My Epic Weekend In Pictures: Helping Set Us Up For The Fair, Then Fun

This was certainly an Epic Weekend In Pictures we won't ever forget. Friday was an action packed day filling in for Steve Andrews and the 102.3 WSUS Morning Show then doing my normal day to day job after that. Behind the scenes, we are going through a transition between Promotions Directors. With The New Jersey State Fair Sussex County Farm And Horse Show returning to The Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta this past weekend, this means we have a ton of work to do. While we may not have the Street Team employee helpers like past years, we still want to represent our radio stations there and see people. This means I did all of the loading for our equipment from the Administration Building to our trailer location right near The Monster Truck setup. I'm very thankful for the radio station little hand truck unit that we have. I would've been beyond lost without it. Friday it was in the 90s, and at The Fairgrounds there aren't many shady spots. My Irish Caboose warmed up very quickly!

I do like that iPhone has a health app on your phone so you can sometimes keep track of your steps. It can make you feel like you accomplished so much just be walking and getting better steps numbers. By Friday night at Moonshine Tiki Bar with my friends, I looked at my Health App. I walked over 23,000 steps. This total brought me to walking 9.3 miles Friday! Not bad! That made me feel so much better about all of the hard work I did in the hot sun helping get our radio stations set up for Fair Week.

Friday night I had a nice, fun relaxing time at Moonshine Tiki Bar on Campus with besties Steve and JG. We definitely had some laughs busting on each other. Then JG gave me ideas on how to up my at home mini bar game. He's always thoughtful and creative. JG is the one who gave me my flameless candles that I LOVE so much with my electric fireplace for ambiance. The second I get home from work I turn all of those things on immediately. Awesome Girlfriend Megan yells at me if I don't have it on by the time she gets there LOL. We both love it. It's convenient that the electric fireplace has that mode where you can just turn it on for the light without it making things any hotter. We love it!

Saturday morning, time to run some errands. JG recommended I go to Target at Rockaway Mall to get some filler for my Bog Iron Brewery glass that is now on top of my home half whiskey bourbon barrel. I agreed! I haven't been to Rockaway Mall in a couple of months, and I honestly missed it. Even though it's a 35-45 minute drive, on a Saturday where I don't have Meg with me, why not.

I went to Target and always try to impress JG when following his advice. I kinda went into a quick panic over buying the wrong kind of filler items, and basically bought all of the tissue paper I could find there. $8.25 later, I walked away feeling a little better thinking hopefully I got the correct and best items. While walking around Target, a new idea clicked in my mind to surprise Meg and the kids with cheesecake treat slices from Cheesecake Factory. Why not when in Rome, right? I called Meg and kinda spoiled the surprise. With there being so many options, and at the going rate of $7-$10 per slice, I definitely don't want to guess wrong on which ones the kids and Meg might want. I got a Dulce De Leche Caramel for myself, one for Hailey, and then Chocolate Mousse Cake ones for Meg and Amanda. Success.

I was a little annoyed with Cheesecake Factory to be honest. I went there at 11. Their sign says they open at 10. They tell me due to staffing issues, I couldn't get the cheesecake to go until 11:30. Okay, fair enough. Many of us are dealing with staffing shortages, so I totally get it. I just wish they could have corrected their sign to reflect this. While looking for a new adventure, I went to Nordstrom's Off The Rack store and stumbled into buying new sunglasses. My current ones that I paid way too much for 8 years ago are starting to get old. My new ones that are Ray Bans and much cheaper work better! Yes! I then had a beer and some wings at Buffalo Wild Wings where my bartender Andrew is an aspiring radio star. He was psyched to meet me.

I then went to their Bank Of America ATM. There aren't many near me in Sussex County, so I try to make it count when I'm in the area. The poor girl in front of me was struggling at it. The ATM ate her card. After 10 minutes it finally shot it back out at her. She looked at me and said "good luck if you dare!" I immediately said "nope, I'm good, that's way too risky."

After working so hard getting us set up for Fair Week, I wanted a chill Saturday night on my deck relaxing. I got a cigar from The George Inn. I usually get a Romeo Y Julieta cigar that's $7-$8. I can't justify spending more than that on a good stogey for myself because I'm so bad at smoking them. I'm that guy who has a tough time lighting it, and then keeping it lit. They didn't have my normal cigar. Now in hindsight, I'm realizing they probably did have it, the price probably went up on them just like so many other things. I went for one stogey that now was in the $7 range. It turned out to be a huge mistake. It gave me dry cotton mouth and stunk. I could only smoke half of it. For some reason, it actually tired me out. I ended up in my bed early, sleeping and half watching The NFL's Hall Of Fame ceremony. I loved watching Jimmy Johnson and Bill Cowher give their acceptance speeches. I've always been a little bit of more of a coach fan than player fan.

Sunday morning I met up with Meg at White Lake Field in Sparta for a walk. We didn't walk for too too long, I didn't want the cheesecake in my car to melt. We then went to Pour House, a sports bar at The Sparta Lanes Bowling Alley. Last week they told me they would be open Sunday at 11. This ended up not being entirely accurate, I think one of their servers called out. Another case of staffing shortages, I get it. We then went over to Krogh's in Sparta for lunch. My buffalo wings were good. Not spicy at first, but at the end their heat did start to catch up with me on their smokin' buffalo. It was our first time in Krogh's in quite awhile, and we had a great time. Sunday was a beautiful, hot, steamy Sunday afternoon. I knew exactly where I wanted to go from Sparta, straight to Crystal Springs. The Infiniti Vista Pool at Crystal Springs is one of my favorite places in the world. A gorgeous pool where your view is a gorgeous golf course, then behind it nothing but amazing mountain ridges and High Point Monument. Any day you're there you feel like you're on vacation. To have this be only a 9 minute drive away from me? Heaven on Earth. Even their Tiki Bar is so beautiful, peaceful and relaxing. It's fun to look around and see nothing but smiling faces.

Now I'm going to be attempting to broadcast my afternoon show from The New Jersey State Fair everyday this week Monday through Friday. #WhatCanPossiblyGoWrong? Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures recap. Time to start planning next weekend!