Good Time at the BBQ Cook-off

Well, it's been hard to get these pictures and thoughts from the trip sorted out. Take me away from my comfort zone, and I'm lost. Some of these pictures downloaded the right size and some not, and I'm not sure what to do about it. I'll work on them later today to make them bigger.

We had tickets to the Lubbock BBQ Cookoff on the Thursday I was there - maybe my birthday, I don't remember. We drove over without knowing exactly where we were going, but we trusted the GPS lady, and she got us in the general vicinity. The smoke and aroma got us all the way in.

This is just a picture of Broadway as we were parking. I love those wide brick streets. Mike points. I click.



Once we found the gate and started down the main street, there were grills and cookers as far as we could see and on each side on the side streets. I'm not good as guessing, but there could have been 75-100 different entries - maybe more. It was tempting to just grab the first offering, but we held back and waited until we got to the second one. It was brisket wrapped in a tortilla, and it was delicious. We liked it so much that several hours later after we had sampled a lot of other things, Mike went back and found the same thing, and we ended the day on it.

I can't even remember all the things there were. We missed out on the prize-winning fajitas. They sold out quickly, but we did try some others along with pork and beef BBQ, wonderful grilled chicken and sausage. I think Mike wanted to taste some of the exotic meats, but we didn't see any.

I asked Mike for clarification on the contest: "The beef is all from the brisket. The people that competed were required to do brisket, chicken, and ribs. Then the fourth meat they did was their choice. We did not see prairie chicken, or antelope, or elk, or anything else, but i was told you had to ask. It is a fact that the sand hill cranes are consumed out here, and Elise and I have tried that done as jerky."

The atmosphere was great. It wasn't crowded at first, but even when it was shoulder to shoulder at the end, there was no pushing or rudeness, just good humor, good (loud) music, and friendly well-fed people. We ran into Cleo and Betsy, and it was nice to meet Betsy and see Cleo again. I was thrilled to see the Red Raider mascot, but mascots with big human-looking heads scare me, so I kept my distance.

This is the only thing that we couldn't quite like - our only failure. A pepper stuffed with cheese and wrapped with bacon. We picked around on it and tried to like it but couldn't. I believe I had some shrimp at some point, but it all kind of runs together.

I was such a fun day, and I'm glad I got to experience it. I'd love to have some of those things in my refrigerator right now.