Well, it may not be the Iron Man stretch that Rob from 2 Worthless Nuts had with 8 Competitions in 8 weeks but it was tiring… and worth it. So lets start back last weekend at Jeffersonville , In. I arrived early evening on Thursday and was set up down on the river bank… AGAIN… oh well, after getting camp set up i ventured up the hill to visit some friends, ended up spending most of the evening talking with Moonswiners, Hot Racks and BBQ Stacks, Perry Brothers, Burbon Barrel and 2 Worthless Nuts. Friday Lisa’s parents, Sister, and Brother-in-law arrived to set up their camp for the backyard event. Before the cooks meeting Lisa and I went to a restaurant called Cluckers that served hotwings and such. After cooks meeting it was time for Lisa to get everything ready for the Dessert turn in, She made Strawberry Mousse Shooters with a double fudge brownie and chocolate covered strawberries. Fast forward through the night complete with thunder storms and weather to the morning. Saturday morning Shane Draper from www.drapersbbq.com drove 3.5 hours up to meet and hang out during turn ins. He also hooked me up with some of his sauce and rub to try out. Now time for awards. We weren’t really expecting much but it started out good with Pop’s Belly BBQ taking GC of the backyard division, then Lisa hit it big with a 1st place dessert win. Then I got to…. sit in my chair and not get any calls… that is until Brisket (not my best category) and ended up tieing for 2nd but losing a tie breaker to get 3rd in brisket! I think we ended up 14th overall which is 10 spots better than last year.
On to this past weekend in Franklin, In… nice to be back in Franklin after spending my college days there soaking up … well never mind what i did in college. I arrived late on Friday afternoon and after a grueling 20 minute drive I was ready for a nap, but this was no time to nap, shortly after I arrived fellow BBQ nut and co-cook for a weekend Kempis arrived and we set up camp and then attended the cooks meeting. For a 1st year competition they seemed to have everything covered. After the cooks meeting I returned to camp and met up with Lisa and my Mom and we ate dinner at the Willard. After dinner we made our rounds and visited with Buttrubbers BBQ, Bronze Star BBQ, Yellow River BBQ, Here for the Beer BBQ, and Porky from Porky’s House of BBQ. It was time to get down to business started to trim the brisket and my fillet knife slipped and sliced my ring finger open… I probably should have got a couple stitches… but this is BBQ BABY! I taped it up, double gloved it, and got back to work. I got everything trimmed and ready for the 4am wake up call.
Once the meat hit the heat, we were able to eat biscuits and gravy along with some coffee provided by the organizer, this was awesome because i was hungry… Turn ins went ok, well except for ribs, but we wont talk about it. I wasn’t too happy with my turn ins except for brisket, i thought brisket was better than last weekend at Jeffersonville.
At awards Lisa started it off with a 7th place Dessert call ( we then found out it was open to everyone not just comp cooks), Kempis took a 2nd place anything butt call with his smoked beans, I ended up with a 2nd place chicken, 1st place pork, 19th place ribs, and a 9th place brisket for a 5th place overall finish (my best since Liberty last year with a 7th overall) Overall i was pretty happy and not looking forward to the 4 weeks in between competitions now… oh well i guess its practice time…Next stop, New Palestine…
