Girl Down…
Last week, we jumped into the cauldron that is known as the Sam’s Club National BBQ Tour. Sam’s Club has a tournament that basically runs all year long. There are five regions with five local qualifiers in each region. To advance to the regional, you have to finish in the top 6 of your local qualifier.
Last weekend was our local qualifier at Sam’s Club in Laurel, MD. The goal…a top six finish so that we could cook the very next weekend at the regional in Richmond, VA. It would not be easy.
Usually one or the other of the locals in our area get slammed with the majority of the great teams from the mid Atlantic. Laurel was that local this year. It seemed like everyone was going to be there. Including Tuffy Stone from Cool Smoke.
We got there early and got to see our great friends Mike and Michelle from Hog It Up BBQ. We got to hang out for a while. Then Mr. Bob arrived. Bob cooked with us in Fredericksburg, VA, and is going with us to the American Royal in October, so he wanted some reps in with the team and volunteered to come to Laurel.
Bob was, in no fewer words, a machine. He helped with all manner of set up items and we were ready to go around noon time.
The girls would show up around dinner time and we would head over to a pot luck hosted by Rockin Robyn’s. Great food, and we even broke out the guitars for a bit of pickin’ and singing.
The weather was amazing, and everything went according to plan for the most part. Except for a bit of a mishap around 1 a.m. in the trailer. It was cool enough for Kim to sleep in the truck, so we only had the one cot set up in the trailer. We had it skooched over onto one side while Leigh Anne was grabbing her back pack, and as she started to move towards the trailer door, her leg caught the cot leg….and boom…lesbian face plant. Face down, on the ground. No arms. Just BAM.
I rushed over to see if LAT was okay. She hopped up and said, “I need to go sit down.” I followed her out. She checked everything and was fine. So then I could begin the laughing. I honestly had never seen anyone fall like that.
The rest of our cook went well. We were excited for awards, but nervous and anxious at the same time.
And awards…well, awards were awesome. 2nd chicken, 3rd ribs, 8th pork, and 3rd brisket. We knew we were in the mix, but it was going to be close.
And we ended up winning GC by .49 over our dear friends Rockin Robyn’s.
Which means it’s Richmond for the next two weeks, and no long drives to Myrtle Beach! Hoodie hoo!
Harpoons…
So last week was our first foray down into Hampton, VA to cook at the VA BBQ Championships at the Langley Speedway just outside of Langley AFB.
There was plenty to talk about! First of all, a F-22 pilot decided to put on an aerial display on Friday, running maneuvers for a solid 45 minutes right above the race track parking lot. Very, very cool. (I’m gonna try and post a video.)
There was an awesome car show too, all around the race track. Good stuff.
Also a lot of our BBQ friends too. Our friends Chix, Swine, and Bovine were back out in the mix, as was our good friends JD’s Smokin Misfits, Aporkalypse Now, Serial Griller, and Sauce This! We would also get to see some of our NC friends on this trip too, including Scott from Sauced! plus Brian Corbett and family from Smokin Skullies. Not to mention, the reappearance of our California homey Mike Lindley from Smokin’ Mo’s. Killin it on both coasts like Pac and Biggie.
The weather was pretty fantastic and we did our thing Friday night and Saturday morning. We had some hiccups, but pushed through.
There was some wonkiness to this comp. Backyard BBQ contestants would be turning their two meats at the same time as the pros. Then there would be some judge shuffling. No bueno, cause there are so many opportunities for things to go wacky. But everyone was in the same boat. I digress…
We had a very solid showing, 10th chicken, 4th ribs, and 6th brisket for 6th overall. (Not sure what happened with pork…). Congrats to Sauced! on GC and Smokeaholics in RGC. Great job!
