The sad sight of an empty parking lot at MeShack's Bar-B-Que on a Tuesday at 11:30am. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins)

As any baseball fan knows, life is all about hitting curve balls. Constant curve balls.

And so it goes with barbecue, too.

The Posse re-discovered that important lesson Tuesday, the second day of its week-long "DFW Top 7 BBQ Tour," our plan to hit all of the area joints that made Texas Monthly's new Top 50 list.

What started so grandly at Hutchins BBQ in McKinney on Monday, however, derailed badly in Garland.

"The train went off the tracks and down the hill," Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins said.

The reason for our disappointment: Meshack's Bar-B-Que Shack, which was supposed to be open, wasn't. No sign. No explanation. No one working the shack. Just a steady stream of cars through the parking lot with disappointed customers, at least one from Fort Worth and another from Ennis. Meshack's has a strong following. With such traffic, anyone driving by might have thought business was great, but the joint was closed.

At this point, we're still not sure exactly why. We haven't been able to reach owner Travis Mayes. He may have just taken a few days off. We'll let you know when we do.

As any baseball fan knows, when life throws you a curve and you swing and miss, the only thing to do is keep swinging.

Hungry, we decided to go to another barbecue joint just a few blocks away. Another swing and a miss.

The brisket, sliced ultra thin, looked like medium rare roast beef. The ribs were smokeless. I ordered turkey and, seeing the processed meat, Wilkins asked if it was ham. It was a serious question.

"I've found out in my old age -- 47 -- that nothing makes me more depressed than eating bad barbecue," said Posse veteran Jim Rossman as we drove back to work. "This is going to ruin my whole afternoon."

Blogger Cody Neathery, who joined us, had his own take on our barbecue disappointment in his newly renamed blog.

And so we'll continue to keep swinging. Next up is Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas.

We don't need another curve. Just bring the heat.

At least the unnamed, really bad place we went nearby had a cool window logo. (Photo ©Daniel Goncalves)

DFW Top 7 BBQ Tour

Monday 6/3
11:30am: Hutchins BBQ, 1301 N Tennessee St, McKinney, 972-548-2629. Open Sun-Thurs 11am-9pm, Fri-Sat 11am-9:30pm.
Tuesday 6/4
11:30am: Meshack's Bar-B-Que Shack, 240 E. Ave. B, Garland, 214-227-4748. Open Tues-Sat 10:30am-until the meat runs out.
Wednesday 6/5
11:30am: Lockhart Smokehouse, 400 W. Davis, Dallas, 214-944-5521. Open every day from 11am til they're done.
Thursday 6/6
11:30am: Pecan Lodge, 1010 South Pearl Expressway, Farmer's Market Shed #2, 214-748-8900. Open: Wed-Sun 11am-til the meat runs out.
Friday 6/7
11:30am: Bartley's BBQ, 413 E. Northwest Hwy, Grapevine, 817-481-3212. Open Tue-Thur 10:30am-8pm,
Fri -Sat 10:30am-9pm.
Saturday 6/8
11:00am: Longoria’s BBQ, 100 Christopher, Everman. Open Mon-Fri 10:30am-6pm, Sat 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

1:00pm: Cousin's Barbecue, 6262 McCart Ave, Fort Worth, 817-346-2511. Open Mon-Sat 11am-9pm, Sun 11am-3pm.