Had the road trip from HELL this weekend, traveling to the Memphis contest:
I posted this in another forum and nominated a couple of people for the Smoky Angel:
Apologies for a long post, just have a story to tell...
So you want to own a trailer? Not after my last experience probably
Decided to do the 9 hours drive to Memphis to compete in the Variety Club contest this past weekend. Left OKC late and headed East. About 10:30 in the evening, saw a Huge splash of sparks coming from the back. Not good when you have a 16' trailer loaded for a contest. Pulled over and checked. Nope, not the chains dragging (been there and done that) so walked around to the right side 'cause I had a nagging suspicion. Yup, the tire I had fixed last week had a problem. It decided to fly off the hub, take the 5 lugs with it.
So now, I have a spare, but no lugs to attach it too. It's over an hour back to the nearest town. Called AAA (they don't repair trailers unless you have the Special Plan) and they sent a guy anyway.
In the end, after 15 hours on the side of the road (including spending the night there so no one would break into the trailer) we finally headed to Memphis.
The nomination for Good Samaritans goes to Mike and Kristy of Smokedelics and Ralph and Patsy of Pink Flamingos. If they hadn't jumped in and helped in more ways than we can thank, we wouldn't have enjoyed the contest.
From Long distance I talked to Mike and he took care of things with the organizers letting them know of our problem. Ralph jumped in and drank my waiting margaritas (thanks Ralph, a great margarita is not a thing to waste) but he also provided some extra chairs for us. Kristy bought extra lettuce knowing we wouldn't have time for a store.
Got to the site late and everyone jumped in to unload the trailer, find the meat inspectors, set up the site and smokers and just a bunch of things we have to do when you get to a contest.
Next day offers of more lettuce and constant wonder and encouragement were constantly offered. Ralph and Patsy on Saturday helped a lot, Saturday morning was tough, two nights with no sleep.
We had a horrible start to the contest, but it was made bearable and in fact enjoyable with the help of these four.
My faith in the good of BBQ'ers everyone has a standard and that's the Smoky Angel Nomination. 4 people who definitely were good Samaritans to Twila and I.
Thanks all, you made a great event. We all went to dinner that night and didn't even talk about Q. Mike had to buy first round with his 9th place chicken winnings.
Trailer made it home fine.
Thanks you for being great friends.
Russ & Twila
Smokin Okies
p.s. we did NOT place well and I'm gonna blame it on the way we got to the contest. Nothing seemed to cook up worth a hoot. Best was 22nd in Pork and 24th in Chicken.
