Visiting the American Royal

Wow! What a day! The weather held out for the most part, which was a good thing!!!

We got to meet a lot of new people, put names and faces together. We ran into KC right off the bat. He had scoped out a few spots already. We met Jim Minion and Ray Lampe (Dr. BBQ). JM is about as nice a guy as you'd ever want to meet. Same with Buzz and his lovely wife, we had a great visit with him. Forgot to take his picture, and I'm sorry for that. We talked with several teams we had competed against this summer at the Boone County Fair. Most of them remember us right off the bat, which really made us feel good, face and name recognition after one cook off couldn't keep me from feeling very proud.

JM had a decent finish in the overall, I think it was 26th. Our buddies, 3 Little Pigs, (that have a table full of AR trophies), and 63 Diner, had a pretty rough go of it. Judging in the invitational seemed to be extremely tough, if I remember correctly the highest score I can remember was like 174 and that was in the brisket catagory.

We went by to see Bill Arnold of Blues Hog fame, and he immediately asked us if we wanted to stay overnight and cook with him. What a great honor to be asked, and if I didn't have to open on Sat. morning it probably wouldn't have taken much arm twisting for us to stay! (OK maybe a little for BellyBro, )

We never bought a drink the whole time we were there, we were well taken care of. We did buy some tokens so we could try some "Texas" brisket. Didn't even come close to what we can turn out.

Pictures to follow. KC, hope you took more than I did! I got to busy visiting!

Forgot to tell you we ran into a guy that was cooking on what appeared to be an original NB Bandera. I asked how he liked it and what mods he had done, he said it was just given to him 2 days before. KC and I sprang into action, and came to his rescue! We had him making a temporary baffle out of foil and a heat shield from a shelf and foil. The guy was very receptive, soaking it all in cause he KNEW he'd come across a couple of guys that knew what they were talking about.

All in all, I bet we saw 25-30 Banderas at the AR.

Next year, The Belly Brothers are comin' to kick ass! Get ready Kansas City!

Belly Brother II, Jim Minion, and BellyBro at the American Royal

3 Little Pigs table full of American Royal trophies.

What I think is an original NB Bandera..........I may be wrong.

BBQchef33 said:

Arlin_MacRae said:

Awesome, Kick! That picture of the 'original NB Bandera'...was that a custom name plate on the door? I've got a Made in America 'Dera and it doesn't have that, so either the guy put something original on the door or that is something older.
Arlin

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I Think(and believe the memeory is shot).. I think that was an Oklahoma Joe smoker.. If memory server right, years ago New Braunfels either bought the Bandera from Oklahoma Joes, or just like Brinkman witht he smoke king, copied a design and marketed it. It looks like an OJ logo on that door though.

but whats with the patio block?

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NB did buy OJ

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OK, that clarifies it! I DID see 1 Bandera with an Oklahoma Joes metal engraved nameplate, so I guess that one would be the original. I figured it was a knock off of the original, kinda like the Brinkman. The one in the picture had the NB nameplate painted on, but it was a stenciled factory job, not something an owner would do . I think the concrete block was to take the "spring" out of the sprung firebox lid. (I have to be careful to not be judgemental here and give the guy a break, the cooker was new to him, and we invited him to check out this board to help him with his futures cooks.)

Another good one to share......KC and I are walking down this long row of cookers and KC says " Hey I think that's Paul Kirk's cooker and van, I seen them on TV when they got stolen a few months back". Sure enough, walk up to the cooker and there's this engraved plate on it "custom made for Paul Kirk by Dave Klose". Now, the amazing thing......KC identifed Kirk's cooker from about 35 yards away!!!!!!!!!!
What an eye!!!

Did you go home with the chicken cooker?

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I couldn't get that cute little filly to come down even $10.00 on the price! We went back and talked to her like 3 times! LOL Finally, her sister says "we might be able to throw in a $3.00 bag of wood chips".
The Belly Brothers sure got a kick out of that! If I remember correctly, that cooker is made by the Amish out east. I asked what shipping would be for one and the sister said "around $200.00" I guess I have to pay for the shipping to them and then to me! Guys, the legs come off the chicken cooker and fits in the trunk of your car, and they wanted $200.00 for shipping? No way Jose!!

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