Hot Dog Eating Contest

On Monday, our friend came over to ask Charlie a favor. This friend manages a Maverik store and needed to come up with somebody to take part in a hot dog eating contest on Wednesday (yesterday).  Charlie was a little hesitant, but was off on Wednesday and Paul needed help.  The goal is to be the fastest person to eat 5 1/3 pound hot dogs plus their buns (they are called Bahama Mamas).  The winner from yesterday gets a trip to Salt Lake City to compete next month against all of the winners from all 10 regions.  The winner in Salt Lake City gets an all expense pain trip for 2 to the Bahamas.

When we showed up at Maverik yesterday morning, there were a couple of guys strutting around.  Charlie had kind of decided that there probably wasn't a huge chance that he would win, but it was a free lunch and he likes hot dogs.

Lining up at the beginning:

Getting down to business:

Finished #1.  The current fastest time was 8 min 30 seconds.  Charlie's time was 4 minutes 57 seconds.  Two people came up to Charlie when he was done and asked him if he ate hot dogs professionally.  Nope, this was his first rodeo.  Yes, the guy behind him is throwing up.

Picture at the end with the radio station.

So, we are going to Salt Lake August 11th and if he wins there we get a trip to the Bahamas.  Who knew the only way we were going to see the world was by Charlie eating his way there?