Anchor City BBQ Contest

 I have only attended a few BBQ contests.  Notably the Roots and Blues and BBQ Festival in Columbia and the Anchor City BBQ Contest.  They seem to be very popular, and I see many advertised.  The first time I attended I thought that there would be a variety of different BBQ available to try.  Turns out there are very limited BBQ options.  Lots being cooked, and the judges get to sample some excellent variations, but they are not available to the public.  Usually there are no vendors selling BBQ, and those that are not generally of very high quality.  Hard to maintain a high quality with limited heating, cooling, and serving options.

 The KC BBQ Society is the organizing entity that has decreed no selling of the contestants product.  There are a fair number of people that are walking the aisles looking at the large variety of cookers and apparatus. 

 Anchor City had 33 contestants this year, as well as a variety of other venders selling shirts and crafts.  They had a nice blues band playing while I was there. 

October in Missouri is a Great Time to Ride

It has been a great fall for riding a bicycle.  After a long hot summer we have moved into a warm fall with cool nights and dry sunny days.  My father always held to the fact that fall color was associated with cool nights, warm days and dry conditions.  I think this fall is proving him correct.

Of course I am not much of a photographer and, and it is particularly hard for me to take reasonable pictures of the fall colors that end up representing what I see with my eyes, still it brings back the colors in my minds eye.

These are the real colors of fall in my neighborhood.....the green of John Deer and the Red of Massey Ferguson....Unfortunately the long hot dry summer has not been conducive to a nice fall for the farmers. 

Long Hot Summer

It has been a long hot summer!  Not much BBQ and not many bike rides.  We did get my wife a new bike.

She has not been much of a bike rider over the years.  Her favorite bike for many years has been a late 50's early 60's single speed BF Goodrich, but even it has not been ridden in several years.  She expressed interest in riding on the KATY trail early in the summer so we rented a bike at Rocheport and took a nice ride.  We took a vacation to Colorado, and rented a bike in Glennwood Springs that was enjoyable. So when we got home I started to look for a reasonable bike that we could purchase.  We looked at the new bikes, but none really seemed to meet her needs.  Actually several would have been good bikes for her, but she expressed interest in such a wide range of bikes, I was not sure that if we picked one she would like it over time.  I decided to try the used market, and buy something that she could ride for a while and then she would be able to compare to new bikes that she tried. Ultimately I found a nice older comfort bike for a reasonable price.

She has ridden the bike almost daily, mainly around the house and up the road.  We have taken a couple of rides around Centralia, Columbia and Mexico.  We purchased a new bike seat, and changed the right shifter from a thumb shifter to a twist shifter.  She seems to like it a lot.  The previous owner had put on fairly wide tires, and they provide a very stable ride for her.

We took a couple of tours early in our relationship.  We rode a week long tour down HWY 19 through the springs and then west to Table Rock Lake.  Our honeymoon was a two week ride of the then relatively new rail-trail conversions in Wisconsin.  I am glad she is coming back to bicycling.

A New Stationary Bike

I have ridden rollers for 30 plus years.  I liked rollers.  They gave me the chance to ride meaningfully when the weather or schedule did not really make that feasible.  For many years I rode at least four times a week for 30 to 60 minutes.  They really help your stability and the smoothness of your peddling style.  It was instrumental in increasing my peddling to 80 to 90 rpm.  I often described ridding rollers as riding a road that is 2' (two foot) wide.

I bought my first set from Sears. They were an end of season special that I purchased in about 1982.  I had a nice basement to ride in. with a flat concrete floor and windows to look out.  The ceiling was high enough to let me get on the bike, low enough that I could grab a rafter if I started to go off the rollers.  They had wooden rollers made of pieces of wood glued together and then milled into a concave rather than flat surface.  I used them for about ten years, before they started to come apart.

I replaced them with a set of plastic rollers.  I did not like the new frame, so I continued to use the old frame, and just changed the rollers.  I bought the set used at a garage sale at Fort Leavenworth.  They did not look like they had been used very much.  The plastic was not very thick, and they were not very heavy.  The wood rollers had a lot of heft to them, and really poor bearings that combined to a lot of resistance.  Changing to the new rollers was so much easier that I did not feel I could get a good workout.

