2009 Reflection

 The first year Charcoal Cowboys to compete on the Kansas City BBQ society competition circuit.

Year Started in March with a trip to Little Rock Ark.   We left Nashville on a Thursday afternoon with snow and sleet on the ground.  I think that tells you what our weekend was like Cold, Wet, and Windy.  This was our first time to use the 22 inch WSM's and a BBQ guru. Also Page got to meet Jay for the first time. We had no top tens but we were happy with our scores.  We set-up next to Butcher BBQ ,Smoking Guns, and Pellet Envy.   I think we learned a lot from just watching from a far on how they handled the contest and from just asking some questions.   The events could have been a great event but the weather ruined the activities and the Clinton Library security screwed up the load in for the BBQ teams.

No competitions in April but we had a practice run and we cooked for the Mental Health Association of Tennesse concert at the Ryman with Vince Gill.    This was a great experience and we were very happy with our product based on that Page and I worked that day.  This was our first catering job and we really knocked it out of the park.   The Ryman event planner wanted us to vendor for Fanfest in the Ryman parking lot.

So, May we attended one contest the Sundrop BBQ festival in Pulaski ,TN.  Jay arrived at my house on Thursday night and we tried to de bone chicken for the first time which later in the season we decided not to use the process.  We also used parsley beds in our turn in boxes for the first time.    We also tried a new process with our brisket which at the time was our worst category.   We won 1st place brisket category --.  We realized we were headed in the right direction with all of our products.  Again this was a rainy contest but we loved that we had the bath house to take a shower. The also got to catch-up with Swiggin Pig and South Pork.

No competitions in June. 

So for July 4^th we headed to Murray, KY with the families.   This was the first time to have the families travel out of town with us.   I thought it went fine and we had a great Friday celebrating Lindy's birthday and Jay joined the team as an official member.   We got some comment cards from this event and decided to change our cook times on ribs and stop de boning chicken.  We didn't place in the top 10 but we were very close.  We set-up next to Shade Tree Cookers, Becky Sues BBQ team, Smokey Mountain Smokers, and Swiggin Pig and really enjoyed hanging out with everyone.   This was a great event not sure why more teams don't attend this event.  

August really gets us rolling.  First Contest is McMinnville this is the first competition were we work 1/2 day show up at the event after 2:00.  We didn’t know if we could actual make the process work because we work out of a horse trailer and need to unpack everything before we can even start prep work.   We were extremely happy with the results and the contest was great.  Steve joined us for the event and I remember just laughing my butt off seeing Steve playing the guitar singing Hank Williams songs in the middle of a bunch of rednecks…. I didn't know Canadians could sing any Hank songs….  We finished 9^th in Brisket at the event.  We meet High on the Hawg BBQ team and really enjoyed building a friendship with Terry and Brenda.   We also got to meet Do Rag BBQ team and Smoking Triggers.

Second event in August was Music City BBQ festival -we were very excited about being local and downtown.  Again we worked 1/2 day and arrived after 2:00 pm to our cook site.   We just had a great time at the event and had a lot of friends and family at the award ceremony.   Our first call was 4^th Pork then we got a second call for 5^th in brisket.  We finished 9^th overall.    This was our first time to get multiple calls in an event and finish in the top 10.  First event for Robert to attend and help us prep meats for display in boxes and was our runner .

No competitions in September

Our last event for the year Gallatin Smokin on the Square, we again worked 1/2 day and arrived after 2:00 pm to our cook site.  We just had a great time visiting with everyone.  We got our second 1^st place trophy this time in Ribs.   We final got our timeframes worked out on the ribs.  We also finished 9^th in Pork.

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