I’ve been to the rodeo and the livestock show bunches of times, for many years. But I’ve never been to the BBQ cookoff which happens the days before the Rodeo opens. So, I had to go when Nunnally gave me a free pass to one of the booths.

She won it from a prof she doesn’t like for getting the best grade on a quiz.

Dancing sister B was in town, so we trained down from the 3700 Main/HCC to the Reliant. I takes $6 to get into the fairgrounds. Beers are only $3, which is good for the festival type, but there’s not much going on if you’re outside the tents. Luckily, our pass to the Stockyard Smokers would give us some free food (their ribs were incredible) and free beer and liquor – not to mention private bathrooms).

I demanded we hear the background story of the group, so we asked around some of the jacket wearers and ended up chatting with Jimmy. Becky and I became his best friend after a while, and he popped some jello shots out of his pocket. A booth a few away makes 6,000 every year, and usually come down with a box to swap for some ribs.

He offered several more to Becky, she accepted.

We decided to go find the Slacker Pit because Crazy Mike told us “those guys know me”. Of course he didn’t tell us they knew his real last name, not his Loco moniker. We peeked in, didn’t see anyone we know, cased the door, noticed they were slackers, and bum rushed the door. Then helped ourselves to beers.

Then I ran into Bobby Kretchmer, my high school class student council president. He’s living the Houston and incubating baby number two. Can’t go anywhere in Houston without running into someone.

We headed back to the Smokers, had a few more beers, and trained back to the HCC. A very fun early evening, capped by a few more at the Big Top. Poked in to see Honky at the HCC. LOUD.

-bill