But no no no…the fun didn’t stop there. We all gathered up and headed to Harpoon Larry’s for some dinner and drinks after awards. Neither disappointed. The restaurant is owned by Mark and Nikki with Serial Griller, and they have done a tremendous job. A great experience with the company of our BBQ family. If you are ever in the Hampton area, I encourage you to give Harpoon Larry’s a try. You’ll be “hooked.” See what I did there…
No More, Susan Lucci!
Last week OVS trucked on up to good ol’ Bel Air, MD for the MD BBQ Bash. Ahh….good ol Bel Air. Home of the Orange crush. Oysters galore. Ravens fans everywhere, and Wagon Wheel played about 36 times throughout the two days.
We had a great time up there last year, and we’re really looking forward to cooking there again. Kim and I arrived up there on Thursday, got the trailer all situated and then went to dinner with our great friends Sharon and Mark Gibbs. The Ravens were playing a pre season game, and there was plenty of purple out and about, but Kim and I made it back to the trailer safely.
Friday was pretty uneventful. We got through our prep, had lunch with the Brown Liquor boys, and then got ready to go. We also had a tremendous pot luck dinner with Rockin’ Robyn’s, Aporkalypse Now, Brown Liquor, Team Meat Coma and a host of others that I’m sure I am forgetting.
Leigh Anne arrived and then things started getting weird throughout the night. Our buddy Pat (aka Flat Stanley) was asleep in BWal’s (Brian Walrath’s) truck, when the truck was hit by a drunk driver. Flat Stanley was okay, but only after BWal made sure he was ok.
Our cook went fine. Close to the judges tent. It was also a great surprise to get to see our good friend Sir William Stillwell, aka Goat, who was with us in DC. He was hanging with Neil Pappy from Grand Slam for the weekend.
And wouldn’t you know it…we finally got a First Place in pork. We had four 2nds this year, and we’re glad to get that monkey off our back. We finished 3rd overall, behind two of our favorite teams out there, Chix Swine and Bovine (GC) and Black Cat BBQ (RGC.)
Even further congrats extended to Brown Liquor for a perfect 180 in Ribs. I betcha someone got drunk somewhere…and congrats to 3eyz on a 180 in chicken.
Up next, VA BBQ Championships in Hampton, VA next weekend.
180 Girl
On the recommendation of our family at Dizzy Pig, we signed up for the Black Dog BBQ Festival in beautiful Floyd, Virginia. We had been to Floyd earlier in the year when we dropped the trailer off for a week with Susan and Theresa, and thought, “Yeah, we’ll come back here.”
We tried our best to get down there Thursday, but the weather and sleepiness argued otherwise. After some sleep, we headed to Chateau Morrisette on Friday morning, through a ridiculous fog.
Friday was also Jack draw day. We got to the site, and then got maneuvered into our site. Levelling the trailer was going to be a problem.
Thank God Tommy Houston from Checkered Pig was there. We found some big wood blocks…got her all jacked up and reasonably safe, and then got everything set up.
Floyd presented many awesome things. Next to our pals Dizzy Pig. Also joining he fray would be our great friends from the Carolina’s, Redneck Scientific. Jerry (aka Superman) and his awesome sister Roxanne were in the house, and brought this crazy pizza oven to make pizza for everyone on Friday. Also, a surprise visit from our buds Kathy and Allen Clem from Under the Radar.
The afternoon was harried. Kim was makin’ her anything butt dish, and Luke was doing meat prep to get everything ready.
The cooks meeting was at five, and then anything butt turn in….then pizza time. Right as the judges meeting ended, I checked my phone. Jack draw had been posted.
I checked it in silence. No OVS. No Redneck. No Checkered Pig.
Sadness.
But…a lot of our friends got drawn and our area will be very well represented. Special congrats to 270 Smokers, Under the Radar, and our brothers from another mother Big Block BBQ on getting the call. Represent, ya’ll.
We decided to drown our sorrows in pizza. I think Jerry rolled out about 15 of em…including three lobster mac and cheese pizzas using Kim’s leftovers. Everyone was happy.
Back to the trailer. Hung out with Dizzy Pig for a while, and then got the fires started .
