RCFire77 works for an Emergency Management agency in central NJ and unfortunetly hasn't been able to put together more than 8 hours in a row off since last week because that Irene chick blew into town...I might get a day or two off this weekend and, after I sleep for what I hope is going to be a long time, I will get something going in the smoker. I did smoke my first butt last Friday night into Saturday but I had to pull it to finish in the oven because the storm got too bad to keep the smoker going. I didn't even get to eat any of it until Monday when I took it to a firestation I was detailed to work out of. I managed to get some rolls and share it with my fellow firefighter and EMS workers. I didn't post it because I didn't have time to take any pictures (no pics-didn't happen). It did come out good though. MIght have a temp issue in the smoker because of the amount of time it took to finish. It was an 8# butt and it went in to the smoker around 2330 on Friday night. It hit 165 about 0800 on Saturday and I foiled it. The problem was the temp didn't move much in the next 7 hours. I understand about the plateau issue but that seems like an extremely long time to be plateauing at. It didn't finish until 1930, when it hit 200*. And that was after I pulled it from the smoker at 1630, when the meat temp was ony 177*, and put it in the oven. That is only a 12* rise in over 8 hours while it was in the smoker after foiling. Based on what I had read here it should have been done (allowing 2 hours/pound) around 1530 on Saturday.