Excellent overview and advice. I totally get your Mom's outburst on losing that griddle. I'd have cried, too.
We've collected a few pieces over the years, but our best 'score' was 20+ years ago, from a friend who had rescued a boxful of assorted goodies. (His neighbor had them out for trash because of the rust. I know, I know...) Our buddy didn't need any more for himself & knew we did a lot of camping.
We ended up with:
A Dutch oven & two lids that fit, a 14' fry pan, a 10" fry pan, and a round 12" griddle.
Still have all 'em, too.
Wow! Those lids are really a score! They're so hard to find. I actually found one on the side of the road one time. I saw it as I drove by but wasn't sure I wasn't hallucinating. Went back and picked it up and it fit my 10" fry pan perfectly. I feel sorry for whoever lost it.
My biggest pan is only 12". That's the one I use to make pizza. My favorite is a 10 incher that is almost 4 inches deep and has a very tight-fitting lid; sort of a cross between a frying pan and a dutch oven. Great for making a big batch of spaghetti sauce. I even have a cast iron wok I got at a garage sale for $5. So cool.
True that, on the lids. They're different, too. One's more domed, with a few concentric rings of ridges on the underside. The other is flatter and has a checkerboard pattern of 'spikes' on the underside. Neither of them is the true, coals-on-the-top version...dammit... but they work well for everything else.
Oooohhhh, real pizza! (I'm near Chicago. We're pizza snobs. Lol!) It's hard to beat the taste the pizza crust picks up from the cast iron.
Am envious of the wok. Have only seen pics, but would imagine they're perfect for either wood or gas.
Yes, the wok is great on a campfire. I place 3 rocks in a circle and put the wok in the middle. I have an aluminum wok lid that I use to direct heat over just about everything on the grill, so it's more than a single use item. Made some great stir-fries out in the boonies.
I'll have to keep a eye open for one, because that sounds like the ultimate set up.