Art Richey, Matt Lee, Jeff Vaughan and Will Foster got up at 5 a.m. in Atlanta Tuesday, and by 7 a.m., they were eating barbecue.
They were eating again at 11:15 a.m. at Byron's Smokehouse in Auburn.
The four "Southern BBQ Boys," all students at Birmingham-Southern College, are at the end of a 17-day barbecue tour of the South.
Their journey has taken them through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Not only are they "living the life," but they are also being paid - $800 in expenses paid by the school - and graded on the academic journey,
Foster said.
The tour is a one-hour credit course they created. The four young men are blogging, writing papers and studying Southern barbecue and its culture.
"I could do this for a living," Foster said, pointing out that not only was he "feasting" on barbecue but that he was also surrounded by pretty girls (two AU students, both female friends, were eating with the BBQ Boys).
Although the four young scholars spoke of the end of their tour with excitement (they are finally starting to get tired of eating barbecue), they still had no problem with devouring the meal set before them at Byron's
Tuesday.
This was business, Richey said.
"We're used to this by now," he said, motioning to a plate of barbecue ribs and plates of sliced and pulled pork, barbecue chicken, coleslaw, potato
salad, brownies and cookies. "Last week, we kind of hit a wall. We just kind of stared. We had to eat it."
Luckily, they recovered.
The BBQ Boys said they chose barbecue joints because they were fascinated with their unique atmosphere. Barbecue restaurants are rarely chains, they said, are usually hospitable and offer a snapshot glance of a town.
"You get a good grip, even if you've been in the city for 45 minutes," Vaughan said.
Lee said, "There's so much more to it, every place we've been has a story."
Although the BBQ Boys have had such delicacies as barbecue nachos and barbecue spaghetti, two less exotic items were standouts at Byron's, they said - the ketchup-based sauce, only the second such sauce they had encountered, and the sausage.
"This sauce is perfect," Richey said.
Richey said he has learned a few things on his 2,500-mile journey, such as "I've learned that I don't want to live anywhere else. I love the South."
The BBQ Boys said they had some plans when they are finished.
"I want to eat Panera salads. We want to be sponsored by NutriSystem and lose some weight," Richey said. "They weighed us this morning. Will gained 10 pounds."
Richey said he's gained 5 pounds during the tour.
To learn more about the BBQ Boys, go to their Web site www.southernbbqboys.com, which has links to their YouTube channel and blog.
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