Triple Fat Back BBQ wrapped up another season this weekend, with our big American Royal BBQ party event.  I am still somewhat out of sorts from lack of sleep and over-partying, so forgive my lackadaisical effort at this.  I am definitely envious of the team members who had the foresight to take today off, that was fine planning on their part.

The event started (for a small part of the team) on Thursday afternoon, when a few of us showed up at the site to start setting things up.  By the time I got there, we had two big campers already in place, all the electrical work done, and the big tents were being set up.  That pretty much took the rest of the afternoon.  For dinner Firehouse Subs (one of our proud sponsors) showed up with some sandwich boxes.  Apparently they had just taken a guess at how many would be needed, which turned out to be “way too many.”  (Were they a little more familiar with the workings of our “team,” they would have known that a very small portion of the members show up when there is work to do.)  Not being ones to waste food though, we managed to take care of all the sandwiches, which put us all in food-comas and effectively ended the work for the day.  For the rest of the evening we sat around and rocked to the sounds of “Guitars For Christmas” and tried to stay warm.

Friday was spent getting ready for the big party of the evening.  We usually have around 300 people show up throughout the evening;  That’s a lot of BBQ to get prepped, tables to set up, decorations to hang, hair gel for Scotten to apply, etc.  I can honestly say we are getting better at it every year though…  By now (our sixth year) we have a rather effective process for getting it all done by the time people show up.  Other than some uncooperative weather I think we had a great fiesta.  Unfortunately it was ridiculously windy, which we had to fight all day, and by the time the party got going the temp had dropped to a somewhat uncomfortable level.  I walked around a bit throughout the evening though, and I really think we had one of the larger parties in the area.  I had my fun to be sure, and that’s really all that is important at the end of the day.

Saturday was sort of a down day.  Relax, recover from the party, and get ready for a night of cooking.  I actually left the spot for a while even.  Our friends David & Jill had flown in from Dallas for the party, so Donette came down and got me and we all went to have breakfast at the Corner Cafe before they flew back home.  After that I went home and cleaned up a bit, then headed back to the Royal and got down to business.  Cooking conditions were somewhat less than ideal:  The temp dropped to the low 40’s, and still a little on the windy side.  Martin set up a TV outside for me though, and I managed to stay awake all night, feeding the smoker wood every 30 minutes in an effort to keep the temp up.  My efforts were rewarded with by far the worst score I have ever turned in.  I will say, I went in to the weekend not really caring how I did in the competition, but even given that attitude I was a bit embarrassed at doing that bad.  (In all fairness, it was a pretty bad brisket though, so I won’t argue the results weren’t deserved.)  On the upside, our ribs and chicken did well, pork was respectable, and the sausage came in a staggering eleventh place.  The brisket was easily our worst product, with the exception of the beans, which earned us our first-ever ZERO, although I doubt anyone cares enough to find out why.

Sunday we got the site torn down, then I went home and crashed on the couch.  I tried to stay awake so my “clock” would get back in sync, but I think I only made it about 30 minutes before dozing off.  So much for that plan.  I slept well knowing that we had finished what was (supposedly…  maybe… hopefully…) our last American Royal event.  It has been decided that it’s just too much work and money for old men like ourselves, so we are retiring from the event, much to the delight of the organizers I am sure.  Despite that ultimatum, even as we packed up on Sunday there were rumors of a possible merger with one of our neighboring teams that we party with throughout the weekend, things that we should do differently next year, etc.  Stay tuned next October…