FROLIC TO ROY'S HICKORY PIT BBQ

I've lived in Oklahoma for the majority of my life but I was born in Kansas.

The small town I grew up in always had a fall harvest festival and as a kid that festival was as big a deal to me as all the holidays that it was ushering in.

I got to be in a parade. My friends and I got to ride our bikes unsupervised all over town and there were carnival rides and games to be played. It was the pinnacle of rural Kansas farm town life and about 6 years ago I decided that I wanted to go back and be a part of it again. It's now become a regular October trip for us.

I also recently made a decision that I want to try and eat BBQ in as many states as I can. Obviously I have Oklahoma covered and I've made several trips down to Texas in the last couple of years. I've also eaten Q in Michigan and California before I started the blog and I decided I was going to add Kansas to the list on this trip because oddly I don't remember ever eating BBQ as a kid until we moved to Oklahoma.

THE STAMPEDE TO BUFFALO'S BBQ

I had been wanting to try Buffalo's BBQ since I started this blog but it's only open during the week for 7 hours, or until the meat is gone, and is about a two hour drive from where I live.

While I make several trips a year to the Tulsa area. They usually fall on a weekend and Donny Teel, the owner of Buffalo's BBQ, is usually somewhere competing in a BBQ competition or teaching aspiring BBQ pitmasters how to compete.

I had also been wanting to see two of my favorite bands play live for a few years so when it was announced that Lucero and Drive-By Truckers would be sharing the stage at Cain's Ballroom on a Wednesday evening. Well I put two and one together and decided to cross all three off my bucket list.

IT'S ALL GRAVY AT WILLIAM'S OLD STYLE BBQ

Sometimes when you think there is nothing new left to discover about BBQ. You stumble across something that just makes you go "WOW!".

I stumbled across my latest BBQ "WOW!" moment while I was doing some resarch on the Texoma Living website to find some Texoma area Q-raunts. to sneak into.

William's Old Style BBQ is carrying on a very little known BBQ tradition unique to the Eastern Texoma area started by P.O. Sam in Colbert Oklahoma.... Brown Gravy Sauce.

Now I know some of you are saying to yourselves "Gravy? On BBQ?? NO WAY!!!" and to a degree I would have had to say I'm right there with you...... Then I tried if for myself.

WE TOOK THE Q-TRAIN FROM SEMINOLE TO SALLISAW AND A FEW POINTS IN BETWEEN

One look at the number of Q-raunts I've blogged about in the Central Oklahoma area is pretty much a dead giveaway about what part of Oklahoma I live in. It's easy to hop in the car at lunch or dinner and go find some Q to write about.

I've finally reached that point where to continue this project. I'm going to have to move out of Central Oklahoma and that means road trips. Even a Q-holic like me has a hard time justifying a 1+ hour drive to just eat at one Q-raunt.

I'm pretty excited about this phase of the project but it doesn't come without it's perils.

While I can usually  count on some of the tried and true Q-raunts that have been around for decades actually being there when I get there (unless they've gone on vacation). Sometimes you get there and you only find traces of a Q-raunts past like these first two pictures I snapped in Checotah, OK.

CRY ME A BLUE RIVER RIBS

UPDATE: I HAVE BEEN INFORMED BY THE OWNER OF THIS Q-RAUNT THAT I WAS INCORRECT ABOUT THESE RIBS BEING BAKED AND THAT THEY ARE SMOKED ON A REAL SMOKER AND THAT AN OVEN ISN'T LOCATED ON THE PREMISES.

This was my second attempt at trying Blue River Ribs.... My first attempt being made on a Monday but Monday's seem to be a day a lot of mom and pop places in rural Oklahoma take off.

Just a little heads up.... Blue River Ribs is also closed on Tuesday and they close from 2-4 PM on the days they are open.

