Nasty weather can be expected at a BBQ competition, but I don’t think anyone was really prepared for the amount of mud that the valley would produce. When I say we were up to our ears in mud, I’m really not that far off. If you didn’t bring a good pair of boots with you, you were in a bad spot for the entire weekend. Many times throughout the weekend, you would catch some of the kids swimming through the trenches or engaging in a good old fashioned mud ball fight. It certainly helped lighten the mood watching them parade around, covered head to foot in thick, brown, sloppy wet stuff. They were having the time of their lives.
The mud didn’t stop anything. On Friday, meats got inspected as teams rolled in. The volunteers were very visible throughout the contest, riding around on four wheelers, delivering straw to each site to soak up as much of the wet stuff as possible, dropping off ice, and picking up trash. If anyone needed anything, they didn’t have to wait long for a volunteer to round the corner. There were a variety of food vendors, just in case you didn’t plan your dinner. Unfortunately, the huge Friday bonfire was postponed due to the pile being pretty much soaked.