Dodging the wet weather, we competed in the seventh annual BBQ'Loo & Blues Too in Waterloo, Iowa this past weekend. This event, hosted by Main Street Waterloo, is a KCBS sanctioned barbecue contest, people's choice chili contest and blues band event held in Lincoln Park, which is on the north side of the river in the downtown area. The park had tons of shade. Cookers lined up on three sides of the city block plus filled the park.
We arrived late to this one, pullin' up about 5:30 pm. So late, in fact, that we had some trouble getting to our spot, which was on the grass in the park under some huge trees. The last team to arrive, the cook teams assigned spots on the streets that border the event had already set up camp and there were crowds of people in the park because the chili teams were hard at work getting ready for the tasting contest. Thanks to the help of a great group of folks running this event, we made it into our spot with incident. Even better, all of the wet weather predicted for our time there didn't happen. Honestly, I didn't miss it, especially after the Shannon, IL downpours the previous weekend. By the way, I was vigorously assured this past weekend that the Shannon site drains very well. I think I'll invite the gruff contest rep at Shannon over to my spot during the downpour next time. I think the Shannon contest site drains very well, right into my assigned cook site!
We saw a lot of people we hadn't seen this year. We also met some great folks. As far as the contest goes, we won the chicken category and were called in the top ten in all of the four categories. It was just enough to edge out Lotta Bull BBQ, who finished as the Reserve Grand Champion. I didn't get to congratulate Mike & Debbie after the event. With a rig their size, I'm sure they were thinking about getting on to the next event in La Porte.
Congrats to all who heard their name called in Waterloo and everywhere this past weekend. Having two events so close together was a huge bonus this past weekend. We would have not gotten to cook as such a great event otherwise. Cool Smoke continued on their roll, winner their 6th event in 2008. Several other friends did well events around the country as well. It was definitely a full weekend of barbecue.
We arrived late to this one, pullin' up about 5:30 pm. So late, in fact, that we had some trouble getting to our spot, which was on the grass in the park under some huge trees. The last team to arrive, the cook teams assigned spots on the streets that border the event had already set up camp and there were crowds of people in the park because the chili teams were hard at work getting ready for the tasting contest. Thanks to the help of a great group of folks running this event, we made it into our spot with incident. Even better, all of the wet weather predicted for our time there didn't happen. Honestly, I didn't miss it, especially after the Shannon, IL downpours the previous weekend. By the way, I was vigorously assured this past weekend that the Shannon site drains very well. I think I'll invite the gruff contest rep at Shannon over to my spot during the downpour next time. I think the Shannon contest site drains very well, right into my assigned cook site!
We saw a lot of people we hadn't seen this year. We also met some great folks. As far as the contest goes, we won the chicken category and were called in the top ten in all of the four categories. It was just enough to edge out Lotta Bull BBQ, who finished as the Reserve Grand Champion. I didn't get to congratulate Mike & Debbie after the event. With a rig their size, I'm sure they were thinking about getting on to the next event in La Porte.
Congrats to all who heard their name called in Waterloo and everywhere this past weekend. Having two events so close together was a huge bonus this past weekend. We would have not gotten to cook as such a great event otherwise. Cool Smoke continued on their roll, winner their 6th event in 2008. Several other friends did well events around the country as well. It was definitely a full weekend of barbecue.
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