Let the Journey Begin!

Well, we are on our way!  In the last 10 days we have done two competitions, been to an Arizona Cardinals home game, celebrated Jim’s birthday and packed up everything we could possible need for our 1,700 mile trek to the home of the Jack Daniels whiskey, Lynchburg, Tennessee!!  Day 1 started later in the morning so we could recover from the Queen Creek competition and consisted of a long drive but at least we had some entertainment along the way!  Nothing like seeing a prison uniform on the side of the road or a car pulled over by the police with 2 open 30 pack of beer sitting on the hood!  Poor Seamus doesn’t really know what’s going on nor does he seem to care.  He slept the entire ride and is now excited to sleep in the camper.  We stopped at a KOA campground in Tucumcari, NM and will make it somewhere around Little Rock, AR tomorrow.  The weather is beautiful compared to the full blown summer we’re still experiencing in Phoenix but hopefully we’ll get to a place with actual trees soon so we can see the colors of them changing!  A lot of flat land with signs telling us they have the cheapest Indian blankets and moccasins.  I’m sure tomorrow will be much of the same but at least we haven’t seen it in a while so it will seem new and exciting…yeah, right.  Now we’re off to get some sleep so we can do it all over again tomorrow…and the day after that!!

What a long strange trip it's been...

What a long strange trip it’s been…and we’re just getting started!  This road started in late August, the last weekend to qualify for the Jack Daniels Invitational World BBQ Champions, or “The Jack” for short.  We traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to attend an event that, at the time, wasn’t even a qualifier. At the end of the event, they had the 15 teams needed to make it a qualifier and we were crowned Grand Champions!  Actually, we were crowned the first ever International Grand Champions, and this was the first win of our BBQ “career”.  With that win, we were placed into the draw for The Jack in our home state, Arizona, with three other teams, Iowa’s Smokey D’s, 4 Legs Up and Smoked to the Bone, also out of Arizona. 

Fast forward one week and we arrived in Mequite, NV for the Smokin’ in Mesquite contest.  Still reeling from out first ever GC, we received that news that our bung (the little rubber stopper from the whiskey barrel) was pulled from the barrel in the The Jack draw!  Holy cow, we’re going to The Jack?  Holy cow, we’re going to THE JACK!!  For some, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity so we were thrilled.  Of course, we were at a competition so we had to focus on the task at hand and prepare for the impending turn ins!  During awards we were happy to see our friend (and the other Arizona team in the draw for The Jack), Jennifer Duncan of Smoked to the Bone, crowned Grand Champion! 

Oh yes, fast forward yet another week, and we are in Grand Junction, Colorado for the Pork & Hops BBQ Challenge!   The weather was beautiful and the grass was lush and green and the trees provided long missed shade.  We were not happy with our meat that day, but I guess the judges were because we ended up with the title of Reserve Grand Champion!  We also won the Kingsford Charcoal Points for that event.  Our friends Kelly and Roni Wertz of 4 Legs Up were crowned Grand Champion. 

We had a 3 week BBQ competition hiatus and didn’t really know what to do with ourselves but, thankfully, time has flown by!  Now, off we go to Lancaster, California for the beginning of the chaos called October!