Help planning a road trip

Skip all that KC and Memphis stuff. It's all just pork drowning in sauce. Come to Texas, it's illegal to even use sauce and we know what beef is. :-D

I'd much rather swing through Kansas City and St. Louis than Memphis, if you want to stay closer to home. Otherwise, I love driving through Texas BBQ country. While Texas is defined more by beef and the Carolinas by pork, Kansas City, St. Louis (and Memphis) really don't meet their stereotypes and their BBQ varies widely. I've had some excellent brisket and ribs in Kansas and Oklahoma sans sauce. The problem is that this region seems to have been defined more by the KC Masterpiece sauce than the reality that actually exists in the region. The same with Memphis dry rub ribs. This seems to have been made famous by Rendezvous, which produced some of the worst ribs I've ever eaten (in that way they were memorable). Most of the ribs (and the best ones) I've eaten in Memphis were wet. Just my 2 cents. YMMV.