2009 Red, White and BBQ, Westmont, IL

The 2009 Red, White and BBQ in Westmont, IL is history. This year's competition grew from 35 teams in 2008 to 45 teams! The venue also changed a little bit. The competition was still held at Ty Warner Park in Westmont, but because of the addition of a carnival the BBQ teams were moved to the east side of the park. The space was a little tight and some spaces were split between asphalt and grass, but it all worked out. The weather was great this year! Saturday was warm and sunny with a some threatening clouds in the late afternoon but no rain. Sunday was comfortable and sunny.

Our goal going into this competition was to finish in the top 10 at a minimum. Of course we always want to win, but since it was our first competition of the year we were being a little more realistic :). We ended up with 5th place in chicken and 1oth place over all. So we met our goal. We weren't nappy with our finish in ribs, however. We were pretty far down the pack and we really don't know why. We heard from two other teams that they had received comment cards from the judges complaining about a lighter fluid taste to their ribs but neither of these teams used lighter fluid. Both of these teams finished higher than our ribs. I can't figure out how our ribs could have scored lower than ribs that the judges thought tasted like lighter fluid! Oh well... It is what it is and we'll see what the judges think this coming weekend in Taylorville, IL!