Maybe it’s a Good Sign by Monty Tyler
 
On July 13 & 14 I got to do something I haven't been able to do in quite some time.  I  competed in a BBQ contest (the 10th Annual Art of BBQ in Tulsa Oklahoma) with my son (James) and future daughter inlaw (Susan).  On July 12 (Thursday), I flew from San Antonio Texas to Fayetteville Arkansas.  James and Susan were on their way to pick me up at the airport.  As I sat in my seat on the plane my mind was going over the last minute details of the upcoming contest.  My thoughts were interrupted as the Captain's voice pierced the cabin through the loudspeakers.  "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain coming to you from the flight deck.  We will be touching down in approximately eighteen minutes".  Wow, I thought to myself.  The trip didn't seem to take very long at all.  I guess I was so consumed with seeing James and Susan and thinking about the contest that I lost all track of time.  The captains voice quickly brought me back to reality and I started looking out the window of the plane.  I soon realized  that it had been much longer than eighteen minutes and we were still in the air.  The captains voice once again pierced the cabin.  "Ladies and Gentlemen, you can probably tell we have not landed yet.  There is a bad storm in Fayetteville and we are headed towards Wichita Kansas to refuel.  After that we will complete our flight to Fayetteville".  This accounted for about a two hour delay.  James and Susan having no idea were circling the airport waiting to pick me up.  They finally stopped the truck, went inside the airport and found out that I would be delayed for quite some time.  On the plane we were sitting in Kansas waiting to be refueled.  The captain had to turn the plane off and it only took a few minutes for the cabin to heat up to a very uncomfortable temperature.  We were grounded for about an hour with no air conditioning waiting for the storms to clear so we could complete our trip.  With a full tank of fuel and a break in the weather we finished our trip to our original destination, Fayetteville Arkansas. That evening James and I spent a good part of the night discussing strategy and enjoying each others company (with a few highballs thrown in).  The next morning we headed to Tulsa OK for the contest.  First we had to stop for fuel.  I put my credit card in the pump and it wouldn't take it.  I used another card...same results.  James looked at me and said "Maybe it's a good sign" (this was his way of turning our lemons into lemonade).  I finally got the pump to work and fueled the truck.  I told James that I needed to go inside to get some cash at the ATM.  As we opened the door we noticed two gentlemen standing by an ATM machine that was literally in pieces.  One guy was trying to work on the machine while the other guy was on the phone talking to a tech from the home office to see if they could get some ideas on how to fix the machine.  We realized immediately that we would not be getting any cash from this machine any time soon.  Again James looked at me and said "maybe it's a good sign".  We arrived in Tulsa OK at the contest site and began to set up our pit and cook area.  As we unfolded our Easyup awning we noticed that several of the crossmembers were broken.  A lot of duct tape later and the easyup was a barely up.  Everything was pretty much ready to go at this time and we decided it was time to take our first break of the day.  We put our three chairs in a circle and with drinks in hand proceeded to sit down.  As James sat down his Official Arkansas Razorback Folding Chair broke a leg.  James was sitting at a thirty degree angle maintaining his balance and not spilling a drop of his drink.  Susan and I were in hysterics by this time.  James could only respond with "maybe it's a good sign". 
On Saturday it was finally time for turn in.  The event organizers added a Steak category and we participated in that in addition to the brisket, chicken, pork butt and pork ribs. As with every event the pace quickens as you approach turn in time.  We tried something new with our brisket but kept everything else pretty much the same. First we turned in steak, then chicken, ribs and pork butt.  We were pretty pleased with everything so far especially the chicken.  It looked great.  When it came time to start cutting the brisket we realized that it wouldn't really cut.  It just kind of melted under the knife.  We were able to salvage six small chunks and "pulled" the rest just to be able to turn something in.  Now normally on our brisket we've got this incredible fan array of some of the finest smokering laden brisket you've ever seen.  This however was certainly nothing to be proud of and we were considering for a small time not even Turning it in at all.  After James got back from turning in the brisket (our last entry) we had to make the hard decision between packing up and hitting the road or going the the awards presentation.  We were pretty confident that none of our entries had a chance and we had a long drive ahead of us.  Susan persuaded us that we needed to go to the awards ceremony and we did.  They first announced the results of the steak category.  We got 9th.  Then they went to the chicken category.  We got 6th.  Overall we finished 28th out of 70.  Not too bad for our first contest of the year.  The funny thing was that we received a comment card from one of the judges concerning our brisket.  HE LOVED IT!
As I was flying home I was going over the contest  and all of the little incidents that happened to us in my mind.  My connecting flight from Fayetteville was in Houston Texas.  As we sat on the runway to make our final jump over to San Antonio Texas I looked out the window, my mind still focused on the past events of the weekend, and noticed that there were some pretty dark clouds all around us.  About that time the captain's voice once again broke the silence.  "Ladies and Gentlemen,this is your captain from the flight deck. it seems that we have some pretty serious weather both here and in San Antonio and the tower has not cleared us for takeoff.  We are going to have to reroute our flight once we get in the air adding an additional hour to our flight.  Please keep your seat backs in the upright position and do not use your cell phones.  We will notify you once we get cleared for takeoff."  I had to laugh to myself with all of the other adversities that we had to face for the past week.  The only thing that would come to my mind  was "maybe it's a good sign".
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Wednesday, August 1, 2007