As Ive stated over and over again I am a complete newbie. Using the advice of a few, I have been "seasoning" my smoker tonight. Im have A BLAST!!!! My wife thinks I'm NUTS!!! She keeps saying "How can you be so JACKED UP over burning some wood and charcoal?" I've learned a lot tonight. I now realize that I don't need near as much charcoal as I used. I also didnt follow advice and started trying to fine tune my temps at 500 degrees instead of 200 like I was advised. (Took me a LONG time to get it back down to 250). Im using apple to "season" the smoker and I had a great "thin blue smoke" at higher temps but it seems to have gone white @ 250. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. All I know is that I'm smoking some ribs on Sunday for the football games. If they dont come out like I want.....Ill just try again.....any advice or input is greatly appreciated. The biggest thing that I learned today is......THIS IS A LOT OF FUN!!!