First off, let me give everyone a little history. My dad has always been one of those Bob Villa types who could build just about anything out of wood. Growing up, he was always building something down in his shop. Unfortunately, woodwork never really sparked my interest and I never picked up on this skill he had. Now fast forward about 30 years and I start asking my dad to make me a table for one of my Performers. I even go so far as to take him one of the plastic tables to use as a template for a nice wooden one. This takes us to modern day when I had pretty much forgotten and about given up on the request when my phone rang and it was my parents asking if I had anything going on Saturday as they would like to drive up and give me something. Now I will be the first to admit that while my parents only live a couple of hours away, I don't see them nearly as much as I would like or should, so when their call came in, I was excited for the opportunity to see them. Well Saturday afternoon comes around and they come in carrying a large item in a black trash bag (when I was little, black trash bags were always how my dad had wrapped gifts), so I was pretty excited of the thought of what might be in there. My dad starts telling me that this took him a long time and had to restart it a couple of times but was pretty happy with it now and it was up to me to finish it. Below is what I saw when I took opened the trash bag:
I was absolutely speechless as it was nothing like what I had expected. I had really just wanted something he made to tie his woodworking skills to one of my hobbies that I could double as a cutting board while outside grilling. Needless to say, I wont be cutting anything on this. He then tells me that I can finish it as he was not sure what color kettle I had planned on using with it or he would have painted it to match. So once I decide which color I will place in that cart, I will finish the painting to match. He said it was made with three different woods; Cherry, Padauk and Aspen.
Thought everyone would enjoy his handy work as I have never seen anything so cool before. I told him now that he is done with this one, I was going to have him make one of my Camaros
Here are a few other pictures: