First off, A HUGE THANK YOU to
@TexasOnion for the heads up. As I've said, if you're ever in Vegas, I owe you a steak dinner.
Second, A BIG THANK YOU to
@Jason for the ash pan. I know it's not exactly period correct, but man it makes it look awesome. I've been trying to thank you since yesterday but your inbox was full.
On April 27 at 10:20 in the morning I was grading US History essays in the teacher's workroom in our school library. To take a break, I decided to look at WKC. I noticed I had a message from TexasOnion. His message informed me of a Glen Blue at an estate sale in my area. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
A MLH Glen Blue Imperial listed as "Charcoal BBQ...with supplies."
First off, the estate sale went from 10-2 that day. My school gets out each day at 2:40. My next class started at 11:15. I quickly checked the address on Google Maps and it said I was 23 minutes away. Thankfully, the estate sale was on my side of town, though on the very southern edge of Vegas. I had 55 minutes to get there, hope the grill was still available, and get back in time for my next class.
Like a crazy person I left the library, papers in one hand, stuffing my computer and charger in my bag, while still hanging on to my coffee. Quickly made my way to the parking lot, and high tailed it out of there. I drove quickly, trying to shave off a couple of minutes (which I did). I arrived at 10:45, parked, entered the house and made a beeline for the backyard. And there it was. I kept a grip on it, bought it, and CAREFULLY took it back to my Tucson with the help of one of the estate sale employees. Unfortunately, I was almost out of gas, had to stop, put in $5 to make it back to school, and arrived with LITERALLY 15 seconds before the bell rang for my 3rd block freshman World History class. I was stoked.
That night, I got it home, and debated what to do. I know that I could sell this for a significant price, that would probably pay for all the other kettles I bought this year. On the other hand, the odds that I'd ever find this kettle again are EXTREMELY low. I emailed
@harris92 and
@pbe gummi bear for some advice.
After some internal debate lasting a few days, I decided to keep it. First off, my wife and daughter absolutely love it. My wife calls it the "Tiffany Grill." Can't argue. The exterior was fantastic, the interior had some wear, but overall, it is in phenomenal shape. It was missing the ash catcher, but all other parts were original. I got a flat edged ash pan from
@Jason and it arrived yesterday. This afternoon, after work I did some VERY LIGHT restoration with some guidelines given to me from
@harris92. Mostly using barkeepers friend and a soft toothbrush. No steel wool touched the outside of the kettle. I lightly washed it using dish soap and a sponge.
I did, however, clean up the bowl. It looks amazing even on the inside.
Overall, this grill will be a cooker, but probably only on special occasions. My birthday is on Monday, and I may break it in then. But mostly, I just want to thank all the people here at the WKC. This has been a phenomenal year growing into this hobby. I've connected with a lot of great grillfellas, and have so enjoyed being outside this year cooking, restoring, and maintaining a neat part of American history. I'm sure many of you just want to see the pics, so here we go!
How it looked when I brought it home:
Today's restoration:
Closeup of Bowl interior:
The rest:
Family pic before the ash pan arrived:
As Harris92 said to me, this is one that will be passed down to my kids.
Rescue, Restore, Respect.
