Archive for August, 2007

I don’t even know where to start with the competition we went to in Chillicothe, Mo this weekend. Let me first say the contest was great. 1st year and the people were great. Ice and water delivered to you and garbage pickup 24×7.

So here’s where it starts.

1. We leave Des Moines and everything is good. Get into Missouri and the rain starts.
2. Stop halfway point to grab a quick sandwich at Wendy’s as it is like 630. Wife waits 15 min for food.
3. Get to the contest only to find we have to sit at the entrance and wait for some drum line to finish before we can get our spot. They are performing what appears to be the only paved road. We wait 20 min.
4. Taken to our site by a guy in a golf cart. He takes us into a grass area and stop briefly. Well, it has been pouring rain and 30 teams have been in and out. I get stuck but 4 wheel drive kicks in and we are on our way again.
5. Get to our site only to find my egg table partially overturned. This happened in number 4 above from the ruts as I checked it periodically. We get that put back up right.
6. As soon as the ramp drops it starts raining again. Try using the Ez Up only to see many pieces broke or bent. Not sure how that happened unless it was from the table falling against it. By the time it’s up we are soaked. Thankfully guys next to us had duct tape. It was the most crude EZ Up setup you will ever see. Rain stops 30 min after we setup. We are soaked.
7. While we were setting this up, my Haulmark trailer ramp decided to warp. the inside plywood bubbled in an area. Have only had this brand new trailer for about one month.
8. Wheel egg out to see it sink in the swamp. Someone mentioned on an earlier post that I should use much larger casters. They are right! This contest was held at the airport so I figured it would be pavement. Those wheels worked great in my garage. By this time it is like 10pm.
9. Things seem to be settling down now about 2am. Butts and Briset are doing well, no rain. I decide to have a cigar and the lighter is out.
10. Go to get the small egg nest to move a butt onto because I have a larger brisket and we got started late. During the trip a bolt worked itself loose and out of the truck. Can’t use the nest now.
11. Battery dies on the Maverick temp probe. No backup battery.
12. When packing up, ground is still very saturated. I had the table on some board pieces. So we try pushing and get up the ramp but end of table sinks. I recruit two guys to help me lift one end and I will push the other. As we go up the ramp the egg falls slightly and hits me in the face, breaking my two front teeth off in the middle.

We somehow manage to finish 6th in chicken, 9th in ribs and 7th overall out of 30. My dentist is a friend of ours so I called him and he was able to get me in at 830 tonight to fix my teeth until Monday.

Good news is the trip home was safe and boring. We will always now have stories of this. Funny thing is a guy from another team ended up in the ER the night before because he cut through his finger. Maybe this contest is cursed.

We will be completing in the 1st Annual Grand River Fly In this weekend in Chilicothe, Mo.  Haven’t had a comp in a few weeks so I am looking forward to it.