Ribfest recap

I left work at 12 p.m. on Thursday, July 1 and snuck in an hour of tanning by the poolside. Even if I'm not thrilled with my physique, I do feel healthier when my skin is tanned.

I drove an hour south to Cowlishaw Elementary school and took the school bus by myself to Knoch Park. After paying my $12 admission and entering the North gate, I was struck by the new geography. Previously, one stage was much larger than the other. Now both the north and south stages are the same size, giving a little balance to the entire park.

Since I hadn't eaten, I headed straight for the meat. Half of the vendors were located in the north end and the other half in the south end with a load of sponsor tents and the carnival placed right in the middle. I started with a roasted ear of corn, a $3 tradition. A very sweet ear, covered in butter, salt, and pepper. And I was very happy I brought along the dental floss. I headed to Pigfoot and Camp 31 for a couple of samplers. I wasn't thrilled the price was now $6 for 3 bones.
I had eaten at Pigfoot (West Salem, OH) a few years ago. They have an apple flavored BBQ sauce, and while I don't care for its strong sweetness, I like the concept. I stuck with the mild sauce and while they weren't very warm, the meat was very juicy and the meat fell off the bone. As for Camp 31 (Castleberry, Alabama), they were the one new vendor at this year's fest. The bones I had were very meaty and moist. I wasn't too thrilled with the sauce, which was very tomatoey and didn't have a very notable smoke flavor.

I headed back to the South stage and listened to the Steepwater Band perform for an hour. They are a power trio that plays an aggressive style of Chicago blues. Good stuff, but nothing I would spend my money on. I think I just laid on my beach towel with my shirt off tanning some more.

I headed back towards the north stage, where the West Side Winders, another trio played for an hour. These guys specialize in classic rockabilly and surf music. I sang along to songs like "That's All Right" and "Not Fade Away." The crowd seemed pretty apathetic though. Since Los Lonely Boys were set to start a half hour after the Winders ended, I headed back toward the north stage around 5:45.

With two fresh lemonades down, I was ready for round two of ribs. I hit Smokey Joe's (Mansfield, Ohio) for a sampler. I was very impressed with their juicy meat and spice blend. And bonus points for having cornbread available. Texas Outlaws is my traditional favorite and while the flavor was great as usual, I believe the ribs had to have been sitting out for a while. They were too cool in terms of temperature and that's a problem. Needing a break from the meat, I also grabbed some sweet potato fries with cinnamon sugar. Freshly fried, they were a great break from the pork.

Then Los Lonely Boys began their set; this was the second time I had seen them at Ribfest. "Senorita", "Nobody Else", and "Crazy Dream" were all great. I would have like to hear "My Way" or "Hollywood", but in 90 minutes, it's not possible to play every song. Henry Garza plays a soulful blues guitar and Jo-Jo and Ringo keep up a solid rhythm section. Also, Mom showed up and hung for a while. I give her props for buying me a water bottle, which I was desperate for after consuming all of that food. It amazes me how humans really desire to have thirst satisfied when lacking water.

Mom left just before "Heaven" began, so it was up to me to shout the lyrics. It is such a sweet experience with thousands of people singing "How far is heaven?" in semi-harmony. I'm sure I wasn't on-key as usual, but whatever. It's all about heart and soul in this case.

I had 30 minutes before Charlie Daniels began his show on the South Stage, which meant another 6-8 minute walk across the park. But I decided to grab desert. Now I could have gone with Dippin' Dots. Could have had some great Oberweis ice cream. Could have had a carrot cake cupcake from Hugo's Frog Bar. But I went with something special. Something unique. Something I couldn't get from many other palaces. I ordered a $4 deep fried Twinkie. It tasted like a funnel cake with a ton of powdered sugar and a hot creamy filling inside. A definite guilty pleasure. It was probably the one time I will ever eat that, but I'm glad I had the sack to try it one time.

So I continued my path south. I dropped my backpack and folding chair at the front of the stage and got to watch the whole show from the right of the stage in the front row. Charlie and the band played an incredible 90-minute show.

First, he played the same opener as three years ago which I don't know. Then he launched into "Drinkin' My Baby Goodbye", "The Legend of Wooley Swamp", and "Simple Man". As the band played these songs, a few people near me in the crowd, mostly teens and a few families, started staring at me. I was singing just about every lyric. One was a 45-year old drunk blonde gal, showing quite a bit of cleavage. She was with a guy and dancing kinda dirty with him. Then she got close to me. I knew the deal, she was one of those who was so out of it, she just wanted the feel of a younger guy. But I know better than that. I'm used to that sort of thing, so I didn't do much.

The band played an instrumental, "Black Ice", that included one of the best drum solos ever. It must have lasted 5 or 6 minutes. "Long Haired Country Boy", "Folsom Prison Blues", and "In America" also got their time. Then came the finale, albeit way too soon. "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" got everyone dancing, if they weren't already. Following the final fiddle solo, Charlie hollered into the mike, "That's how you do it son!", paying homage to his famous Geico commercial. The songs I wanted to hear and didn't included "The South's Gonna Do It Again" (I have no idea how they could leave this off), "Boogie Woogie Fiddle Country Blues", and "Trudy".

As the show ended, I knew I had to beat the audience since I was standing in the front row and I also had to travel the entire length of the park since I had to reach the North gate. That took about 10 minutes or so. With a little bit of running, I caught the first bus back to Cowlishaw and eventually arrived home around 11.

Epilogue: I hit the gym the very next afternoon, I stepped on the scale, I had gained four pounds.