Memphis in May

For those of you who have not heard, Memphis is the host of the world bar b que championships. It is the grand daddy of a bar b que cooking competitions. They even had a special about it on the food network and all the types of bar b que out there. It is very serious stuff. People here take their bar b que as serious as religion. Jason, Katie, Nana (Jay's mom), Pops (Jay's dad), and I went to check it out. Nate and Moya were in school suffering I am sure. This is a picture of the Pyramid next to the Mississippi. Did you know the original Memphis was in Egypt? I sure didn't. This building was an event center and I think the city and county are doing battle over what to do with it now.

As we entered the party Jason saw this police officer on a moped. I don't know why, but he thought it was funny.

This is one of the booths that were set up. I think there are more than 200 teams competing. They are all interesting to say the least. People can get pretty creative. Some of the booths were two story. And all had a well stocked bar.

There were several vendors there also. Weber grills had some impressive displays.

This is a picture of the whole event and the city skyline in the back ground. Boy was it a hot day. Eighty five degrees and we thought we were dying. Now it is back to what I call perfect. Fifty eight when you wake and no higher than seventy two. It has been sunny a perfect weather the last 4-5 days. But weather changes pretty dramatically here. The morning we went to the festival. We woke up because of the thunder shaking our windows at 5:30 in the morning.

Just another booth. I am leaving out the pictures of the whole pigs roasting. Too graphic, I think.

In the sponsor area, Katie scaled a climbing wall. She was so brave. I did not put sunscreen on her. Remember it was raining and overcast when we left. The Oscar Meyer people felt bad for my little albino and found me some sun screen. Nice people here in the south.

After a couple of hours walking in the heat, we went to lunch in an air conditioned restaurant. We went to the Neely's. The have a couple of shows on the Food Network. They own three restaurants in Tennessee. We went to the one near down town. We were so excited to try their bar b que. They are on TV, it had to be great right? After all, some of our friends have gone to Bobby Flay's and Emeril's restaurants and the food tales they told left me with happy dreams. Well, let just say the Neely's STANK! The food was TERRIBLE and the service was SHAMEFUL! Even the restaurant itself was dumpy. I took photos to say how great it was and to torture Doug and Erika with tales of good Bar b que. I guess I got what I deserve! How do they have a TV show, let alone two? Guess I should know better then to believe all that I see.