Oh-dark-thirty at Smokin' on the Tracks

Things start early in the Valley and the Smokin' on the Tracks fest was no exception.  In fact, we'd agreed that we would meet at the Shenandoah Speedway that morning at 6:00 am, or as close to that as we could.

I drove over Friday night, arriving at Hawksbill Cabin at about 11 pm.  So you see my dilemma with these events.  But I always remember some advice from my dad when I'm dragging my butt out of bed for a purpose:

"Son, if you are going to hoot with the owls, you better be ready to soar with the eagles."

It was so dark when we arrived, I couldn't find Jared and Wayne, my other team members, shown here with one of the neighbors in the first photo, as Jared gets the grill started.  Fortunately, Jared saw me driving around looking for them, and called my cell, vectoring me back to our spot.

I should make a note about our team - it was a few weeks ago that Jared told me about the fest and his plan to form a team.  I invited myself along because of a shared interest in pork and grilling on big units.  Jared graciously allowed me to be part of it all - and it is with great pride that I report our team name - Two Fat Farmers and a City Slicker.

As the light started to come up, I noticed that two spots over, the contestants had actually decided to sleep near their grill under a tarp on air mattresses.  They were snoozing away over there while we were loading charcoal in our grill - I should note these well-rested fellows won second place overall in the contest.

With the fire started, we moved over to get the first meats ready to go in as soon as the heat was up.  That meant brisket and Boston butt - shown here, as are the ribs, which we didn't put in until around 11 am.  Jared had brought along a secret recipe rub which he is putting on here.

About 45 minutes after the grill was loaded with coal, the early meats had been rubbed and were ready to go in.  That's the last photo for today, with them all set up in their pans to cook away a couple of hours over slow heat.