Monday, October 25, 2010

Time to come off the high!


Well, awards did not go as well as we had hoped.  We didn’t get one call in any of the 4 meats and our best call was 15th in chicken (actually we tied for 13th but obviously lost the tiebreakers).  We ended up 25th overall out of 76 teams, many of which are ranked in the top 25 in the country and many of which we beat.  There was a pretty big learning curve out there and now we know a little but more for next time (keep your fingers crossed that there is a next time!).  All in all, we had a great time, met some great people from all over the country and couldn’t have asked for a better experience. 

Now the fun begins…all the crap has thrown into the camper to be unearthed at a later date and the long trip back home is underway.  The foliage did make the trip for me so all was not lost.  We got back in the damn truck and drove all the way back to Memphis after awards so it would be a shorter trip back home on Sunday and Monday.  Shorter?  Is there such a thing when you’ve already driven 1,700 miles ONE WAY!!  Thankfully we sort of like each other so there are still two of us traveling home.  Of course, that may all change by the time we actually make it back to Phoenix ;)  We utilized the KOA Kamgrounds throughout the trip and stayed in their Kabins on the way home so we didn’t have to unload the deck on the front of the camper.  Those things are adorable!  I felt like we were sleeping in Lincoln Log house that I built!  Thankfully they were sturdier because we were awakened last night by 30 mph winds raging through the open windows.  They even have homemade breakfasts!  I think I could live there!  Now we’re on the last leg, Tucumcari, NM back to Phoenix, AZ, which is about a 9 hour drive through these winds.  Nothing like driving across an open stretch of NOTHING and getting pelted by the tumbleweeds that are flying by.  If you talked about a train, a truck, prison and your momma, I think it sounds like the start of a country song!  They are even talking about snow in the higher elevations, but the clouds look like we could get it at any moment.  It’s only 55 degrees but that feels like snow to me!  Hmm, perhaps I should get my wellies out just in case…
Poor Seamus just keeps poking his head up to see if we’re there yet and then lays back down to go sleep some more.  He’s been the best BBQ dog throughout this whole thing so I think we’ll keep him ;) 

Now that we are finally back home, showered, resting comfortably on the couch watching "Dexter", we are uneagerly awaiting tomorrow when it will be time to unpack, go to work, and then repack before heading down to Tucson for another competition this weekend.  Not sure if this makes us clinically BBQ insane or not, but, for now, we enjoy it!  But hey, at least we’ll have next weekend off before the next competition and football and Thanksgiving and football and the next competition and my company Christmas party and football and another holiday party and football and Christmas and football on Christmas day.  Yup, someday we’ll sleep!!  Oh, and for those of you that have seen those ginormous windmills on the way to California and sporadically placed throughout the US, the blades are truly way bigger than they look!  We saw several of them on the back of trucks and they are unbelievably enormous!!  Hey, the little things entertain you on a long trip.

This blog was originally intended to chronicle the trek across country to The Jack, but keep checking back for updates on competitions as well as the occasionally recipe and humorous rantings by yours truly…I promise you won’t be bored!

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