The 1st BBQ Comp I ever observed in Flushing MI

[white cloud]

All summer I have been wanting to check out a BBQ Comp but just never seemed to make it to any until this last Sat. Got up at 5 am and it was a cold and frosty 33 degrees outside. I was to hook up with RichT and a bud of his in the town of lapeer which is about 40 mins. from here around 7 am and follow him over to where the Comp was, and we arrived around 8 am. in this nice old town of Flushing. There are just over 6000 flushers residing there.



Here is Rich's site with the blue canopy and Capt. Dan was on the right with the white cover


Just a shot lookin down the row of competitors. You can see Bubba's team down the way and his Red Wing UDS., they had a couple other smokers down there also I think.



Turn in time was at 3 pm. and most folks got there ribs going at 9:30 to 10:00. I had brought a sack of hot peppers to give to rich so he decided to make some ABT's and he and his buddy hiked through town to find a grocery store for some bacon and cheese while I stayed back to keep an eye on things. Bubba and his crew made fattys and some really good polish sausage. The towns folk walked past all day asking; when do we get to sample some of the ribs? It was a rule that you could not give out samples ( although rich slipped a few ABT's to some people ) The people were very dissapointed because the smell in the air was unbelivable. I would ask them, what did you guys do wrong? LOL

Here is rich foiling the ribs.



And Capt Dan working on his presentation in his turn in container.



Capt Dan was very popular, alot of folks stopped and his site asking questions and checking out his lang. He even had and interview from a young local journalist.


There was alot of foiling going on. The Capt and wife did up I think 5 slabs and Rich 3.




After the turn in everyone seemed to go around sampling each others ribs. I had only tried Capt Dan and rich's they were all very good. I see Bubba went and stole a rib from the 2 brother team next to him. That team had a cool rotiserie smoker



Here is the big announcment for the winner of the Rib Burn. I would of gotten closer But was waiting for road service to come and unlock my truck. What a knuckle head I am LOL



Congrats again guys, and if any of you have never went to a cook off you need to go a check it out just for the smell of it.
__________________

 

[richtee]

Wow... You got some great pix Lee! Thank ya! And again... for the help and everything else. Brothers in Q seem brothers for true. You can quote me :{)

 

[richoso1]

Thanks for the great pics, you seemed to have captured some of the spirit of those attending. Only goes to prove that it's all good.

 

[dirtman775]

wow awesome pics, glad you guys had good weather. Book em danno

 

[bassman]

Thanks for the pics. Got some good looking grub going there. I didn't see any smoked pickled bologna

.

 

[tn_bbq]

Looks like somebody could benefit from some PVC table stilts.

 

[fatback joe]

Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[travcoman45]

Nice pics lee! Ya mean ta tell me nobody round there had a hammer?

 

[white cloud]

I forgot to mention it was great meeting a few smfers

 

[capt dan]

Nice pics Lee, I may try to add some of mine a little later, just getting home from the fun weekend. Was a great time, and very nice to meet you and spend time in the next tent watchin you guys and everyone else having a fun day smokin ribs!

 

[bbq bubba]

Great pics Lee, nice finally meeting you!

 

[white cloud]

I did notice some PVC pipe laying on the ground they were cut I imagine they were for raisen the table. I guess everyones back is better than mine LOL

 

[capt dan]

Yes Lee the one table I was using had 8 inch heels on it

, the one I shared with ya didn't have any. I had those 12 inch pieces laying there, but I was afraid that rich would need a ladder if I put them on the table.

The "extensions" work well and save your back, especially if ya got a dozen butts to pull or multiple meats to slice.

 

[white cloud]

LOL Captain

 

[pineywoods]

Great pics Lee thanks for sharing them. Looks like ya'll had a great time. Musta been fun getting together with other SMF'ers and enjoying the day. Congrats again to all of you.

 

[richtee]

Thanks Dan... I appreciate that! :{) I guess I should move on to short ribs?

 

[curious aardvark]

Man - that's just not good.
Is that normal ?
I can't imagine making it all the way over to a bbq comp in the states and not being able to eat anything.

Great pictures and great result :-)

 

[kookie]

Looks like lots of fun was had by all............Congrats guys...............

 

[capt dan]

Different municipalities have different health codes for certain events. This topic has been hashed out many times all over the country, especially in big comps(sanctioned events). If there are vendors selling food at the event, then is may be unfair for comp cooks to be giving away food, when the public can buy it from vendors. We pay an entry fee to participate, but they often pay 4-5 times what we pay for a site to be able to sell their wares.

The problem was(at least the way I took it) that the public was aware of a rib cook-off, but had not been informed that the ribs were only for the judges, and not to be purchased or sampled out.Some comp teams in the past have made up signs and such stating that there would be no samples or sales of competition food, I didn't want to do that, yet had to explain to literally 90% of the people who stopped by, that we couldn't give them any tastes. As I was cleaning up, I looked up and seen a guy and his large girlfriend( I'm no skinny fellow either) scoping out the teams, and he said" there! see , they just gave some to that guy" as he was pointing up the road towards the event center. She turned and said, " what!, I just asked them". It was clear that she was a bit PO ed. Some folks expect handouts, and some are really pretty nice about it.

The whole weekend was great, the event was fun and it was great to see a couple of my friends do well and grab a check/ribbon.Rich was nice enough to give me 2nd place ribbon we won together at Eagle this spring, so I was very proud and pleased to see him earn a 2nd place ribbon in this event, especially with first time help, and one of the smallest rigs for smoking. It says alot about his abilities as an acomplished smoker.

On another note,on our way home sunday around noon, we were heading down a 55 mph country road, slightly hung over and a lil foggy, when this dude towing a trailer goes blasting by, passing us as we aproached a stop sign a few hundred yards ahead.I didn't think to much about it, till he jumps out of his truck and runs back toawrds me, he was a large sumbeetch too! I thought, Oh crap, I either did something wrong, or my cooker is dropping gear ect.

He comes to the window, and I roll it down, he says" MAN! where dya git dat cooker?" Relieved, I smiled and chuckled, and had about a 2 minute conversation with him while he waved cars around us.He was sorry to have passed and then stopped, but he said," I had to find out where to get one of them things". We went on our way minutes later, and my wife just smiled at me, and said," I guess I can understand now why you are so proud to have it". Aint that the truth!

 

[smok'n steve]

I enjoyed hearing about the comp. Nice read Dan, really cool stories. I got an idea for ya-all. You guys need to beat the system! Make friends with the vendors, and sell em a few racks each let the vendors peddle your stuff?

Sounds like a lot of fun!

Steve