Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbeque

Some friends from college live in Tullahoma, so they invited us down for the Jack Daniel's barbeque competition.  They invited a big group down to go to Jack Daniel's then to their house to watch a football game.  

We carpooled with some friends of ours.  When we arrived in Lynchberg, we got to park pretty close at our friends' church.  They were working the parking lot, so we headed down the hill to explore the competition. 

 There were several booths set up selling homemade crafts and food.  There was also a live band.  Well, there were several bands rotating throughout the day.  We took our time wandering around the town square. 

We even tried some fried Oreos!  I was afraid that it would be disgusting because I'm not a huge fan of Oreos, but it was actually pretty amazing.  We went down towards the barbeque and went from booth to booth looking at each competitor's food. 

 Not all competitors are allowed to sell their barbeque to the public, only a few.  We bought some sandwiches from one stand and found some grass to sit down on and eat.  It was pretty good, but it wasn't mind-blowing. 

We walked back to where all the competitors were cooking and it smelled amazing - much better than the general smell of sour mash that the town has.  Some looked more professional than others.  I didn't realize there was also a competition on desserts.

We walked back at the best time because everyone was running to turn in their food on time.  Teams were running by in their matching outfits or costumes making noise with anything they had to get people to move out of the way.

 I saw air horns, pots and pans, and many other items being used to get people out of the way as the one person carrying the food powerwalked so not to disturb the food.  

We crowded in the barn and saw several tables with judges.  Johnny Majors was one of the guest judges.  Lee was pretty excited, but I had to ask who he was. 

We stayed in there for a few minutes, but could tell it was going to take some time, so we walked out the back.  They had a small petting zoo set up, so we ventured in there to see the cows, goats, chickens, etc. 

 We took some pictures and wandered around some more.  Once we got in touch with our friends, we headed back to the car to go watch football. 

We had a lots of fun with our friends.  I don't know that I'd want to go back to the competition every year, but it was definitely fun enough to make another trip sometime.