Meridian Texas was the place for all those heavy duty cookers to meet and compete. This cook-off was by invitation only. I must say that during the month of August, it's really hot in Meridian, Texas, however the experience was priceless. Don, Linn, & Darrell made the trip and Mama, Albert  and Vince came up that afternoon. We visited with Bobby & Jill Blankenship (Houston), Ronnie Latil (Sour Lake), Russell & Cecilia Coleman and family (Clute), T.C. Lipe (Angleton), Jeff & Linn Shivers (Arlington), and please forgive me if I failed to mention your name. We had an opportunity to visit with old friends, make some new friends, and enjoy a really great week-end for BBQ

We arrived on site about 11:30AM and pulled in line, we were number 136 with lots of folks ahead of us. Check in started at 08:00AM on Friday. First come first serve. We were finally on our location about 2:30PM and it only took us 30 minutes to set up. With close to 200 teams competing, and all winners, this was no doubt going to be a great cook-off experience. We were up for the challenge and when it was all said and done we were really pleased with our performance. We prepared the very best BBQ year to date. We made the final table in Chicken, our Brisket and Ribs were outstanding, and our enthusiasm second to none.  On each turn in, I stood around to see how the other teams products looked and I must say that I didn't see anything not worth sampling. All the BBQ looked absolutely wonderful! The judging folks did a great job. The turn-in's were a breeze, all moving smoothly and very efficiently. When it came time for the awards and announcements, again all went down very well. On a final note, certainly hope we can make this one again next year.

We are working very diligently to complete the new rig (Big Red) and hope to have it ready in the near future. I'm not sure that this will make our BBQ better however I know it will be less work in that every thing is pretty much self-contained. As soon as it is complete, I'll show off some photos!

Want to know more about Meridian Texas? http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/MM/hjm13.html

Don Wright

The Moonlight Cookers

http://www.moonlightcookers.com