BABBQ

What a wonderful weekend with some pretty awesome people. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on the weekend gathering for B&P readers here in St. Louis.  The only thing that could have made it better was if more people had shown up.  I believe the ones that did make it had a great time.  We had about a dozen from out of town and a few from the local area.  When you throw in my family and friends, some of who read but rarely comment, we ended up with about 40 people.  In some ways a smaller group is nice because you can spend more time talking to some people, but I was hoping for more.

It’s amazing how you can get to know people before you actually meet them.  Any when you do meet them it’s like you’re meeting an old friend you hadn’t seen in a while.  It was just very, very comfortable.  I appreciate that people would pack up and drive, or fly, hundreds of miles to attend a function like this.

A few notes….. 
We put together a B&P Trivia Quiz. It had questions like…. What is the B&P motto, What’s the name of my motorcycle ,What was my aunts name in Florida among others. Today I was just going through the answer sheets.  One of the questions was “How old is Jonco?”  Nick (aka Mr. Meee) answered 74.  Meee, would you slap him for me?

Gus was the hit of the party. I had to check Ariane’s purse when she left to make sure she didn’t kidnap him.  🙂  Someone else offered to trade his prize in the Let’s Make A Big Ass Deal game for Gus.

Food:  We had waaaaay to much of it…. or you guys didn’t eat enough.  Thanks to Dan and Dave for their all day efforts providing us with hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken breasts, ribs, one inch thick pork steaks, toasted ravioli, smoked salmon bites, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, gooey butter cookies and cakes, plus much more.

Thanks to all who helped out:  Pat, Krisgo & Seth, Dave, Dan, Mike & Pat, Janet & Dawn, Gail & Mike, my grandkids, Kaitie, Seth, Vince and Logan.  Without you guys I couldn’t have done this.

A couple of special messages:  While we were there and posing for a group picture we made a couple of special messages to a couple of people who couldn’t make it.  I had to enhance the lettering on the signs for readability.  You can click the photos to enlarge them.

And a few more pictures…. (click to enlarge)

  

 

 

The First Ever Bits & Pieces Big Ass BBQ is over… and I’m exhausted.  What a great group of people and what a great time.  We had an enjoyable night at Fast Eddies Friday night.  At the BBQ we had excellent food.  Hats off to my son Dave and friend Dan who created a superb day of St. Louis style food, everything from salmon to toasted ravioli, to ribs to pork steaks and good old corn on the cob.  We couldn’t have asked for a better weather day…. thanks to Anthony (ALN), who brought down some great weather from Idaho.

 

  

 

 

I’ll post more pictures tomorrow today, but I’ve got to get some sleep.  It’s past midnight.

Well, the time has finally arrived.  A small group of about ten B&P’ers and some friends met at Fast Eddies in Alton IL (just across the river from St. Louis). 

Left to right:  Scott, DJ, Richard and Anthony (ALN). 

 
Meee (Danielle) and hubby Nick and Danny S and wife Linda enjoy some grub at Fast Eddie’s.  It was a little hard to talk there because of the band, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  We’ll have more time to talk Saturday.

Here’s our idea for the BABBQ:  None of this is set in stone yet, so I’m asking for input or ideas.  I want to keep it as cheap as possible and firm up the details so we can start registration in a few days.

September 4, 2010 (Labor Day Saturday) –  St. Louis MO

OK, here’s the deal: We’ll have the following:

• Food
• Soda
• Beer
• T-Shirt for everyone over 10  (kids under 10 won’t get a shirt unless you buy one)
• Music
• Games
• Swimming (No lifeguard on duty)
• Attendance Prizes
• Trading Station prize

Cost:

• Adults over 21 –  $20
• Ages 10 – 20 –  $15
• Kids under 10 –  $5 (no T-shirt)
• Extra T-Shirts – $5

The survey I took a while back  showed quite a positive response and many said they’d probably come.  I have to limit the number to somewhere around 200 if everyone still plans to come.  It will be on a first come basis.  You will have to pay in advance to reserve a place.  There will be a time where you can get a refund up until a certain date.  So if you pay and something comes up and you can’t attend, I will refund your money up until let’s say August 21.  That’s two weeks before the event.  If you cancel after August 21^st, consider your payment a donation.

T-Shirts

If anyone wants to submit a design we’ll gladly consider it.  The shirts will not be fancy ( one or two colors at most) but will commemorate the 1^st Ever Bits & Pieces Big Ass BBQ.

Prizes

I have a few things lined up already as prizes and we’ll also give away whatever we end up with from the B&P Trading Station.  We can have attendance prizes but we also need to come up with a way to give away the Trading Station prize.    If anyone would like to donate items for prizes I’d certainly appreciate it.

So, Let me know your thoughts on any of these things over the weekend, as I want to firm everything up and get the ball rolling.