In "Dog Beers" I've Only Had One!

In past blog entries I've attempted to entice all of you, my friends, to come out to visit us with the promise of the many touristy things that Asheville has to offer.  On one of our early visits to the Asheville area we took one of the On-Off Trolley tours of the city.  If you are not familiar with Trolley Tours, it is a guided tour that runs at regular intervals and you can get off at any scheduled stop and then get back on the next trolley whenever you are ready all day long.  It's a great way to explore any city for the first time and get familiar with the local attractions.  Anyway, one of our driver/guides was a complete character.  He described Asheville as being built on the 4 Ts:

Tobacco;

Timber;

Tourism; and,

Tuberculosis

Apparently the air quality here in the mountains is so good (unlike what I was exposed to for the last 35 years) that Asheville became a very popular place for convalescing from any number of respiratory ailments during the last two centuries.  However, with Keith Clarke's impending visit it has brought to light one of Asheville's main attractions that was overlooked in that list...BEER!!! 

It appears the Colorado Rockies have nothing on Asheville for the quality of our Mountain Spring Water.  The quality of our water for brewing beer is second to none.  As a result, Asheville is known world wide for its up and coming microbrewery industry.  Microbreweries in Asheville are relatively new on the scene compared to microbrewery behemoths like Portland, Oregon.  I was a little disappointed that Asheville didn't score higher in some of the articles I found Googling the topic.  The subjective assessments ranged from number 16 in Thrillist.com's article titled "Best Beer Cities in America"; to number 8 in CNN.com's "8 Best Beer Towns in America"; to number 2 in Smartasset.com's "The Best Cities for Beer Drinkers."  If you consider that there are over 19,000 incorporated entities in the USA, even a ranking of number 16 is pretty darn good.  However, since Keith and I are both avid "Beer Drinkers" I'm going to promote Asheville as the "2nd Best City for Beer Drinkers! (At least until they move into the number 1 spot.)"

How often have we heard "Uncle Keith" declare that in his retirement he fully intended to "Catch up on his drinking"?  His visit to Asheville will likely be his best chance for that very thing.  My TripAdvisor query using the word "breweries" resulted in 26 breweries, 2 brewery tours, and a couple of pubs, and that was just the first page of results.  The Asheville Chamber's website has a page titled "Asheville Beer Top 40: Breweries, Pubs, Events." I personally have not had the opportunity to take advantage of one of the brewery tours but it will be on the agenda for Keith's visit and I am very much looking forward to it.

Now you wouldn't think there was a downside to being the 2nd best city for beer drinkers, but I have not one, but two issues with the microbreweries in Asheville.  First, for some reason it's appears to be a common assumption that a higher alcohol content means a more flavorful or better tasting beer.  And you know what happens when you make assumptions; you make an "ass" out of "u" and "umption!"  Really, a 9% alcohol beer is just a nasty tasting beer for which you have to pay more for the privilege of drinking less.  I mean who wants a DUI on their record just so they can say they "had more than one 9% beer?"  Second, almost all of the breweries make beer that is seasonal.  What that means is that just when you find a beer you really like it goes out of season and you have to begin the experimentation process all over again (I guess that could be a "good news, bad news thing depending on your view).  The pub called the Thirsty Monk, right across from our favorite pub Jack of the Wood, is an Asheville attraction for no other reason than touting they have over 1000 beers on tap over the course of the year.  All that means to me is the 250 beers they have over the winter are gone in favor of the 250 different beers they stock in for spring long before you have an opportunity to try them all.  Even if you automatically ignore all beer with alcohol content over 6% it's an impossible task.  And it doesn't help that the same beer will be available next winter because I've already forgotten which beers I've sampled and liked last winter.  Most bars will give you free samples of their beers on tap in a shot glass.  If you work the system right I suppose you could have a great night, get your DUI and never spend a dime on beer by just sampling everywhere.  But don't get me wrong, for a guy like me it's a nice problem to have.  I had a doctor's appointment today and my blood pressure was as low as it's been in 10 years.  I don't know if it's Asheville, unemployment, Buddy, or the pubs; and I'm not sure I care!

