You must be lost

Our hillbilly themed booth at the National Homebrewers Conference was a hit. We even had genuine moonshine on hand for authenticity. A lot of the work we put into gathering props kind of got wasted. We were sharing a 10x10 space with another club that had as many kegs as we did (about 10), but luckily no food and no props. We spent time putting together a weathered looking sign out of a slat from our privacy fence and a piece of particle board. I got some black paint and sloppily painted some mountain peaks with smoke rising from them and the words Smokey Mountain Breakdown at the top. At the bottom corners, I painted banjo in one and a set of three moonshine jugs in the other. The idea was to use duct tape and cardboard scraps to make a list of the beers we had on tap at the time. The plan was to set it up in a paint can full of pea gravel, but the sign wound up not getting used. It wouldn't stay standing and couldn't really be seen from behind us. Not to mention the lights kept going out on it. I couldn't find any pink plastic flamingos, but did find some lights that looked like they might have been stolen off someone's RV trailer. I also picked up a small garden gnome, some really cheap and crappy looking silk flowers, and a small toy banjo and guitar. We had bluegrass blasting from an ipod the whole time (though you couldn't hear it much over the dull roar of the crowd on club night). Hickerson had picked up some fake beards for the guys (as in ZZ Top looking beards, down to their waists). He also snagged some toy riffles and a few extra corn cob pipes. Chris had gotten some straw hats and corn cob pipes as well. We all went barefoot and rolled up our jeans a bit. We actually didn't forget our camera for once. The only problem was, we forgot the batteries. I've only found one picture of us up on Flickr so far, though I know lots were taken (well, we posed for a lot anyway).
( Here's the result )

A bunch of hillbilly A.S.S.es (our club name is Antioch Sud Suckers). Top left is me of course, then moving right is Chris, Carl, Tom and Kyle is on the bottom row. I'm not sure where Hickerson was when this was taken. Possibly manning the booth while we ran around acting like idiots. In Carl's hand you can see the jar of moonshine. We had a piece of duct tape labeling it "Light American Lager". The jar was empty by the end of the night. We had a blast and are planning to go again next year, even though it's in San Francisco. We might not bother with a booth (trying to get props across the country would be nuts), but we'll at least attend.

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( Now, to focus on ALEP )