I Hate Camping....

unless it's for free food!! I, along with 6 of my friends, spend 24 straight hours camped out in a Chick Fil A parking lot in the hopes of earning free meals for a year (52 free meal coupons)!! Not only did we ALL last the entire 24 hours, but we all agree that it was totally worth it; and even pretty fun!

If you haven't heard of this (which I hadn't until recently), whenever Chick Fil A opens a new store, they have a contest for the first 100 customers to receive free Chick Fil A meals for a year. The catch is that they start counting at 6 a.m. the day BEFORE the store opens. If you are a part of the first 100, you have to stay on the Chick Fil A grounds (not even going to your car) for 24 hours. At 6 am the next day, everyone who has survived, is awarded a Chick Fil A t-shirt and 52 Free Meal Coupons! Several of my friends participated in this a few months ago when a new store opened near us, and I knew I wanted to do it some day. We heard about another store opening in Philly, only about 15 minutes from us, so we made a plan!

Because Chick Fil A doesn't want people lining up before 6 am the day before, they don't actually do the FIRST 100. At 6 am the day before the store is to open, they let everyone who is in line into the store. If there are 100 or less, then everyone gets to participate. If there are more than 100 in line, they hand out tickets and then do a drawing to determine the 100 who will participate. (People who's numbers are drawn 100-110 are allowed to stay and participate, but will only receive the free meal coupons IF someone else drops out or is disqualified).

So, at 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning Ashley, Lindsay and I got dressed (in 3 layers of clothes; it was about 30 degrees outside!) and packed up my car with a tent, air mattresses, camping chairs, sleeping bags, books, drawing supplies (for Lindsay, she doesn't like to read, haha), and everything else we could think of that we might possibly need! We then met up with Pastor Andy, Jen, Dom, and another friend named Andy to wait in line at Chick Fil A! We were really hoping we would all get to participate!

The first obstacle we had to overcome was getting Lindsay in. They ask for a picture ID (they need to make sure everyone who participates is over 18), which she doesn't have yet. So, we brought her school ID and birth certificate and hoped that would work. Thankfully, it did!! (Parents who participate ARE allowed to have their kids with them, and the kids are fed for free along with everyone else. They just can't win the free meals. How awesome is Chick Fil A??) The rest of us showed our IDs, got our ticket and hoped that there were less than 100 people in line.
Unfortunately, when we all got inside we found out that there were 115 people, so we had to wait for our ticket number to be called. That was a nerve racking time!!!

Lindsay was called first in our group, she was #4. Pastor Andy came next in the teens, and then Ashley was called in the 20's. So far so good! Only 4 people left! We didn't have any of our numbers called in the 30's or 40's and half way through the 50's we started to get really nervous. Finally, Jen's number was called at 58, and then Dom at 69. There were only 2 people left (including me!), but we were quickly running out of numbers. Andy and I sat nervously as numbers really close to ours were called, but not ours. Finally, Andy's number was called at 85! But, with only 15 numbers left to be called and 30 people still waiting, I was starting to accept the fact that my number might be the only one not called. Then, at number 92, with only 8 left to go, they called my number. WHEW!! We all got in!! We were SO excited!!!

The drawing ended around 7 am and we were all given 20 minutes to unload our cars and set up our stuff in the parking lot. We had 3 tents among us, so we put them all up next to one another and settled in for the long haul.

We didn't have too much trouble setting our tent up (thanks Varasos!!) Andy on the other hand...

Andy had a little bit of trouble with his tent, haha. Eventually we were able to set it up, though. :)

Thankfully, Chick Fil A definitely takes care of its first 100. They fed us a breakfast sandwich, a lunch sandwich and we were given an entire meal at dinner and then ice cream just before bed time (and thankfully Pastor Andy brought tons of snacks for all of us to share!). They also had coffee in the morning, hot chocolate at night, and unlimited sweet tea and water all day. It was awesome! (And yes, we could go into the store at any time and use the restroom). At random times they would call a line check and we would have to line up by our number. If you weren't there for line check, you were disqualified (unless you were in the bathroom).

They are serious about the rules too! This pic is of a sad Dom who's football is just on the other side of the barrier. He had to wait for someone to get it for him because if he went to get it he would immediately be disqualified! (He did get it back right after this picture was taken, haha).

Other than that, for the first 10 hours we were pretty much left to entertain ourselves. Unfortunately, despite how prepared we all were for cold and rain, none of us brought games!! Thankfully, plenty of people around us had games, and we had a lot of fun meeting people (including the couple participating in their 65th first 100!).

I spent a lot of time reading and writing thank you cards to some of my supporters, and idea I got from watching Pastor Andy spend a lot of his time writing. Ashley and Lindsay spent a lot of time drawing, and as expected, Jen and Dom spent a lot of time socializing. :) The other Andy did a little bit of everything, haha. 10 hours is a long time to keep busy! (Did I mention that it was cold?? Finally around 3 p.m. I was warm enough to take off a layer, but I put it right back on 3 hours later!).





Chick Fil A also hosted a few competition games. Lindsay and Dom won free milkshakes by winning games of Ninja, and I won one by winning the scavenger hunt (which I sacrificed a sock for, haha). It was fun!

They started dinner around 5, at the same time Pastor Andy's wife and kids showed up to visit him and bring us some games (YAY!!). Chick Fil A is so awesome, they let his entire family go in and eat with him, giving all of them free meals (he has 4 kids! Although the 9 month old doesn't eat much chicken yet, haha).

From 5-10 they had a DJ there, playing music and leading more games. Most of the games were fun (all 7 of us won a mug or a mini cow by knowing a TV theme song! I was the only one who knew the Doogie Howser theme song, haha), but the music was mostly frustrating. Despite Chick Fil A being a very Christ centered organization, the music that the DJ played was NOT. In fact, he chose some of the dirtiest songs out there ( of course, there are plenty for him to choose from!).

In order to try and ignore the music, we spent most if the evening playing games and laughing together. It was too dark to read or draw, so we just had fun together and it was great!! At 11:30 they asked us all to be in our tents and we attempted to get some sleep. At this point, it was REALLY cold outside, so it was actually kinda nice to be squished in a tent with 3 other girls, the body heat was very helpful!



I think most of us did get some sleep that night, but not a lot. It started raining around 2 a.m. and our tent kept us dry; but it didn't keep everything dry, haha. As we were packing up in the morning we discovered several places where water had seeped in and soaked a few things. It was all okay, though, they are all washable.

Finally, at 5:30 a.m. they called us inside for our final line check. By 6 am we had our t-shirts, a Chick Fil A pen and our 52 free meal coupons! WE DID IT!!!

Unfortunately, it was still raining, so packing up was a bit of a challenge. Thankfully, Pastor Andy helped A TON! He took our very wet tent to the church and draped it there so it can dry (we were trying to figure out where in the world we were going to lay it out to dry in the house!). We were able to get everything else in my car and immediately into the laundry room when we got home. Then, Ashley got ready and went off to work while Lindsay and I cleaned things up, started the laundry and then took a nap. We were exhausted, and still really cold!!

I am still recovering from the lack of sleep, but I still say it was totally worth it. Now, we are looking for more openings to attend!