Woo Hoo! On July 9, 2011, we finally landed out 7th GC to qualify for the Jack Daniels Invitational contest in Lynchburg this October via an automatic invitation. Every year, only a handful of the 5,000+ teams are able to accomplish this feat. With 7 wins, we don’t have to be in the lucky draw with all the Grand Champion winners of our state. For example, if California has 20 contests in 2011, winning one means you have a 1/20th chance of being drawn. When a team wins 7, they don’t need to be in the draw for their state and are invited to the Jack.
Congrats to Big Poppa for RC and all who walked. A big shout out to Cameron of Bam Bam BBQ for 1st place pork on his very first outing. Great story that he used our SYD pulled pork recipe I posted for Independence Day weekend on my website.
We watched in awe as the sudden wind blew our EZ Up towards the sky and did a red baron spiral destruction dive to the ground. Since we were unable to purchase a replacement canopy since it was late Friday, the organizers put us up in the beer tent which turned out to be a great location as we shared the beer tent with the Hell Dorado Girls.
These girls are volunteers who contribute their time for charitable causes dressed in period costumes. Check them out at http://www.facebook.com/TheHelldoradoGirls?sk=app_7146470109
A thousand thanks for Peter Graves who helped out and loaned me his equipment. Benny, my regular teammate was home to work on his roof replacement project. Peter is one of my former BBQ 101 students and I flew to Phoenix to meet Peter. I “smurfed” one of his WSM at the contest so next time you see him cook, ask him about the stupid thing Harry did with the blanket!
This was a special event for us! Thanks for the big bottle of Jack which we shared with those who stayed behind!
Many thanks to Tommy, his Dad, Emily, Keith, volunteers, Kelly and Kathleen for officiating, and judges.
————- Peter’s Blog ———————————
Whoa, what a rush! It sure was a privilege to help Harry this time around. While the seasoned pros might be able to get the feel of things during the calls, it was a nail biter for me. My hands were shaking afterwards. They still are…
We were having trouble in the rain and relative cold keeping pit #1 at temperature so Harry decided to wrap it with his insulating blanket. Unfortunately, he grabbed his drop cloth instead which promptly stained my smoker blue. I guess I’ll be known now as the guy with the blue “smurf” WSM.
That microburst came down just as we were repositioning my trusty orange Honda Element and literally ripped the canopy out of Harry’s hands. It took out Butthead BBQ’s camp as well while Big Poppa’s Airstream looked cool during all of this.
