"eat more chikin"

Before you think that my diplomas from many years of schooling should be taken away let me remind everyone that the motto of the Chick Fil A cow mascots is "eat more chikin"-their spelling complex is one of their trademarks!

Another Chick Fil A story you ask...well yes. But only because I just completed a first 100 campout...which I briefly explained in cow appreciation day. The sad part of this campout was that I had to go alone-since all my campout buddies were either at work, school, or in another state:) However, Laura decided to go to the Oxford campout which was on the same day so we were able to "plan" for our trips together at least...and commiserate about the awful heat in the midst of the campout! [By the way you can read about Laura and her now world-famous camping crew here. ]

As we started the research for the grand openings this past Thursday we started to get a little nervous because these events have apparently gotten a lot more popular. So popular in fact that there have been more than 100 people in line at 6am the morning before the opening. Thus, the institution of a raffle for 100 spots at Wednesday 6am if more than 100 people are already in line. With that possibility looming in front of us we each made plans to get to our respective parking lots by a quarter of six. Maybe we're crazy, huh?

Pending the super early departure time I had my car packed up-tent, cot, sleeping bag, overnight bag, snacks, books, etc.-the night before and headed out at 4:30 am. It was a good thing I did though because when I arrived to the parking lot at 5:40 there were already about 120 people there. By 6 there were probably 150 people in line...and tickets for the raffle were passed out.

Did I get a spot? Yep, and in the first 20 too so I didn't have to sweat too many bullets. Then began the process of signing the rules and setting up in a parking space. Thankfully, throughout the course of the day I met some nice people who helped me set up, charge my phone, etc. so that was nice. The parking lot was full of tents and had multiple passers-by honking all day...my assigned spot was in the far corner and is the tent to the bottom right in the picture.
A couple of hours in, they served breakfast-yum!
Later on through the day we also were fed lunch, icedream in the heat of the day, supper, and a nugget snack at 10 pm. [By which time I was getting a little tired of chicken:) ] For the meals we either walked through the drive-thru:
or actually went in, placed orders, and got to sit down and eat enjoying a couple of minutes of air conditioning:
They are also nice enough at these campouts to have coolers of tea-sweet and unsweet-and water out all day. Here's a shot of my cup-when the lady handed it to me at breakfast she told me to "guard it with my life"...which was perhaps a bit melodramatic.
Another treat during the day was that I got to see Lauren, one of my best friends from college-who happens to live just a couple of hours away now! It was SO wonderful to get to have a friend there for a couple of hours and more importantly to visit with such a dear friend who I've missed seeing for the past couple of years! Maybe next time there's a campout nearby we can do it together! Regret of the day-I didn't think to ask somebody to take a picture of us-story of the blog, huh? Nonetheless, it was a definite bright spot of the day and she did me a huge favor by bringing me some sunscreen before she left town which was greatly appreciated as I'd already burned a good bit.

The day did pass fairly quickly I suppose and though it was super hot, it was a very pretty day of blue skies. I got to read some, won a hula hoop contest, and got a whole day of meals for free. And best of all, around six on Thursday morning I finally got to stand in line one more time (click here to get to a link to video on the local news of the line inside) and received my grand prize-this box full of combo coupons:)