Did you meet someone you used to only know from her blog? Did you discover Twitter?

My Social Web Moment happened via Twitter. The conversation happened between me and a twitter friend and both the official In-N-Out Burger Twitter person AND Grant Imahara of the TV show Mythbusters. It took place several months ago in the span of about 15 minutes from the beginning to the end.

The conversation went something like this:

@kattykyt: I miss having In-N-Out Burgers since I moved here to Branson, Missouri

@hstrykid: @kattykyt Yeah I know, same for me here in Tennessee.

@kattykyt: @hstrykid LOL, @IN_N_OUT_BURGER just DM’d me.

@hstrykid: @kattykyt LOL, that’s awesome, maybe they’ll DM me if I mention In-N-Out Burger.

@IN_N_OUT_BURGER: @hstrykid Maybe this will hold you over:

@hstrykid: @IN_N_OUT_BURGER LOL, gee, thanks, now I’m REALLY Jonesing for a double/double.

@hstrykid: @IN_N_OUT_BURGER You guys need to open up here in Cool Springs, you’ll KILL the competition.

@IN-N-OUT_Burger: @hstrykid It’s taken us 60 years to get to Utah. It will be a while.

@hstrykid: @IN-N-OUT_Burger Maybe you guys could get @grantimahara to build a burger transporter like they have on Star Trek.

@IN_N_OUT_BURGER: @grantimahara Could you build device to teleport In-N-Out burgers?

@grantimahara: @IN_N_OUT_BURGER @hstrykid I wish I could! If I did you’d be the first to know!!

For me, this was a fun moment. And, it demonstrates the power of social media to bring together a group of folks, all several thousand miles apart to have a conversation about any topic and share a laugh or two. It also shows how a company – In-N-Out Burger – is managing it’s brand on Twitter. They are having fun and responding to their fans in an engaging and personal way. My hat is off to In-N-Out for having the courage to be thus fun when they could, instead, circle the wagons and simply tweet boring “Go to In-N-Out” type messages with no life or substance. Instead, they engage their audience and offer real conversations in real time.

Awesome.

Are you as horrified by this news as I am?? Good. We’re ready to proceed.

As I mentioned yesterday, I flew back to CA in early August on personal business and to pick up my daughter for our return trip to TN. My tertiary goal was to satiate my hunger for the most exquisite burgers in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD as part of this trip.

So, to set the scene: I flew into the Ontario Airport in the early afternoon on a Friday and retrieved my rental car. I then proceeded to use the BrgrFndr app on my iPhone to locate the closest In-N-Out Burger joint to the airport and as luck would have it, there was an In-N-Out (store #34, opened in 1984) about a mile from the airport.  So, I drove over, parked and ordered at the walk up window.  I ordered something I had never ordered before: a Triple/Triple.  What is a Triple/Triple you ask?  Simple: three fresh all beef patties and three slices of American cheese.

Now, normally, I would order a Double/Double, but I felt that this being a somewhat special occasion, it called for a brave new order!  Needless to say, I was not only pleasantly surprised by the burger, but it was the absolute BEST In-N-Out burger I’d ever had the good fortune to experience.  Perhaps it was the fact that I was starving.  Perhaps it was the fact that I was having serious INO withdrawls.  But, I prefer to think that it was due to the perfect combination of three gloriously melted cheese slices, three excellently grilled fresh all beef patties, fresh tomato and leafy lettuce all nestled lovingly with special sauce on a freshly baked bun toasted just right.

I can honestly say, that sitting in the warm California sun with a perfect In-N-Out burger, fresh fries and a large coke was about the best “welcome to California” arrival I’ve had in a long time.  It won’t be topped any time soon