Day 42

Well today is the Big BBQ cook off. It is part of Demopolis’ Christmas on the River celebration, which is a weeklong choke full of festivities. Chefs from all over the state and supposedly the country gather in Demopolis Alabama to compete for the title of Grand Champion. It was a pretty big deal to this town. Everywhere we went people were talking about it. We spent part of the day biking in town and at the library. (Internet access, since we have absolutely none) Then the rest of the day we cleaned and Grant started to refinish his bench with his handy sander. We had a couple of drinks because we didn’t want to spend too much money at the BBQ on beer. So after a few cocktails we walked to the park, which about 3 blocks away. There was an admission fee of 5 dollars apiece, and then you were supposed to walk around to the various booths. The only problem was that we didn’t know anyone and each booth was like it’s own private party. Some even had signs stating “Private party” or “Invitation Only”. So we decided to find a booth selling Miller Lite, since all we saw was Bud Light and low and behold we see our Hillbilly friend from the other night at the Marina Bar. It was Randall! Grant previously had called him Randolph, but it was really Randall. Randall showed us a great deal of Southern Hospitality. Not only did he feed us the different foods from each booth, ranging from Chili, to pulled pork and wonderful bacon wrapped dove meat, but he also fed us a continuous stream of FREE beer all night. And man can he drink. Each time he went to get himself a beer, he also got each one of us a beer. Grant was able to keep up with him for the most part, however Tabbie had to stuff some of the beers in her coat pockets and then even give away some. At one point Tabbie even had to walk home and take an hour and a half nap. Randall was also getting us into all of the private parties. One tent had a band, which consisted of the local town radio announcer and some other gentleman of grand stature. SO you could say we were in the “in” crowd. The local folk were getting a kick out of our accents and taking plenty of our pictures. There was even one lady there who had her little lap dog, not sure what kind it was, but no bigger than 3 pounds. The female she had was going to have babies, so she gave Tabbie her number. Grant may let Tabbie get a dog when we settle since we can’t have cats due to allergies. The puppies won’t be ready until 7-8 weeks after they are born, which may be perfect timing. If not, that is ok too.

Earlier in the day, we had been talking about the possibility of staying in Demopolis for an extended period of time. We have come to enjoy the sleepy little town and the Marina was a nice place to stay. So we came upon the topic with a few of the locals about our need for a job. Tabbie was offered a job as a cement salesperson and Grant was offered a job roofing houses for cash. Albeit everyone at this BBQ was pretty much drunk, including us, we were excited about employment opportunities. After the party began to wind down, which was around 2am, we were invited with another gentleman by the name of Wayne to this bar called Hoots. This is a private bar, which requires membership to gain access. Therefore, it can stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It can sell liquor basically whenever it wants. And membership costs a whole 2 dollars. This is Alabama’s way of getting around bar close and the horrible “no sale” on Sunday rule. We didn’t even have to pay for our membership when we got there because Wayne was allowed through the line before anyone else without even so much as an ID check. And because we were with him, so were we. What is this? Redneck New York? Anyway, the moment we walked in he got us some beers and immediately looked for a pool table. This bar was packed. There were people everywhere, mostly young adults in their 20’s. We also say a bartender we knew from the Marina bar there. We knew that we didn’t want to stick around for long so Grant asked him for a ride home, and he of course said sure, but he wasn’t leaving until bar close. Come to find out later, that the bar decided to close that night at 5am. We almost couldn’t handle it anymore and decided to walk the 3 miles home, but Tabbie decided to ask a nice looking young fellow if he could give us a ride. He was very nice and said yes, but that his friend was driving. After everyone was gathered, they dropped us off at the Marina at about 3:30, and were very excited to meet someone who owned a yacht. We couldn’t wait to get to bed. People in Alabama party like rock stars.