From the Backyard to the AR

[SmokeInDaEye]

Although I'm still crazy sore from carrying sh*t all over the American Royal, I just wanted to thank Jorge, Dr. BBQ, BBQ Mayor, Skip, Julie, Dizzy Pig, Plowboy and the countless others who made my journey "From the backyard to the American Royal" complete and to Phil for starting it 3 years ago.

As Sledneck, Jorge, Phil and Willy may recall, I first joined this site after stumbling across a bbq contest on Long Island (Grill Kings) and searching google for info on the categories, etc. I only did the grilling contest there but those boys sucked me in and I signed up for a KCBS contest the next month and continued from there.

Fast forward to last October when I got to experience my first GC call among dozens of Brethren friends at the aptly titled Battle of the BBQ Brethren, giving me the chance to compete in the American Royal Invitational.

Since I couldn't take the time off work to drive both ways to KC, the great Dr. BBQ offered to let me use his site on Saturday, Smokehouse 72 lent me their WSMs, and bits and pieces from various others. And although 95th out of 124 in the invitational doesn't sound great, I was proud to have completed my journey and cooked exactly the way that got me there. Thanks, brothers and sisters, for making it happen!

 

[Smokin' Gnome BBQ]

S.I.D.E. you just did what most competitors never will. You went half way across the county and gave it one heck of a try, congrats!!

 

[SmokeInDaEye]

Oh and here are some of my best and worst memories of the weekend:

* Discovering SingingBob can't actually sing (and I have video to prove it)
* Getting to watch the good Dr. in action (and hopefully I didn't disrupt his flow)
* Riding the BBQ Guru motorized scooter through the darkside while filming video
* Interviewing Mike Davis and having him start the conversation by talking about my Huntington County Customs grate
* Watching Plowboy prep his pork box (the man is an artist and that's all I can say on the subject)
* Watching my brother Wine&Swine race to turn-ins even though he had 5 minutes left because a cameraman for the TLC reality show wanted some "runner footage"
* Waking up to discover my alarm wasn't set right and it was 7:30 then flaming up a WSM in record time and get the spares on and done in time
* Discovering at 5pm Friday that my thighs were untrimmed and were the size of my head. Despite Ray's advice to chuck em and go find a store I sat down and trimmed out backbones for about 2 hours, producing more uniform thighs than I needed. The end product was worth the effort.
* Filming tons of stuff during the Open turn-ins, watching people do the last boxes, grabbing the rest of my stuff from Ray's site and running it to WannaBeBBQQueen's trailer then racing to my car to catch a 3:30 flight just as they were about to close the gate.

 

[SmokeInDaEye]

Forgot the best one ever:

Getting to be front and center as a dear friend basked in the glory of being the best of the best at the AR Invitational! Farking PRICELESS!!!!!

 

[Ron_L]

Sounds like a great experience, SIDE! Just getting everything cooked and turned in on time with borrowed equipment is a great accomplishment! You done well! :-D