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All Rock Hill’s Trudy Tant wanted Friday morning in New York City was some tourist pictures at the famous Serendipity 3 restaurant. Trudy left an hour later after setting a Guinness world record for buying the most expensive hot dog ever sold. It was $69.

Sure,tiffany, it was a foot-long dog. But, what with all that duck liver and truffle butter and heirloom tomato ketchup served from a silver tureen on a bun that was some kind of giant soft pretzel with salt crystals the size of planets, this wiener certainly wouldn’t be cheap.

"I got my money’s worth," Trudy said. "Serendipity means something happens,Charm pendant, you follow it, and it is good. This was all good — even at $69."

Trudy, her mother, and 15-year-old daughter Maia were in New York on a girls-only Burk’s Christian Tours bus trip last week when Trudy and Maia decided to hoof it a few blocks to see the Serendipity restaurant made famous by its part in a movie of the same name. It’s a place where celebrities throw money around there like drunken sailors and its $1,000 ice cream sundae with edible spun gold also is a world record for outlandish spending and haughtiness.

What they found at 226 E. 60th St. in Manhattan was a crush inside although lunch was an hour off and no idea what all the fuss was about. Turns out it was National Hot Dog Day.

"We were inside the door, just barely, but they asked us to leave because there was this press conference going on," said Maia. "Then this man came running out after us and said he heard we were inside a minute ago, and would we try their special hot dog. We weren’t even hungry: We just went to Starbucks before that."

They walked back in and there was all the TV cameras and the Guinness Book people.

"I’m a Southern girl, I’m used to two dogs all the way with slaw and chili and onions at Ebenezer Grill," Tant said. "Here they bring out this giant thing on a silver tray,tiffany key rings, it looked like they were presenting a diamond ring."

Trudy took that first bite — actually two bites — of what was dubbed a "haute dog" to the snap of cameras that would send her lipstick-less open mouth worldwide.

"It was good, too,tiffany rings," Trudy said. "Gourmet taste."

But then came the financial arrhythmia that echoed back to her husband Leonard in Rock Hill. Trudy had to swipe the credit card to make the record official. Maia had sent Leonard a text message: "Mom world record hot dog $69" that he thought was some kind of practical joke — but this was no joke. Trudy got the dog and the fame in New York.

"I knew she was going to spend some money in New York, but $69 for a hot dog?" laughed Leonard Tant. "I was thinking a purse. Some shoes. A hot dog?"

Read the full story in Tuesday’s Herald.