The BBQ season is now over, as least as far as competitions go.  I don’t think the cover is ready to go back on the smoker just yet, but we’ve done our last all-nighter for the year I imagine.  (I hope…)

Things kicked off Thursday afternoon with the not-so-fun part of the long weekend;  Everything had to be hauled down there and set up.  Last year I managed to show up just when this part was getting wrapped up…  Remind me to wait until a little later in the day again next year.  I weaseled out of MOST of the hard stuff though, so I’ll live.  We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the unseasonably hot weather, trying to convince ourselves how much we liked our new spot they stuck us in this year.  It was one of those good-news-bad-news situations.  On one hand it was a huge spot, and we were on the end of a row again, which helps when you are setting up and tearing down.  But, we were right in the middle of several other huge “party booths” which made the traffic situation a little ugly.  It’s not like we were given much choice about it, so I guess we’ll just have to get used to it.  We partied well into the night, (by our definition anyway,) and then retired to the camper to be gently lulled to sleep by the sound of the constantly passing freight trains, which were a few hundred feet from our spot.  (Put that in the “bad news” category.)

Friday was the “party day,” which defines the Royal weekend for a good percentage of our team.  In fact, I’m not entirely convinced that at least half the team knows there is also an actual BBQ competition after the party is over.  At any rate, it does take at least as much work as the competition, if not more.  We spent a good part of the day setting up the food lines, putting out chairs and hay bales, and just general set-up, not to mention slicing and chopping a few hundred pounds of smoked meat.  I also managed to sneak off to the hotel room that Donette had rented for the weekend, which was conveniently located downtown.  I took a nice little nap, then headed back to the site later in the afternoon.  Our party turned out remarkably well.  We get a little more prepared every year, and as a result things go just a bit smoother with each event.  Mind you, I generally get a lot of this information second-hand, as I have a tendency to run out of gas well before the party is over.  My nap paid off this year though;  I actual saw the band and everything.  All-in-all the party was a success.  Our food got good reviews, and I think we actually had enough for most if not all of the people that showed up.  The band was a hit again, and Zim did a good job managing the riff-raff at the door.  And, to top it off, we set a new record with our annual fund-raising effort, collecting almost $1200 for the Mid-American Burn Foundation.

Saturday was, for the most part, a rest and recovery day.  Usually the actual competition is Saturday, but this year for whatever reason they moved it to Sunday.  (Another good-news-bad-news situation.)  We cleaned up some of the damage from the night before and basically just sat around baking in the record-setting weather.  Donette came down and rescued me for a while so I didn’t melt.  We had lunch at Tanners and watched some college football, then it was off to the hotel for another nap.  She hauled me back down to the booth around 6:00 that evening to get ready for “game time.”  In another of the constant upgrades, we had a flat-screen TV set up this year, so we spent the rest of the evening watching the MU game and fine-tuning the meat schedule for the next day.

Right around midnight, we had the cooker warmed up and the first meat went on.  Brice and I spent all night in lawn chairs, tending the fire and watching horrible infomercials.  I’ll say one thing, that job was a lot more comfortable this year than most, due mostly to the weather and the TV.  I put on a jacket around 3:00, but it never got cold enough for jeans.  The infomercials were excruciatingly bad, but it gave us something to stare at, even warranting the occasional chuckle with their over-the-top cheesiness.  The rest of the group got up around 6:00, and we were in full ‘que mode by 7:00.  I really don’t know what is more exhausting, the party on Friday or the competition itself.  By the time the last entry got turned in at 2:00 that afternoon, I was thoroughly spent.  Luckily, by that time, our set-up crew had torn down almost everything, so all I had to do was crawl to the car and pour myself in the passenger seat.  Actually it worked out well;  We were putting the smoker on Martin’s hitch when the rain finally hit full force, so we escaped just in time.  Donette drove me straight to the car wash and gave me a good power-washing, (twice,) and the rest of the day was spent on the couch nodding in and out of consciousness.

So how did we do?  Well, not only was our party a big improvement, our BBQ took a vast jump in the standings too.  For my part, I took a “back to basics” approach which worked out well for me.  I’ve been on a steady decline in the standings the last few years so I tried to duplicate everything from our first year of competition, when I did at least mediocre.  I even made Josh come down and walk up to the turn-in with me like our first year, which may border on out-right superstition but it seemed to pay off in the rankings.  And, even more importantly, we handily defeated our arch-rivals, the Red Glove BBQ team.  Here are the official results, as summarized by Martin this morning:

Chicken – 242 out of 486 – Score 152 – Just a few spots worse than last year & had a higher score. An excellent first effort for Ballew

Ribs – 195 out of 490 – Score – 155 – An improvement in spots and score from last year’s strong finish

Pork – 56th out of 485 – Score 165 – An impressive few weeks for the Creighton boys. 3rd in Kearney and the highest finish and score ever at the Royal!

Brisket – 189 out of 491 – Score – 152 – Best brisket finish ever and an improvement of 234 places from last year!!

Beans – 88 out of 210 – Score – 153 – A strong finish and according to Brett if he could have gotten more smoker time he would have killed the pork team.

Sausage – 200 out of 373 – Score 151 – An improvement in score and spots from last year – There was also a high enjoyment factor watching Belanger apply the jelly

Team – 116 out of 496

Triple Fat Back is on the move;  In the right direction for once!!