Start your BBQ odyssey with Barbecue Crossroads

James Beard Award-winning author Robb Walsh and acclaimed documentary photographer O. Rufus Lovett plunged into an epic road trip from East Texas to the Carolinas to produce Barbecue Crossroads: Notes and Recipes from a Southern Odyssey. Armchair travelers will enjoy the enlightening journey as well as experience their discoveries through gorgeous photographs and mouth-watering recipes picked up along the way. True barbecue pilgrims, however, can also retrace their steps and find their own barbecue revelations with the Google map below.

This first leg of the journey covers barbecue locales in Texas and Arkansas, hitting legendary joints that have already received national attention and spotlighting some unsung heroes of the rapidly disappearing traditional wood-fired pit.

Disclaimer: The route linked below maps the odyssey Robb and Rufus traveled in the process of writing Barbecue Crossroads. To get the most out of this journey, we recommend buying and reading the book in full before embarking. Enjoy!

Access the Google map here: http://goo.gl/maps/5ooTi

From the book:

Our smoky pilgrimage began on a Tuesday morning in August. At our rendezvous point and first stop, my wife dropped me off and I loaded my luggage into Rufus’s Honda Element. In anticipation of the mess I would make while eating barbecue in his car, Rufus had draped a beach towel over the passenger seat. The rear of the vehicle was packed with photo equipment and lighting apparatus. After squeezing in my suitcase and laptop, I kissed my wife good-bye and the work began.