I believe this, so far, calls for a HELL YEAH from the peanut gallery.
OK, remember back a few posts when I logged on to the DOPE to mention that the cab was late? Well, I received a call from dispatch informing me that the cab was outside, but my phone was busy.
Cabby is late, way, way late! The only reason I’m calling a cab at five 'til six is so that I can get to Porkapalooza before everyone leaves. If I take the bus, it’ll be 7:36 by the time I hit the park.
I see a cab from the company I called, hanging outside. I run out and grab him, I say that “I need to get to Brookview Park, 7800 Golden Valley Road”
Apparently this meant to him that he should take me to Brooklyn Park (which is a city that is in the wrong direction). I tell him again where I am going, and explain that by park I mean outdoors, on swings, with grass.
/rubes was trying the best way to communicate that by park, he meant an outdoor, place where you ride swings and go down slippery slides, but he was caught up in the fact that there are many suburbs that end in the word park.
With the time in the cab (which I called because it would be faster than the 3 bus fiasco I would have to go through), I toured the greater Metropolitan Twin Cities. The website listed the park at 7800 Golden Valley Road. After a lenthy ride and 4 phone calls between the driver and I don’t know who (except one call was to the dispatcher, on my request, and I had to write down directions for him) We drive by the address but there is no park. I eventually get the cabby to pull into a police station to get directions.
D’Oh!!! She’s new to the area and doesn’t really know. She pulls out a map and frumples her brow. She makes references to Wynetka Ave, but I’m not sure where we are on the map, and she is thorughly confused by what I am asking. She knows," It’s around here, and a big park, but I’m not sure how, where, well, it’s a big park"
She does suggest I go outside and take a left, and it gets me to the park. The first shelter I see has people and a keg. I ask, “Did you eat pig tonight?” They didn’t and looked at me funny. I walked to the next pavilion; “Did you eat pork tonight?”
They did! I made it. It took the same amount of time as the bus, but the cabbie had run up an excessive amount. This should be about a $15 fare, but by touring the metro, he had run it up many times that amount. I left the copshop knowing i was close, and told him, “here’s $20, this is all what I can do for this fiasco”
He didn’t want any part of that.
We are at the police station so I inform him that this should have been a $15 ride tops, but I was being generous, (Hour late according to when we could have arrived if we went straight there, and if so it probably wouldn’t have even hit $15)
wow, just realized how out of order,chronilogically speaking, this is
Point is, I made it, I met new people, and I liked it.
Kudos to LNO for pulling this together!
/rubes survived Pork-a-palooza 2002
/me realizes after attempting to read his own post that the SHE i refer to is the lone Police Officer in the building. I walked in and it was empty. I shouted “HELLO” loudly a few times before she came out.
No morels found, six ticks discovered. tree branch scratched my eye. I left PorkDope for this?!?!?! I had fun, at the fest and on the hunt. Thanks, it was fun!
Thanks lno, for putting this all together.
Sir Oinks a Lot was very tasty, the beer was refreshing, chique’s homemade ice cream was very good and Punkyova’s smores were great.
Tripler’s fire building talents were greatly appreciated.
All in all Spidey and I had a great time meeting some new people, and were relieved that our MIA, Wisest Novel was finally located and rescued by lno and maeglin.
Being that his reputation preceded him, no one did a kilt check on thinksnow, and for that we are all grateful.
It was great to see Joey and Rysdad again.[sup](us old farts shouldn’t be playin football with the yungins, my arm is quite sore from throwing all those incompletions)[/sup]
To all who were there is was great to finally meet you.
Good Pork+Good Beer+Good People+Good Weather= Great Time
Start making your plans now for "PorkDope 2003 Episode II"
You don’t want to miss it.
Afterthoughts
First and foremost, lno did a great job putting this together. Great location, fun people, great selection of beer. And pork. Did I mention pork? Tender, perfectly cooked, delectable pork, topped with barbecue and honey sauce, nestled on a bun, surrounded by potato salad and sauerkraut? An entire pig, both providing scrumptious meat and tastefully dressed, with tomato eyes and orange rind earrings? (OK, that last touch was a bit much, but the pork was fantastic.)
