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...

Surprise!

So last night Pete and I went out to search for food, and our wanderings led us to Georgetown. After we parked and walked down to the main drag we were thinking about what kind of food we'd like to eat. Pete looks around as we are crossing the street and says "hey there's pizza right over there. How's that sound?" "Sounds good to me."

So we walk into this place and the greeter asks us if we would like to be seated downstairs in the Birreria. We were like "Oh, hell yes." So as we are being led down to the bar, the guy says "we were just rated the #11 beer bar in the country" and so I ask who did the rating and he says BeerAdvocate.com. And right about then it started to feel very promising.

We get down stairs and are seated at the bar directly across from the largest cooler. They had big selection of bottles and a decent number of taps, about 12 or so including one cask beer (which was my first choice of course). Pete and I had an extremely enjoyable evening of beer and pizza. Pete has a Rochefort 8 and a Goulden Carlous Triple while I had The IPA that was on cask (I can't remember the name), a TenFidy Stout from Oscar Blues Brewing and the Duchess DeBourges (probably not spelled right) a Flanders Red. The bar tender was nice and friendly and certainly knew his beer. The pizza did not live up to the beer, but I would be willing to give it another try. We got a bread plate with roasted elephant garlic which I ate a lot of and I am guessing it was a little too much, b/c I got to smell it again this morning from a source I wouldn't have expected.

I had a nice day of tourism today in our nations capital. Took a few photos, which I will share soon. The weather was practically hot, I was wishing for shorts at one point. But now it is raining and I am heading out to meet up with Babin and Jack for dinner.