An unexpected GRAIL.

[saxart]

Last weekend I was out deer hunting.  We were about to head back out after lunch when my phone buzzed.  It was an email from WKC member GC8 alerting our area's WKC members of a Craigslist ad for a Weber grill.   The WKC membership from the Twin Cities area always take care of each other, so I wasn't surprised to see this email.  We're a pretty tight-knit group....It's what we do.  What I was surprised about is that this wasn't just ANY Weber grill, it was a RANCH, and a NEVER USED one at that!

I never really wanted a Ranch, but the seller's price was pretty decent.  On a lark, I sent him an email with a pretty low offer and went on with our quest for Bambi's parental-units.   After getting home at about 6:30pm that night (no deer) I finally looked at my email and saw that the seller had responded with "Sure, I'll take that.  When would you like to pick it up?"

Having gotten up at 4am that morning, the LAST thing I wanted to do was drive an hour one way to pick up a grill.   But...   off I went!

It turns out the seller was just an agent working for his boss.  The plan was to meet the seller at the boss's house (which was in a VERY affluent neighborhood) to pick up the grill.  The house it was at (which looked nice) was actually in the process of being torn down and rebuilt into bigger/better.   The seller was sitting inside his Escalade in the owner's driveway when I got there.   As I was backing up to the garage, the seller got out of his vehicle, phoned the owner and the garage door opened.  There sat the Ranch in all of it's brand new glory. 

The owner never came out.  For all I know it was someone we would have known (locally famous?).  The guy said that his boss had bought the grill brand new a few years back, and once he got it to his house he just realized that it was WAY too big for his needs and it just sat.  When I handed the guy the money, he went over to the side door of the house, knocked and handed over the money to whomever opened the door.  He then helped me load this beast into the Suburban.  We put the lid in the back-seat and the rest of the kettle fit just fine. 



As I was pulling out, the seller phoned the owner, the garage door closed, and he got in his Escalade and followed me out of the driveway.  In hindsight, I should have asked WHO the "boss" was.

Anyway, I present to you.  A brand new 2010 (AD-code) Weber RANCH!











If you've never seen a Ranch in person, here is a picture to give you some idea of the scale of these things.   That's a 12-pack of Dr. Pepper sitting on the cook-grate.  That's about the same length as a rack of ribs.



Another way to get some perspective on these things is to realize the size of the ash-pan under the grill.  I believe it is the same stamping as the lid for a Weber firepit!

Since we're only a family of 3, this grill will be used almost exclusively for Low-N-Slow cooking, so I already did some mods to it last night in preparation of it's inaugural cook today.  A 13lb spatch-cock turkey.

More pics to come as this grill gets wheeled out and fired up later today......

[tattooedant]

awesome score, better story!

[Bman]

THAT is very cool.  Nice hunt & kill shot. 

[G$]

Great story. 

As for asking who da boss was ... fugheddaboudit.

[pbe gummi bear]

Dang that thing is brand new! Even better that your low ball went through. What a great start to the holiday shopping season.

[Lowbrass]

Awesome!  Nice score!

[Eastex]

Great backstory, really gives the grill a lot of character


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[G]

Nice addition Sax....cant wait for some action photos.  Either you have some stubby handled utensils or the SS tool hangers are on the wrong bar.....

[Weber MD]

Unbelievable....what an amazing score!

[Jocool]

Nice work.

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[Lowbrass]

This would also be perfect for band bbqs/fundraising events!  Would your school reimburse you if you said this was for band events?

[jcnaz]

Awesome find and teamwork!

[SlickedBack]

Awesome! I like the pic with the dr pepper!


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[MINIgrillin]

You could use that thing as a tornado shelter!

It should have bats hanging from lid.

Could be used as Hobbit home.

Christopher Columbus tried to get to the other side but gave up.

Chuck Norris was affraid to use it.

"no BoomBoom soulbrotha! Too bookoo!"

So big...its got an echo
So big...its got an echo
                           an echo
                                   echo

[SlickedBack]

All hail the full metal jacket reference!!!


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