What a week/weekend...AND promoted already!!??!!
The much anticipated Capital City Cook-Off was this weekend and it was a FANTASTIC event. Not sure how much money we raised for the Special Learning Center Foundation, but I do know that due to the efforts of Bruce Ring and the rest of the Cook-Off Committee, we have set this up to be a great event for years to come.
Here is how the week brokedown. On Monday, we had our final committee meeting leading up to the event. Concern number one....the weather. Some duties leading up to Friday were spread among the committee at that point. Nothing we can do about the weather, so we just had to concern ourselves with making the most of it.
Tuesday afternoon, several of us met out at the Jefferson City Jaycees Fairgrounds to go layout the spaces where the various barbeque teams would set up. Weather was a factor as well. I do not have any real rain gear here in Jefferson City, nor in Knoxville. When we wrapped up for the evening, I was soaked head to toe, through my clothees and really through my skin. And yes, that is possible. It was about 42 degrees and my fingers were so frozen (gloves were nice and dry in my office) that I could not bend them straight for about 45 minutes. Luckily, they were in the perfect shape to fit a steering wheel. It did take me about two hours to warm up....even then I was still much colder than my normal. I called it my "Welcome Back to your Home State" weather moment. A week before, we were pushing 80 degrees.
I don't recall being involved with anything on Wednesday, but on Thursday it was a beautiful, but cool, sunny day. It gave us hope for the weekend, though I think everyone knew better. I was back out at the fairgrounds to set up for Friday night AND to set up for our radio broadcasts on Friday and Saturday. I rode in the back of Greg Bowman's truck and helped put trash cans all around the fairgrounds. Helped setup tables inside, a skill I learned from my dad at quite a young age. Probably why I am faster at it than most anyone else there. Ha ha ha....yup, 30+ years of experience in working with convention tables. (For the speed comparision...it was amazing, I could set up 7 in the time someone else could to 6....made a huge difference.....considering a total of about 40 tables were all that were involved.)
Following that, I pretty much hung around (the motorhome and my car were now at the fairgrounds, had no where else to go) and drank a few beers with the guys from the committee, avoided making decisions, met several other folks from here in Jefferson City that I did not yet know and had a good time.
Friday, I had to make my Jefferson City/Columbia television debut. I was on KRCG 13 to help promote the Capital City Cook-Off. The cool part was that I was on with two gentlemen who worked with a well known Knoxville anchor, Bill Williams. Dick Preston and Lee Gordon were both with KRCG when Bill was there back in the 1970's. They did not spill too much dirt on Bill, just a story about fish from the pond being kept in the sink of the dressing room. I think I'll have to ask Bill about that. Neither Dick nor Lee said that Bill did that, but there might have been a little implication.
In any case, the TV appearance was fun and I was able to promote the event and my station. After I left the TV station I went back to grab the rest of the equipment for the remotes that afternoon and on Saturday. Ryan Merrill (Cumulus JC Chief Engineer) and I went and set up at the fairgrounds. We had a nice setup, the motorhome was bookended by the KLIK van and the Jeff 104.1 truck. We used the rollout canopy as a cover to our setup. It really looked like a part of the Capital City Cook-Off.
The big even on Friday night was the "Buck-A-Bone" contest. Everyone had to buy sheets of ten tickets, for $10, and each ticket got you a rib. Twenty-eight teams prepared a total of 6000 ribs. We started at 4:30...I think we were all out by 7pm. And mind you, this was on a night with temperatures in the 40's and heavy rain falling down. It was miserable outside. BUT, we were inside the expo center, the band was playing, soft drinks and beer were flowing. I was a great atmosphere. I met a TON of people that night, and I am sorry that I will not remember everyone's names. I was even stopped by a few people who saw me on TV. I thanked them for coming and told them that I was glad that my TV appearance did not scare them off. It was so much fun, but hectic at the same time. You see, during all of this, I got a phone call from Kathy.
Kathy called to tell me that we had an offer on our house. Our house just got listed on the MLS system on Monday. The offer wasn't good, but we offered a solid counter. And then it was back to the work at hand.
I had to announce the winner of the "Buck-A-Bone" contest...which was a people's choice event. That was fun, because I got to tease Brian Schrimpf about something he said earlier. Brian is on the committee and he was cooking ribs that night. He said that he hoped he didn't win because he would be accused of rigging the contest. So, as I got ready to announce the winners, I told Brian over the PA not to worry, he will not have to put up with the ridicule of having won the contest. Anyone who knows Brian and his sense of humor can pretty much picture his reaction.
On Saturday, it was early rise for Breakfast and back to work. I had to set up for my remote broadcast and the rain had NOT let up. Furthermore, the band that was supposed to play cancelled. And I had to be in a judges meeting at the same time I was supposed to be on the air. That last part was easy, I did my first four breaks live and recorded my last two. By the time I got to the judges meeting, on time mind you, all of the tables were filled. I was shocked. I am a Certified Barbeque Judge and I don't even have a seat at a table???!!!??? Well, as it turns out, they had some non-Certified judges there in case we were short.
So they had to arrance the CBJ's and the non-CBJ's around the 11 tables.....a total of 66 judges. I still did not have a seat. Fired already? Not hardly. I was promoted the the position of Table Captain. A Table Captain is a CBJ who oversees one of the tables at a Kansas City Barbecue Society event. The six judges are presented the meats by the Table Captain and are reminded to stay quiet during judging. The Table Captain has to also review the ballots of the judges and point these out to the KCBS Reps that are present. I had two occasions to do this and the reps thanked me for the thoroughness in how I approached my job. The other nice part about being a Table Captain is that you don't have to eat all of the samples that are presented to you. I could choose from the samples that were over the amount needed. And usually, the teams that provided more than the minimum, had the better stuff.
Yup, it can be good to be the Table Captain.
Following all of the judging, I was again asked to announce the winners. The rest of my co-horts from Cumulus left, so I gladly stepped up to do it. Prior to the winners being announced, I got to say something few people ever get to say.
Since I was inside working most of the day, I was spared the wrath of the weather for the most part. I did help with the clean up inside and out on Saturday night and I did stay the night there at the fairgrounds again. "Last night we tapped some kegs. Many of them still have beer in them. As long as these kegs last, you can come on up and have some free beer!" Surprisingly, not a huge rush to the free beer. So, as more and more people made it to the expo center, I repeated my free beer message. At one point, I quoted John "Bluto" Blutarsky when I said, "have a beer....don't cost nothing."
Yeah, it all was consumed.
Announcing the winners and drawing the raffle winner was fun. I kept reaching in to the barrel and saying, "nope, not mine. Not mine either." In the end, I did not draw my name. Dammit! It was a really nice $800 Jenn-Air gas grill.
Then it was more clean up time. Finally, I went to bed. Sunday morning, I got up and watched the morning network programs "Meet the Press" and "This Week" so that I was caught up on things. Then I moved the motorhome back to the campground, got a ride back to my car, ran some errands, and came back to the office to post this.
I look forward to this event next year. It was work for a lot of us, my part might have been higher profile due to my job, but not in effort. Bruce Ring, Greg Bowman, Stacey Backaus, Brian Schrimpf, Brian Welch, Brenda Myers, Debbie Hamler, Darryl Burnett, Cecilia Engle, Chris Wrigley and others whose names escape me at the moment (and others that I might have misspelled, due to being tired at the moment) I thank for all of their efforts AND for letting me be a small part of this. Among the many things that will make this better next year, will be the fact that I will have the help of Alex and Ben at my side. Kathy can help if she wants, but I think I'll just let her come out and have fun. She has worked hard enough this spring.
