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This Is What Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day Looked Like (With Your Pictures, Stories, and Video)

This Is What Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day Looked Like (With Your Pictures, Stories, and Video)

"...the line was still backed up a half of a mile out of the restaurant parking lot!" UPDATE: Has Chick-fil-A set world record for sales?

Scroll down for an update to this story.

Hungry diners from all across the country crowded their local Chick-fil-A's to show their appreciation for the chicken chain’s Southern fried goodness. You knew this day was coming and you knew it was going to be busy.

How crowded did some stores get? Well, based on photo submissions and anecdotes from Blaze readers and editors, let's just say "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" sounds like it was a major success:

"My daughters and I went to Chick fil a in Wake Forest, NC around 1:45 today in hopes of avoiding the rush. At that time, the line was still backed up a half of a mile out of the restaurant parking lot!" Erin G. in North Carolina wrote TheBlaze in an email.

[Related: ‘Choke to Death on That LGBT Hating Chicken’: See How the Left is Reacting to ‘Support Chick-fil-A’ Day]

"Due to Chick fil a’s impeccable customer service it only took 30 minutes to get through that drive thru line!! What other fast food chain is able to boast of that?! (My husband visited a different Chick fil a in Raleigh and had a similar experience.) We will go back this evening for dinner," she adds.

Ryan S. in Arizona writes:

We live in Phoenix, Az and it is very hot here, but that didn’t stop people from coming to Chick-Fil-A and standing in line out there door for a 45 min wait. My wife went through the drive through and was impressed so many came out to show their support. Willing to endure the heat to show their support. My wife was so impressed she felt she needed to do more than just buy lunch to show her support. She wanted to do something for the people standing in line.

So when she got to the drive through window she bought 10, $10 gift certificates and then had our two children pass them out to random people in line to pay for their lunches. Some people were moved to tears by the expression. Honestly I was moved to tears just hearing my wife tell me the story. I am so inspired by the good people showing up all across the country to show their support for traditional family values. I hope these random acts of kindness catch on.

The line at a Chick-fil-A in Irving, TX [via TheBlaze's Jon Seidl!]:

"We went yesterday, the day before appreciation day! It was packed, the line reached outside, and the energy was great," Cameron Jacobs of Roseville, CA, told TheBlaze in an email.

"People knew exactly what they were standing for when they ordered yesterday (and today) I think positive support has trumped the negative aggressive dishonest tactics of those who would so hypocritically oppress this great eating establishment," the email adds.

Josh G. from Lubbock, TX, writes: "People were extra talkative and friendly to fellow patrons today because we were all there for the same reason. Felt more like a family reunion than a lunch break."

Jim Cahill of Arizona writes:

We arrived at 11:30 to a line of approximately 40 cars in the drive-thru. We parked and waited in line to eat in instead. Took about an hour. I counter about 90 people out the door - all enduring 105 degree heat. The line stretched even longer by the time we received our food.

See the KHOU-TV update from Houston, TX:

"It's around 100 degrees here today and there was a 45-minute wait to get inside.  I overheard a young girl (10 or so years old) behind me say to her mom, 'it's hot' -- to to which I felt compelled to kid her a bit by saying, 'Hey, liberty is not air-conditioned," Gerry from St. Louis writes.

"Several people overheard me say that, and joined in the conversation with some nice positive commentary regarding the show of support for Chick-Fil-A founder Truett Cathy's right to free speech," the email adds.

Meliss O. from Tallahasse, FL, told TheBlaze the following:

Our Oral Surgery practice spent $700.00 at Chick-fil-A today.  We chose today to support "Chick-Fil-A Day" and purchased lots of trays of salads and nuggets for our referring offices.  We were sure to tell each office that they should be sure to show their support today.  Felt great to drive into the parking lot on Capital Circle in Tallahassee at 10:30 (between breakfast and lunch) and the parking lot be PACKED.

Chick-fil-A, as most Blaze readers know, has been dealing with heavy fallout from comments made by CEO Dan Cathy about his support for traditional marriage. Cathy responded that his company was "guilty as charged" when it comes to its support of the traditional family unit.

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that," Cathy told The Baptist Press.

"We operate as a family business ... our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that," he added.

Pro-gay rights groups immediately responded to Cathy's remarks by calling for nationwide boycotts and some left-leaning politicians even vowed to block the company from opening eateries in their cities.

In response to the outrageous outrage over Cathy's interview, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee called for a national "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day." We feel pretty confident when we say we think it was a financial success. In fact, we are getting so many submissions from readers telling us about their "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" experiences that we can't possibly include all of them in this article. This, of course, implies that when the company tallies up end of day sales, it'll probably come out alright.

Oh, yeah, let's not forget: Gay rights activists have planned their own response to Huckabee's day with "National Same Sex Kiss Day," which involves same sex couples making out in Chick-fil-A's, because, as we noted earlier on TheBlaze, that’ll show ‘em.

UPDATE: Has Chick-fil-A set world record for sales?

You can look at more pictures of the lines via photos from the Associated Press:

TheBlaze's Meredith Jessup contributed to this report. Front page photo source: News-Sentinel. This story has been updated.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

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