Lynchburg is a small town, population 5,000 plus, in south-central Tennessee; about 50 miles from our house. It's the home of the Jack Daniel's Distillery and that makes Lynchburg a place you don't want to miss if you're in the area. But once a year the population of Lynchburg at least triples when it hosts the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue.

Earlier this week Nancy and I decided to join the crowd this year to see what all the excitement is about. We invited our neighbors, Pat and Clyde, to go along with us, but it turned out that they had already planned to attend. They have a cabin -- more like a second home -- on Tims Ford Reservoir only a few miles from Lynchburg.

So this morning we followed Pat and Clyde to their cabin, and then the four of us drove to Lynchburg in our van. The streets were crowded with cars and motorcycles, and finding a place to park was our first priority. Luckily Clyde knew about a parking lot behind a church near the center of town. That saved a long walk. The moment I stepped out of the van, the smell of BBQ filled my nose. Amazingly, there were teams from all over the world cooking and presenting their results for judging and thousands of people hanging around the cooks for a morsel to taste. The second picture above shows the pavilion where the judging took place. I would have enjoyed being a judge. I wonder what you have to do to get qualified to judge BBQ cooking. Hmmm. We walked all around the cooking area and I'm sure we gained several pounds just from smelling the barbecued pork, ribs, and chicken.

We ate lunch in one of the Lynchburg diners and after several hours returned to Pat and Clyde's cabin. We stayed there for dinner. After dinner Nancy and I drove back to Huntsville. I must say, it was a very interesting day.