Ah, BBQ! I got my bad molar filled today (part of it had broken off!) and afterward wifey and I drove to Paducah (KY) for their “BBQ on the River” festival. I think this is the 1st time we’ve gone on a Thursday, or even this early in the day (got there ~ 5 pm). The benefits turned out to be “not so crowded” and “no seller was out of vittles yet”! We tried a new BBQ seller, as wifey usually picks whoever has hooked up with “The Knights of Columbus”, and we didn’t see a sign for the Knights. (The whole event raises money for various area charities nonprofits, with all vendors required to donate at least 5% of their sales to charity.) This vendor was named “Juicy Pork Butts” or something like that — not totally sure I have that exactly correct, but I remember “juicy” and “butts”. Well, hey, I was distracted by the right 2/3 of the lower part of my face still being numb! Anyway, that numbness finally faded a couple hours ago, and, heh, yeah, these people cook up some good ribs... :-)
We stopped by the local NWS Office booth and I got to argue my case to their chief meteorologist (I think) for including mention of frost in forecasts even after the 1st “killing” frost:
For one thing, a lot of gardeners around here (7a) cover their plants and / rotate some in and out — heck, one year I had tomato plants still going after Thanksgiving! And, for another, for anyone who has a car outside with clear sky above, knowing whether one needs to go out 10 minutes early to warm the car to clear the frost off the windshield go to work in the morning (or whatever), is pretty useful. So, the NWS guy allowed that maybe my suggestion of at least putting mention of frost into the forecast discussion even well after the 1st “killing frost” (they go by reports from their local ag partners) might not be a bad idea. We’ll see if it happens!
The one thing that’s not been at the last couple “BBQ On The River” events is a big aquarium with various fish, small to large, from the Ohio River in it. This year, also no dice. Bummer!
The local BBQ stand is 7 minutes away. They are open Friday - Sunday (limited hrs on Sun.) and late Spring into November. They also do catering all year round. There is another BBQ restaurant 30 miles away that is not seasonal - you can eat in or they sell by the pound & cater. Aside from the convenience factor, we like the taste of the closer BBQ better - both are good, but the distant one is overly ‘smokey’ in my opinion.
BBQ is a perfect easy meal when we have certain guests & we may have to buy a couple pounds of the local BBQ & freeze it to get us through the winter.
The ice cream stand is seasonal as well (2 min. from the BBQ stand). You know it’s Spring when they open up!