Check out our Heart of Texas BBQ Tour story in today's Dallas Morning News

Here's the lede page from our Heart of Texas BBQ Tour story in Sunday's Dallas Morning News Travel section.

This was the Posse's 14th barbecue tour since we started following the smoke in November 2009. The Heart of Texas BBQ Tour covered 318 miles over ten hours on a recent Friday.

Chick here to see the online package from the tour on dallasnews.com, including Gary Jacobson's story, a slideshow featuring our four tour stops and a video by original Posse member David Guzman.

Heart of Texas BBQ Tour

• 9am:  Leave Dallas
• 10:30am:  Wright’s Bar-B-Q, 123 Martin Luther King Jr Hwy (Hwy 14), Mexia, 254-562-9042. Open Tue-Sat 10am-6pm.
• 11:30am:  Kirby's Barbeque, 4592 Hwy. 14 S, Mexia, 254-562-5076. Open: Wed-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-3pm. 
• 1:30pm:  Whup's Boomerang Bar-B-Q, 1203 Bennett St., Marlin, 254-883-5770. Open Thurs-Sat 10am-8pm.    
• 3 pm:  Miller's Smokehouse, 208 N Penelope, Belton, 254-939-5500. Open Tues-Thurs 10:30am-6:30pm, Fri and Sat 10:30am-9pm or until the meat runs out.  
• 7 pm:  Arrive back in Dallas

Here's a new installment of our "BBQ is" pitmasters portrait project

Ben Washington, Whup's Boomerang Bar-B-Que, Marlin.  (Photo ©Daniel Goncalves/Fotobia.com)

Posse member Daniel Goncalves is back with the next installment of his "BBQ is" pitmaster portrait series.

The Dallas-based editorial and commercial photographer has been photographing top pitmasters around the state with a Fuji Instax 210 instant film camera. Sixty seconds later the Polaroid is dry and Daniel has each pitmaster fill in the blank with a sharpie on their portrait, "BBQ is ________." With this project, Daniel continues to raise the creative bar for both the Posse and Texas BBQ photography.

Click here to see our first blog post featuring his portraits of Austin pitmasters.

Echoes of Pat Gee's at Whup's Boomerang Bar-B-Q in Marlin

A hand-painted sign greets you at Whup's Boomerang Barbecue in Marlin. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Our first view of Whup’s Boomerang Bar-B-Q in Marlin brought back some nice memories. We hadn’t seen such a genuinely classic-looking joint since our last visit to Pat Gee’s in the woods east of Tyler.

While Pat’s is nestled among pine trees and pasture on a rural road, Whup’s is on a thinly settled residential street where the edge of town invades the country.

A hand-painted sign – the Posse loves hand-painted BBQ signs – greets visitors to a small building that has been remodeled over the years. A covered patio is out front, where customers can eat after ordering at a service window. The pits are in the back.

We started at the back and talked to owner-pitmaster Ben Washington, who explained the joint’s name.

“My dad was Whup and there were 12 of us little whups,” he said.

The power of return customers on display at Kirby's Barbeque in Mexia

A customer arrives at Kirby's Barbeque in Mexia. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Luckily, we got to Kirby’s Barbeque near Mexia about 11:30 on Friday morning. So, at noon, while the line of lunch customers was building, we were already eating some excellent brisket and some very good ribs.

At one point, Posse veteran Bruce Tomaso counted 20 people waiting to order at this rural barbecue outpost about 90 miles south of Dallas.

Considering that Big D is roughly 150 times larger than Mexia, population nearly 8,000, Tomaso calculated that an equivalent line at Pecan Lodge would number 3,000.

That drove home a common theme during our 10-hour, 318-mile Heart of Texas BBQ Tour.

“In this part of the world, if they don’t come back and see you, you don’t stay in business very long.” Kirby’s owner and pitmaster Kirby Hyden said of his customers.