Chick-Fil-A grand opening #2

Another Chick-Fil-A opened near us and I took time off work so we could go together. If you are in the first 100 people there the day before it opens, or if over 100 are there and you win the raffle, you then camp out for 24 hours. They feed you and play games all day and the next morning you get 52 free meal coupons.

The alarm went off at an absolutely horrid hour and we headed out and got there at 5:05, but they weren't letting people line up outside the property until 5:30. One guy had beaten us by arriving at 4:30, and apparently someone slept in their car. We went for a little walk and came back just before 5:30.

At 6:00, they had people line up in 4 rows of 25 so they could count how many adults were there (kids don't count). It was a stampede at first and Nathan was the first one up to the line-up spot, but he let the 4:30 guy be #1. I didn't run quite as fast, so I was #14 in the same line. They counted and announced there were only 85 people, so we were all in! I went up to stand with Nathan. After they registered us and gave us our free cups, we could go grab our stuff and then we were not allowed to leave the property. It took them 2 1/2 hours to register everyone, yikes!

We had borrowed an air mattress but no pump, so we took turns getting light-headed blowing up the mattress. It went faster than I expected.

After everyone was registered, they had us line up in our assigned order and walk through the drive-thru to get breakfast - chicken on biscuits. So yummy!

It was a relaxing day. We spent the time by sleeping...

playing games...

some people played foursquare.

Eventually it got hot and I spent lots of time misting myself, drinking ice water, and putting my cool water on my head.

Our Mickey blanket goes everywhere with us and we rigged it up to provide shade.

Later I used the sheet too. Fortunately there was a safety pin in my purse.

For dinner, they put on an awesome display of customer service. We were allowed inside (A/C, yay!) and got a full meal. We were swarmed with staff constantly checking if they could refresh our drink or take away trash, and just chit-chatting in general. The few minutes of A/C helped SO much.
Shortly after everyone was fed, it started cooling down, the DJ showed up, and we started playing even more games. They did a drawing contest. Each drawing had to include the logo, Grand Opening, and the cow mascot.

They finally played the hula-hoop-passing game, which I've been dying to play!

These young adults all danced in sync for a number of songs.

We won a travel mug in the scavenger hunt, but were getting awfully tired.

At 11pm, they did final roll call and gave us ice cream. Lucky Nathan got a double share, since I'm avoiding flour and sugar again.

They woke us up at 5:15am to freshen up, and then handed out hats, comment cards, and t-shirts.

The cow came to play and then let us inside to get our prizes!

The grand opening employees actually attend every opening and come from all over the country. They don't use the regular employees for the festivities, except to serve food. Nathan recognized this employee from his previous attendance.

Nathan's chiropractor was close, so we swung by and waited until he opened.

We snagged some OJ and bananas for breakfast, went home, and got some sleep!

It was awfully toasty during the afternoon and I slept horribly, but I'd do it again. It was fun, relaxing, and we got a total of 104 meal coupons out of it.