I have been trying to figure out a way to say this without ticking off the entire community.

I am of the firm belief that if you don’t have something nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. But what do you do when you do have nice things to say, but not everything you say is going to be sickeningly sweet and nice and flowery? How do you tell someone you had a fine time at their house and everything was great, but there was a smell that seemed to linger?

In most cases, I would just keep my mouth shut and keep on keeping on. I would grin, bear it and hope that things were fixed the next time I came over. But with this particular issue, I think it’s best to just rip off the Band-Aid and say exactly what’s on my mind.

So, here it goes: I was not completely happy with the Great American Rockin’ Rib Rock Off this year.

Now, if you read my columns leading up to the Labor Day festival that just took place, you would know that I was as excited as anyone to attend it. Last year, I loved going up in the hot-air balloons and overlooking the city of Anderson. I was looking forward to all of the vendors that lined the parking lot and getting things I didn’t need. And I couldn’t wait to hear some of the music that came in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

But most of all, I was looking forward to the barbecuers and all of the barbecue my little heart could handle.

So, when I got to the festival on Friday night, I had my money ready to buy some barbecue and map out my plan of attack for the next day, when I would get even more barbecue.

Well, that took about 10 minutes. See, when I heard about the Rockin’ Rib Rock Off, I was told there would be about 100 competitors there with some of the most creative barbecue I had seen. I was under the impression that I wouldn’t be able to sample each variety and would have to pick and choose my barbecuing satisfaction and just hope for the best.

But when I got there, I saw about seven barbecuing teams along one side of one aisle. Don’t get me wrong, the smell was great, and they were offering some great barbecue options, but it was just a bit smaller than I expected.

So, I went up to one that looked like fun, had a pulled pork sandwich and some ribs and went along my merry way.

The next day, my wife and I returned because we heard one place had the best pulled pork, ribs and brisket in the place, and we ordered up a ton of it. We bought their special rub, enjoyed the great VIP accommodations and even bought a peeler from one of the vendors.

And on Sunday, we were planning on going back, but the painting of our new shed got the better of us and we didn’t make it. (Though we would have bought more barbecue and probably went to the great GAMAC performance of “Star Wars” songs.)

But I was expecting more. I liked the second year of the BalloonFest and marveled at how the organizers put so much together using volunteers and great staff. I am so happy we have a festival like this that will be able to grow into one of the best festivals in the Southeast.

I was just led to believe it was going to be a little bigger in some ways. Even so, I can’t wait for next year’s event to see what the BalloonFest and Rockin’ Rib Rock Off will do for an encore.