Once I got back, Karen left to pick up the
BBQ and salads. I checked the coolers, restocked and iced them down. Someone
probably helped but I can't remember. It's all kind of a blur what I did. I
know I went to the garage, pulled out the tablesaw and cut more kickstand pads.
I know I got the fish cooker out of the box and assembled it, hooked it to the
LP tank from the garage heater. I know I took an hour nap sometime, until Karen
woke me up to tell me more people were arriving. I went out to greet them, came
back to get their shirts, took the autograph shirt and the money jar back out
to the tables. I lost track of NEWT numbers. I lost track of time. At some
point I realized that we needed to get dinner going.
The burner on the cooker wasn't making a blue
flame like the picture on the box. Instead it was just orange, and threatened
to catch the hose on fire from gas escaping from the vent where it entered.
Undaunted, I sat the pot full of oil on the cooker stand. Kenny came up, and
offered to cook. I readily accepted. I just wanted to sit awhile. But the oil
wasn't heating to the necessary 350 degrees. It was obvious something was
wrong, but what? I was too brain dead to look, but luckily Snag wasn't. He
diagnosed the problem as a piece of casting flash left in the burner not
letting the gas into the chamber properly. He went to Beast for tools. I went
into the house and found a torx driver, handed it to Nashville Jeff , and he
poked the burner and cleared it. Everything tightened back up, all of us were
on our knees as the flame came out a beautiful blue. I threw my hands in the
air and hollered Hallelujah!
The oil started to heat up dramatically. Taz
and John Schnupp joined Kenny in battering the catfish and loading the fryer
with hushpuppies and tater tots. I had bought breaded okra, but somehow it
never made it from the freezer. Karen had the BBQ and her special recipe baked
beans heating in the stove inside. She brought those out along with sauce,
buns, slaw and potato salad. Soon it was suppertime. Later than I expected, but
suppertime none the less.
Taz asked where the Tobasco was. I got in the
truck and raced to town. When I got back with the hot sauce, most everyone had
gotten their food. The 2 bottles I bought will most likely last me until I die.
I was just about to finally grab something to
eat when the report came in that the paper was out in the johns. I grabbed the
rolls and headed down to the other end of the yard. I kind of lost my
appetite...
(Photo: EVLTWN)