[T.G]

I clean the cook surface basically the same way Dom does, I crank it to high, use a pastry scraper to get the bits of food off, wipe it down with a wet paper towel or rag under the the blade of the scraper, then, once the water evaporates, I'll wipe it down with a paper towel/rag coated with oil. Let that cook in for a moment, then shut it down and let it cool.

Agreed, the seam in the center of the cover is a pain. I discovered the hard way how much it leaked. On the flip side, the water didn't hurt the griddle top at all. I didn't leave it sitting for days though. I dried it up and re-oiled it the day after the rains.

I suppose a blue tarp and a bungee cord or two along with a spare cheese melt dome or overturned bowl like Dom uses would solve most of the problem.

These days, store the griddle collapsed in my garage because I just don't have the room in my yard right now with all the other cooking stuff I have out there, plus I mostly use it at work anyway. About once a month or so we do something, it and the PBC are the two I prefer to drag down there since they are the most portable.