The weather was awesome. Very cool, and foggy throughout the night. We set to work in the morning and had four solid turn ins.
One of the great things about Floyd is the efficiency. Awards would be at 3. Kim’s mom, her sister and a family friend came down for the afternoon.
The first award was going to be anything butt. Dizzy Pig rocked a third place for their rack of lamb, which was phenomenal. Then they announced second. Not us. I was so nervous….
1st place…OVS. Oh my.
Kim and I were over the moon. We went up to get the award and then came back to our seats. They told us we needed to come back. 180. Perfect score.
I cannot express the joy I felt for Kim. Such a huge accomplishment. I’m so proud of her.
We had a great showing. 6th place chicken, 10th place ribs, and 2nd place ribs for fourth overall. Huge congrats to Wolf’s Revenge on their RGC and Game On BBQ for their GC.
On to the next one….MD BBQ Bash in Bel Air, MD!
“Caught me right in the ovaries…”
Ahh, the annual trip down to St. Mary’s county for the Southern Maryland Brew and BBQ. This event was hosted last year by our great friends the Palmers, who have since passed that torch and would be competing right beside us.
We would be back after a quick week off in which we made some changes to the Virginia Creeper in an effort to make her easier to clean. So. Maryland would be the first in hopefully what is an 8 week grind on the competition trail.
We got there Thursday evening for a bit of fun with our friends, and then hit the ground running on Friday morning. It sure was humid and hot, but we pushed through it. We also got to see a bunch of friends we hadn’t seen in a while, including Big Ugly, The Inked Pig, and Mike Lindley from Smokin’ Mo’s.
Leigh Anne got there that evening and we got everything up and running. It would be the second night that Kim and I would be sleeping in the trailer on our bunk bed cots. The first night was fantastic. But Friday would be different, as I would have to get up a lot to put food in and watch the cookers.
At about 3 a.m., it got hot, and I needed to make a blanket adjustment. So I kicked them with my feet, straight up. I heard a low groan…
“You caught me right in the ovaries.”
Kim never sleeps on her stomach. But for some reason she was this time. And unfortunately, I kicked her.
Luckily, there were no more issues throughout the night.
Our cook went well, especially with a new tweak to the brisket we had been thinking about. A lot of our judge friends stopped by afterwards and said hi. Then in was time for awards. Right in the path of the burning blazing sun.
Well, the judges certainly didn’t like what we put out. Finished with a 9th place brisket call and 20th overall. Rough day at the office, but we will be back next week in Floyd, VA!
Big congrats to 3 Eyz on their Grand Championship, 4:20 on their reserve and huge ups to Rockin’ Robyn’s for their very strong 3rd place finish. And a nod to our sponsor, BBQ Guru, on their first place rib, which took home the liquor in the Stock the Bar Summer Rib Challenge.
And…the best for last. To my little buddy Cadin and his grandad Lynn…great job on the GC in the Backyard division. They worked hard and came in first! Great job guys!!
Slurry Bear
Back to backs in southern Virginia. We dropped the trailer off with our friends Susan and Theresa from our Dizzy Pig family and then headed north to recouperate for a few days. Then headed back down, picked up the Virginia Creeper from its mountain hideaway, and the descended on to Galax VA for Smoke on the Mountain.
Galax is a neat little comp. it’s a joint contest…KCBS and Memphis BBQ Network. Turn ins are all weird and everything, but we get to see a bunch of people that we otherwise don’t get to see throughout the year. So it’s fun.
Yet it’s also a dubious place as well. The home of our first ever dead ass last…last year in chicken. Time to rectify. Revenge chicken.
Plus our travel buddies Mark and Nikki from Serial Griller and Jay from 4:20 would be there too. We would also get to spend some time with our buddies Chiles and Randy from Wolfs Revenge and the always awesome Mr. Salsberry from Fred Vegas. Good times.
