Why did the chicken cross the road?

Weather forces Noon Lions to think fast

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Because the Noon Lions needed to get it cooked!

The tradition of enjoying the Clear Lake Noon Lions’ famous chicken went on as scheduled Sunday, but it was not without some unusual circumstance.

Setup for the annual chicken barbecue was underway at 2 a.m. Sunday when severe weather moved in and threatened to wash out the event.   That’s when Lion Randy Mumm offered to allow the club’s grills to be set up in his car wash bays on 4th Avenue South.  By 3 a.m. club members were moving the grills to the Highway 106 Car Wash and quickly lighting the coals which would cook over 7,000 pounds of chicken.

The plan was a good one, but Mother Nature still wasn’t going to make it easy to get the job done.

The wind was from the west and the smoke was not moving out of the bays, making it difficult for the early morning cooking group to see and breath.

“By that time the rain was letting up, so the grills were pulled out of the bays to the south and cooking was completed outside in the back of the car wash property,” explained club member Brad Kunst.

Wes Tremmel, owner of WT Fabrication, made the club new grills this year which are on axles and tires donated by NTI.  Tremmel was at the Sea Wall early Sunday morning as club members were looking at logistics, considering where they could place tarps and how they could keep the forecasted wind and rain from dampening their coals.

Tremmel said he used portions of grills made years ago by the late Lawrence Fredriksen in his updated design.  He built trailers to go under the grills and modified them to fit.

“Because the new grills have wheels, they were much easier to move.  The old grills would have had to be taken apart and that would have taken time.  The idea for the new grills came from a bunch of Lions meeting and discussing ideas this past winter and then Wes also contributed heavily to the ideas,” added Kunst.

“I wanted to be there to see that they set up OK,” said Tremmel.  “I ended up sticking around when we got them to the car wash and even got to help grill a bit.  They’re a great group of guys and we had a lot of fun.”

The majority of the those who enjoyed the 4,000 meals served Sunday probably didn’t even notice that the grills were missing from the scene.