Wasn’t sure it has been explored, but we have do have an abundance up here. Now reliability I can’t speak to.
well i know there were paramedics and ambulance crew there this year as i saw them often riding around. im not sure what you meant about reliabilty cause the post was hard for me to understand this time… as odd as it seems
Are the food trucks gonna show up re: reliability.
well that has been the whole problem to begin with. none really show up when they commit… that said, the german truck this year was also there last year, and that tells me they are highly reliable and very good food too from what i’ve ate there.
Hey Lexington is where I am from originally. My mother’s family started the city of Lexington. The original homestead and house we still had in the family up to the early 2000’s. Unfortunately the original house was finally taken apart and all of hand hewed lumber and planks that the family didn’t want were sold. The historical marker is still there. The log barn was taken down and it is now Bob Timberlake’s studio where he does his paintings. Bob is a distant cousin of mine somewhere down the line. There is a staute of one of my great grandfathers in the city of Lexington. I believe his name was Henry Shoaf. Unfortunately most of my relatives there have either passed away or moved away. I have one uncle left that lives in Lexington. My brother, cousins and I spent a lot of time on our family’s land playing and hunting in the woods. Many times we would bring home something for dinner that night. I have very good memories of spending time there with family. You are absolutely right about the BBQ and the red slaw. Many times when my uncle comes to visit us he usually brings us some BBQ and slaw from Lexington BBQ Restaurant.
I am sorry I didn’t mean to derail the thread but @mr.jeffdh talking about BBQ and Lexington brought back many good memories for me.
I don’t know many BBQ restaurants that won’t or aren’t willing to do catering. Most BBQ Restaurant are already set up for putting out large amounts of food and have catering experience. If the BBQ Restaurant knows that it is worth their time and effort most won’t turn you dowm as long as they have somewhere to set up and serve people. I know that my family has used them for family get togethers.
That was more me thinking aloud that while it may help from an options standpoint does it do anything for reliability.
All this talk of BBQ…why don’t we just make it a BBQ competition during the ceasefire? That would entice alot more to show up. Possibly BBQ joints from up north in NC would make the trek. One place that comes to mind is Sam Jones BBQ. He started in Winterville and has expanded west to Chapel Hill and I am pretty sure I have seen a food truck with their name on it. Winterville would be a crazy haul for them but Chapel Hill would be much more reasonable so it could very well work out if they were invited by the proper people well in advance.
well the idea of bbq resturants catering is a good one, but the word that wont work with it all is cater. that insinuates someone purchased all the food upfront, and then would allow folks to que up in line and eat as much as they wish… where as PSA couldnt quite do that for the gathering, as it wouldnt be practical for them… (my opinion) And where as you know a bbq truck, well they charge per order, hence the need for that… so i’m all for a BBQ truck or 4 to show up and sell the whole weekend, I dont know many brick and mortar bbq resturants that have a mobile BBQ food truck too that would be willing to drive around an hour or more to setup and sell their wares when they can do it in their home towns… which is pretty much why i believe that they commit to the gathering and then never show up.
I wasn’t suggesting catering in that sense. Of course I do not see PSA paying for the food for every attendee, that would be astronomically cost prohibitive. I’m just spitballing here ideas and seeing what sticks.
On companies that could have a very good showing next year, Kel-Tec. They have a little bit of everything for everyone.
Bojangles in NC at least has been known to set up a booth at events and sell failry basic items like sausage biscuits and sweet tea. I’m sure they have the capability of selling more though. It would depend on that branch manager of course and the franchise but that’s a possibility of an added food vendor.
Question for those of you who know.
On average how many attendees and different vendors does the Gathering draw?
Most of my top items have been mentioned, but I’ll list them out. Map/Pamphlet showing where everything is, hours, basic info, vendor list, etc. More seating. More food trucks. Some more Porta-Potties, because at times there were some lines, especially around lunch. Two or three more would have taken care of it. I really liked the vendor tents, which I wasn’t expecting. This would be bay dependent, but give me a McDonald’s picture menu board of the guns with QR codes to the website for each item. I bet more than a few sales would happen from people’s phones. I’d like some more vendor reps who are on hand to talk about their offerings. I kept trying to talk to the Sig or H&R guys about the guns they had to get more info (see menu board above), but they were all busy getting people through the lines. Some bays were better about this than others. The shotgun bays probably being the best. I also liked the vendor-specific swag for sale. Glock was selling the heck out of shirts and other stuff, as was the Savior booth.
Absolutely agree with the Port-a-pottys. I didn’t bring my wife so I did not have a female’s perspective but I can only imagine her reaction to the them and it would not be good. In my opinion, they were actually not bad considering the weather and limited amount. Then again, I have had to use them in 100 degree heat in the shipyard so I may be desensitized.
The McDonalds picture board is awesome. I know I was not the only person that would walk up the side of the line just to see what I was about to wait for. Having that picture board or a QR code would be a great piece of information that could take off a little bit of workload for those working the booths. SIG was already using a QR code for their liability waiver so I believe its a doable thing. It would probably need to be done by each individual vendor though.
More vendor reps for sure. The Beretta guys were great Saturday morning. By mid afternoon they were dog tired, rightfully so, and were not as helpful to questions. I don’t blame them for that, it was a long hot day with rain and repeating the exact same thing over and over again.
The sales table at Glock was a great move on their part. I had no intention of buying stuff like that but as I waited in line, I was looking at their stuff. Their prices were good and they had my size so I said why not, Treat yo self! On the other hand, SIG had their optics out with some flashlights. I think I would have actually pulled the trigger on a red dot and a flashlight from them. I asked if they were selling and they told me to go online. Well, I didn’t go online for that. I did not impulse buy and my wallet thanks me.
It has grown every year. This year it was truly a 2 day event. Several thousand in attendance and probably 12-15k rounds expended if i had a guess.
How many vendors?
I think that round count is low. Figure 2,000 people each shot 5 guns. They were loading 5 rounds this year. That gets you to 50,000 rounds right there. Very conservative numbers on my part. I shot more than 5.
Ah, you’re right. I was solely thinking of the PSA tent.
That would be a hard no for me. They’ve run it safely focused on gun enthusiasts for a few years now and I feel mixing in a BBQ comp crowd would be red risk. I just see a 64 gallon cooler full of beer showing up and that wouldn’t work.