So I thought I would try my hand at some nice thick beef ribs that were given to me (first attempt at beef ribs).
Little did I know that while the smoke was going on, we would come exceedingly close to a tornado, lose all the windows on the west side of the house, and experience about 1000 baseball sized holes in our siding.
For a reference, this was the day before the Moore OK tornado. I live in Wichita.
Middle of my rib smoke, we went into tornado warning and started to experience high winds and serious hail, which was coming in horizontally, as if shot out of a gun. It broke all my windows and made swiss cheese out of my siding. Small tornado hit about 1 mile north of my house (no injuries, thankfully).
So how did my AQ smoker perform through all of this? I covered it with my son's red circular sled (like the one used by Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation), and headed to the basement, thinking both my smoker and house were soon to become tornado debris. It smoked away during the rain, hail and wind, and when it was all over, I pulled the beef ribs out, foiled them and threw them in a warm oven until I could get the windows boarded up, and glass cleaned out of the carpet. Two hours later, we dined on some incredible ribs (slightly dry from the oven but in fine shape, all things considered). The smoker survived without a hail dent, and performed like a champ! A friend told me they were the best ribs I had ever smoked.
Moral of the story: Cookshacks can perform in darn near any weather!
On a serious note, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, having to deal with insurance, arrange for a new roof, windows, etc. Then the next day, the Moore tornado hit. It gave me perspective real fast. It really hit home that we should give thanks in ALL circumstances. Best wishes and prayers to all those families in the OKC area affected far worse than me.
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