[NJblue]

I can understand how some people were upset about waiting in line with their cars and carts - but when you drive into the midst of a crowded event, what do you expect?

I expect a wait commensurate with the size of the event. I have been to events 10-20 times the size of the chili cookoff and have never experienced anything remotely close to the traffic problems I experienced on Saturday. I did take Bogie Shooter's advice and contacted the president of the Rotary Club about the situation. Here is his response:

I am sorry for the difficulty you encountered during your exiting the our Chili Cookoff event yesterday. Your situation was passed on to us by several other attendees at the event and I want you to know that our Rotary Club members who organized the event will be reviewing these events during an "after action" meeting to be held soon. The Villages Event Staff were in charge of the traffic control entering and exiting our Rotary event. They will be part of this meeting and I will be sharing your comments with them. This is the first time we have held the Chili Cookoff at the Polo Field and like anything new we found issues we need to fix. It is very unfortunate that you and many others had to be inconvienced by the exiting process. If we are unable to rectify the parking and exiting problem we will have to seek another venue to schedule our event in the future. I will be more than happy to report back to you after we have our meeting. Thank you for attending our event in support of the 50 charities that our Rotary Club supports throughout the year.