One of my weaknesses too, Brenda, but sure looks like John has the hang of them!
Bob/Brenda - I agree strip steaks are a little more tricky to get right. To me the most important things are to buy steaks with some marbling, get them out of the fridge 30 or 40 minutes before they go on the grill, have a really hot fire, and get them on to the fire for a good char with the lid open, then cook them indirect until you hit about 127F for a good medium rare, then finally let them rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
In my opinion, the really hot fire is hard to do on a gas grill when the burners are spaced too far apart (my Weber Genesis is like that because it doesn't have a sear burner). Sure, the Genesis will get really hot with the lid closed, but the fire just isn't as hot and doesn't have the same surface area as a charcoal fire. AND keeping the lid open during the "charring" phase is important because if you close the lid while charring, then the top of the steak will keep cooking after you flip it, and the charged outside layer will end up "deeper" into the steak than you want it to be, and the steak will end up a little tougher.
Also, in my opinion, the best way to get a really hot charcoal grill is to set the cooking grate up so it's as close to the fire as possible. One of the things I like about the PK360 is that the space between the grill grate and charcoal grate is only about 3 or 4" so one chimney full of coals will get pretty close to the grill grate without too much hassle. My aftermarket charcoal basket helps with that some, but wasn't 100% necessary.
My favorite way to get the coals close to the grate on a Weber Kettle is to use an upside down Vortex (tip of the cone pointed down). This increases the area of your hot coal bed and puts the grate about an inch or so above the fire. I do recommend using a stainless steel grate if you try this because last I checked, the stock Weber Kettle grates were plated steel.... which will not stand up to this sort of heat (I learned the hard way).
2nd favorite is using the slow n' sear. It holds more charcoal than 1 chimney's worth, so you need to fill the Slow n' Sear up all the way, then take all of the charcoal off the top and put in your chimney and leave what ever remains in the bottom in an even layer. Then you dump the coals back on and you should have a hot fire blazing right under the grill grate. I just find that the Slow n' Sear's shape is a little odd for direct grilling, so I mainly used it for smoking/indirect cooking. Before I had a vortex or slow n' sear, I was using a couple of bricks wrapped in foil, and laid on their sides with the hot coals in between to get the coal bed closer to the grill grate. I actually prefer bricks to the slow n' sear because it makes a nice big rectangular cooking surface across the grill with two indirect zones outside the bricks.
Side note Weber's charcoal baskets, in my opinion don't get the coals close enough to the cooking grate. I wish they made them a little taller/deeper. My guess is that they keep them shallow and short so the standard grill grate doesn't get damaged.
Finally, I recommend staying away from the "reverse sear" unless your steaks are getting closer to 2" than 1.25 to 1.5" thick. I have a lot more trouble getting the final temperature right when I use that method. I know some folks have it mastered but I'm probably 1 for 10 when I try it that way and close to 95/100 using the direct ~indirect method. The 1 time I got the reverse sear right, there was no "magic", it tasted the same as any other steak I've cooked correctly.
