I have some Royal questions.

We were lucky enough to qualify for the Royal Invite and we're getting pretty excited about going. I've got a few questions for some of you Royal Veterans out there.

Gerrit_Boys said:

1. I'm thinking we'd need a size C site (20x75), how do you go about determining site preference on the application? Do you just pick through the size C sites from the contest map and put those down?

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Yes, you could list preferences, and they will try and honor them if they can.

Gerrit_Boys said:

2. How important is a porta-john, I'm sure we'll have people stopping by and all but I don't want to spend additional money if I don't need to.

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Depends on where you are located. If you get a spot pretty close to Hale Arena, the locker room, showers and toilet inside this building I believe are open 24x7. There are also public porta john's lined up in a number of places. We always get a port-john, though, as the crowds get bigger than big and a lot of humanity parades through the public ones. If you do order one, find a way to move it back to the very back of your site and you may want to consider securing it with a lock. The Friday night crowd is full of revelers who seem think that any porta john they can see is a public one. :shock:

Gerrit_Boys said:

3. How is the power there? Is it worth $35 for electricity? I have a generator, would that be a better option? (it's a Honda 2000).

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We had some power quality issues a few years ago, but all seems to be ok over the last 2 years.

Gerrit_Boys said:

4. Does anybody order a trash box? Aren't there dumpsters around?

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We bring our own trash cans and liners. There are a few dumpsters, but you could end up walking a quarter mile to the dumpster. This is a big, big area.

Gerrit_Boys said:

5. I'm planning on entering the Open contest as well so I don't have to leave in the middle of the weekend (the motorhome turns like a road grader). When should I be getting entered in this?

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For best results, send in the app for the Open at the same time as you complete your Invite paperwork. The app process for the open is up right now at this link:

https://forms.americanroyal.com/default.aspx?formID=374

Enjoy your first Royal. It is an experience like no other! :thumb:

Get the porta-john, hide it, lock it, and leave a path to push it to the front of your site to have it serviced in the morning if needed. The bathrooms in Hale Arena are pretty scary come Sat. morning It can be warm, and you are in a parking lot.

For Friday night, you need to be able to block off the entrance to your space. If you have something you can bring to accomplish that, it's great. Otherwise I'd consider renting some hay bails. Friday night is a PARTY for the folks that come out. If they need to get from point A to B, and see an opening there are some folks that will take it. The year I cooked with Phil it was like watching deer crossing a highway, until we got together with the neighbors behind us and moved some tables to close the game path

Bring a lock for your cooker... or have a pitbull or Rottweiler chained to your cooker...

motor home - run it off your on-board generator if it's 80 you';; need all that power for the AC. Of course it could be 40 and some snow around so who knows.

Power from the other stuff - if everybody has 12 gage cords or better (30 amp) it usually is good.

Porta Potty - depends on how long you can use the motor home before it fills - can't get out to dump. I'd spend money on it before buying beer and I love a cold beer.

For bigger sites like you want get in your open app ASAP. They need to do some redrawing. Remember that returning teams get their spot back again so talk to folks you know and see if anybody knows of a C size site that is not coming back this year.

Now having a lock on your cooker, well 500 teams, last 10 years I know about and only 1 brisket stolen. Team had an FE and everybody went to sleep while the party was still going on. Plan for somebody to be up and on-site all Friday night.

And unless you can control access to your site it will be a mess. I always bought hay bales, relied on my neighbors to protect each side and left 3 feet open to get in and kept somebody there during the party Friday evening. We even had 10 guys sitting out front one year with number cards to score the ladies as they went by. Amazing how many 9's around that late or maybe some eyes weren't that good.

Ford said:

We even had 10 guys sitting out front one year with number cards to score the ladies as they went by. Amazing how many 9's around that late or maybe some eyes weren't that good.

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Ford - so did the scores tend to increase as the night went on or did they get lower?

I guess I'm slacking. My wife just sent me her itinerary for the Royal:shocked: