Getting Ready

The beginning of our summer BBQ season is just around the corner. Our first cook off will be next weekend in Merrimack, New Hampshire, the Rock-n-Ribfest at the Anheuser Busch Brewery. I just can't wait to be there. I am having severe problems focusing on or thinking about anything else these days.

The boxes of sauce, rub, water pans and other assorted competition items have been pouring in. We closed on our new trailer this week, and are picking it up this weekend. Our BBQ Brethren banner arrived this week too, which will surely bring a lot of new people from the forum to our competition site to say hello. I know a lot of "Brethren" will be at New Hampshire, including Mike from Lakeside Smokers, Chris from iQue, Lunchmeat, Militant Squatter aka Vinny from Bad Bones BBQ, Willy B and I'm sure plenty of others not immediately coming to mind.

There is so much nervous excitement about the upcoming season. We had some success early, winning New Hampshire last year, but I still feel we are nowhere near being part of the elite of the BBQ circuit. Winning one competition does not get us to that status. We did take reserve grand champions at the unsanctioned Winter Sizzler in January, our last Q event. Hopefully that is a sign that New Hampshire last year was not a fluke.

The trailer-toy hauler should make a big difference for us. The one thing that was extremely difficult for us last year was the weather. It seemed to rain heavily every event, so we would get soaked, would sleep in rain soaked tents and just be uncomfortable. This will take the weather out of the equation, and allow us to enjoy ourselves at all events.

In the future, the trailer will allow us to hit events farther away from home. Next year, we plan to look for a couple of events we probably wouldn't do without it.

I think our BBQ recipes are ready. I can't wait to start cooking.