Lazy days of summer

For blogging that is. Damn I have been lazy in my writing here. I have been in and around LA for almost two weeks and I still haven't finished put down anything about my drive back from Chicago. Guh.

Well here goes nothing. I left Chicago on a Monday morning and started to drive west on I-90. Which conveniently takes me through Madison, WI. At a rest stop on the way I was able to get an Autie Anne's hot pretzel, one of my favorite random food items and one I have been without for several years I think. In Madison I stopped at a beer store that came highly recommended on Beer Advocate. This was a very good stop for me as I was able to pick up whole cases of New Glarus fruit beers, along with a nice grab bag of midwest beers including a four pack of Devil Over a Barrel from Tyranena and a Bell's Hopslam, which I had failed to pick up on my last trip through the midwest.

Upon departing Madison I took a detour up to Minneapolis on I-94 solely to visit the Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery. MTH makes Masala Mama IPA one of the last beers in the top 15 or so on BA that had escaped me. I hadn't had time to really check, but I had my fingers crossed, that not only would the Pub be open since I was getting there at almost 9pm but that I would be able to have a glass of Masala Mama. I didn't know whether it was a seasonal release or something that was available year round. I was reassured immediately as I approached the bar on foot, because the place was hopping. I mean really hopping there must have been about 30 tables in a courtyard outside, and they were pretty much all full of people eating and drinking. I went inside and found myself a place at the bar where I was even more delighted to discover that they not only had Masala Mama available they had it on cask. On top of that they had a mango infused version of it called Mango Mama. I had both of these and they were both excellent. They went well with the cajun chicken ceasar salad I had for dinner too. I struck up conversation with two gentlemen next to me who both appeared to be real beer enthusiasts, one of them was even a writer for a local midwest brewing newsletter. After finishing my beers and sobering up a little I purchased a growler of Masala Mama to go and got back on the road.

I got myself an energy drink around 11:00 so I was awake enough to keep driving until 2:00am. I was able to get myself back on to I-90 and within about 70 miles of South Dakota before I decided to pull over and sleep at a rest stop. This is the only time I have done this and it didn't work out too badly but the short amount of sleep I did get caught up with me a couple days later.

Whoa that is a lot of words about half a day. So I will continue this saga later. I might get in another installment today, but if not it will have to wait until after the weekend as I am heading back to Black Mountain for some more bouldering. But before I do, today I am going to see the new batman movie, should be good.

Four Time Zones, Two Days

Memorial Day weekend on Lake Michigan.


So when last I wrote I was in St. John, MI waiting for The Livery to open up. It was well worth the wait although it took me a little while to get to the really good stuff. I met a few very nice folks, Dixie and Tim the bar-tending couple, Mike the Livery's biggest on-line advocate and Steve the Owner/Brewer. In the course of meeting these fine folks I tried a lot of Livery brews and they ranged from merely okay to fantastic stuff unlike anything I had tasted before. Favorites of mine were the Bourbon barrel aged Triple Wheat Bock, and the Merlot barrel aged Malliot Juane (which I think is a beire de garde). I am hoping to form a relationship with those guys so I can try more of their beers despite their lack of distribution. In return I will try to spread the word of the Livery in Socal.

When I left the Livery I took with me a growler of Red Canoe, which is a wonderful Irish Red Lager, for Grant, my buddy in Indy. I rolled on down to Three Floyds which is barely out of the way heading from The Livery to Indy. While there I had a delicious rueben and a glass of Dreadnaught IPA. Both were delicious and it is hard to decide which was better. I got to Grant's place in Indy around midnight and a a brief chat with him before hitting the sack.

The next day I got up at a reasonable time and hit the road to LA. I put in two relatively long days of driving. The highlight was stopping in Albuquerque to get some chicharones a delicious crispy fried pork that can be used to fill any sort of Mexican type of dish. Along with the chicharones, little bit of fresh Mexican cheese and some flat bread made an excellent meal. I stayed the night in New Mexico and got into LA around 8:30.

Since, then I have been drinking some awesome beer with Josh, climbing at Stoney Point and eating meat with Jen. Josh has a few days off this week and we are discussing an overnight hike in the Sierra with Watson. If that happens there should be some good pictures forth coming in this space.


Stormy Sunset in the Texas Panhandle.

Elk!!!!

So I am writing from Boulder, CO where Michele (and Bryan except he's out of town) has once again welcomed me into her home for a few days. Yesterday I didn't do too much other than hangout with Michele. This is due to the previous two days where I did a lot of stuff.

I left the Bay Area on Monday. I drove from Palo Alto up to Santa Rosa making another trip to Russian River because, frankly I can't get enough of that sweet sweet nectar. After a brief stop there around lunch time, I took off for Utah. I drove east on 80 over the Sierra Nevada, through Reno and into the great emptiness that is the State of Nevada. I don't recall exactly how long it took, but it is 410 miles across Nevada on 80, and there ain't much to look at. I did manage to find the Utah-Houston NBA playoff game on the radio and that helped pass the time, especially after the sun went down and there was nothing at all to look at.

I got myself into Salt Lake City sometime around 11:30 and headed south on I-15 to Route 6. Route 6 heads over the Wasatch Mountains to Price. I was driving on Route 6 at about 1am and I realized that there was an elk in the road. I was doing about 60 so I had little time to react. I managed to swerve to the left of the elk just missing it but leaving me closer to out of control of the car than I would like. I was very happy to successfully avoid the animal because that would have severely damaged my car and probably my body too. It would have been a very bad ending to my day and possibly even my trip. But I escaped undamaged and continued on to Joe's Valley where I arrived at around 2:30am and promptly went to sleep.