We got there on Thursday, got the trailer parked, and checked into our hotel room for the weekend. This place…wow. Just terrifying. There was a lot of excitement to get back to the trailer on Friday morning.
We also were cooking Anything Butt on Friday. The girls would take their swings with their awesome lobster bacon Mac and cheese. So delicious.
We got through the night with a little bit of rain as per usual, and then got started with some breakfast chicken. Turn ins at 10 a.m. We made it through with all the weird turn in times. Had a lot of down time, and got to keep ahead of everything. And because the timelines were a bit wacky, we had to bring the Grillenium Falcon (the wsm) out of retirement for the occasion.
We decided since awards were so late to spend another night in the Galax. Which may or may not have led to some over consumption issues with 420Q and the Serial Griller. Awards were fun, cheering our friends on, and getting a 7th place pork and second ribs for an 8th overall. The chicken….well it wasn’t last. But they definitely don’t like our bird down in ol Galax.
And the girls had a monster 2nd place with the lobster mac and cheese! And we got to feed a bunch of people this deliciousness on Saturday!
A needed week off before an 8 week grind. Next stop…Southern Maryland Brew and BBQ!
Huge thanks to Dizzy Pig, BBQ guru, Havn’a BBQ Sauce Kosmos Q and The Wine’ing Butcher for their support!
“Mayor said…”
When the Chillin’ and Grillin’ in the Glades popped up on the calendar, we figured…what the hey. Neither of us had been down to that part of Virginia before. It was a first year comp, and Kim had met the organizer earlier in the year in Lanexa, VA. She said Greg seemed like a nice fella, so we signed up.
We got to Wise around 6 p.m. on Thursday and had a very nice dinner with some BBQ friends at the hotel. We were staying at The Inn at Wise, which, according to just about any staff member you asked, is completely haunted.
The next day we got set up on the corner right across from the hotel. Primo spot, close to the hotel room that we rarely have when we are cooking. We were set up next to our new friend Billy Rhoades from Hickory Prime, who was right beside our traveling companions Serial Griller. Mark was by himself this weekend, so no fun hijinks with Nikki!
There were only 19 teams at this comp, but the field was extremely top heavy. 9 teams within the top 61 in the country were here. Including Donny Bray from Warren County Pork Choppers. Luke had taken Donny’s class earlier in the year, and this would be his first time cooking against him.
The usual stuff ensued. It naturally rained its ass off on Friday night. We made friends with the cook team across the street made up of prison guards, who facilitated a moonshine tasting party at 1:30 a.m. (Caramel and blackberry. What a treat. )
Kim got up and we set to work. We were without Leigh Anne, which meant more work for Kim and Luke. There were no surprises, but the ribs were a little tight. Time to hope and see at awards.
While cleaning up, Luke asked the Mayor, with whom we had befriended the day earlier, if he could move the truck onto the street and hook up the trailer. He said sure, no problem. So, we did. Shortly after, another official came by and said, “hey….move that truck.”
Luke looked at him and replied, straight dead panned, “Mayor said…”
The dude laughed and said it was cool. Droppin’ the mayor card.
Also during clean up, we see a dude just running around Serial Griller’s cooksite, cleaning everything and in general moving like a bug on a hot rock. Luke strolled down and asked Mark, “hey, did you get a new teammate when we weren’t looking?”
Mark replied, “Thats Greg. He’s doing community service.”
Turns out the organizer is a parole officer, and had dudes doing community service during the event. Genius.
This is an option?? Mark Breen, ladies and gentlemen. BBQ innovator.
Onto awards. Four teams were ripping out calls in every category….our friends from Under the Radar, our furry buddy Jay with 4:20Q, who had a first place chicken and brisket, the defending team of the year Warren County Pork Choppers…and OVS, with a 2nd place chicken, 7th place ribs, 4th placed pork and 5th place brisket. It was gonna be tight.
We thought for sure ol Hey Hey Jay had us, but then they called him for third. Down to us…and the 2014 KCBS team of the year.