There is one pub like attraction in which I'm not interested in the least.  The "PubCycle".  I'll do it if Keith and Nancy want but I have no interest in working that hard for a beer.  It kind of defeats the purpose if you know what I mean.  And it's BYOB for Pete's sake; what's that all about?

One final note.  A couple of times we've been out Maureen and I have seen this diminutive (elfin/Maureen thinks she looks like the sister of Logolas from the Lord of the Rings.) young woman hanging out around the Blues bands.  I thought she was just a band groupie.  It turns out Ms. Jesse Barry is quite the local celebrity in her own right.  Ms. Barry was a season 9 American Idol contestant (made it to Hollywood but didn't make the final cut).  We had a chance to hear her sing last night at Tressa's and as you might guess, she's quite good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkOKN0sVs8k

Have a great week!

Rick




   

I'm On A 30 Day Diet

So far I've lost 18 days!  

Spring is in the air!  I know that spring is here because I just had to cut my grass for the first time of the season.  I took my brothers advice and raised the mower a notch and didn't have near the trouble with rocks and roots this time.  As a matter of fact I went absolutely crazy after I finished the main part of the lawn and I raised the wheels all the way to their upper limit to tackle the steep rocky slope by my lower driveway.  Not only did I not have to worry about roots, the blade was high enough to clear some small trees.  The slope that I was dreading having to take the weed wacker to is manicured.  Sure the grass is a little higher but the slope is so steep it's not usable anyway and at least it doesn't look like I'm letting it grow wild.  I may have mentioned this before; Maureen is considering getting me a riding lawn mower this year.  But I think what I really need is a monster leaf blower.

A new riding lawn mower might be nice but I've gotten into a good routine with my self propelled push mower and I have enough sloped areas that I'd be using the push mower a fair amount of the time anyway.  But raking leaves...that's a chore.  I still have leaves from last fall in the lawn and our wooded area is just blanked with them.  And, if I had a ginormous leaf blower, a Tim the Tool-Man sized leaf blower, then I'd be set!  

My wish list leaf blower!  
(Click on the link)

Ok, so maybe that is a little overkill, and I'd still need the riding mower.  But how about a nice professional grade leaf blower.  Something with enough power you have to be careful not to peel up the lawn or accidentally remove the paint from the side of the house!

Stihl Leaf Blower Commercial

(Click on the link)

Maybe even a leaf blower with so much torque in the motor that it has to be mounted on a backpack frame.  Our local Lowes has a Husqvarna gas powered 4-Stroke backpack mounted monster that might even be able to push the woods back a bit deeper from the house.  "Husqvarna"; that name even sounds a little like the Tim the Tool-Man grunt!  Father's day is just around the corner.  We'll just have to wait and see.

Another tell-tale sign of spring is the cushions are back out on the patio furniture.  That's actually my doing.  It has intermittently been so nice temperature wise that I had been sitting out on the porch in the chairs without the cushions.  I got out (the wrong) cushions for one chair and then finally said "what-the-heck" and drug out all of the cushions.  We have covered porches.  It's not going to destroy the cushions if the weather turns bad for a day or two.

Another sign of Spring, Maureen and I both got sunburned at Liam's meet in Spartanburg, SC on Saturday.  Since I wrote the bit above the weatherman is predicting freezing temperatures and snow showers (whatever a "snow shower" is) coming up this Friday.  Last night got close to freezing and today it's supposed to be 73.  Yep, it's spring time in the mountains!

And last, the SoCon Indoor (and Outdoor) Performance List for the 2015-16 Season is out.  Liam has the 10th best indoor 3000 meter time and the 7th best 5000 meter indoor time in the Southern Conference and is the top freshman in the conference in each category.  At the moment, Liam also has the 15th best outdoor 1500 meter time (4:03.99, not his best distance) and the 4th best 5000 meter outdoor time in the conference at 14:48.92 (4:46.1 per mile for 3.1 miles).  So Liam appears to have picked up where he left off the indoor season and is having a successful freshman outdoor campaign.

I hope everyone is enjoying Spring as much as I am!

Have a great day!

Rick