Finale

The trailer and the truck have reconciled so we are back in action. Except it was close to 1pm and the festival wanted all vendors in place by 2pm to be inspected by the Health Department. I called the emergency number they gave me and left a message. Driving along, we are now beginning to wonder if it’s even worth going because it takes at least 2 hours to get there on a good day. Dele calls Eric, my contact for the festival, and explains the situation. Eric makes no promises that the Health folks will wait for us, (they are County employees so they probably get off at 4pm) but to just get there as quickly as we can. Like I can drive 90 mph with a trailer in tow. (But trust me – I wanted to!)  

Meanwhile, Davia is sending us comps and images for the trailer. She created some visuals for the trailer since we have not yet had it “decorated.” Dele is looking at the posters on his phone and occasionally holding them up for me to see as we drive across the Bay Bridge and down Route 50. We agree that everything looks spectacular and she gets in touch with FedEx Office down in Salisbury, sends the files and tells them we will be there in 2 hours to pick up.  

At 3:34 pm we make it to Winterplace Park and call Eric to see where to go and if we made it in time. The Health Dept. is still there and we’re in! We park and jump out to start unloading, get the generator going and meet the inspectors. Inspection goes like clockwork and now I need to get to FedEx and Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart for the last-minute stuff. I leave Dele there to do the set-up. I would’ve just gotten in the way anyway. At FedEx, Frank tells me they need about 25 more minutes because something keeps happening with one of their machines and my poster isn’t printing correctly. I bargain with Frank: if he can get me to a Wal-Mart within 5 miles, I will run there, do my shopping and be back in 30 minutes; if not, I will stand there putting all types of undue pressure on him and his people while they get it right. Needless to say, Frank points me to a store 3 minutes away.  

Back at FedEx 40 minutes later, I look at the beautiful glossies, pay and race back to the festival. I’ve been gone at least 1.5 hours by now and the festival started at 4pm! It’s close to 6pm when I get back but Dele has it under control. No waffles cooking, but everything is clean and prepped and waiting on me.  

For the next 4 hours, we chatted up everyone who came to our window. We served about 20 waffles that night. It was slow, but everyone promised that Saturday would be better. Cleanup was a long process but at least they let us leave the trailer on-site instead of re-hitching and taking it to our hotel. Oh yeah, hotels. There were three big things going on in the area: SunFest, Danika Patrick at Dover Raceway and this festival. Rooms sold out all over and we didn’t book in advance. Thankfully Dele and Hotels.com found someplace for us to stay.  

Friday night lights

 

Saturday morning lead us to Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart and then to the festival. We got to the park at 11am, a full hour before the festival opened. Once we opened the windows, people started coming over asking us if we had any waffles ready. We served our first customers about 15 minutes later and pretty much had steady traffic all day.  

Zee master chef takes a break. Love those posters!

 

Right around 5pm, we lost power! Nothing worked. Checked the trailer connection to the generator but still nothing. One of the prongs on the plug is fried. Can you believe this?! It’s getting late and we’re prepping for the evening rush and now we have no power. Dele manages to hook up a few different extension cords that allowed the fridge, freezer and all-important waffle maker to run. Then he heads off to Lowe’s to replace the part. I am left to man the operation while he’s gone. We have a system – I make the waffles and batter, he makes the waffles look good. I managed to keep the whole thing going for the TWO HOURS he was gone. Two hours! But by the time he got back, he’d fabricated a new connection and we were powered through the rest of the night.  

It truly takes a village to get The Hot Belgian to (and through!) the festival 🙂 My Mom, Natalie, Davia, Derrick, Mr. Kennedy, Good Samaritan Gary, AAA Guy, FedEx people, Lowe’s electrical dept. employees. You name them and they helped. Thanks to everyone. Period. Now that we have this one under our belt, we are confident in our product and our process and can only go higher from here. Especially since we now have our first professional reference/mention! 

Banana Hazelnut from a customer's tweet

The Road to the Festival

We rocked the festival with our waffles! The Hot Belgian’s in the house!

A few of our satisfied, repeat customers

 

 That is the big picture. Now for the wild and cahrazy breakdown.     

We were (very) last-minute entrants to the Unicity Performing Arts Festival. How last-minute? I called the festival on Monday, on Wednesday they called back and Friday was go-time. Yes Friday – two days away. I quickly called Dele to say, “So what would you say if I said I could get us into a festival on Friday? .” He gave a small laugh, asked a few questions and said, “Sure, let’s go for it.” And  that’s what we did.     

The Restaurant Depot, Sam’s Club, BJ’s and Wal-Mart. All in one day. Even went to Sam’s Club twice because the first time, their credit card system was down and they were only accepting cash or check. After all the shopping was done, I called Derrick, Davia’s husband, to ask him to look at a small leak in the pipe leading into the trailer’s water heater. He came over, twice, and at about 12:35 am on Friday morning, he’d done what he could do and we prayed that was enough. Meanwhile, Davia was at home trying to balance her three fab daughters and put together a poster or something for the outside of the trailer.     

It is almost 1 am and we try to get creative with menu options and offerings. We promise to get up crazy early to leave by 10 am or so to get to Salisbury, MD (eastern shore near Ocean City, MD) by latest 2 pm. Packing the truck and the trailer was tedious work, but we were finally ready to leave at 11:15 am. We’re all happiness and smiles.     

Salisbury or bust...

 

(cue the doom and gloom music)     

A few short minutes after pulling from the driveway, we hear some weird sounds coming from the back of the truck. Grinding, scraping. All things that you DON’T want to hear when towing a trailer. A quick stop reveals nothing so we nervously jump back in and get underway. Well, a few minutes after that, we drive up a hill and on the way down, there’s this OMG scraping, hissing, awful sound accompanied by a burning smell. I jump the brakes, then SLAM the brakes because we weren’t slowing fast enough. Dele gets out, takes a look and then comes to the window saying, “We need heavy-duty road side assistance.” He’s all calm, but nothing about “needing heavy-duty” anything is reassuring. Five minutes after leaving the house, we are stranded on a two-lane road, next to a church, blocking traffic because the trailer has come off the hitch and the tongue is now wedged underneath the truck. Short story: we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.     

Broken down on the ground

 

Notice the hitch directly in front of the propane tanks. Yeah, we dodged a bullet.

 

 You’ll notice that the trailer front is on the ground, but you can’t really see the wedge-in-ness of the tongue into the tow bar of the truck.  I call AAA and they promise to come out within 45 minutes. I am not sure what they can do, but they must know something. They are the Automobile Association of America, right? My next call is to my neighbor, Mr. Kennedy. This man can do any and everything and thank God, he answered the phone. I tell him where we are and what has happened and he tells me he’s on his way. He and another good Samaritan arrive before AAA and begin to figure it out. Long story short and two jacks later, the truck is jacked up in the back and then gunned forward to unwedge it from the trailer, the trailer gets jacked up and back onto the hitch and we’re again headed to Salisbury.      

<whew!> That’s enough for one post. We will continue a bit later with the second half of the story.