Friday, March 04, 2011

My Spirit Is Cleansed

Sea Breezes Induce Near Coma...


I'm pleased to report that we arrived mid afternoon yesterday back here on Our Little Island for the first time in nearly a year.  The seven plus hour trip was easy and uneventful with light weekday traffic on I-10.

We checked into our rented 1942 vintage cottage and by dinner time we were full tilt back in "Island Mode."

After checking out the house and verifying the Internet Connection, we went out and stopped by Murphy's Tavern...an old favorite watering hole...to say hello to a crowd of locals, and then moved on over to Blackwater Grill to take a look at the skin and framework from the two year old Chili Shack I designed and built for use as the front end service area for our team during the Chili Cookoff.

Here's a look at what it looked like in 2009--sort of a Cajun Bayou Shack Theme:




Then last year I re-designed the roof structure and repainted everything in support of our "Jamaican Me Cajun" Green Butt Chili theme with Caribbean pastels and bright colors:



Tomorrow there's another slight structural modification in the works for this year's Cook Off along with a new paint job going back toward the Cajun Bayou Shack theme...new photos to follow later.

Then my old buddy/college roommate Rusty and his girl Pat (not to be confused with my girl Pat) arrived in time to go out for a late dinner down at "Crabdaddys."

Then everyone came home and crashed by 9:30 PM being the old farts that we are.

The festivities resume again at 8 AM this morning with a trip to the local Island Builders Supply company for some stuff, then four to six hours of making sawdust and slapping a new coat of paint on the little fake building and tearing it all back down to be ready to haul over to the festival site at 6 AM Saturday morning.

With any luck by 2 PM Saturday afternoon we will have served 14 gallons of Chili and be standing around celebrating some sort of award like we were doing in this photo from 2009.



Wish us luck...if you will...

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