The International Chili Fest/cookoff is coming to the East. East of the Mississippi and slightly East of me. This is supposed to be the first time for the Chilifest to be held in the Eastern US.

The Chili event is coming to Charleston, WV. That is about 60 miles from here and some place I know my way around. The Fest is this weekend, October 9, 10, and 11th. It is going to be in The Power ball park. It's right off of I-64. I'm trying to locate an Iteneray or I'm just going to call someone.

I thought I would let you folks know since Charleston isn't that far of a drive from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, etc.

I am planning on going just to find out what the chili tastes like in other parts of the US. DS and DD are going to come in and go with me. I'm looking forward to this, rain or shine!

If you run into the entrant from North Dakota, please say 'hi'. I know him! If I understood correctly, he's representing the state.

Have fun!!!

That is tempting, Rabbit - I have off on Sat, Sun, and Mon! It's a bit farther for me, though...7 1/2 hrs, according to mapquest. I've never been to one, however, and there probably won't be one this close for a long time. Hmmmmm....

Dave

Go Pepperhead! You and Rabbit can tell us what it's like. It sounds like such fun!!!

I found the event Calender when I went here:
http://www.charlestonwv.com/ne...ili_Cookoff,101.aspx

that maybe too much information. It seems they are having the Salsa and Green Chili cook off on Saturday and the Red Chili Cookoff on Sunday.

The place they are having it is "Appalachian Power Park". This is a new facility for a baseball franchise.

Dave if you decide to come and we could even meet somewhere and drive into the thing together. You could see the new and much thinner me!

I wish I was as close as you are to there, Rabbit. As much as I would love to, I am leery of doing this w/o any planning whatsoever, as I will have to shack up somewhere (I'm sure there would be somewhere not taken...not like the olympics in a town!), and basically one day of waking hours will be spent driving.

Where would we meet? Wouldn't you be coming from almost the opposite direction, though?

e-mail me about it. I lost your address when I set up my new computer - the one that was saved was the one that didn't go through, naturally! In case you lost mine, it is
d.umphress@att dot net

My Mom is from Charleston, and her Dad ran the newspaper in town way back! She'll kill me if I go there w/o her!

If I decide to meet you, you'll have to let me know if you want any of these peppers. Incredible year for them!

Dave

I tried to send you one e-mail, but the address I had was different. I will try this address you posted.

Here is my new E-mail address:

garden4vr@yahoo.com

Sure, bring me some peppers. If nothing else, my son and his friends can experiment with eating them raw. But I would like to try them in some recipes. Now while you are in my area, you could take Mom to the Bob Evans Farm Festival, it is this weekend. (North of Charleston on Rt 35 (a 4 lane). It is a big weekend for festivals around here anyway. But the ICS cookoff... a once in a lifetime opportunity for this Easterner I figure.. unless Charleston suddenly becomes infamous.
We do have a dog track and casino gambling in Cross Lanes, WV.

Yep, I live west of Charleston. But I'm used to driving there because of DD's music lessons.

I'm home from the Chili Cookoff. I got to met Dave! We had a great time. My son went too. Boy, I don't need to eat Chili for a while. Well
at least until tomorow. I finally got to try green chili. Very good.

Talking to Dave about all of the chili and the spices used was quite the education. We didn't find any chili that our palates couldn't tolerate. What else do you want to know?
It was a good day for it.

Wow, that is so great!

Who won? Did you meet a contestant from North Dakota? Which chili was your favorite?

Rabbit, Pepperhead, how exciting. I love chili.

I am back, and enjoyed every minute of it! I got there late on Sat., the green chili day, but got in free, and got a bunch of samples when they were trying to get rid of it! Sunday was the red chili cook off day, and a lady from Illinios won top prize. And we noted that it seemed there were more from Illinois than anywhere!

Another thing that surprised us was that many of the booths had a commercial chili powder in their batch of ingredients, not some pure ground peppers, or even whole peppers, which I would expect in a world championship contest. And many of the chilis sampled were mediocre, at best, but then, I doubt those were the ones that won anything.

Dave