Carolina Q said:

Where'd everyone come from?! They cooked 100 more turkeys than they have people!!

Aneta/Population, 2013

218 

EDIT, I neglected to say... How cool is that?!

@Carolina Q This was 56th annual turkey bbq in Aneta. It has become a big celebration for the town. Many family reunions, class reunions, and surrounding communities come out to have 2,500 person picnic in the park. Without going out and looking I noticed South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska plates on cars around the park. Others have come from Europe to come check out the festival if I'm not mistaking. It has become a yearly tradition for many folks

Dobie said:

Hope it doesn't rain hard on that event, cool stuff. 

@Dobie They had some rain at the beginning of the fest and had to keep adding charcoal to keep it going. They were a little worried on the charcoal consumption when adding extra bags to keep the fire lit. Especially when it's 2 hour round trip to grab more pallets of charcoal. The rain wasn't enough to put any tarps up and it turned out to be a beautiful rest of the day. In the last 56 years they've only had to go indoors once for the festival.

charliebatutis said:

Any idea how many cooks there are?

@charlieb Rah's team had around 8 people during the cook. One of the biggest challenges is getting the spits connected together. To connect each spit you have to shut off the motor to connect them together. Each time you shut the motor off to connect a spit you have turkeys that aren't spinning. So everything needs to be connected quickly to prevent hot spots on the turkeys. The first spits will cook and finish ealier than the spits towards the end. To prevent the first spits from being overcooked his team will remove the cement blocks to keep them even with the spits around them. Rah and his daughter will check internal temps of the turkey and mark a line with chalk on the cement blocks to indicate which ones are done and which ones need more time. When each turkey has a line of chalk on the block the spit can be removed and brought to be carved. It's a really cool process to see.

johnmitchell said:

Thanks for posting... That is cool.. Love your pup..

@johnmitchell Much appreciated! I wasn't sure how the little knucklehead would do with a 5.5 hour car ride. Ended up being 7 with traffic/construction. He actually did really well. We took the spare car that my mother-in-law was going to junk but we took in and fixed for a few hundred bucks. Still has a good motor and transmission.  So it keeps the miles off our cars. The downfall....the air conditioning is out. So it was a warm 90 degree 6 hour drive home. We made 3-4 stops on the way home to keep the pup refreshed and relieved. He did awesome overall. He kept himself busy at the park.