The next day I bouldered in Joe's Valley, attempting to find and climb a bunch of v6's that I had not yet sampled. I found most of them (one eluded me, I'm not sure how... it's a rock, it can't move) and was only able to climb one of them. I have various excuses for the others. I was close on some, and I am excited to try them again when I return, but others were uninspiring, and still more needed some spotters to be safe. In any case I climbed one v6 and I have several project to come back to, and that is never bad.

I left Joe's Valley that evening and headed towards Boulder on I-70. I-70 through Utah is beautiful and highly recommended by this guy. I managed to pick up another NBA playoff game through most of the drive which was great again. Around 11:30 I was exhausted and I camped somewhat illegally at a spot near the highway. I had an awful nights sleep (possibly due to my proximity to the highway) and I got up early so that I would not be found by the authorities if any came to check for illegal campers (highly unlikely in that area).

I drove to Boulder that morning arriving around 8:30. And I spent the rest of the day relaxing. Two short nights of sleep in a row did not leave me with much energy. I perused the local beer store, but for once I did not buy anything. I shared one my homebrews with Michele and her friend Amy and they both enjoyed it quite a bit, which made me happy.

That evening Michele made some calls and found me a climbing partner for today. I met up with Jay this morning after enjoying a good night sleep and we went to Eldorado Canyon just south of Boulder and did a nice multi pitch climb. We finished around 4 and headed back into town. I had forgotten how much I like multi-pitch trad climbing. With all this bouldering, I do more falling than climbing sometimes.

Right now I have just finished dinner with Michele and I am about to take off and start driving to Munster, Indiana for Dark Lord Day. I figure I'll be camping somewhere near Lincoln, NE tonight. Okay then, I will post again when I find some more internet access.

Heading East...

This weekend I managed to have breakfast with Patrick and Bridgette, hangout with my friend Zack for lunch, catch a few NBA playoff games on TV, go for a short hike with Amanda and chill with Blase for a bit too. And on top of that, Josh and I were finally able to open up some of our home brewed beers for their first taste. It was pretty darn good, nothing fantastic but certainly better than a lot of other beers I have had in the past.

Well, I am heading to Dark Lord Day in Indiana. I leave the Bay Area tomorrow and I have until Saturday to get to Munster, Indiana. After that I'll be continuing on to the East Coast for the month of May. In honor of all this moving about I am bringing back the driving updates. so here is the update since last time. The mileage is accurate but the time is an estimate that leaves out a little driving around town in LA, Bishop and the Bay.

LA to Bishop and other places :
Driving Time - 32:00
Distance - 2670

Total:
Driving Time - 113:50
Distance - 7989

Driving Update

I am in LA now. Chilling with Josh and Meghan and the pup Watson. Josh and I went for a run with the Watson today and then went out for a beer oriented afternoon, buying home brewing supplies for so that we can brew tomorrow, and heading to a bar called Naja's Place which was rumored to have Pliny the Younger on tap. We did manage to find the bar and they DID have the elusive Pliny the Younger on tap. Josh got a full pint of it, which was pretty cool since it came in half pints or 10oz glasses at Toronado and the Russian River Brewpub when I had it. Josh loved the stuff so it was a very worthwhile trip down through the killer LA traffic. It was made even better by our discovery of a Mexican seafood place just down the boardwalk that had 99 cent tacos during happy hour. Josh and I had 5 each and they were delicious.

So for now a driving time update before a preview of posts to come:

Joe's Valley to Indian Creek to Joe's Valley to Salt Lake City to LA:
Driving Time - 25:30
Distance - 1699

Total:
Driving Time - 81:50
Distance - 5319

Whoa. Those numbers are getting up there and I have only been on the road for about three weeks.

So in the next day or so I would like write about my impressions of the Utah climbing that I experienced. I would also like to think about some goals for my trip up to Bishop in a few days. Maybe I'll add a brief run down on the beers that Josh and I have had in the last couple days and the brewing process that will take place tomorrow.

Before I wrap this up here are some notes about my drive from Joe's Valley, Utah to Los Angeles, California. The Wasatch Range in Utah is gorgeous and it was very nice to drive over while there was still some snow up in the mountains (but not on the road). Darko and I joined a private club in SLC which is what you have to do if you want to drink any beer that is not 4% alcohol or below. After dropping Darko off at the airport I managed to hook back up with Shilpa and Chelsea (who had a flight back to NC on monday morning) at a place called The Pie, supposedly the best pizza in SLC. The Pie turned out to be a takeout only place, but since it was pretty empty we chilled on the coaches and chairs and the girl enjoyed their pizza when it was ready. I was offered and accepted a piece and I am not sure whether it was the best in SLC (since it was the only one I have had) but it certainly had a ton of cheese which is my number one requirement for great pizza. When they had their fill of pizza we parted ways and I started driving down to LA at the late hour of 9:30pm. I had to stop by 10:30 to grab some caffeinated beverages.

The next hours were spent driving through Utah and Nevada and into California. And along the way I was accompanied by an old friend. Yes that's right KNBR 680 was coming in loud and clear from the Bay Area, CA all the way through Utah and Nevada and into Southern CA. I managed to cross over into CA around 3:00am after crossing swiftly through Las Vegas at 2:30am. Unsurprisingly, there was still a touch of traffic on the road at that late hour. I managed to make it to the Mojave National preserve and some free roadside camping before it became inappropriate to drive due to drowsiness.

I woke the next morning surrounded by Joshua trees and cacti. And with some extraordinary luck the Joshua trees were blooming.





The rest of the morning was a smooth cruise into LA and the only real event was the passing of two tanks being transported to the National Guard Armory in Barstow. They were loaded onto some trucks with "Oversize Loads" and I guess that goes to show that you should always check out the payloads on those suckers even though they tend to be predominantly Paul Bunyan's plumbing fittings.

More to come soon...