Well, I finally pulled the trigger on a pellet pooper. I'm a little ashamed to even mention it because it is not a name brand like Rec-Tec, Mak, Yoder, etc., but I wanted to get my feet wet to see if it would work for me. It is an Outdoor Gourmet from Academy Sports and Outdoors. I wanted a pellet grill ever since I cooked a brisket on the RecTec at the Gathering last September. I had my eye on a boxed up grill at Academy for at least 3 weeks (the only grill in all of Houston), but I procrastinated buying it (silly me). Finally 2 weeks ago, I made the decision to go get it. I figured for $200, I would at least get a good learning experience from it. Guess what? It was gone. I had them check inventory at other stores and found that the closest one was in Laredo (about 350 miles and not enough time). Let it slide for the last two weeks, but last weekend, I caught the fever and started a new search and found the closest grill in Baton Rouge, LA. As some of you might know, I work on weekends all around the country and last Sunday, I was in Lexington, Kentucky and fly right over Baton Rouge on my way home to Houston. I made numerous calls to Academy headquarters and to the store in Baton Rouge. They were going to hold it for me, but informed me that it was in a box with the top of the box all torn up and there might be missing parts. I told them I still wanted it and would rely on Academy's superb customer service if I needed anything. So, on my way home Sunday evening, I stopped in Baton Rouge to pick up this grill. Hired a taxi van at the airport to go to the store.They gave me an extra 20% off for what might be missing parts and I bought it for $160. It took 3 people to load it into the taxi. Back to the airport. Had to get airport concierge and both pilots to help me get it inside the plane. Tied it between a couch and a table and took off for Houston. Arrived in Houston and got help unloading it, but I had the wrong car at the airport. I had to store the grill in the terminal while I drove home to change vehicles. An hour and 30 min later I was back with my SUV. Loaded it up and finally arrived home at about 1AM. I was so excited that I put it together right away. It took an hour for me to unload it by myself, but finished in about another hour. It went together beautifully and not a single missing part down to the last screw. I am very pleased with this grill and cooked a chicken in it this evening for my first cook. Along with the $160 I paid for the grill, I had a few miscellaneous costs....$100 for airport usage fees (I'm on my own for personal unscheduled stops), $70 taxi, $120 gratuities for loading/unloading, So I figure I got this $200 grill for about $500 with tax, title, and license (which was the original selling price before it went on clearance). I know that I will have questions and will rely on all you good people for advice. Sorry for the long story, but I got excited. Pics of this evening's first cook will be posted tomorrow if I can get them off my phone or if Jaxon might be able to get them off his phone. Thanks for reading.
