Opening day

A few years back I was watching an episode of Oprah when she featured her best friend Gayle searching for the best burger.  Gayle has read an article in GQ about the ten best burgers in America. By the way, this was way before it was "cool" to eat burgers!  I thought to myself, if Gayle can do it, why can't I?  I love a good burger.  I went on line and pulled up the GQ list.  It was impressive and half the cities featured were cities were ones I visit on a regular basis.  Slowly I conned my colleagues into joining me on each adventure.  I started ticking off burgers from the GQ list slowly but surely.  Then my friends started giving me lists of burger places from magazines and newspapers.  Every town I visited I asked for the best burger place and gave it a try.  Now I'm up to 70+ burgers and going strong. I started taking pictures of the burgers and even of the signs of the great classic places.  Unfortunately for my waistline, while searching for the best burger, I've added in cheese fries, milk shakes and onion rings.  I mean how can you walk away from that if they tell you they have the best.  I've also learned through trial and error that when you ask someone where the best burger place is, you better know if they LOVE food or just eat food when they're hungry!  For instance, a recommendation from a 20 year old college guy who will eat anything you put in front of him, may not be the most reliable source of information in any given town. As I've ranked, I've added in atmosphere rankings, costs, who I went with and other worthy notes.  After all, all of these things can sway your decision in how that burger tastes.  As I continue my travels, it's my hope that I will ultimately even come up with the best recipe for the best backyard burger. That'll be a whole other list but hey, life's short- let's eat!  I'm new at this bogging things so forgive my pace as I am able to start posting my lists, my pictures and comments.  Once I can get the most recent list up, I'll try to get some polls going.  I'll also be posting my "TO DO" list and I welcome anyone adding to my list for my travels.  So please- join me as I travel across the country and eat my way through more red meat than I ever thought I'd eat!  Bon Appetit!