I have shared a few Josh stories on this board over the years. He is a disk jockey for a country station and has a syndicated show called Country Gold which is on weekends in many markets across the country. He is currently the morning drive DJ for KVOO in Tulsa.
So Thursday morning we fly in and make our way to their house in Broken Arrow and spend the day catching up.
Homemade beaded shirt, check. Yep, we are definitely in Oklahoma.
Thursday night we go out for dinner and there is further conf that we are in Oklahoma:
Jorts with hiking boots
Wife beater with the "dress jeans"
Friday I get up early and go to the station with "Rowdy" for the morning show. It is there that I find out I am his secret weapon in an upcoming competition between he and the co host "Sunny". Turns out Saturday is the Tulsa Steak Cookoff competition. KVOO is a sponsor and has entered a few teams. Mostly they are just having the hosts compete against each other, but they are also turning in their steaks to be judged with the "real" teams as well.
So on our way home after his morning show we stop to pick up a few items for the cookoff from the local store.
It was the first time I had seen this on an aisle sign:
It was also the first time I saw this available:
Once back to their house it was time to put the important items together in easy reach for the morning departure:
Bloody Mary fixings, including fresh pickled okra, Zing Zang's mix and hot sauce. The Jack was for later, like 9:30am
Saturday morning it was off to Downtown Tulsa for the setup and prep. We had the shade structure up by 9:00am and we were assigned a spot to act as peace keepers.
Then it was off to the cooks meeting where we picked our steaks based on a random number draw. Rowdy and I were after this guy:
Once back at the tent we got our delivery of "fuel":
This was followed up by our Sausage and Bologna deliveries. Along with cooking our steaks for the judging we were given huge amounts of sausage and bologna to cook for the crowd. The crowd then gave us "tips" as their way of voting for the best sausage and bologna. Turns out bologna is called Sooner Steaks according to some in Oklahoma.
Sausage for the people:
Sooner Steak Prep:
Tip Jar with proceeds going to St Jude:
This was the view down the business side of the tent:
And this was the view looking across the street towards other teams:
After the steak and bologna ran out it was time to start cooking our steak for the competition. I didn't get any photos of us cooking those mostly because I was busy. We ended up placing 2nd in the media category. After that the folks running the cook-off brought by boxes of steaks for us to cook for the patrons. Up until 5:30 everything was free to attend. At 5:30 when we started cooking the steaks tickets cost $25.
Here are the first few steaks ready to come off the grill:
Sausage and peppers cooking:
Here is my buddy Josh "Rowdy" and his co host "Sunny" posing for a photo:
When we first arrived I figured I would be hanging out on the West side of the tent closer to the OU fans. Turns out those 4 guys were pretty much a-holes and didn't want anyone around them or their "area" so as their secret sauces and rubs would stay secret. On the other hand the OSU guys were great and we ended up drinking a ton with them throughout the day and early evening. They had shirts that were a hit with the folks attending the event:
The guy on the left teaches at Tulsa Tech Broken Arrow campus which is about 2 minutes from "Rowdy's" house. He teaches an A&P mechanics intro and wants to do a Q&A session with me later in the semester for his students. They are also coming down to SA for the UTSA vs OSU game and invited me to their tailgate. Since I don't have a game that day, I plan to take them up on the offer.
Despite the first few photos we had a blast in Tulsa and enjoyed the city. Got to love American Airlines flying 757s on the 55 minute flight from DFW to Tulsa. We will be back soon.