I replaced them with a used set of Kreitler rollers that I bought in Columbia.  I was living in the far north Missouri at the time.  I had stopped by Walt's Bike shop for some parts.  I saw a picture and a phone number.  I called, the seller was available, I stopped by and purchased them.  The seller was motivated, since he had tried to sell them for months, and was scheduled to get on a plane the next day for Japan.  They included a front fan that ran off the rollers.  Again I did particularly like the frame, so I adapted the rollers to the original frame.  I rode those rollers for 12 years before I noticed that the resistance was increasing.  I took them apart and found the bearings were shot on two of the rollers, the salt from my sweat had taken its toll on the rollers.  I found that Kreitler would rebuild the rollers very reasonably, so they were quickly back in service

I guess I should go through the records to see how many miles that I rode each set of rollers.....a bit anal, but hell that is why I write all of this down.

If you look at the picture you can see the main tubes of the bike are covered in duct tape.....again a reaction to the sweat generated by riding.  I ruined my best bike riding it on rollers.  The corrosive effect of the sweat eventually impacted the steel bike.  Over the years I built three bikes that were dedicated to being ridden on rollers.  They can be cheap bikes, the important thing is the geometry, the handlebars and the peddles.  I traded a mower for this bike, and have replaced the wheels so that I can use the 27 by 1/14 tires.  The bigger the wheel, and the bigger the tire means they last longer.  I tried riding 700c but went through tires quicker than I did on the road.  The contact point of the tire to the roller is quite small, which means maximum deflection of the tire unless it runs high pressure.  So I went to 27 inch tires to get the 125lbs that I wanted.

I have been in search of a bike for my wife.  It has taken me to Craig's list.  While I have not found a suitable bike for her, I did find a stationary bike for sale, and on impulse went and looked at it and purchased it.  It is made by Schwinn.  It was a spinning bike.  I reworked it, including adding a bike computer and have started to ride it along with the rollers.

I had thought about using a trainer, but I did not like the contact points to the bike, and did not like the way the bike was raised in the rear unless you put the front wheel on a block.  None of it was particularly stable to me.  I had not considered a stationary bike.  Most that I had seen were of dubious value, and did not match a bicycle's geometry, meaning your position was not at all like it would be when riding the road or trail.  This seemed like a different thing entirely.  The only downside is that it does not give me an accurate comparison to the road.  It is not like you can change gears.  You can change resistance, but that does not relate to more speed or higher revolutions. I did work out an equivalency that I put into the bike computer, and it seems to be reasonable.  I enjoy riding it when I do not feel like concentrating on staying up right on the rollers!

Colorado BBQ

Yes it has been a while since I wrote anything.  I took a trip, then have gotten bogged down with work related activities since.  Hard to say that work is getting in my way, when it is summer and I have responsibility for two summer classes with a total of 3 students.  Don't worry, I do not get paid for any of that.  I was suppose to have a class the second 4 weeks summer session, but it was canceled because of budget constraints.  I offered to teach it for free, and was told that I was already teaching two classes for free, so could not teach any other conference classes.  Still I have a lot of things to do, most related to organizing for the fall semester and getting my stuff ready for the promotion/tenure process.

I did take a nice trip to western Colorado.  I had not been to Colorado since 2000, when the whole family went to the YMCA to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary.  This trip was fun because my daughter and I were signed up to the same meeting in Glenwood Springs, so she, my wife and her not boy friend all took ten days to drive out and back.  At first I packed a bike, but then realized that there was not going to be enough room in the van, so took it out.  I should have left my helmet gloves and bike clothes in the car, but they went out with the bike.

A year ago we went to Portland Oregon.  I was told the weather is usually cool and wet.  We were there for ten days and it was sunny and 70's into the low 80's the whole time.  Here I was in the mountains for ten days and it was sunny and in the 80's even the low 90's.  So I contended with heat as well as altitude. The altitude was more of a problem than I wanted it to be, though I am sure most was in my mind rather than physiological.  We did walk a lot, and I really lost breath only when I tried to go up the side of the mountains too quickly.   My wife and I rented bikes in Glenwood Springs.  We rode for about an hour and a half and it was all I really wanted. 

I can't say that I enjoyed riding the bike, partly the frequent changes in the path up or down, partly that the altitude made effort more difficult, and I was out of breath quickly when the path turned up.   It is so strange to ride a rental bike, partly that it was not well adjusted and the front hub was too tight, and the rear too loose. Mostly it was that I did not have my shoes, helmet, gloves and most of all mirror.  The little things that make riding a continuous experience. 

The trails and paths were very well maintained, and we saw a lot of people riding bikes.  I think there is a concrete path running near I70 from beyond Glenwood Springs east to Denver, but at least Aspen and Vale.  The mountains are a weird place for me.  There are times when I am going down hill that I feel like I am going up hill, and times when I am going uphill that I feel like I was on the level or even going downhill.  When I drove west, I seemed to be driving downhill much of the time after we went through the tunnel near the continental divide.  When I drove back east I realized that there were considerable variations up and down.  When on the bike it was the same way.