And he got us. Which was expected.
Still, we were super excited to finish as RGC. We stayed in Wise another night to celebrate with friends, and enjoyed a kick ass show by Nighttrain, a Guns n Roses tribute band.
Wise VA has some of the best people you will ever meet. Some usual first year hiccups, but one of the most team friendly events you will ever find. We can’t wait to go back next year!
Got to see some friends we hadn’t seen in a long time, like our friend Sean Mikel with Contagious Q, and Allen and Kathy Clem with Under the Radar. Had a blast rocking out Saturday night with Daniel from Flavor Savor. We also made some new ones including Billy, Kelly and Rhonda from Uncultured Swine, and Jackie from Smoke On This. And Matt Smith and the prison guards. Those guys rule.
Couldn’t do this without all of the support from our sponsors Dizzy Pig BBQ, The BBQ Guru, BBQ Bob’s Havn’ a BBQ Sauce, Kosmos Q and The Wine’ing Butcher.
See you next week in Galax!
National Pork Champions!
There will be a little bit of everything in this one…
It was Old Virginia Smoke’s first foray into the Safeway BBQ Battle in Washington, DC. It has been said that the contest is a logistical nightmare, with a late load in on Friday night, late turn ins on Saturday, super large crowds and just in general, being in DC.
And yes, most of that is true.
There also would be the addition of onsite judging in the ribs and pork categories. The onsite judging score would be combined with the KCBS rib score and pork score to determine the National Pork Champion.
We would arrive on Constitution Ave. at around 7:30 p.m., where we would meet Leigh Anne, who was already checked into the hotel. We heard that we could be there a while, even till midnight, but we were prepared. However, Mike Fay from Aporkalypse Now and Keith Tremel from Fat Maxine’s pressed the issue and we got situated at around 9:30.
We immediately got meat inspected, and set to work on the first three categories: chicken, brisket and lamb.
We had concocted a special plan for the lamb, and we’re going to grind it and do lamb sliders. Something different.
We set out on Saturday full of vigor. Several road blocks presented themselves—1.). It would rain….all day…and very hard. 2.) Lamb was being judged KCBS style. No veggies. No bread. No sliders.
We needed a new plan.
We were joined on Saturday by Sir William Stillwell, aka “The Goat” from sports radio fame. The four of us put our heads together and decided to make lamb meatballs, which we decided to call “William stillwell’s Goa’ Balls.” We knew they weren’t going to win. So we had fun with it.e
Chicken and brisket were ok. The timelines were screwy…the weather was screwy. It was just odd. But we got right to work on ribs and pork for the next days turn ins. The girls would get good sleep in the hotel, and we would be ready to rock and roll.
Talk about a sea change in the weather. Sunday was magnificent. Nice sun, blue sky…and good fires all night long. We felt like we were missing a bunch of things. But it turns out that all were missing was he chicken and brisket from the day before. Pork and ribs went off without a hitch.
Now it was time for the onsite judging. The girls did a fantastic job in decorating the table for the judges and the grill for the meat. First was ribs. I’m lucky to cut up a rack of ribs and hit one or two bones. Now I’d have to do it front of people. In the one rack, I got four clean bones. So each judge got 2 ribs. It went great. (Thank you Mike Fay for the shot of whiskey to cal me down.).
Next was pork, and it went well. Again, none of this would have happened had it not been for the girls. So much hard work and attention to detail. Made everything beautiful.
We did our best to get as cleaned up as we could, and headed to awards. Surrounded by BBQ legends and heavy hitters, it was definitely humbling. We were cooking a major competition, and hoping for a call.
Chicken and brisket were first. And no calls. It was a three way race between great friends of ours…Pork Barrell, Serial Griller, and Aporkalypse Now.
And then it was the dreaded lamb. They called four…and we didn’t hear our name. Come to find out…the amazing Goa’ Balls finished fifth, one spot out of the money!
