Hamfest weekend, part one...

So this weekend is a two-hamfest weekend. Today was the Red Rose Repeater Association hamfest in Lancaster, PA, tomorrow is the CARAFest hamfest at the Howard County fairgrounds.

I've never been to the Lancaster hamfest before - BSOM left me a flyer on my desk, and I will pretty much go to any hamfest once to see how it is. Plus, since there were two the same weekend, I could throw everything in the truck once and sell at two hamfests.

The drive up to Lancaster was foggy - very foggy. How foggy was it? It was so foggy that 's I had to rely on BSOM's Tom-Tom GPS to tell if the road was curving, because I couldn't see ahead of me on the road.

So how was the RRR hamfest? Here's my brief review:

Pluses:
-cheap to get in and sell
-tasty $1 hot dogs with saurkraut

Negatives:
-Few vendors. Probably somewhere around a dozen to 18. Mostly selling stuff I wasn't interested in, and mostly people I've seen at other MD hamfests. BSOM bought two boxes to build other electronics in. I bought nothing, except the aforementioned hot dog
-few customers. I grossed a whopping $64, and all the stuff I sold was common stuff I could easily have sold at any hamfest - it's not like I unloaded crap I'd been carrying around for a while or anything. Plus, I heard several people muttering "oh, ham radio", suggesting that they saw the signs and were expecting smoked, cured pork products.
-no bathrooms, which sucked because my tradition before Hamfest is to stop on the way and buy and consume the largest-possible cup of coffee -in this case, a Dunkin' Donuts XXL.
-hour and half drive through fog

Plus, one of the reasons I was psyched to go to Lancaster was so I could buy myself an authentic shoe-fly pie from a an Amish person (would they be an Am-lette?) Anyway, I did not encounter anyone selling said pies on the drive to or from.

There was one bright side to the trip that made it worthwhile. If this seems lame to you, keep in mind that 1)I'm fat and 2)I don't get out much. Anyway, on the drive back, after vacating my bladder at a Sheetz, I noticed a sign across the street for a Sonic Drivethru. I've seen TV ads for Sonic for years, but there aren't any near me -I even looked it up, on their website, and discovered the closest one was in Northern VA. Buit evidently there is one in Ephrata, complete with carhops.

I had tater tots covered with chili and cheese and a Reese's peanut butter cup Sonic Blast. It was tasty, and there was a ton of cool stuff on their menu that I would love to try - steak and egg burritos, coconut cream pie shakes, chicken clubs on texas toast, the sunrise (OJ + limeaid), chili cheese burgers, and more.

Maybe I'll have to go back next year just so I have an excuse to go to Sonic.

Foggy hamfest (photo credit BSOM)

Really Foggy hamfest (photo credit BSOM)

that's a hell of a menu

look how excited I am!

carhops bring you your food. how cool is that?!?!?