It's an honor and great experience to move on to the regionals for the Sam's Club National BBQ Tour in Albuquerque, NM. I gotta admit, it was a long drive...600 miles in one day. Sin City Smokers made the trip with us to compete.
We got there on Thursday, and were one of the first ones to get our spaces. We set up next to Sin City, R&R BBQ from Salt Lake moved in next door. Rythm-n-Que were accross the aisle. It was nice to have friends near us.
Friday, a storm came in off the mountain and we had to batton down the hatches. Several teams lost canopies. We tucked ourselves into the front of the trailer, closed the door, and stayed dry and out of the wind. Rain and hail on the metal roof was pretty cool, I like that sound. I'm glad Timm decided to build a new BBQ trailer. There was supposed to be a steak dinner Friday night but it was cancelled due to the weather.
Saturday was a gorgeous day, we had a good cook although Timm kept saying something didn't feel quite right. Maybe it was the elevation. Maybe it was being surrounded by 30 of the top teams in the west. I don't know, I thought it was great. Anyway, our meats were tasty, tender and pleasing to the eye. My goal was to hear our name once during the awards. Chicken, nope...Ribs, nope...Pork, ugh, nope...Brisket, 4th place, YIPPEE!!!!! My goal was made. Sin City got 2 top ten calls, R&R got top tens as well. We received 15th in chicken, 16th in ribs, 11th in pork, 4th in brisket.
Overall awards...the top ten teams can move onto the the Nationals in if they choose. The BBQ gods were shining upon us....we took 7th overall!!!!!!!!!! Holy Moly! Talk about a surprised look on our faces...but totally excited. And to think, we were going to pass on coming to regionals, so glad we didn't. We were floating on a glorious barbeque cloud for the next several days. Tears of joy were shed, and we couldn't keep a smile off our faces when talking about it. Congrats to all the teams, there was some really strong competition.
We gave all our meat to one of Timm's fellow Martin Harris associates working in Albuquerque. He was glad to take it off our hands and was going to take the majority of it into the crew on Monday. Nice to know it was going to be enjoyed by many. In fact, when Timm called Bob to let him know where we finished we told him he was enjoying award winning brisket. "I can't stop eating it!", he said. What a great compliment.
Here are more photos of some teams...and our brisket. 
Cassy went with us and I have to say, she impressed us more and more each time she goes with us. She travels well, stays in our site, doesn't beg for food even with all that awesome smell that is surrounding everyone, and is so good in the hotel room. Oh, and Johnny Triggs likes her.
Now....we need to figure out how to fund a trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. Looks like a fundraiser barbeque or two are in our future.
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