Lake Placid was a turning point for us, and not in a good way.

The weather in Rochester was great, but it was not a sign of things to come.  2009 would be the northeast's wettest summer in 100 years.  It would rain all weekend at Lake Placid, and at almost every contest the rest of the year.

We had tasted success at the end of 2008 with our 1st place brisket and top ten pork.  Instead of staying the course and building on what we had done, we experimented with new recipes, changing things up in almost every contest.   The results showed it.   A category would do well one contest and bomb the next as we struggled to recapture past successes.

It was also our first contest using our "new" RV.   After renting one in Rochester as an experiment, we purchased an older used motorhome.  It helped a lot with camping in the rain, and would turn out to work well for us in the long run. There was, however, a steep learning curve.  Travel takes longer in an RV.  One wrong turn and you could find yourself going miles out of your way at midnight to find a place to turn around a 34' motorhome and 13' trailer as we discovered on the way to Lake Placid.  We also learned RV campgrounds are not hotels.   They have shorter hours, and you don't know what you will find when you get there.  At nearby Lake George we arrived well after midnight and had to hunt down the night guard to get in.  We found him in a restroom deep in the campground cleaning toilets.  We didn't get settled in around 2AM.

We arrived late, tired, wet, and cranky at the contest the next day, armed with a long list of things not to do.

Maria entered the KCBS Junior World Championship, the first of it's kind for young cooks.  Nick was listed as the head cook, due to age requirements, but Maria was calling the shots.  She worked with two other girls from another team.   Her team "Playing with Matches" would finish third of only four teams, but she loved the competition experience and would return in 2010 and 2011 to win back to back Junior World Grand Championships.

I Love Barbecue Festival