Maine

Wish I was up there cooking. But I decided to cook New Paltz in two weeks instead of Maine this weekend, sticking to my plan of only cooking one contest a month this year. I would have liked to do both but just wasn't in the cards this year.

New Paltz should be a fun weekend. They actually call it the Hudson Valley Ribfest and it's actually in Highland, NY, but we all call it New Paltz. It's a really big event, around 70 teams are expected. We have cooked here three times before, and it is easy to get to for me. There is a swimming pool on the fairgrounds that the teams can use as well.

Unfortunately, I have not really done that well at New Paltz over the years. in 2006 we got shut out for the whole weekend, 2007 got a couple of grilling calls but tanked BBQ, 2008 tanked grilling and got a good rib call, 2nd or third place, but that's all. Didn't go last year.

But the Maine contest is a pretty big deal this weekend. For several teams, this is a last chance to get automatically qualified for the Jack Daniel's World Invitational BBQ. Since this is the only Maine contest, whoever wins can start booking their hotel rooms and submitting their vacation time for work, they're going to the Jack.

Kind of sucks to be home working today while that is happening in Maine.

But the good thing is that we got to go spend some quality time with my parents yesterday, who are doing much better despite ongoing health issues.