NC Butt Blast: Documenting the Atrocities

Got back home late last night - I'm exhausted.  I have newfound appreciation for people who organize Eggfests.  



Many many thanks to all the people who showed up to make this event what it was.  I'm just really glad it turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day.  We didn't say much about it on the forum, but @tarheelmatt, @piney, and I were sweating bullets in the week leading up to this thing, eyeing the forecast.  It was clear we were going to get some rain, the only question was whether it would come Friday night or Saturday.  We got lucky and Saturday was about as perfect a day as you could ask for in NC.   

There were a couple of folks who made pretty long treks out to this, and it would not have been the same without them.  @Thatgrimguy and @nolaegghead traveled the farthest I think, followed by @DMW and @Eggcelsior.  Long day on the road for all of those guys heading back today.  But my God they brought their A-game to this thing and it made all the difference.  

I was lucky enough to cook next to @theyolksonyou and his beautiful family most of the day and sample all of their great food.  Jason, you were an inspiration at this thing!  I think my pulled pork pillows came out OK.  It was a little tricky cooking them on my MiniMax because I could only do six at a time.  The twist I added to these from the recipe I posted on the forum some time ago was a little dollop of spicy pepper relish from Cottage Lane kitchen.  A lot of folks asked about the relish, so here it is.  It's a little shop out of Chapel Hill.  This stuff is goooooddd folks.  




@bgebrent was awesome all weekend, he and his wife were a huge help.  They were always asking what they could do to help, if we needed anything, you get the picture.  Along with @YukonRon, whose bourbon slushies were out of this world, they are forcing me to re-evaluate my assumptions about Kentucky fans.  

Really nice to meet a bunch of other people in person, including @DoubleEgger, @Jupiter Jim, @johnmitchell, and @jmarbs21.  I know I met many more of you, and I'm sorry for forgetting some of the names/handles right now, but it's all a little bit of a blur.

By far the strangest thing that happened all weekend was the cops showing up.  Wouldn't be a butt blast without the popo I guess.  Matt mentioned this above.   I didn't actually witness this myself because it happened so fast.  I hope someone got a pic.  

Anyway, what happened was that there was a shelter right next to ours.  In the morning it was vacant, and we just assumed nobody was going to be using it.  Since we were low on tables, we borrowed the large table they had that belongs to the park - every shelter has one of these.  This is what we ended up foiling and putting Dwayne's hog on. 

Later on in the day, there was a group at the shelter next to ours.  It looked like a kid's birthday party - lots of balloons, gifts, etc. - pretty small group.  Well I don't know if they noticed their table was missing and called the cops or what, but I guess an officer of the law showed up and asked us if we knew what happened to their table.  Then we were very politely asked to return it, which we were happy to do since we were totally done using it.  Now, all I'll say about the return of the table is that it took at least six guys to carry it back, when @bgebrent and I had moved it over just the two of us in the morning.  

My only explanation for this whole incident is that the folks using the shelter next to ours must have been out-of-staters, because no native North Carolinian would ever call the police in a situation like that.  That's the God's truth folks.  It's just not neighborly.   They would have just walked over, asked if they could have it back, etc.  Oh well, no matter.  I hope someone at least offered the officer some of our food...  

Some of you may or may not have picked up that @tarheelmatt was a little nervous about cooking at this event.  I don't know why, because he absolutely killed it with his tacos.  Anyway, @piney and I were worried about him, so we got him a little Duke teddy bear to hold on to.  I've been told that Tarheel fans clutch these in their most lonely moments...  



We had a lot of food - too much really.   It was actually not as bad as I was fearing before the day got started, but we probably had enough food for 300+ people.  I didn't even end up cooking my SV'd spares, because it was clear they'd largely go to waste.  In the end I'm guessing we had about 150 to 200 come through over the course of the day, including some people who were just at the park for the day.  That's the biggest question to me for the future - how to make sure there's not too much food while making sure there's enough.  

About the future... we had lots of questions about whether or not this event will be the same weekend next year.  All I'll say is that we've started to talk about it.  But I need at least a week to recover.