GABF Notes

Great American Beer Festival 2010 notes, starting with the winners list http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/winners/
I see that Blue Moon's Chardonnay Blonde won the Fruit Beer category. I remember trying this, and yes, it tastes like wine. So, why drink this instead of wine? As a trend, there seemed to be more of these wine-beers and more scotch beers. Not a lot, but more than previous years. (unless comparing to previous years shows I'm wrong)
A Boulder brewery I hadn't heard of (that won) is Twisted Pine Brewery. (but the Big Shot Expresso Stout sounds familiar. Hmmmm)
New Planet Beer Company of Boulder, advertising Gluten Free beer, got Bronze for 3R Raspberry Ale. Didn't taste any different than Gluten beers. Still, great news for getting drunk if you have IBS.
Of course, there's this category full of WIN:
Category 30: American-Style Specialty Lager or Cream Ale or Lager (42 Entries)
Hamm.s Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, WI
-
Rainier Pabst Brewing Co. Woodridge, IL
-
Old Style Pabst Brewing Co. Woodridge, IL
-
I guess there's a reason they're still around. Last year a blog (Life in the Great Midwest) did a crappy beer challenge. (http://lifeinthegreatmidwest.blogspot.com/search/label/Crappy%20Beer%20Challenge) None of the winning beers were in that challenge. The closest would be PBR. I wonder if these day's they're small enough to be Craft Beers? I went to C.B. & Potts Sunday, and they won bronze in European-Style Dunkel for their Dark Side Lager
I'll be in Keystone for Thanksgiving, and a local there, Pug Ryans Brewery, got Gold for their Bock, Hellats Good Beer
Bristol's Laughing Lab Scottish Ale won an award AGAIN. It had also won Silver in the Scottish Ale category at the 1996 World Beer Cup, the 2000 and 2006 Gold Medals, the 2007, 2002, 2001, and 1996 Silver Medals and the 1994 and 2005 Bronze Medals in the Scottish Ale category at the Great American Beer Festival
Wow, Equinox in Ft Collins, a new brewery, won bronze for Eclipse Brown Ale. Equinox was started by a home brew store.
Sun King Brewing Co in Indianapolis won two awards. They're just east of downtown. Strangely, on their website, they don't list either of their winners as currently being on tap. It'll be a place to hit after the Auto Show this Christmas.
Durango, a city of 14,000, won 4 awards from 2 breweries, and they have 4. My count puts Ft Collins at 7 breweries. We have a LOT of breweries in Colorado.

Misc notes
I drank less beer this year, but had more fun.
I wasn't as concerned that I pass by all the tables.
Many booths took down or covered up their sign listing their name, location and beers offered. This made it harder to figure out if I wanted something from them.
I never felt I had a buzz. I was full, so I know I was drinking.
Even though we got in line later and were much furtherback, the line moved so quickly I don't think it mattered.
Pretzels worked for me, and my necklace was about the right amount. Still, there has to be other foods that would work too.

Went to Elitch Gardens Theme Park: Amusement & Water Park

Yesterday, I went to Elitch Gardens. Weather was 70-85 and clear. Got there about noon, stayed to about 6pm. Crowds/lines biggest/longest when we arrived (30min for Mind Eraser). Hit all the big rides. They put a fresh coat of paint on the rides this year. However, some were closed: Superman rollercoaster (for a few years), the observation tower (again, for a few years), Troika, Rainbow (may also be closed, as I don't see it on the map), Shake Rattle and Roll. I rode some rides for the first time: Chaos, Halfpipe, Ghost Blasters, Dragon Wing.

It was a good day, and I had fun. Went with a friend and his family (minus his youngest boy). Food and drink still expensive, like the $9 beer or the $8 soda (w/ $1.50 refills). Had a footlong homemade corndog. Drank only water. You couldn't self serve water. I expected jugs scattered around the park with paper cups, but there were none. Instead you had to go up to a soda stand and ask for water, and they gave out small plastic cups of water. I was constantly thirsty.

Ride over

Finished the ride in heavy rain. Big difference is that I removed my Oakley sunglasses, which fogged up, and the sun went away.

