Golden State Championship

Hesperia, California

April 3 - 4, 2009

This was All Hogs Go To Heaven’s second year Hesperia. The date had been changed from June to the first week in April. It proved to be an interesting contest weather wise. We decided to leave Lancaster around noon Friday for the hour and a half drive to Hesperia. It was an incredibly windy drive with tumble weeds passing us on the road. The winds were sustained at 25 miles per hour with gusts up to 50 and 60 miles per hour. 

When we arrived in Hesperia the wind and blowing dirt was quite intense. Steve and Lou came about 2:30 pm and Toni and Ron around 4:00 pm. We had planned for a BBQ dinner with the Notley Crew team, but quickly decided there was no way the gas grill was going to stay lit. We went with plan B which included spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, with cheese potatoes. Sounds like one to many carbs, but what could we do. Six of us ate in the camper as the wind howled outside. The wind continued to blow until about midnight. 

We were parked next to Dan Cannon and Todd Eves, and what fun they are to be around during a BBQ contest. Lots of laughs during the event making it a BBQ to remember.

The next morning it was calm but cold. The overnight temperature dropped to about 33 degrees, so the smoker fire felt good as we sipped our coffee. Later on in the morning a desert whirlwind generated more excitement as it picked two other team tarps and sent them flying into a small tree breaking branches.  Vince came around 1:00 pm to make our team complete.

We finished 16^th overall out of 29 teams. We received 7^th place in chicken and 10^th place in pull pork. All in all it was a great weekend in spite of the weather.