Part 1: The First Competition-Friday Night

The first competition we registered for was held in Newport, NC on the first weekend in April.  Apex Propane (my company) sponsored us for this event.  This was not just any little competition.  There were 88 teams of cooks, all with the same goal of winning first place.  This competition was said to be the largest whole-hog cooking contest in the country.  There were teams that who were there for the first time and there were other teams who had been cooking at this same competition for many, many years.  Since the competition was so fierce, we just chalked it up to be a learning experience and had little hope that we would even win a trophy.

DJ and Hunter left out Friday afternoon, in order to have everything set up and ready for the cooks meeting at 7:00.  We had an idea of what to expect going into this first competition, but there are always things that you don't know to plan for. There is so much more to the competition than just slapping a pig on the grill and letting him cook! 

A truck comes by to drop off the pigs at each cooking site, but that doesn't mean you start cooking right away.  Our pig for this event was named Elvis, because he was back to rock that competition and people would be beside themselves to stop by and see him!  (Yes, I will admit the naming of the pig was definitely my idea)!  There is a schedule of when the judges will start to come around to your group, some groups were judged starting at 8AM and the second group (where we were places) were scheduled to be judged starting at 10AM.  Timing is everything to cooking the perfect pig, so the time our group was scheduled to be judged determined the time that the pig would begin cooking.  Hunter's dad was there on Friday night to give advice and help with the timing aspect of everything, and Gloria was there to take pictures of anything and everything! 

 The pig is delivered...

and being prepared...

and he is ready to cook all night long!

Ashley and I arrived around 9:00 Friday night to help with the competition.  We walked up to our site and the overwhelming sense of excitement came over all of us!  We were finally here, after all the hard work and preparations, to show North Carolina that we knew how to cook one awesome pig!  Ashley and I were and are so proud of our husbands. The tent was up, the table was full of food, the pig was getting ready to start cooking, a band was playing and there were so many people stopping by and chatting with us.  We were having the time of our lives and we hadn't even been judged yet!  Hunter's dad and stepmom where there and Ashley's family stopped by to show their support.  The Cha-Cha slide came over the loudspeaker, so we used some of that energy to shake what our mamma’s gave us! Around midnight, things started quieting down, the music stopped, the crowd was thinning and there was not much to do but watch the cooker.  Of course, we chatted amongst the four us and had a great time just taking everything in and spending time with each other.  (Corny, I know)!! 

(This picture makes me giggle; we were very cold, so please excuse our attire)



The later it got, the colder it became and we realized that we were definitely unprepared with our selection of clothing or lack thereof.  Ashley and I made a trip to Wal-Mart (which has become a normal place to stop for us) so we could get more clothes for the guys to wear during the night so they could stay at least a little warm.  Ashley and I watched the pig so that Hunter and DJ could go catch a nap and warm up in the car.  We were given specific instructions on when they needed to be woken up!  Around 3:00 in the morning, Ashley and I headed to the hotel to catch a nap ourselves in order to be a little rested for the big day we had coming up!  Hunter and DJ stuck it out all night, watching the pig in the frigid weather to make sure they had done everything necessary to make Elvis turn out to be the perfect pig!


Check back tomorrow to read about how the judging went and Saturday's happenings!