This was not something I could do while moving, so I pulled off at the next interstate exit and removed them. I made for the nearest shelter, Johnson's Corner www.johnsonscorner.com . I went into their entrance, pulled off my gear and pulled my phone (surprisingly the only dry item on me) to text Rob that I pulled off and was OK (he was ahead of me when the storm hit and we got separated), and he walked into the entrance from the other direction- he had the same idea.

This is when I took the picture in the previous post.

We warmed up a bit and then made for the bikes to head home. It looked from inside like it had let up, but it was still coming down, was very windy, and cold (~55deg). I've ridden in the rain before (heck I've been in snowstorms), but never in this lightweight gear. So it's a grin and bear it sort of thing. Once you get set in a riding position, the body adapts and it only feels cold when you shift. BTW, when your whole body is shivering while you're riding, it effects the direction and stability of the bike. That's body english for you.

Got home doing about 45mph the rest of the way. In my driveway, shifted the bike into neutral, and the light lit! Previous owner said it was burnt out, and I was going to order a bulb tomorrow. After such a miserable ride, it made me laugh. I stripped off my clothes and took a long, hot shower. I feel much better now.

(I wonder if the saddlebags are waterproof?)

Drunken trip notes

This isn't the debrief, but just some notes on the trip, after a bomber of beer (or two).

Sturgis and the Black Hills: Fantastic roads, great for bikes or cars, but surrounded by miles and miles of nothing but flat terrain and straight roads. I loved my time there, but hated getting there. It's only 6 hours from home, but can I take the 5 hours and 275 miles of nothing to get there?

Of all the towns I passed through on this trip, I was most impressed with Torrington, WY and Valentine, NE. Torrington, WY: This little berg just hit the right notes for me. It seems to be fighting above its weight class for fast food franchises, and seems to be born by the railroad that runs through town. It's in the middle of nowhere, and I can see it getting isolated in winter. I think it'd be a good town to live in if you wanted a quiet town, but still large enough to get stuff you needed. It'd be a place to live if you never came out of your house and kept your shades drawn. Valentine, NE: a nice town, again in the middle of the plains, in the middle of nowhere, but has a lot more terrain going for it. Passing through town, it seems to also have rafting on the river as an income maker. Unline Torrington, if I lived there, I'd be out on the front porch a lot. Not sure what I'd be doing there other than rocking back forth and waving to passersbys.

Pierre, SD was also hidden in a valley so that you can't see it if you're not within a mile of town. Seems too off the beaten track to be a state capital, but it is the geographic center of the state. I'm sure government drives the economy as much as Ag does.

As I passed through a lot of towns I wondered what people did for a living in them. I kept coming back to government or agriculture. They are the county seats and the local train station. They are usually located on some terrain feature, usually the confluence of two rivers.

Space is big, really big. So is the US. If you're west of the Mississippi expect travel in hours, not miles. The further away someplace is, the harder it is to estimate how long it'll take to get there. You'd figure the math would be easy as there's few stoplights or stop signs, but anytime you have to make stops to refuel and eat, all time estimates go out the window. I didn't expect this. I Do expect this in the mountains, as you don't know what speed you'll be going at any time, and there's no straight lines between locations.

blogging on the road

With this new Android app, I hope to liveblog from the road.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.3.5

2010 summer adventure pt1

Won a bike on eBay, it's located up in NE South Dakota. Bids from the shippers on eBay were around $500. I used uShip to get a bike last year, and was happy with the price, but you sacrifice a specific time window. If you're willing to wait an extra week or two, it's worth doing.
This time, I decided I'd like to go up and pick it up. It's summer, weather is nice, I've never been north of I-80 (Wyoming exempted), and hey, it's 'only two states away'. It's 13 hours away. For that time, I could make it to Vegas, Dallas, Chicago, Indy, or El Paso. 13 hours and I'm STILL in the middle of nowhere.
It'll be an adventure. I think I've roped a friend into going with me. The plan is to drive up on Sunday and pickup the bike, and take two days, via a less direct route, to drive back, hitting all the attractions in SD.
The plan is to hit:
Deadwood
Sturgis
Mount Rushmore
Crazy Horse
Wall Drug
Badlands national park
Black Hills national park
(and Devils Tower in WY)

Ever notice all these are clustered in SW SD, west of Rapid City?
The Corn Palace is a little south east of where we're going, so we'll probably pass on it. There's a go-cart place and a small amusement park near where the bike is, but again, probably pass.