I did find some very good BBQ in a little town outside of Denver called Idaho Springs.  We stopped there after we got through Denver on our way out, and found a nice hotel.  We ended up staying there for several nights and using it as a staging point for forays back into Denver and into the surrounding area.  We really liked the town a great deal.

Smokin Yard's BBQ was near the hotel, and we stopped into try it.  I had the usual brisket and fries.
The brisket was wonderful, thinly sliced and a nice flavor.  They had a nice menu, with a wide variety of offerings....including cream corn!

It was a nice atmosphere....clean, nice but not fancy.  

It is to bad that it is so far away.....

Lonnie Ray's Cafe

Lonnie Ray's is in Harrisburg.  Most people don't know where Harrisburg is, and many fewer have ever been there.  It is roughly 17 miles northwest of Columbia.  There is not a lot in Harrisburg.  The schools of course, a post office, a grocery, bank and a gas station.  There are several churches and a car wash.  I understand there is a barber shop, but I have never found it open.  While the schools are good academically, they are more widely known for their basketball teams, both boys and girls have won several state championships.  It is also know for Lonnie Ray's Cafe. 

I don't know how long Lonnie Ray's has been there, several years.....must be more than ten now...could be even longer.  It is a classic BBQ restaurant.  It has brisket and pulled pork, it also has a number of other items on the menu typical of a cafe.  It is clean, and the service is very good.  I have eaten there a number of times over the years, and the one thing I can say for sure is the portions are large, huge in fact and the prices are low  The brisket has a wonderful flavor.  It is thickly cut, with more fat left on than I would prefer, but it is so tender and juicy and some of the rub is still detectable on the exterior. They serve sauce on the side, and while it is a good sauce, I have never eaten it on the brisket....doesn't need anything else. Of recent I have more often gone for the pulled pork.  It is not quite as huge a portion, though it still is all I can eat.  They have good slaw and excellent fries......though for a while the fryer was broken...which was a bit of humorous thing....mainly for how long it was broken.  They have a variety of side dishes and deserts available.

There has been only one time that I found the place full, but I have never found it empty.  It is usually a mix of the locals and some from out of town that have found there way to Lonnie Ray's for the first time.  An interesting quirk is that they have a large screen TV in the corner, playing obviously old  (80's-90's) movies  without sound.  Most are movies I have heard about, but never watched which can make it difficult for me to concentrate on the conversations of my companions....I need to start sitting with my back to the screen.

If you like BBQ, and consider yourself familiar with a variety of BBQ places, and especially if you consider yourself an expert on Missouri BBQ you need to make it to Lonnie Ray's.   It beats all of the franchise places hands down, and ranks with the best of the unique BBQ places in Missouri!

Zesto South BBQ

One of my pleasant surprises in Jefferson City was finding Zesto South. 

Located on the access road on the west side of Hwy 54 on the south side of Jefferson City (1730 Jefferson Street).

I thought Zesto was ice cream, but I saw the sign that said "Real Pit BAR-B-QUE" and I had to try it.  It was so good that I have gone back many times.  They have a very large menu, and can serve you about anything you want except french fries.  They have things that you do not often see, much less on the same menu....nacho’s, tamale’s, braunschweiger, hot dogs, ruben, french dip, country ham or a ham, chicken, tuna or egg salad sandwich…..and much more....not to mention the ice cream!

They also have a variety of BBQ options, and the BBQ is excellent!  I like the brisket and the pulled pork.  The brisket has a great flavor, is cut just right, not too thin, not too thick.  I would not rate it as the top brisket that I have eaten, but it is very good.  It is consistently good, no small feat that!  It obviously has been cooked by someone that knows there way around BBQ.  What I like is that there is not a lot of fat on the meat, and it is very tender. Often the meat is thin and relatively dry, or thickly cut with a lot of the fat still on the meat.  The sandwich has a good quantity of meat on it as well.    They have good coleslaw and they have a variety of side dishes.  They do not have french fries, instead have a cheesy potato concoction that is good, but I do miss the french fries. 

This is not a uppity BBQ place.  The atmosphere is exactly what you would expect of a business that is know for ice cream.  It is clean, and priced very reasonably!

I often find I choose it when I want a BBQ sandwich, and don't have a lot of time.  I rarely find it busy, they can handle the orders quickly and I can be in and out in well under a half an hour, and feel like I had taken my time. It is not a destination place like some BBQ restaurants, it is an everyday BBQ place.  I can see that some workers  would go there frequently for lunch, a good variety at a good price, that tastes good......