Have you started planning a 2018 schedule yet?

Rusty Kettle

Babbling Farker
Joined
Jul 15, 2013
Location
Butler PA
Name or Nickame
Hey you with the face!
As long as everything goes right at work, I want to start in April. Hoping to do the Ironman.

I like the idea of cooking limited amounts of meat. We don't use a whole lot of meat to begin with. Typically one brisket, 2 racks of ribs, 2 pork butts, and 8 pieces of chicken. So for us its not going to change a whole lot. Should be interesting. As long as work allows and my wife can be there, we will be doing this one.

The Sam's club tour in Harrisburg was a well run contest last season. I got my arse whooped by some really good cooks. I kind of want to take another crack at it since it is a really tough competition. Plus as far as contests go it was relatively close to home.

I had wanted to do the Almost Heaven BBQ Bash but its on my dating anniversary with my wife. She had said she was ok with it. So I brought it up and found out that was sarcasm.... Its at an old Asylum. I kind of thought an old haunted insane asylum was pretty romantic if you ask me.:crazy: If a woman ever says she is ok with going to an insane asylum on your dating anniversary do Not believe her. I don't pick up on sarcasm. I thought she wouldn't want to go and told her so. She said she was ok with it and I believed her. I brought it up later and she leveled me. Lol. Oh well can't blame a guy for trying. When it was in Buckhannon it was an awesome contest. Kind of want to go and compete in Weston at their new venue. If the stars and planets would just line up... Or if it wasn't on June 15.

Definitly doing the Grill your Ace off in West Newton again. Surprisingly there were alot of teams competing for an unsanctioned event. Plus it raises money for Children's Hospital. Really a pretty good event. I highly recommend it if you have a gap in your schedule and want to practice to keep sharp. Low entry fee and for a great cause.

So where you want to go this year?
 
We have our schedule set through the beginning of June. We don't get too far from Oklahoma, though.

March 2 - Cheney, KS
March 3 - Cheney, KS

March 23 - Shawnee, OK
March 24 - Shawnee, OK

April 7 - Gravette, AR

April 20 - Enid, OK

May 4 - Bixby, OK

May 18 - Langely, OK

June 2 - Claremore, OK

Haven't heard about Sam's Tour in 2018, but if they do it again, we will probably try to enter the Overland Park qualifier again.
 
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This will be my 2nd year to compete. I did 3 last year. 1 sanctioned and 2 unsanctioned. 2018 I have 5-6 planned.

Sam's club in Tucson (if they do it)
March 16, 17

Boats bands & bbq in Pueblo, Co
May 18, 19

Colorado bbq challenge in Frisco, Co
June 15, 16
Or
Smokin on the Pecos in Artesia, NM
June 22-24

SLV beat the heat bbq in Alamosa, Co
August 3, 4

Cape jaycees bbq fest in Cape Girardeau, Mo
August 17, 18
My better half is from Cape Girardeau so we are going to make that our vacation. Taking 2 weeks to fish and bbq. Being in the southwest there aren't a lot of comps close. Closest to me is about a 4hr drive.
 
We have our schedule set through the beginning of June. We don't get too far from Oklahoma, though.

March 2 - Cheney, KS
March 3 - Cheney, KS

March 23 - Shawnee, OK
March 24 - Shawnee, OK

April 7 - Gravette, AR

April 20 - Enid, OK

May 4 - Bixby, OK

May 18 - Langely, OK

June 2 - Claremore, OK

Haven't heard about Sam's Tour in 2018, but if they do it again, we will probably try to enter the Overland Park qualifier again.

Look forward to seeing you in Gravette.
 
Interstate bbq festival- April 20th and 21st-Hagerstown MD

Naptown Barbayq-May 5th-Crownsville MD

MD State BBQ bash-Aug 11 and 12-Belair MD

Might look to sign up for 1 or 2 more.
 
Ironman - Greencastle
Interstate BBQ - Hagerstown
BBQ in the Valley - Jamestown
Salt City BBQ - Syracuse OR ???? - Gettysburg
Almost Heaven - Weston
Ceramic City BBQ - East Liverpool

That's the first half of our schedule. Still deciding on what to do in the second half of the year, but will probably include:

Oinktoberfest - Clarence
Keystone Classic - Harrisburg
 
I'm starting with Smoke on the Shores in Nashville and I'll go from there as I can with my farming schedule. The o ly other KCBS contests I'm sure I'll do are Smoking for Garrett in Boonville, Indiana, Smoke on the Ohio in My. Vernon Indiana and Grill in and Chillin in Owensboro Kentucky. I'll try to do a couple more it just depends on my farming schedule.
 
Yes... We usually only do 2-3 per year since it's so expensive to travel overseas for comps... But this year we're in some invitationals so gotta make it work =)

Brew 'n' Q Invitational & Open, UK
BBQ Festival, Estonia
American Royal Invitational & Open
Het BBQKampioenschap Van Het Waasland 2018, Belgium
Ruhrpott, Germany (if they arrange it this year)
The Jack (most likely)

Obviously not many of these are very relevant to most of you. We'd like to do more comps in the States while there, but we'll see...
 
So speaking of Sam's.....

Anyone heard anything? McCloud was on the BBQ Central Podcast saying 2018 was a go before Finals happened. I heard things were very somber at Bentonville. Is it possible McCloud just lied about 2018 to keep finals from being a talker?
 
So speaking of Sam's.....

Anyone heard anything? McCloud was on the BBQ Central Podcast saying 2018 was a go before Finals happened. I heard things were very somber at Bentonville. Is it possible McCloud just lied about 2018 to keep finals from being a talker?

I wouldn't count on a Sam's this year. I think the MMA/KCBS divorce was messy and Sam's is a casualty of that process. Hopefully I'm wrong, but the rumors I'm hearing don't inspire much confidence.
 
So speaking of Sam's.....

Anyone heard anything? McCloud was on the BBQ Central Podcast saying 2018 was a go before Finals happened. I heard things were very somber at Bentonville. Is it possible McCloud just lied about 2018 to keep finals from being a talker?

I wouldn't count on a Sam's this year. I think the MMA/KCBS divorce was messy and Sam's is a casualty of that process. Hopefully I'm wrong, but the rumors I'm hearing don't inspire much confidence.
Let's look at what's happened.

  • The name was changed to The national Pro BBQ tour sponsored by Sam's Club
  • MMA was the administrator (and probably owner) of the tour
  • MMA is no longer associated with KCBS
  • McDearman made a "Thanks for the memories / farewell" Facebook post after the finals
  • No announcements have been forthcoming


All this adds up to long odds on a 2018 tour
 
We have our schedule set through the beginning of June. We don't get too far from Oklahoma, though.

March 2 - Cheney, KS
March 3 - Cheney, KS

March 23 - Shawnee, OK
March 24 - Shawnee, OK

April 7 - Gravette, AR

April 20 - Enid, OK

May 4 - Bixby, OK

May 18 - Langely, OK

June 2 - Claremore, OK

Haven't heard about Sam's Tour in 2018, but if they do it again, we will probably try to enter the Overland Park qualifier again.

We did Gravette last year and had a good time. Do they have everything ready to do it on pavement this year though? That time of year, the field can be troublesome.
 
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