On to ribs….and the names keep coming off…until they announce Old Virginia Smoke as the rib champ!!! What a relief…at least we heard our name. Then pork comes down, and we get a second place behind our new friend Matt Barber with Hot Wachulas! Man…two great calls.
We forgot about the pork championship and the Safeway ribs championship. OVS takes both,and named the national pork champion. Hahahaha. It’s still so fun to say.
Never in a million years had we dreamed that would happen. So much fun. And Aporkalypse Now won the GC, and Serial Griller got the RGC, making it a clean sweep for Mid Atlantic BBQ Association teams.
Great job to everyone that heard their names called! A great competition, and I cannot wait for next year. America!!
Almost Heaven…
Last week was the Almost Heaven BBQ Bash in Buckhannon, WV. The crew had been looking forward to this event for a long time. An auto to the jack. An event back in Luke and Leigh Anne’s home state. And an opportunity to cook for a bunch of family and friends that otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to see us.
After a great night in Morgantown, we headed to Buckhannon on Friday and got set up pretty quick. We got to reunite with a lot of our BBQ friends, and made a few new ones as well. We had a nice group dinner at the Mexican restaurant before it was time to get to gettin’.
However, the theme would quickly become rain. It rained and stormed off and on for most of the weekend.
We had the pleasure of cooking next to our buddy Tom Bera and Philly Blind Big. A fabulous time was had trading song lyrics and movie quotes all day.
We had a really good cook, but didn’t have long to relax. We had visitors from all sides….a lot of Luke’s family and well, as Leigh Anne put it, “everyone that would come to my (Leigh Anne’s) funeral.” There was barely a stitch of meat left.
That was coupled with the anticipation of a very powerful thunderstorm coming through. A big thanks to the Aporkalypse fellas for helping us tear down our site. We quickly stashed everything into the trailer, including mom, and then waited it out. Awards would be in the Moose Lodge.
We had another really good cook. 2nd place ribs, 7th place pork and 8th place brisket in a really hard field. Big congrats to 3 Eyz BBQ on their GC and Checkered Pig for their RGC. And a huge shout out to Mark Gibbs with Checkered Flag 500 on his 180 brisket.
Enough words cannot be said about the Almost Heaven BBQ Bash crew. They were on the spot for all of our needs. What a great first year comp. We look forward to going back next year and giving it another spin.
Next week it’s on to DC for the Safeway BBQ Battle! We hope to see you there!
#feetorinches
Back to one of our favorite competitions ever, the Beltway BBQ Showdown in Ft. Washington, MD. Its one of our favorites in that it was the first competition that we judged, and the first competition where we won GC.
Luke would get there on Thursday to get set up that night, as he and Kim would have to work on Thursday. Halfway through setting up the pop up/first beer, Luke was notified by Kim that he left all of his clothes at home. Setup would be cut short.
Luke would get in the truck and head to Walmart for all the clothing and sundry needs. However, he wouldnt think to check the back gate of the truck. Somewhere between the campground and the Walmart is a propane tank, mostly full. Good stuff.
Leigh Anne would head out frist thing on Friday, and complete set up. Luke would roll in around 2 and start meat prep, and Kim would bring in the rear.
There is a lot more to this story…but I forgot about this post. I found a half completed draft. So let’s just put some musings here. Jonathan does a great job. Also, Jonathan will do some terrible things for you for a modest fee. Ok, I made that part up. He is the man. The contest is awesome. But I put up a picture of the girls, because without them, this wouldn’t happen. I give them a lot of shit and stuff…and they call me on it. But they are the the machine that makes us tick. I love them both more than I can ever type here. I wouldn’t wanna do BBQ without them.
We had a good cook. It was hotter than hades that day, and all of our friends got calls , which was pretty sweet. We finished up third overall, just a skosh out of RGC land. Huge ups to Pork Barrell BBQ on GC and Aporkalypse Now on RGC.