5th Annual A to Z Hot Dog Tour (5th Anniversary)

Anticipation was building as we awaited the fifth annual A to Z hot dog tour with Terry and Alan. It was Alan's turn to plan this event and he had been telling us it was going to be grrrrreat! Okay, Tony, the Tiger! What also made this year special, it was also Terry's 53rd or if you are dyslexic, 35th birthday. We like the dyslexic reference because that would make Tom and I 26!!! 

Our chariot arrived at 9:30 when Terry and Alan arrived with two special bags. Inside were "happy"tizers of Slim Jims and two sugar cookies decorated as hotdogs. We supplied a gummy package of hotdogs, hamburgers, sour gummy fries and pizza gummy. But the best was at the bottom, two shirts commemorating the 5th anniversary. Front said, 5th Annual A to Z hot dog tour, June 29, 2019 with a perfect classic hot dog. On the back were the five years under which were listed the places we visited each year. 

Such generous and creative people, the Aubins. Tom and I were saying the night before, we need to buy new hot dog shirts and lo and behold, they arrived. 

Ed's Weenies

First stop was Ed's Weenies in Littleton, MA which is on the site of Gary's Farmstand. A roadside truck with two picnic tables was set off to the side. Ed, who is German, was not there but the Portuguese waitress was friendly. Their specialty was a 1/4 lb. all beef frank in a German pretzel roll. Tom, Terry and Alan each ordered the specialty dog. I started off slow with a kraut dog with their homemade mustard. It was perfect. The homemade mustard had a sweet tang to it and offset the kraut. Other dogs consumed were chili cheese, cheesie weenie. All dogs were grilled or steamed on toasted buns served wrapped in heavy foil. 

German Pretzel Roll

Specialty Dog

Other available toppings were hot sauce, celery salt, deli mustard, relishes, red onions, and the homemade mustard. Prices ranged from $2.50 to $3.75. Total consumed 7 dogs! We were generous with our rating of an A. 

Oh, another surprise for this anniversary was Terry and Alan purchased huge cardboard hot dog cutouts with one having a hole to put your face through. So we put them up and had our pictures taken with our heads in the hole. Leave it to these two jokers to do it up right! 

It's always a good idea to plan some time between stops to give our stomachs time to digest and make room for more dogs. We were trying to beat our all time high of 27 dogs! Can we do? Your dog gone right we can! 

Since the farmstand was next door, we mozied on over and bought some fresh rhubarb and Terry purchased two more flowers for her already overflowing and beautiful arrangements at their house. 

Next stop, Shake-n-dog on Main St. in Leominster. What makes this place unique is they also serve Freak Shakes which are similar to Friendly's new Monster Shake. Freak shakes are

custom made to the person's liking and cost $9.00. Now, we knew Terry would take the challenge and she did, but let's wait on that. 

Shake & Dog

Our waitress, Alexis greeted us and commented on our hot dog tour shirts. She was the first of about 4 people who wanted to know, "what's a hot dog tour?". Shake-n-dog had only been open 4 months and the owner, Bobby was trying to create a family friendly atmosphere. He had painted a large table top with black for kids to use chalk on, games such as checkers, connect four, chess, and playing cards on the side wall, and arcade game. He came out to talk with us and shared his dreams for expansion and we think we'll return in a year or two to see how far his dreams have come. 

Bobby From Shake & Dog

Bobby was kind enough to have his picture taken inside the cardboard hot dog cut out. Beth had the alw dog with no onions, of course and the Boston dog, with beans, no onions.
Tom tried the Seattle dog which had cream cheese, onions, siracho sauce and Jalapeno peppers along with a spicy cheese dog. Shake-n-dog uses all natural, skinless Old Neighborhood or Kayem all beef dogs which is why the prices were a bit more but worth every cent. Prices ranged between $3.75 and $4.25. BUT we weren't worried because we were using winnings from our scratch tickets of $42.00. We started playing the card game 31 or scat and instead of 3 coins for each loss, we purchased 3 $1 scratch tickets per person and the winnings we accumulated over about 4 months went into the hot dog tour box. 

Shake & Dog Milkshake

Next year we expect to have even more winnings to find our annual trip. Hot diggigy dog!
But I digress. Terry, as I said earlier, ordered a Captain Crunch Freak Shake with Cotton Candy ice cream. It came an a typical root beer float sort of glass with about 3 inches of the rim lathered in frosting with blue Captain Crunch cereal rolled into it, topped with cream and two Lil' Debbie rolls on sticks. Sweet? You bet! She finished it along with a New York style dog with meat sauce, onion, mustard and celery salt and a classic with mustard, relish and onion. Alan decided to go Southwest with a Dallas dog topped with BBQ sauce, shredded cheese, bacon and corn. His second choice was a slaw dog. The dogs were served with great presentation in a small baking pan covered with a black and white checked paper. One dog on each side with chips in the middle. We were also impressed that the mustard was added in wave fashion and not just squeezed down the middle.
We think Bobby's Shake-n-dog will do well.

Before we head to our last stop, we took in Gardner's Main St. Side walk sale. Terry and Alan have season tickets to the Hanover Theater and one of their section mates owns John's Sport Shop in Gardner. It's the typical small town American sport store complete with Life is Good products, Boy Scout and Girl Scout products, and all season sportswear and equipment. We also browsed through Priscilla's Candy Shoppe and made no purchase for ourselves but Terry and Alan deposited a few bills.

We had no problem finding George's Hot Dog Stand in Fitchburg. Very small, similar to Hot Dog Annies, one of our first hot dog stops back in 2015. We opted to eat our selections outside on the picnic table where the skies were threatening a predicted storm. All the dogs were split and grilled which was a first for us. Terry was still pretty full from her Freak Shake but the girl can eat! She ordered a simple kraut dog with ketchup which we refer to as the "sin" dog because it's a sin to put ketchup on a hot dog! I had a pastrami dog with swiss and mustard as did Tom and Alan. Tom and Alan also had a slaw dog and chili dog. Total now after 3 stops 21 dogs. Can we beat 27? Won't know until we return to Terry and Alan's where Alan ordered a 
Chicago dog kit on line. Oh my!

We started a list of necessities for next year — baby wipes, deck of cards, my camera and a bottle of Turns. Who do you think ordered that item? You got it! Terry, that Freak Shake was letting Terry know that it was a just like Rick James sang, Super Freak!

The Chicago dogs didn't disappoint about 3 hours later back at the Aubins. They buns were soft and sprinkled with sesame seeds, a very bright green relish, think slices of pickles and tomatoes, celery salt and condiments.

To celebrate Terry's birthday, we had a Big Y cake along with our customary snacks while we played Scat, Pitch and Pool. A great day as usual. Fond memories and yes, we did break the record with a total of 31 dogs! Woof, woof!