For those who have been reading my epic piece " 191 Breweries in 365 Days " over the last few newsletters , I hope you enjoyed it . It was certainly a trip of a lifetime for us and we are sure glad we did it last year because this year ( you may have heard of something called Covid 19 ) the trip would not have happened .
I want to talk about the " aftermath " of completing this journey . We finished our year long trip in late December 2019 at our hometown brewery , Bobbing Bobber located in Hutchinson . I had been keeping a diary with my thoughts / notes and in late December , early January 2020 , I started writing the article you have been reading the past year in this newsletter . I wrote intensely , I was focused . The reason being , was I had the goal of trying to get published in the Growler magazine , a lofty goal indeed and I really wanted that to happen . I don ' t know how many times we proofread those 18 pages , many times . I wanted it perfect . So , I contacted the publisher at the Growler magazine and submitted my article . The response was , they were not interested in this type of story at this particular time . Well , I was quite bummed about that , I had put in much thought and effort into writing this and I was quite proud of it .
So , I just resigned myself to having it in the Batch newsletter . Now , don ' t get me wrong , I ' m very happy to have it in the Batch newsletter or anyone who wants to publish it . I just had my heart set on the Growler magazine and this is why I usually do not set goals , when they are not achieved it is a bummer . So , sometime late January 2020 , our local newspaper , the Hutchinson Leader contacted us and wanted to do a story on our adventure . We said , sure . So , a person from the paper stopped over and visited with us . I gave him my 18-page article , which he was more than a little surprised at and said " this will be great , I don ' t need to do much writing , you did it for me ". He was quite overwhelmed seeing the collection , he took pictures and we talked . For Teri and myself , our thoughts were that it would be published on the back pages of the newspaper .
So , one day as I ' m walking into work , I pass by the newspaper stand outside the front entrance to 3M and the current paper is displayed . On the FRONT page is Teri and myself , taking up the top half of the page . Holy Terwilliger !!! For the love of Clueless Bob Jackson !! I ( we ) did not expect this . Wow !!
I felt somewhat embarrassed , as did Teri . You can imagine all the " shit " I got at work as did Teri . We were called rock stars by many . I even had my co-worker ask me to sign a copy for him as his mom did not believe he worked with me . It was all just really crazy for a while . Even today after nearly a year since we completed this trip , we still have people recognize us , they will ask for recommendations , questions about our trip or just want to talk beer . My article also made the town of Litchfield local paper and a magazine called ZEST published it , this magazine profiles those over 50 years old who are active and have interesting stories to tell . Our son , Charles and myself put much time into making a You Tube video from the hundreds of pictures we took at all the breweries , put to our personal music playlist . The video is on You Tube and is named " Minnesota Craft Brewery Tour 2019 ". This was a busy month .
As time passed and all the " hub-bub " subsided , we got back to living our normal lives for a month or so until mid- March when everything went wacky over Covid . I also decided to retire from 3M in June , so I now have plenty of time on my hands which is nice , I can write more for this newsletter . Whether anyone reads my stuff that ' s another question . One more thing , the You Tube video Charles and I made , has about 250 views last time I looked , which is ok I guess , considering it is about 45 minutes long . It has not gone viral but , that ' s ok , we like our boring quiet lives here , someone else can step up and have all the glory . We had our 15 minutes of fame and it has certainly been a fun journey . I did not get published in the Growler magazine but , that ' s ok , it got published here in the good old Batch newsletter and really that ' s all that counts . I like to dream , that in maybe 5 to 10 years from now , Teri and I can do it all over again but , for now we enjoy occasionally watching ( Teri gives me shit that all 250 views are mine ) our video with a good beer or two , and re-living all the memories . If you ever travel to Hutchinson , let us know , stop in and visit . Till next time , Jay . # 16605 Breweriy list continued on page 5
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