Hello From Raleigh, NC

[Flavorsavor]

Hello Everybody! My name is Mike, I'm from Raleigh, NC. My smoking/grilling journey really only began about two years ago. My family didn't grill much when I was young, and right out of high school I joined the Navy and needless to say, my attentions lay elsewhere during that period. A year or two after I got out and settled down I decided it was time to man up and start grilling.
My intense internet research convinced me I'd like to at least start with charcoal, and turned up amazing ribs.com. I bought myself a weber kettle and have never looked back. It's been a steep learning curve with many experiments and mis steps.. my first "steakhouse" style hamburgers for my family took two hours and turned out raw in the middle. Since then, mainly with the the help of a patient girlfriend and willing friends and family to be test dummies, I've started to reliably turn out butts and ribs and an occasional brisket or chuck roast that please. I still consider myself as having only a tenuous grasp on the world of grilling and smoking, as most every experience yields more lessons and questions than expected results, but I love it. This wouldn't be a complete introduction if I didn't mention my discovery of and obsession for the grilled pizza, as I cook one at least once a week on my cast-iron Lodge pizza pan.
On a nice day I'd rather be no where other than my patio with a tasty bev in my hand occasionally glancing at my maverick thermometer and savoring the fact that everything smells like meat.

[David Parrish]

FlavorSavor welcome to The Pit! I dig the name. Were you ever stationed at Navy Pensacola?

[Flavorsavor]

Thanks man, I'm happy to be part of it. Nope. Charleston SC and Norfolk, stationed on the CVN George Washington.

[David Parrish]

I've done some refuelings at Charleston before heading to South America. We got stuck there for a few days once and had a good time downtown. I remember hot wings early in the evening and a really cute lass at some bar that had a tiger in the name.

[Flavorsavor]

Yeah it is a fun town. I was in school and 18 when I was down there, my return visits have been a lot rowdier than when I was young scared of my shadow seaman. My last cruise was down around South America, through the straights of Magellan. It was pretty great.

[David Parrish]

Cool. So far we haven't cruised south of Curacao.

[Mettius]

I used to live in Raleigh (well just south of it, but I worked in RTP) before moving to Austin, TX.
I have fond memories (and I wish we had something like the beltway here in Austin... gods, terrible traffic here!)

[boftx]

Welcome! It's good to see some swab jockeys in here besides me. (USS Ranger CVA61, 1971 - 1973)

[Jon Solberg]

Hey FS! Welcome!

[Huskee]

On a nice day I'd rather be no where other than my patio with a tasty bev in my hand occasionally glancing at my maverick thermometer and savoring the fact that everything smells like meat.

I hear you bro, you're in good company

[Flavorsavor]

I used to live in Raleigh (well just south of it, but I worked in RTP) before moving to Austin, TX.
I have fond memories (and I wish we had something like the beltway here in Austin... gods, terrible traffic here!)

So did you live in Garner? The southern half of the belt line is currently being re-built for maintenance and more lanes, so traffic there is rough. They called it the "crawl-eigh" construction project.

Boftx, I wikipedia'd your ship because I like to internet creep. Were you on board when the fireman got charged for sabotage?? I spent a lot of time around the mains on my boat..

Thanks everyone!

[Mettius]

I had an apartment in Garner for the first year I lived there. After that moved out a few miles into tobacco land for the remaining years. (It was a 45 minute commute to my job in RTP!)