I didn't spot any armadillos on my way to the front door but the awning warns that they cross there. Blue River Ribs is located in a rural area. So I had good reason to believe I might see a herd of armadillos at any time and knowing that armadillos can transmit leprosy to humans..... Well I wasn't taking any chances

I'LL DO THE CURLY SHUFFLE FOR SOME MOE'S SMOKEHOUSE CHICKEN & BBQ

UPDATE: CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

I've often said that some of the best BBQ I've eaten has been served from places most people are afraid they might not come back out of alive.

I call it my 1st Law of Q-Raunts.

Moe's Smokehouse Chicken and BBQ fits that description to a T!

Moe's is located in a strip center. In a not so nice part of Oklahoma City. In what appears to have once been a discount Chinese take out restaurant from the sign that remains above their door.

THAT'S NO BULL AT BEEF & BUNS

If you lived in the Oklahoma City area in the 90's. You might remember a commecial for a car dealership called Broadway Ford.

Generally at the end of the commercial the owners kids would be sitting on a bull and they would end the commercial pitch with "And that's no bull!"

You might notice there's a bull in the picture to the right. Well when you walk in to Beef & Buns you will also notice the two little boys, all grown up now, that used to set on that bull are no lunger in the automobile business but the restaurant business.

ROAD TRIP TO ROY'S BAR-B-Q

Sometimes I get to wrapped up in my quest to find great BBQ. Sometimes I let myself get a little more critical than I ever set out to be.

I watch shows like BBQ Pitmasters where every piece of meat is injected with all kinds of liquids, spices, and chemicals and cooked in the latest high tech smoker to transform it into that one bite of perfect BBQ.

Is it still BBQ after all that? Well.... Yes and no in my opinion.

At it's most basic. I define BBQ as meat smoked using hardwood. Sometimes it's places like Roy's BAR-B-Q that snap me back to that reality.

Oddly enough it was almost a year ago today that I blogged about Big Smokey Bar-B-Q. A Q-raunt that has a lot in common with Roy's Bar-B-Q and that reminded me that BBQ doesn't always have to be about that one perfect bite.

DON'T BOGART THAT BAR-B-Q JOINT MY FRIEND

Sometimes when life hands you a hunk of tough, fatty, meat. You make BBQ.

So when my wife asked me if I would drive her to Enid for her Uncle's wedding. I said "Only if we can hit up one of the Q-raunts I have on my list to try in that area." and a deal was struck.

I had heard good things about The Bar-B-Q Joint in Pond Creek, which is a short drive north of Enid, and after checking their menu I saw they offered Hawg Wings, and that pretty much sold me on giving them a try.

DON'T STOP BELIEVING IN BURN CO BBQ

I've eaten a lot of good BBQ in Oklahoma but at the same time I feel that most Oklahoma Q-raunts cook for the masses and put quantity over quality. Burn Co BBQ breaks that model.

I was warned beforehand to get there by 10:30 AM or some of their meats might be gone.

We pulled into Burn Co's lot at 10:20 AM and there were already cars in the parking lot filled with other Q-aholics waiting for the doors to open and more pulled in after we arrived.

2012 - A YEAR OF BBQ IN REVIEW

I added 19 new notches on my BBQ belt this year and thankfully my waist line has stayed the same. After eating all that BBQ I can't afford to buy new britches.

I had really hoped to hit at least two places a month but a busy work schedule, chasing a couple of trailers for weeks, and driving somewhere just to find out the Q-raunt I was stalking was closed for the day, vacation, or for good, kind of killed my average.

BIG SMOKEY BAR-B-Q : BIG SMOKEY CHARACTER

I've been driving by Big Smokey BAR-B-Q for years on my way to my favorite Soul Food restaurant, A Family Affair, and every time I would tell myself I needed to stop some time and give it a try because as the sign says... You know you want some ribs.

Today marks one year since I started the blog and the very first blog I wrote was for Smokey's BBQ & Diner. So I decided I would stick with the Smokey theme to begin year two.

Smokey Ray's trailer was my first thought but last time I tried to catch them on a Wednesday they weren't there and I have already blogged about them.

So I took into consideration that I may be meeting a friend for lunch at A Family Affair on Friday and decided the time was right to finally try Big Smokey BAR-B-Q.

