Before Dan Sweet made his recent pilgrimage to the Central Texas barbecue holy land, he called the Posse. The Oregon resident, who works in corporate public relations, said he had won a Texas tourism essay contest and that one of the research resources he had used was this blog.

Thanks, Dan. It’s always nice to get a nod.

Anyway, for his essay about starting the church of Texas barbecue, Dan and his wife, Cheryl, won a five-day trip to Austin and the Central Texas barbecue trail. Last week, they went to Lockhart, Taylor and other famous barbecue towns and ate at many of the famous joints, including Kreuz Market and Louie Mueller’s.

And, it seems, Dan and Cheryl quickly learned one of the most important lessons about barbecue tours: eat small portions.

“We were so stuffed yesterday that it's almost difficult to even think about more food today,” Dan wrote in an email to the Posse.

Dan wrote about his trip on his blog and Facebook page and also was written about in a story in the Taylor Daily Press.

He told the paper that he travels quite a bit for work and had been to North Carolina and Louisiana, which claim to have the best barbecue.

“The food is okay, but it’s not Texas barbecue,” Dan told the Daily Press. “The people aren’t bad, but they’re not like Texans.”

The Texas tourism folks, it seems, could not have picked a better spokesman.

Dan is already talking about another trip here so he can get to some places he missed, like Franklin and Lambert’s in Austin and Smitty’s in Lockhart.

“I believe those three omissions alone warrant a return trip as soon as I can make time!” he wrote in an email.

Photo of Louie Mueller Barbecue by Gary Barber