Columbia, MO - Elks Lodge - The Good, The Bad and The REALLY REALLY Ugly

We made it over to Columbia, MO this weekend for the Elks Lodge contest. Our first time here – the venue was nice. We had plenty of space, electricity and it was a well ran comp overall. Even with the crazy wind shear going on all weekend and the frosty temps on overnight fire watch, H*QUE came out sluggin at award time. 41 teams were there, with quite a few serious heavy hitters in the mix. We took 9th in ribs and our highest ever brisket call at 3rd place! In fact – according to the score sheet we tied for 2nd place – so AWESOME!! We took 9th out of 41 overall – WOO HOO!!!!! So we achieved our goals for the weekend by moving chicken up – FINALLY!!! More work to do but we’ll get that chicken figured out – lol!

Now for the bad – H*QUE was having a pretty good day with the awards – everyone was feeling good – time to head it home – unload and relax. That was not to be had. The H*QUE mobile command unit, read that as our 30′ RV, decided to throw a rod or something and we blew the engine on the highway not more than about 15 min into the ride going home. Oil spray all over the highway petty much put the nail in the coffin of the H*QUE mobile command unit. May she rest in peace. She treated us pretty well over the last year.

I’d like to take a minute and put up a special thanks to those who stopped and helped us out on the side of the road.

Double Smoked saw us and stopped in and gave us a hand in helping to find a tow truck and help out with phone calls and brainstorming. Thanks so much Double Smoked bbq team – we owe you one!

Que’s Your Daddy swung out and stopped by – allowed us to offload our extra stuff into their trailer and followed us home to let us unload.

The bbq community is a tight one and it showed in the moments to follow the competition with teams stopping to help us out. We can’t say thanks enough to those teams for the help and we’re indebted.

Thanks to my team once again for a job well done – I’m proud of us! We all worked well together again – and thanks for all the help with the aftermath of the RV hell that ensued.

Here’s The Scores:
Chicken – 18th
Ribs – 9th
Pork – 28th
Brisket – 3rd
Overall – 9th