WESTFEST 2008

oh yeah, Merle and his Strickly Country float won 3rd place in the Business Floats.

So..Gadfly shows up and I almost freaked...he looks like my cousin Terry from Houston. That was a shocker...So we introduce ourselves to each other, and I find out his real name, which I will not reveal. He's Gaddy from here on out. Junebugg, Gaddy and Yellowdog. Sounds like a traveling freak show..So we pile into Junebuggs's little car and off we go. We actually could have walked from my apt. but I figured if they wanted to do any drinking, the walk back is a lot longer and going over the railroad tracks with a snootful, could ruin a nights fun really fast. We park on the grounds for $3...We didn't have to pay to get in as we had 3 free passes. Every thing has changed since the last time I was here, and all the old drunk memories are starting to flash across my brain. The time a couple of my friends and I made it to the Fest, got drunk and passed out in the back and front seats of my little blue Jeep, sobered up and went back for some more pevo and sausages. First thing you have to do is go to the beer tent and buy pevo tickets...you buy the tickets and then you trade them for beer. The people selling the pevo tickets are the ones responsible for checking your ID. to make sure you're old enough to buy beer. Then the adults buy pevo tickets and sell them to the ones that aren't old enough to buy them. I'm sure no one really checks all that carefully, but if they get so drunk they get in trouble (which is rare) then all they get is a mip. Which is a ticket for minor in possession. While Gaddy and Junebugg are buying pevo tickets and getting the beer, I head off for the skunk eggs and water. I split the skunk egg with them although Junebugg loves them, I'm not sure Gaddy was all that impressed. But then he's on some no carb diets which is why he was drinking scotch out of his back pack and wine. Oh yeah, they sell wine too, not just pevo. They wanna go sit down to eat. What?...That's the fun of Westfest, getting something to drink, eat and then wandering up and down the midway stuffing food in your mouth..Just going from one booth to the other..I ended up eating a sausage sandwich, a funnel cake(which fucking rocked), and at the end of the night I had a rib-eye steak sandwich with onions. Which was soo good. But I'm telling you ..the best thing in the entire place has now become my favorite words...pork-ka-bob...whisper "I have pork-ka-bob" in my ear and by Goddess, you might get lucky...We wandered up and down the midway, eating and drinking, and me saying howdy to my friends. People would bump into you and you'd hear, oh I'm sorry, or excuse me..or pardon me. I love Westfest, even when they're drunk they're polite. One kid in full Czech regalia had a 'will dance for pevo' sign..I gave him $3...Poor Gaddy, he kept losing one of us..Junebugg would wander off and he'd freak, where is she, is she ok?...Where did she go?...Then they lost me and it was the same..He finally said he was an alpha male and felt like it was his responsibility to take care of us and make sure we were ok..I said the only problem with that is we're both alpha females and we can take care of our selves.

Then we went to the Arts and Crafts Tents..oh my, such terrific stuff. I bought a little Christmas ball with Robert on it for Buddha Girls son for his tree. I bought this beautiful African granite statue for $8. It was beautiful..Will take a picture and show it to you. Then we were at this one booth that had home made salsas in different degrees of heat. The one that was supposed to be the hottest one I could have drank out of the jar. Not hot at all. But they had some Cheese Queso that was killer. Was $4.25 a jar, but it was worth it. I have used it for every meal since I got back Saturday night. On eggs, fritters, chicken, fish, veggies, everything. Gaddy bought 4 jars. Junebugg got the funniest t shirt for her son. It's upside down on the front of the t shirt and it says 'if you can read this please stand me back up on my feet'..

We got there about 7pm and left at 10:30 and then I took them to Strickly Country thinking the regulars would be there. The parking lot was nearly empty, and Gaddy was a little hesitant about going in..I mean, from the outside, it's a gravel parking lot with a big ole shed looking bar. It's big, but not fancy..I think he thought some rednecks would attack him or something. Only one there was Vince(the best mechanic in West) and a few other's watching tv..ha..So Junebugg and Gaddy had some beers, we played pool and listened to the juke box. I had forgotten just how great the juke box at Strickly Country is.. About 11:30 I called it a night..said I was to old for this shit and I was ready for bed. We went back to the apt. and Gaddy got the bed(he had a whole lot more to drink that Junebugg), Junebugg slept on the couch where she had been sleeping and I slept in the recliner. I was going to go to Babs and sleep there, but I didn't have the strength to drive around. Not one of my brighter moves. We all slept late, and then Gaddy drove back to Bumfuck, Texas. Hopefully a good time was had by all.We did have some very interesting conversations while getting to know each other, and that was fun.

So another year another Westfest...It was down 14% from last year, which is their own damn fault. They refuse to hire younger bands that play something besides polkas. I know it's a Czech festival and all, but they really need to rethink the intertainment. I keep telling them they need to get some of them American Idol contestants, but until the old farts that are on the Westfest board croaks, that won't happen.

But the food...oh lordy the food..This is what they ate:2,100 hamburgers, 1,000 corn dogs, 1,600 pounds of french fries, 4,080 kolaches, 280 baked potatoes for spudzillas, 5,400 sausage sandwiches, sausage sticks and sausage and kraut plates, 1,650 roasted ears of cron, 640 ears of corn on a stick, 1,223 snow-cones, 325 bgs of Bavarian nuts, 150 pounds of corn for kettle corn, 25 pounds of uncooked pork rinds, 1,050 Skunk eggs, two cases of fried green tomatoes, 7 and 1/2 gallons of fried pickles, one case of fried squash, 905 ice cream floats and ice cream servings, 2,400 funnel cakes, 425 steaks on a stick,250 chickens on a stick, 300 pork-ka-bobs, 225 ribeye sandwiches, 2390 super nachos(they were 12 inches tall) 130 tacos, 160 chalupas, 225 bean burritos, 1,800 tamales, 580 cheese nachos, 150 pretzels, 50 loaves of homemade beer bread, 600 fajitas, 222 fajita nachos, 1,154 fruit drinks, 235 gallons of tea, along with 3,335 cups of tea, and 422 cups of Italian Ice. For the second year in a row, they won't give us a tally of how much beer or wine was sold. They don't want people to think we're a bunch of drunks...yeah, right.

So another Westfest has come and gone. Unless some one comes down next year I think this is it for me..It was fun, I loved it and had a great time, but like I said..I'm too old for this shit.