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Vernee Green Myers Southern Girls BBQ Roadshow southerngirls@ barbecuenews.com Anytime you travel to a BBQ competition you never know what might happen. Following social media, the days leading up to the American Royal, was like waiting for "breaking news" to read about the next breakdown. The road to the Royal is a hard one! Multi- ple teams had rig issues on the way to Kansas City. Tuffy Stone and Chris Lilly were among many who ex- perienced tire or axle is- sues. When a break down would occur, someone would post on Facebook, "Where can I find a re- pair shop close to exit X?" People would immedi- ately respond and help the teams get back on the road so they could compete. As the week went on, more and more people filed into the Kansas Speedway and as the week progressed, you'd hear more stories of someone helping out their BBQ brother. This is one of those stories. Photos courtesy of Ryan Deal Ryan Deal with Smoking Hooks, out of Corpus Christi, Texas has been cooking com- petitions for around five years. Ryan normally cooks with his wife and a couple of friends. The team cooks mostly IBCA in Texas, but this was his second year coming to the American Royal, which is a KCBS event. This year, he went to the Royal with Joe Soto and Eric Villarreal. On Saturday, Smoking Hooks became the next team reaching out for help. However, they were not a stranded motorist; they were a stranded competition team without ribs. One of the guys asked Joey Machado, the Marketing Di- rector of FOGO Charcoal, if he could take them to Walmart to get some ribs "just so we have some- thing to turn in." The ribs they had brought from Texas smelled a bit off from the norm and they did not want to chance it. Joey told them that it wouldn't be a problem, but before making that trip, he wanted to see if he could find them some ribs in the park. Joey personally took Ryan to see Fred Robles, Kosmo, and Corey Mikes to ask them if they hap- pened to have extra ribs. They finally made their way over to the Operations BBQ Relief area where Boar's Night Out, The Shed, and Mark Lambert were set up and that's where they hit the jackpot. Craig Carter helped Joey find a case of Compart Spareribs on the Compart Trailer. Ryan said, "He opened the box and told me to get what you need." Ryan only took two racks of ribs as he said he didn't want to be pushy. Ryan took only two racks saying, "This is all we need," and was very #BBQFAM Photo of the winning rib box from the 2019 American Royal Open contest. BarbecueNews.com - 42 OCTOBER 2019