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#33 American Royal Open, Kansas City, Missouri - October 2006
156th place overall / 476 teams
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Chicken
290th
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Ribs
226th
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Pork
139th
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Brisket
100th
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| Well the Open is always interesting. Nearly 500 teams means nearly 500 judges, all trying to assign numbers to appearance, taste and tenderness. Kenny told me I should just skip mentioning how we did, but since our food was pretty much exactly what we wanted to tun in, I figure we should feel good about the day. Plus we have been blessed with two Opens out of three where we have been in the top 20 overall. So what the heck! We did not receive very nice scores.... |
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#32 American Royal Invitational, Kansas City, Missouri - October 2006
11th place overall / 85 championship teams
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Chicken
47th
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Ribs
36th
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Pork
9th
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Brisket
22nd
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| Our third year straight at the Royal Invitational, and the drive out is not getting any shorter! As with the other years, this was an event to remember. It is a scene like no other, and this year was no different. This year the Invitational had 85 teams that turned food into the judges, and once again we improved on last year's results. Our pork, which has been doing well all year long, continued to wow the judges, and we were rewarded with a 9th place call up to the stage! Of the four categories, we only got one call that was not in the top 50th percentile, and that consistency netted us an 11th place overall finish...sadly, just 2 ten thousandths of a point from being listed as a top ten overall team! Congrats to Mike Davis, and Lotta Bull BBQ for not only a banner year, but for winning the invitational! And to our friends on the Smokin Clones team for a strong Reserve Grand Championship showing....only 4 ten thousandths behind the winner! |
American Royal Invitational and Open BBQ Competition, October 2006
The Royal is always an amazing scene. Our only regret as we are driving home is that there is just not enough time to get around and see everyone we know. Sometimes you spend 10 minutes with someone, and you wish you could have spent a couple hours. But with 2 contests to cook, and with everyone else being overwhelmed with good friends too, we just run out of time. Still, we got to hang out with dozens and dozens of good friends, and the whole team had the time of our lives. As a bonus, we got to drive home knowing we made some major strides with our 11th place overall finish in, what some say, is the toughest contest on the circuit. The Royal Invitational.
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| A few hours into our trip West, and a wrong turn put us in dowtown Pittsburgh! Not what we wanted, but we really enjoyed the scenery. |
Pittsburgh is a very cool place that says "industry". |
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| Industry, and plenty of steel! |
Jump a thousand miles to the West, and the next afternoon we dropped the trailer off at the Royal! |
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| Good friend Rod Gray suggested we stop by Bichelmeyers for some good meat. Glad we did! Thanks Rod. |
Kansas City has its share of industry as well. |
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| From the overpass looking toward the Kemper Arena, you can see the folks on the invitational side getting set up. |
Over on the "dark side" (where the wildest party scene you ever saw will be) a bunch of party tents were already set up when we arrived. |
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| Chuck came in on Thursday and got right to work on our 9th place pork for the invitational. |
You see all kinds of cookers. This is a wild looking beast. |
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| Lanterns have become an important part of our camp, and Kenny and Andy spend some time cleaning them up for the evening. |
Another critical part of our camp. Our lineup of Big Green Eggs. |
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| Our site is bigger than at most contests, and we have plenty of room to spread out. The eggs are ready to roll! |
Our other sponsor, The BBQ Guru, provides our team some great support, and helps us all get some much needed sleep! |
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| A Thursday afternoon look down the aisle where the big boys play. |
Kenny grinds up some pork for sausage. |
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| The morning and the cookers are all rolling. |
Chuck cooked up a killer breakfast for everyone. It was so good that he kinda earned himself a permanent job! |
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| Late afternoon is time to get the gurus on. |
Ribs are glistening in the sunlight. They were good for 16th place of 85 pro teams in the Invitational! |
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| Andy absorbs all of the good luck out of Chris' Dad's special rockin' chair. |
Andy, Kenny and Chuck before the award ceremony. |
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| Inside at the awards ceremony....just about to get goin! |
Saturday finds a big crowd on hand, and Kenny explains the virtues of the Big Green Egg to some local folks. |
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| Our buddy Kevin was set up not too far away cooking as "The Grilling Room" with his friend Tony and their wives. Their first year at the Royal, and they did pretty well on their eggs. |
Kenny weard a bunch of hats, and when CHris is not around, he does the interviews. This nice lady, from the local paper, was asking some good questions about Dizzy Pig. |
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| Space is at a premium, and some folks got creative with their tent placement. |
Here's Kenny again. That fella is everywhere. Hey Kenny, good friends of yours there?? |
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| The scene on Saturday evening as things shape up for the mardi gras of bbq contests! |
Some cool fireworks went on for a while. |
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| Real good friends are a big part of the Royal experience. Rod Gray of Pellet Envy, and Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke show their support for the little guys!! |
Kenny and Chuck go over possible presentation ideas for the sausage. |
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| Chris is running around crazy during turn ins, and Chuck handled cooking our sausage entry. |
Darren cooks on a team called Smokin' Clones. Always among the top teams in the country, and a really good guy to boot. |
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| Kenny, Chris, Chuck and Andy show off Dizzy Pig's 9th place ribbon in the Pork category. Shaweeet! |
Yet another friend of ours, Phat Phil, styles along in this cool-ass trailer! |
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| Walking through the building where they had the awards and a BBQ trade show where you could buy stuff related to BBQ. |
Always a pleasure to have her in our camp, Steph (who cooks on the highly successful Tom and Josh's Orgasmic Slabs team) takes a sip of the single barrel Jack. |
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| Chuck hangs out with Steve before the Open awards. |
Before the awards, and after we had most of our stuff packed up, we got together with our neighbors and floated their keg. |
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| The scene as the sun went down on the Royal Open. |
We got to spend a little time with our buds on the "I Smell Smoke" bbq team from New England. Pat was havin a good ol' time. |
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| Speakin' of good times, and I Smell Smoke, Steve cracks open a fresh bottle of Patron Anejo tequila. |
Cruising home through the heartlands. |
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| We became pretty good friends with route I-70. |
And except for a little detour into Kentucky, the 1100 mile ride home was not too bad. |
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