Many of you who know me know I don’t like a lot of clutter around our house. I have a loose rule: if I don’t use something for a year, it’s gone. Give it away, trash, or sometimes it ends up down at my shop. Like every rule, there are exceptions. This offset smoker was one of them. It sat outside, unused for a couple of years now. Lonely, rusting, and overlooked. But it wasn’t always like that. Five years ago when it was new, it was the center of Lakeside. Every weekend, weekday dinners, and every impromptu party, this cooker was cooking. Smoking ribs, and pork butt, or grilling chicken and burgers, it got plenty of use. When I discovered The BBQ Circuit, this smoker came with me. My first call ever was with food cooked on this cooker. It was the call that got me hooked on competition BBQ. If I never got that 3rd place chicken call would I have continued to cook on The Circuit? I’m not sure… This was my go to chicken cooker for the first two years, but it also served as my grill for grilling competitions. Kris’1st place grilled bananas, Bananas Boisvert, was created on this grill; that was also her first call ever. This grill has treated us great over the years and has helped us get to the stage many times. But, now it’s time to say bye, and that’s just what I did last week. A quick post on the internet and I got four reply's within an hour…it was a steal and I knew it. I was thinking about getting the cooker to a new home, not about making any money on it. So, the next day a guy pulled into my driveway and jumped out of his Ford F250.
“You must be Mike!” he said as he reached out his hand.
“Hey man, nice to meet you.” We shake hands and talk for a little while. Then we walked around the house and I showed him the smoker.
“Dang” he said with a southern drawl and everything.
“Where you from man?”
“Well, I live in New Hampshire, but I’m from Georgia.” He said without taking his eyes off of his future cooker. “Perfect, just what I’m looking for.”
“Cool, it’s all yours.”
I showed him how a few things work on the cooker, but I had a feeling he knew how to use it just fine. We both grabbed an end and carried it up to his truck. He strapped it in tight as we talked about BBQ, cooking, and the weather. We shook hands one more time and he drove off. As I watched my old smoker leave my life forever a smile crept on to my face. It made me happy that it was in good hands. It made me happy that someone would be cooking food in it once again.
Cooking chicken at our first comp
Summers at Lakeside
Brand new
3 comments:
What a bittersweet story.
Old is Gold. Marvelous Grill!
I Buy Grill Parts
That was MY first smoker,too! In fact, mine is sitting outside rusting as we speak. But, it took a fall from a pickup years ago and never did work right. We've discussed making it a planter!
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