About a half mile down the road, Charles says, look
there's a brewery! Well, I'll be darned, it's Bald Man
Brewing. I'm feeling good, hell, let's stop and see if they
are open. Sure enough, they are packed, we fight our way
to get in and it's only a little after 11 am. We find out there
is a 5-K run going on and suddenly someone says over a
loudspeaker, 3, 2, 1 GO!! We nearly get stampeded, like
the running of the bulls in Spain. We survive and now the
taproom is empty and I can find the bar and a beer. Ahhh,
relief, a nice Porter style on nitro, so we do some Re-
Laxen . That's a shout out to our friend Jon Laxen. Can't
get enough Re-Laxen! Ha!!
After this, I thought, may as well make a day of it,
Charles can drive since he is under 21 and can't drink
legally anyway. So, I need a Growler and we stop at Wild
Mind Brewing, we arrive about 11:50 am, they open at
noon. So, we sit in the truck and wait. A person walks out
of the door with a beer in hand, puts it on a bench and
proceeds to take pictures of it. We walk over to converse.
He says, I can have the beer, free, if I want it. (I look over
my shoulder and check for Bob Jackson) He had to take
pics of the bench's (with beer) that were just installed this
morning, so he can post on Facebook. Ok, you really
twisted my arm, I'll take the beer. I'm beginning to think
this is one of those charmed days where nothing can go wrong and when these days happen, you better
Northbound
Brewery
& Smokehouse
Smokehouse
just enjoy the ride. I'm thinking, maybe I'll Northbound
pull
out a Red Wing Brewery
cone,
if I stick & my
hand
in a box of cans we
just got.
Next stop is lunch in Excelsior at a Sushi bar. Yum O , as Rachael Ray would say. Twins are on, craft
beers on tap and we are having a great time. After we
get done with lunch, may as well walk over to Excelsior
brewing and see what's going on. I see they have a
free beer program for Military personal, show your ID
and get a free one. So, I show my Military ID and get
another free beer for the day to chalk up. Bob Jackson
would be proud. I have learned well from the Master.
When you can the snatch the beer glass from Bob's
hand, you will have learned, Grasshopper.
Finally, we decide to make the push for home. We
make it home and the unloading begins. We stack the
boxes and bags in the garage, then Charles and I both
dig in, like ravenous Jackal s. Always fun doing this, it's
like being a ten-year-old on Christmas, you never
know what you will pull out next. In the final analysis, I
upgraded several cans and added about 50 new cans
to my collection. There were about 500 foreign cans
and they went to a local collector who specializes in
these and he was quite happy to get them. The rest
will be found on my table at upcoming shows. There
were no "piss your pants" moments, just some nice
70's pull tabs, lots of older foreign cans, a few flat tops
and just one fine day. Thank you, Claire, for your
hospitality, stories and letting someone (Charles and I)
truly enjoy your generosity and memories. You are one
of our memories now. Till next time, Jay.
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