Have you ever had one of those contests, where everything went wrong? Like your teammate couldn�t come so you had to do the contest by yourself; and the weather was 5 inches of rain and 40mph winds; and because of the weather, you spent as much time working to keep the tent from blowing away and everything dry that you thought the entries would all be *(&^.
Well, welcome to Wichita 05.
How did I do? Keep reading.
The Kansas Masters of BBQ was a small event, in only it�s 2nd year. This one was close to home and Stuart from Cookshack is from there, so I scheduled the event to go.
The event is hosted in a parking lot of the local Baseball team.
The event organizers still have a few things to get right, like why do I have to pay $4 for ice (last 3 events gave it to us). The parking spaces are not very deep and if you want a deep space you have to buy two wide or two deep. And it�s pretty hard to maneuver if you get there late, which I did not.
Got set up, met some of the other teams. License to Grill, who was at the last FE class was there, with his Jed and his FE. Most of the big boys were in Joplin, so I had high hopes for this event.
But THEN�the weather.
Ah, springtime in Oklahoma and Kansas. Rain, lightning and wind. Being from this area, I knew it was going to be a bad night, as I checked the local weather guys and SEVERE storms were predicted. We got 30 min notice that they were almost to Wichita, so I button down the hatches, put the sides on all four sides up. Christian from License, lent me his drill and we drilled screws into the asphalt on the outside 2 legs, the others were lashed to the trailer. If the tent was going to go somewhere, it was going to take the trailer to, and if that happened I wouldn�t be here.
First was the lightning shows. As one of the guys said, �it was so bright, I could see the skeleton of my teammate.� That lasted all throughout the night until about 3am. Then the winds. The wind started hard enough, but then grew when the rain hit. We had bad rain for about 5 or 6 hours, that came in waves. Rain hard for 30 min, blow hard for 30 min, then repeat�over and over. The thunder was loud enough, as loud as I've ever heard it, to hear it back in Oklahoma City. Let�s just say, that even with the 4 sides up and the tent screwed to the asphalt, at least once or twice I had to grap the center struts to keep it from blowing away like an umbrella in the wind.
So, early morning, it just went to a light rain and I ran out and took a view of the damage:
Few tents weren�t screwed down:
Few tents didn�t survive:
One guy even got a shock/electrocuted when he was holding on to the center struts of his tent. Note to self�don�t do that
Magically about 9:30am the skies started clearing and by first turn-in the skies were clear and sunny.
And the contest. Well, it was enough to survive the night. First contest to run by myself, and my organizational skills were challenged. Timing was WAY off as it�s kind of hard to run out to the smoker when the hard rains came, didn�t want to have the wind/rain dump my entry on the floor before I even started.
So I made my way to the main stage, after taking down and loading everything. Got there as chicken, 5th place. Man, thought I missed a call. Shock of shock, in four contests this year, hadn�t even PLACED in chicken, and when they called Smokin Okies to the stage for 1st place, you could hear my whoop whoop all around. Getting called for a first, surprised me as I knew I hadn�t placed in chicken before. And my first, first.
On to ribs, 10th place
Then pork, a 2nd � another whoop whoop.
Last was brisket, a 10th place.
Alas, I didn�t get called for Grand Champion, nor Reserve, and I�m real proud of a 4th overall. And to get four calls in four categories makes my day. Missed Grand by less than 2. But four checks is still four checks
My scores have steadily improved, I�m happy with the improvement and had a great time.
A small event is a great time to work on everything.
It�s on to Tulsa next, with the Art of BBQ and 65 teams. All the heavy hitters will be there.
Let�s hope for sunny skies.
a 2 and a 9 in the same category has me stumped 