I'M COVERED WITH MUD CREEK BBQ

This was my second trip to Mud Creek BBQ. I was there the first time about 6 months after they opened in the tiny town of Ringling, Oklahoma.

It took me a couple of years to get back but two years later they are still cranking out the same tasty Q.

At the risk of some of you not reading any further after I say this. I'm going to go ahead and declare that Mud Creek is as close as I've come to finding a destination Q-raunt in Oklahoma.

Yes, I can honestly say that I don't think you will be disappointed after making the drive to the middle of nowhere to eat BBQ. I have been wrong before but this time I don't think I am.

The owners of Mud Creek BBQ are competition cooks and many of their awards decorate the walls of their small Q-Raunt.

SOMETIME TWO OUT OF THREE'S NOT BAD

What does a self-professed BBQ addict do when they have too much free time on their hands?

GO ON A ROAD TRIP!!!

So I hopped on the intarweb and start charting a path. First stop is going to be the BBQ Barn in Minco, Oklahoma.

GEORGE'S HAPPY HAPPY HOG HOG

I had been wanting to try George's Happy Hog for a long time.

Problem was I couldn't find it.

I would look it up on Google Map. Get a general idea where it was and then when I would go looking for it I just never seemed to be able to find it.

Well guess what.... I finally found it but it took me about 40 minutes of driving in circles to get it done. Was it worth it? Well you'll just have to keep reading to find out.

A TALE OF TWO TRAILERS: SMOKEY RAY'S AND CHUCK'S BBQ & MORE

My wife was bored and made the mistake of asking me if I wanted to go do something. "How about a BBQ trailer trek?" I said. With a little further persuasion we were on the road.

My plan was to hit Smokey Ray's, Chuck's BBQ & More, Smokin' Okies, and Oklahoma Smoke BBQ had mentioned they might be in OKC this weekend.


A quick check on the internet and I find out Oklahoma Smoke is in Liberal. We have tickets to the Thunder game tonight so a 5 hour drive isn't going to happen and Smokin' Okies was doing a private catering.

BIEROCKS & BBQ & EUROPEAN GROCERIES OH MY!

UPDATE: Closed for business

I get an e-mail from my mom about a new place opening up in Jones, Oklahoma called Bierocks & BBQ.

Now I make an annual pilgrimage to the small town where I spent the first 10 years of my life  to get good bierocks. So the short drive to Jones to get bierocks and BBQ was definitely not out of the question.

LARRY'S RIB PIT

UPDATE: Larry's Rib Pit has closed

Larry's Rib Pit had been on my radar for quite awhile. Unfortunately I found out the hard way, by driving there on a whim without checking their hours, that they are closed on Monday's. So I finally made it back over to give them a try on a Tuesday.

I had read lots of great reviews on Urbanspoon about Larry's and it definitely falls in my beloved "The Ugly" category. So I had high hopes for my first visit.

LEO'S MAKES ME ROAR LIKE A LION AND PURR LIKE A KITTEN

Being the top secret, super ninja, bbq eating blogger I am means there are times I have to go into unknown BBQ territory.

Some day's I just don't feel like venturing into the unknown. Some days I want to walk in and know exactly what I'm going to get.

Today was one of those days. It was also a Monday and a pay day. So I grabbed my check. Hit the bank and headed to Leo's.

LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I LIKE ABOUT TEXAS

So my wife tells me that our friend from California is going to be in San Marcos for a couple of  weeks and asks if I'm interested in going to see him. Now all I really heard was San Marcos. That was all I really needed to hear and the next words out of my mouth were "Can we go on a BBQ road trip? Can we?? Can we??? CAN WE?!?!?".

So over several long weeks of anticipation. I put together a BBQ dream trip... Snow's, Zimmerhanzel's, Luling BBQ & Luling City Market, Southside Market & BBQ and a few others if we have the time and the appetite... 200 and some odd miles and over 5 hours of driving though central Texas to eat BBQ.