A Saskatchewan man who had to sell his hot dog truck a decade ago is getting back in business, thanks to a photographer who happened upon the truck as he drove through the province.
Kenny Chaplin first bought the Diggity Dawgs truck in 2008 from the film production crew that had created it. He turned it into a food truck and operated it on and off until 2015 when he decided to sell it.
“I had a daughter, and I wanted to spend my summers, my springs with my daughter. She was only five at the time,” he told guest host Tory Gillis on CBC Radio’s The Morning Edition. “We sold it, and I never heard about it again.”
He was under the impression that it went to Manitoba, and had heard tell of the giant dog sighted near Estevan. But he moved on to other things.
He said had not thought about it in a long time, until he was at the Ness Creek Music Festival this summer and someone recognized him as the hot dog vendor.
His daughter, now 14, did a quick search online and found a photo that Grant Miller, a photographer from rural Colorado, had posted from when he was driving through Saskatchewan.
Miller said he happened upon the old truck by chance.
“I don’t really go out with the plan, so I was just driving down a random road and as I came over a hill I see what appears to be a very large hot dog,” Miller said in an interview.
“As I crest the hill, there it is in its full glory.… It’s pretty well sculpted, with sesame seeds on the bun and relish on the hot dog, so I took a few photos.”
After Chaplin’s daughter found the photo on Instagram, Chaplin contacted Miller, who managed to figure out the location where he had seen the truck by scouring the satellite view of the general area on Google maps.
“It was a huge surprise, because I was really worried I wouldn’t be able to track it down and I knew how much it mattered to Kenny,” said Miller.
“There were lots of little moments going through Saskatchewan where you stumble on something unusual, but certainly a hot dog truck in the middle of green rolling pastures is up there at the top, and I’m definitely not going to forget that.”
Miller shared the location with Chaplin, who took a road trip with his daughter.
“We’re cresting the hill, just like Grant said,” said Chaplin. “I start to cry because sometimes, things from your past that were good come back to you, for a good reason, at a good time. And this was perfect timing for me.”
Chaplin managed to buy it from its owner. Miraculously, it started up and he drove it away, and he’s been spending his days repainting it and fixing it up.
“It was gutted. The dog had never been taken care of for the last 10 years,” he said.
Chaplin said he has big plans. He has a prime spot in Chamberlain, Sask., near the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 11, and he plans to sell hot dogs to drivers passing through.
“It’s just a lot of fun because as a customer coming up to that window, you can’t help but have a smile on your face, just with the size of the dog.”
