Chik-free-a

Driving “home” (i.e., to the hotel) from the office on Friday, we drove by a Chik-fil-a parking lot FULL of pitched tents and campers. Now…I know this is Kentucky and camping in a strip mall parking lot is probably a tradition handed down from generation to generation…but it still looked pretty odd. $4-a-gallon gasoline and it’s Hoovervilles in the heartland.

It looked to me as if a crowd of Deadheads were all on their way home from Bonaroo with a bad case of the munchies, if you know what I mean. But my co-worker explained that Chik-fil-a (or “CFA”, as they like to be called) gives free food for a year to the first 20 customers at each of its grand-openings and all these people were camping out to be the first customers at the Lexington CFA. [I CANNOT make this stuff up.]

This crowd looked like they could use some free fast food. The median age must have been about 21 and the absence of shower facilities did NOT look like it was causing much concern (chicken camp-out or an Obama rally?…take your pick). I just wondered how the smell of incense was going to affect the food.

The whole time I am watching this, I’m thinking…“It’s.fast.food. You’ve relocated to a parking lot in hopes of dodging the 99 cent menu?!?” Sheesh, what would you do for a Klondike Bar?? But these people were having the time of their life…a veritable chicken carnivale. Even the CFA “Eat Mor Chikin” mascot was there…we’ll call him “Gallows the Cow”.

To top it all off…the local news was covering the event! Listen people – you are within driving distance of Noah sailing through a corn field and you are covering this fiesta of fowl?!?

Then we drove by this morning and just like that…they.were.all.gone…off in search of more free waffle fries.