A Plug for Next Year
The Hamilton Township Septemberfest really turned out to be a great venue for a competition; IMHO, anyway. The park itself was both huge and beautiful, and well maintained. The park is surrounded by a nice residential area, at least on the sides that I saw, and is easy to get to from the major roads. We left Lake Grove at about 5:00 AM Saturday morning and arrived at the site at 7:09. Our view of the fireworks was great, and we were pleasantly close to the bandstand. We had friends' five year old daughter with us and there was plenty to keep her busy, too.
Jill Moyers, the organizer, was on site continuously and was very open to suggestions and requests. She seems very interested in making the BBQ competition a regular and successful part of the town's festival. She promises to start on next year's festival as soon as the mayoral elections are over in November, so expect to see applications available around January, assuming she still has a job thereafter.
The applications for permits turned into pretty much a none issue. Linda Mullane did the usual meat/health inspection and one fire marshall stopped by to ask if we had a 20lb fire extinguisher. He didn't even ask to see it.
Given the small turnout, there was plenty of room. We were fortunate enough to be sited between Lo-n-Slo and Fat Angel. Stella came to visit us so many times, we thought we could convince her to jump teams, but, alas, she proved too loyal. Guido and Chrissy (bbqmafia and mrsmafia) and their kids also stopped by to say hello. Next time, hopefully, they'l come by when they can stay for awhile or a meal. All in all, it looks like a competition with a future.
Thanks, Michelle, for passing around the applications at New Paltz. We'll plan on being back next year.