My Dads XL was successfully transferred from Pittsburgh to Maryland

When my parents moved from MD to Pittsburgh back in 2020, my Dad gifted me his XL BGE (in the background) because “it was too much of a hassle to move it”. Honestly I think he really just wanted me to have it as I always admired it and he knew I’d never buy one for myself. After they settled in, in Pittsburgh he bought himself a brand new XL. He called me all excited like it was the first night of Hanukkah the day they delivered it. This was right before Thanksgiving 2021. My youngest daughter and I went up a few days ahead of my wife and my oldest daughter so my Dad and I could smoke all the meat together for Thanksgiving. That was the first and last time that he used it as he had his first seizure the Saturday after Thanksgiving which was the indicator to his glioblastoma diagnosis. During his 10 month fight (and he fought like hell), there was this one day in total clarity he asked me to smoke him some steaks so of course I obliged with the best steaks I could find. After that I never fired it up again. He passed away in October 2022 and there it sat covered in their backyard. One day my mom pulled me aside and said she wanted me to take it and we both cried as she knew my Dad would have wanted me to have it. Finally this weekend I was able to get it disassembled, and successfully transferred back to MD. It was a Herculean effort on both sides as the whole family pitched in to get it back home and reassembled. I’m looking forward to firing it up with a couple of juicy steaks in my Dads honor with a glass of bourbon to toast to the man who taught me how to use this beautiful BGE and who was the best Dad a guy could ever ask for. If you got em, hug your Dads!