Rubes left out his dramatic entrance. A bunch of us, stuffed to the gills with tender, flavorful pork, were lying on the grass under a tree, just hanging out. (Maeglin: grass-green stuff on the ground; tree - tall thing with green stuff on top.) Suddenly, this tall, frantic looking guy was spotted, heading from the wedding toward us with a real sense of urgency. “Please tell me you ate pork today!” We assured him that we had, got him a beer and a full plate, and he was a happy man. So much so, that he gave us a CD of his musical compositions. The sad thing is, his harrowing travel tale, which would have easily won the “Worst Experience Getting There” prize at any other Dopefest, wasn’t even in the running. I won’t explain this, as I never got the whole story straight, but at the end of the day everyone was present, accounted for, and full of pork.
Tripler is the man. This was the first decent weekend of the year, and I was determined to have S’mores. He made it happen, ably assisted by imthjckaz, spiderwoman, and Beadalin. I am proud to have my tax dollars spent teaching Trip to play with fire.
Everyone there was fun to meet and talk to. easy e, thinksnow, chique, absoul, EnderW24, several other whose names I know I’m forgetting, I had a wonderful time. I think it says a lot that the caterer took his stuff back to the shop and then came back to join the party.
And Dangerosa, you are the Queen of Chocolate. That cake was unbelievable. Better than the pork, hard as that is to type. Topped off with homemade ice cream, from Chique’s mom’s special recipe… Sorry, I slipped into Nirvana.
The one small disappointment was that Cecil the Bear didn’t arrive in time, but Spanky the Wonder Dog ably filled in for him, and protected the flock from all predators on top of it.
Next year, June 14th is the date I heard, and there was some talk of live music and/or dancing girls. And pork. Did I mention the pork?
First off, I have one Intel digital camera, one un-opened throw away camera, one pair of socks, and one hair thingy left at my place. Whoever owns whatever please let me know so I can ship stuff out.
Next? I need to thank absoul, Caldazar, EnderW24, JESS, Tripler, and Wisest Novel for all their help (especially Friday night) and patience with my freaking out and general all-around coolness. Yay! I had SO MUCH FUN.
Starting with winning absoul’s chips - ALL of them - in poker Friday night. He thought I was bluffing. Despite the fact I hadn’t once bluffed in the previous two hours.
Then there was the silo incident (no, not THAT Silo). And I fully expect to see photos of Saturday sunrise from the silo in my inbox SOON.
I did not enjoy Saturday morning’s hangover. At. All. But bless Ivar for providing some interesting hair of the dog…where can I buy Aass?
And if The Punkyova weren’t already a girl and married (happily, I might add) I would kidnap her and make her marry me. I’m so happy I met you 
Neutron Man, I’m happy I ran into you, as well…and I’m still seriously thinking of Taste of Minnesota 
Lessee…Um…Wow. So much stuff happened and I met or re-met so many people…If you’re name isn’t here, don’t worry; I’m still a little loopy. I’ll remember you as soon as I hit ‘submit’.
Oh! lno!. Yeah. I should mention him. Done. (malkavia and I are going to dognap Spanky. You should seriously consider LoJack, man, or that dog is GONE. Don’t think I’m joking. Start saving your ransom money.)
AND. Sir Oinksalot. The pineapple crown and orange slice on the tail was a bit much, but…Some Pig. That’s all I have to say.
Except for that whole “Perfect weekend” bit, but if y’all haven’t figured that out by now you need help.
Well, don’t look for Neutron Man. I’m Particle Boy.
And I’m heading out to give Wisest Novel a lift to visit his truck, so his story isn’t over yet. I know a few details, but I wouldn’t presume to let anyone besides him tell it.
kg m²/s²
Aass beer should be available at most local liquor stores in the twin cities. Then again, maybe not. Definitely at Surdyk’s, Wine Cellars, MGM, Blue Max, South Lyndale, Henn-Lake. Shoot me an email if you still can’t find it.
Um. Well…yeah. Let me just point to the ‘loopy’ bit in my previous post and leave it at that, eh, Particle Boy? 
Having been out and about today, let me congratulate lno for managing, several months in advance, to pinpoint our one day of summer. Way to go, lno!