This is why we are here!

Wes smoking brisket and ribs.

While we were in Hermosa, SD and visiting Western Buffalo Mel had a great idea and got a buffalo brisket to go with the beef briskets and ribs. Here's the buffalo just out of the smoker.

Harold is helping Wes slice brisket while others wait for a taste.

Chow time.  Good job as always Wes!  Pot lucks are great.  Judy made 10 pounds of German potato salad and Wes could have all that was left, he loves it......but there wasn't any.

There were 21 rigs here for the rally and here's a group picture.

Chicken Creek Classic rally

As you can see the party is growing.  Patches really likes this park as she wants out much more than in the past few weeks.  We have campfires at night and to our amazement a UFO buzzed us!!!!!

Cookson, OK & Chicken Creek rally

Today we made the 3 or 4 hour pull to the Corps of Engineers Chicken Creek park in Oklahoma.  We have been here several times for a fall rally, I think five times now.  The rally starts Wednesday but we like that area and friends so we went in on Monday to beat the rush....but there were already 6 or 7 HitchHikers there.

Balloon festival lift off!

Saturday morning was cold & dreary so Judy & I slept in & stayed at the campground as did almost everyone else.  We did keep an eye open and when they lifted off (about one mile away) we went outside to watch them go up, float right over us & the adjacent pond, then descend a couple miles away.  They spent more time setting up and tearing down that actually flying.  It was good to watch them float over all of us.  When the lifted off Saturday evening the wind was different and the blew much further from us.  There were 19 or 20 balloons at the festival, it's too bad the weather was so cold & windy as that stopped many of us from going to any of the other festival activities.

Columbus, KS balloon festival

After Chanute we went to Columbus, KS for a weekend balloon festival.  We found a nice city park with 6 pull through sites (we took all of them) after the campground we made reservations with wanted to have us spend the weekend in a crappy fairgrounds.  The weather has turned cold, wet & windy.  We were not sure if they would have the evening glow the first night but the mist stopped in time and the did light them up for the crowd.

Chanute, KS

Breakfast at the Grain Bin, Judy LOVES their pecan waffles.  Our standard routine is to drop off our HitchHiker at 7am, be at the Grain Bin at 8am & return to NuWa at 9;45am for the plant tour.  There is usually quite a few of us as there's not much more to do!

 

The city park is always 90% HitchHikers and we always gather at 5pm daily for a happy hour and some socializing.  We often know the others that are there and there usually are 2 or 3 couples there taking delivery of a brand new or used HitchHiker.  If we didn't know them before, we do now.

Back to the Grain Bin for another breakfast.

More happy hours....we are a happy group.

Off to lunch at Chicken Mary's.  Ya get the idea we go out and eat often?  There are two fried chicken restaurants in Pittsburg, KS.....Chicken Marys and Chicken Annes.  Both started when their husbands were injured in mining accidents and their wives open chicken restaurants because they made good chicken. The two restaurants are a block apart in the farmlands with nothing else around.

Chanute, Kansas Artists Alley Festival

We arrived in Chanute, KS Thursday for our service appointment Monday.  We arrived early as there's a city festival Saturday and we want to ensure we have a site in the city park.  We went to the beer tent, as you can see, and helped celebrate whatever was going on at the festival!