We did a ‘thang’ yesterday at our American Legion Post…

Competition BBQ! Yes, it was 106 yesterday… But we were on the competition schedule and 15 cooks showed up! We were in at 0530, cooking breakfast burritos for the cooks and members that were helping out, and pulled pork sandwiches for lunch.

There were contests for beans, chicken, ribs, and brisket. And kids got to cook steaks! And volunteers from the public and members got to ‘judge’ the food. OBTW, if you ever get asked to judge, the PROPER way to do it is to cut off ONE BITE of the meat, eat that, throw your knife/fork in the trash bin, grade the meat, then move to the next tray and do that again (x15).

You DON’T pull off a chicken leg and start chowing down… sigh…

And there were some ‘interesting’ cookers…

And yes, for those playing along at home, he served on the USS Augusta, SSN 710. His ‘story’ was that he’d started building from the back, and wanted to add a small grill up front that he could use for ‘little things’. He realized that it kinda looked like a sub, so since he needed a smoke stack, he just fared it in and added the fairwater planes. And since he was a small gun and known for his ribs, it became the USS Shortrib…

Another interesting thing seen was one of our members (retired USAF E-9, Vietnam Vet, Nha Trang, 1969) brought out his K5 Blazer!

An all original 1983 Silverado version, original drivetrain (he admitted the engine was rebuilt at 250,000 miles).

And the interior is original too! He said he’s right at 289,000 miles, and needs to do a ‘little’ work on it, like carpet, new seat cushions, and upgrade the AC to R34, since it’s impossible to find R-12!!!

But as he said, this thing is his ‘baby’, and it’s still a daily driver, 31 years after he bought it!

But when it was all said and done, everybody had fun, the post got some donations, and the cookers that won got points for their BBQ standings with the sponsors. And Dot ‘won’ something at the silent auction…