Chick-Fil-A Grand Opening - First 100!

So there were some crazy people in my town last week who camped in the Chick-Fil-A parking lot for 24 hours so they could win free Chick-Fil-A for a year. Seriously, who would do something as strange as that?

ME!

Oh my! It was really a blast. First of all, the grand opening was scheduled for Thursday at 6:00am. I got there at about 8:15am on Wednesday morning. My sister, Laura decided to come with me, but she didn't really understand what she was agreeing to. When she realized we would be sleeping there and that we couldn't leave the premises, she had to call and cancel plans with a friend to shop for a HS graduation dress.



So, it was really cool that they fed us breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Wednesday. But the coolest part about that, I think, is that we got to WALK through the DRIVE THRU for our food. They lined us up according to our number (I was 75 out of 100) and shuffled us through the line.

The weather had been seriously scorching for days (over 100, not including heat index!), but we got lucky that Wednesday was not as hot. I think it only got to about 90 degrees. It still felt warm, though. I called my dad to see if he could hunt down a canopy to borrow. He suprised us about an hour later with a brand new canopy he had purchased. I'm sure he'll get many uses out of it, but I couldn't believe that he bought it so we could use it. What a sweetheart!


You may be wondering what the heck we would do to occupy our time while waiting for the day to progress. We had wonderful company. My sister Laura and my friend Becca were with me. We met some great people. Dick, who is 85 years old and camped next to us (this was his 9th Chick-Fil-A grand opening, I kid you not) had wonderful stories and experiences to share with us.

We also sat around chatting, rested on an air mattress under our shady canopy,
& watched and participated in fun and silly games put on by the Chick-Fil-A crew. This one is a frozen T-shirt contest. They froze a wet T-shirt into a ball, and the first one to get it on their body won. And they couldn't bang it on the ground. Ha. It was funny to watch.

Laura even participated in a kind of musical chairs scavenger hunt.

We enjoyed many visitors to our humble homestead in the parking lot that day as well. Our friends and families couldn't resist checking it out...

Taylor and Zach participated in some of the line dances and other fun. They did the Cha-Cha slide, Hokey Pokey, and Freeze Dance.

In the evening, they had an MC, showed a movie, and served ice cream sundaes. I guess we hit the sack about 11:30pm. Wake up call from the mike was at 5am, bright and early! We cleaned up our temporary "home", then proceeded to line up according to our numbers for a final check. I got to meet the cow...notice the not-enough-sleep look on my face.




When we finally got to get our grand prize, we walked single-file into the building amidst a cheerful band of Chick-Fil-A employees loudly, very loudly, banging on their metal pans (with metal spoons, mind you). Did I mention that it was loud, and 6:00 in the morning? My sister snapped a pic of me approaching the magic table with the goods. Oh yeah...and before we went inside, they gave us all t-shirts and paper hats to wear.
That same wonderful sister, who claims to be a photographer captured this wonderful photo of me accepting my prize. Don't quit your day job, Laura! Just kidding sweetie...it was crazy in there, fast moving, and did I mention, REALLY LOUD?

And to top it off, Thursday was my kids' last day of school. They got out early, at 12:30pm. Guess where we went for lunch? You guessed it...I spent my first coupon for a free meal that very day. Here are my kids enjoying the grand opening. They had been dying to play in the new kids play area...it is pretty cool.

So what do you think? Am I nuts, or just frugal and fun? YOU DECIDE! :)