The Big Event - Magnolia Blossom Festival - Part 2

OK, OK. I’ve been lazy and have not written about the second half of the Magnolia Blossom Festival / World Championship Steak Cook Off.

We went back to the square about 5:45 PM and stood in line to get our steaks. I heard there were 5000 steaks cooked and served. They let people enter from all four corners of the square and in less than an hour all the steaks are served and gone. The tickets are $15 and you get a salad, drink, baked potato, steak and desert. The steaks are 16 oz Ribeye’s.

Mom, Stefan my Aunt Jeanette and I all got our steaks and found a table. Jeanette’s twin JoAnn came to join us and we split up the food and she ended up with quite a meal too.

After the meal we went and found our spot for the announcements of the winners of the cook-off, parade and all that jazz. Then the concert started with Aaron Tippin. He was pretty big in country music in the Mid-90’s. He has since faded from the spotlight. He has his own recording label now and has a new album of trucker songs with some of the old trucking songs. He is a high energy concert to watch and it was a good show.

I’ve been playing lazy and not doing much on the computer. Yesterday we started working on getting mom ready for the Digital TV Switch over on June 12. It’s not as simple as they make it sound. I’ll write about that later.

The Big Event - Magnolia Blossom Festival - Part 1

Well today’s the big day in Magnolia. The Blossom Festival is Friday and Saturday with most of the events taking place on Saturday. The festival started years ago as the “Arts Festival”. 20 years ago they added the “World Championship Steak Cook-off” which now takes up most of the festival.

We started off the day watching the parade of cookers going down Main Street. These are our chef’s for the big event this evening. They limit the number of cookers to 65 each year due to limited space on the square. They always have to turn teams away. So I guess that’s good.

The courthouse square (downtown) is where all the cookers are parked. The square fills up with the smoke and smells of the cookers. The art show is on the Courthouse Lawn and all the shops on the square are having a busy day with all the tourists. There were 4000 steak tickets sold at $15 each.

In addition to the parade there are car shows, dog shows, bike shows and all sorts of events. Below are some pictures of the parade and the car show. Later tonight we will go back for the steaks and the concert.

This cooker is a rocket, and as you can tell I didn't have a wide enough camera to get the whole thing.

The crowds were going wild. I'm sure this lady would appreciate her picture being on the internet.

Stefan found the car he want's to drive home.
This old Model A had the instruction manual and tools with it.

Well enough for now... Time for that nap. We have a long night ahead of us.