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Alabama college students turn barbecue road trip into credit toward graduation
By Kell Phelps
NBBQN Publisher
kell@barbecuenews.com
The Southern BBQ Boys consist of four Birmingham Southern College students. These guys not only took a barbecue road trip that lasted 17 days, but while they were roaming around the Southern United States, they earned credit toward graduation. After hearing about this, I asked if I could sign up for that class. However, after hearing the rest of what these brave fellows had to go through to get that credit, I quickly changed my mind.
This road trip was no doubt an experience of a lifetime for them with over 3,100 miles logged in five different states in their 1998 Ford Explorer, complete with a pig's nose attached to the front. They did this and only spent about $500 each. ?They accomplished this feat by only staying in a motel room three nights! The rest of their nights were spent sleeping on couches, floors, or anywhere they could find with friends and family members along their route.?
The group consists of Art Richey, who is the leader of this group and came up with the idea of trying to get credit for their passion of barbecue. Art is a senior and told me “this was, without a doubt, one of those life experiences that you will be telling your kids and grandkids about.”?Art's hometown is Russelville, AL.
Will "Billy the Kid" Foster hales from Alpharetta, GA, and is a junior. Will claims he had the most fun in Athens, GA, which is home to the University of Georgia. ?Jeff Vaughan is a junior from West Palm Beach, FL, and got away with driving the least on their trip due to his driving skills — or lack thereof. Several of the other fellows all told me, "He is not a good driver at all!" Jeff told me he had the most fun while in Nashville, TN.
The last Southern BBQ Boy is Matt Lee. His hometown is Cullman, AL, and he is a sophomore. Matt is responsible for the group’s website (www.SouthernBBQboys.com) and also had the privilege of driving most of the trip. Matt was also the only one to get food poisoning while on the trip but kept going for three days without eating much until he felt better. His favorite place on the trip was Myrtle Beach, SC.
Since their trip ended, The southern BBQ Boys have been covered up by media requests, including an appearance at 8 a.m. on the Fox News Channel where they ate BBQ which a few of the places from their trip had been kind enough to ship. They also have been interviewed by Fox 5 News from Atlanta, ABC News, and several others as well.
  
For videos and all the other interesting information about these fellows, you can check out their website at www.SouthernBBQBoys.com.
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