back up our goodies and head on down to the festival. And let me add that it was AWESOME!!!!
Once we get there we make a tour of chili booths and sample a few. We then hear the call for chili judging, which Speed opts out of, probably recalling the last time we judged (which resulted in all 4 of us needing the toilet at once). So Donald, Daisy and I went to judge.
Donald and Daisy judging chili
There are a few rules and I remembered a few, the most important being that people who know each other can’t sit at the same table. So we pretended to not know each other so we coud sit together. Were joined by a guy who was creating a documentary of the whole chili making/judging process and was asking us questions. (As a matter of fact, he’s the guy in the blue jumpsuit in the background of the picture above) He said it was for a website that features Americana documentaries. I think of Larry the Cable guy and that show of his that finds silly things across America. I hope I made the cut! After judging the chili we joined Speed and decided to be apart of the audience during the contests. First there was the beard contest:
After this there was the Daisy Dukes contest, which wasn’t hard to get Speed and Donald to watch:
Daisy Duke contestants, pre-show
If you’re wondering, Yes, that is a man in Daisy Dukes, and his legs don’t look half bad. He also participated in the hairy legs contest which I didn’t get photos of. Guess who one 2nd place? George, the LOL’s son who won first in the 5k. After all these fun contests we go over to Barney and Betty’s trailer to eat some ribs! (YUM!!) While we’re there Betty says that her brother has come home from Philadelphia and won 2nd in the hairy legs contest! I then tell her that it was her mother that was the LOL (I told her the story earlier) and that George won 1st place in the 5k. I then took this as an opportunity to teach Speed that this is why you shouldn’t walk around with a sour puss look on your face, you never know who you’ll meet! Daisy and I walk around a bit and use a photo opp to our advantage:
She made me the guy, but I didn’t care because I though it was funny. So funny that I made Speed do it with me later:
Betty had passes to a meet and greet for the performers, which were Robert Earl Keen and The Bellamy Brothers, and wondered if we wanted to go. I knew that my sister-in-law loved REK and so did my friend, and they would be jealous, so I told her of course I wanted to meet him! By this time my feet were killing me in my boots, but there was no way I was taking them off before I saw REK!! We got in line and Speed came along and took pics with my iPhone while there were ladies to take pics with my Nikon and Betty’s phone. Here’s what came of that:
Me, REK, Betty, and Daisy
After we got done we went back to the trailer so I can take off my boots and put on my loafers! Much better! We then watched REK’s show, which I loved, and wondered why I hadn’t figured this out before. We got back to the trailer to find Donald asleep so we took that as a cue to go home.
We had a great time and I can’t wait to do it again next year!
Ava's Blogging Experience 