Sun City Balloon & BBQ Festival

October 13 - 14, 2009

Buckeye, Arizona

This contest was an "Official Triple Crown of BBQ" Arizona event which was held at the Pulte Del Webb retirement community in Buckeye, Arizona. The event was a KCBS Sanctioned contest, as well as, an "Official" State Championship event.  There was a balloon festival and an arts and crafts festival going on at the same time as the BBQ championship.

This is All Hogs go to Heaven’s 4^th trip to Arizona on Veteran’s day weekend. It’s a great event with nice weather, great BBQ friends, and the venue is pristine. Ted and Ardith left on Thursday and spent the night in Blythe, CA. Steve left Lancaster on Friday morning and Toni and Ron would drive from San Bernardino, all gathering at the Pulte homes site on Friday afternoon. After dinner we were busy on the Anything Butt and dessert categories that were due Friday eve. On Saturday, we prepared for the early turn-ins, even though the clouds threatened rain it was still a beautiful day for a BBQ contest.  Working with Steve, Ron was going to be in charge of the chicken this time. All turned out well with a 1^st in chicken. Good job Ron and Steve!

Going into this contest we were 5^th in pulled pork in the world according to the Kansas City BBQ master list. Receiving a 1^st in pulled pork at this contest moved us up to 3^rd place. All Hogs is planning on going to the Tempe, AZ contest as it is the last one this year to see if we can improve our placing worldwide.

At the awards we placed 9^th overall, with 1^st in chicken, 38^th in ribs, 1^st in pulled pork, and 16^th in brisket out of 41 teams.  We also received 3^rd out of 16 teams in Anything Butt and 10^th in dessert out of 14 teams.

We would like to thank Mike Reimann for another outstanding contest. Thanks go to Kelly and Kathleen MacIntosh for again providing professionalism to our BBQ contests. We look forward to next year!