Montana Pitmaster Classic goes great. Strange and surprising BBQ off Season. Time for a Rock N Roll BBQ Competition Odyssey.

 

Montana Pitmaster Classic goes great.  Strange and surprising BBQ off Season.  Time for a Rock N Roll BBQ Competition Odyssey.

To all the Masters of the Grill, Chiefs of the Charcoal, King of the Pit, Boss of the BBQ - also known as the dude in the apron.

Last August my family journeyed to Bozeman for our family favorite Montana Pitmaster Classic.  It was our last competition of the year and our 3rd time in Bozeman since moving back to Montana.  

Some highlights were seeing our good BBQ friends, Ashley Construction brought in some ringers from Texas (Tito's Vodka BBQ Team) who made a great Saturday morning breakfast, and my best scores ever in all categories.  It was a great weekend that my entire family enjoyed.  

Three months later my wife had met someone new, asked me to move out and wanted a divorce, my kids joined me in my new house and Big Boyz BBQ was at a proverbial crossroads.  I had dedicated myself to getting healthy - so I started working out every day.  I lost 100 lbs in the first 100 days.  I also decided that we would do another BBQ season.  My wife had never really liked the BBQ world.  She had definitely gotten more into it last year, but it would be a stretch to think she was going to miss our weekend journeys all over the country.  So the kids and I prepared for our BBQ season.  

So we bought a new smoker - K4L Drum smoker from Owens BBQ.  We quickly mapped out a series of events that would take us south of Montana and through the Midwest, and we practiced.  Our scores had gone up from the year before - thanks in part to our BBQ friends and advice they gave us.  We had a practice competition at a local Brewery.  It was judged by non-KCBS judges, but I liked what I turned in and it ended up tying for first.  

Our Journey would start in Absarokee, MT at the Montana BBQ Cook-off.  From there - we would continue south to Frisco, CO and the Colorado BBQ Challenge.  The plan was to then go to The Great Lenexa BBQ Battle in Kansas and come back to Colorado and hit Sterling, CO for their Art of BBQ competition, before heading home.  Well - money started drying up and we cut Sterling.  We paid for Lenexa, but we decided we would play that one by ear.  Sure we might already be invested a few hundred dollars, but I am a teacher and single dad of two teenagers.  I do not have the disposable income that some teams have.   

I want to say that my friends and family have been extremely helpful in supporting me both personally and with BBQ.  It has been a very long and turbulent 6 months.  So this trip was supposed to get my mind off my past.   Not surprising - everything seems to remind me of the past 6 months.  The Band playing this weekend in Absarokee BBQ comp, the Waiting, is a Tom Petty Cover band and literally one of my wife and my favorite bands.  Go figure.  

So we pack up this week and start our journey.  The weather in Absarokee is supposed to be mixed.  The temperature has a range between 50-75 degrees with scattered thunderstorms.  Last week we had a fundraiser at a local brewery (Speakeasy 41 Brewery) here in Helena.  It rained the entire time and it was cold and miserable.  I decided I did not want the kids (or me) to have to sleep in our pop up tents in cold rain and thunderstorms.  

There are no hotels in the area.  The Super 8 twenty miles away was almost $200 a night.  WOW.  So we had to decide - were were going to drive the Class A motor home to Absarokee and and back and then drive the Truck from Helena to Colorado.  Or should we just take the Class A for the entire trip.  The Motorhome gets less than half the mileage as the truck.  But it does provide nice accommodations while we were cooking.  It came down to price.  The Truck would be about $100 cheaper than the Motor home (including hotels).  This also included our 360 mile back and forth between Helena and Absarokee in the Motor Home.  

After that though - we will be staying in the pop ups.  Temps in the Ski town of Frisco - look to be a high in the 60s and low in the 40s.  So it will be cold, but no rain.   I will also be lucky enough to have my brother and his family joining us for the competition.  My brother has arranged a small camper van.   Hopefully it will fit on sight - which would give us all a nice warm place to huddle if the night gets too cold.

The final leg of this journey is about 9 hours east of Denver near Kansas City, MO.  The Great Lenexa BBQ contest is large.  There are almost 200 teams at the competition.  This is the competition I was most excited about going to and sadly the one we will have to cancel.  Depending on funds - we might not be able to make it to the competition.  We are still busy fundraising (see our Venmo QR to donate) and hopefully we get some prize money in Absarokee and/or Frisco.

So here is to the 2023 KCBS BBQ Odyssey - a Rock N Roll BBQ Road Trip.

.