I am officially an Arrogant Bastard...

Greetings from The City of Angels! As hard as it was, I had to leave San Diego to continue my journey up the coast of California.

Before I left the San Diego area, I had to go visit Stone Brewing Company. Probably my favorite brewery in the country. They make some awesome stuff.

Stone is located about 30 minutes north of San Diego in Escondido (considered North County San Diego). The town on Escondido itself is nothing really to write home about, but once you stumble upon the brewery, it gets muchhhh better. Its located in a large building in sort of a industrial park kind of area.

As you walk in the front door, you are faced with a fork in the road divided by, coincidentally, a large stone in the middle. On the left is the Stone Store full of merch, a tasting bar, and tour sign ups. To the right is Stone World Bistro & Gardens, their fully functioning organic restaurant and bar. I went to the store first because the tour was approaching.

The brewhouse itself was pretty amazing. This was definitely the most high class brewery tour I've been on. The tour guide was even equipped with microphone stations throughout the building so that you could actually hear him talk during the tour (it tends to be rather noisy in most running breweries). The equipment being used was all huge and looked brand new, although I think that is just credited to a good, regular cleaning job. After making our way through the entire brewhouse, we were able to see their bottling line. It was the first large-scale bottling that I've ever seen. It was rather cool from a mechanical standpoint seeing it in operation. All the automation and control that goes into the bottling line is pretty impressive. They were in process of bottling Oaked Arrogant Bastard while we were there. Rather cool.

The tour ended back at the store where everyone gathered around the tasting bar for our predetermined sampling of Stone beers. We were given 4 oz tasters of Stone Pale Ale, IPA, Smoked Porter, and Arrogant Bastard. I've had them all before but this was definitely the freshest I've had them! Of course they were all awesome.

After the tasting, I decided to go to the bar at the Bistro & Gardens. Talk about an awesome restaurant. It had about 50 ft ceilings with an entire wall of retractable windows. They were open while I was there due to the perfect San Diego climate. I sat down at the bar and order a Ruination IPA. One of my favorites. Again, it was the freshest I've ever had. While I dabbled in the “liquid poem to the glory of the hop” (as it says on every bottle of Ruination), I decided to get something to eat. I was there during “in between” hours which meant they weren't serving lunch and weren't serving dinner so it was a limited menu. However, everything that was on it was rather gourmet. Things like Wild Boar Baby Back Ribs, Grilled Buffalo Burger, and BBQ Duck Tacos. It all sounded interesting and rather delicious since they try to incorporate their beers into all their recipes when they can. Since all their ingredients are locally grown and fresh, everything is sort of pricy. So I just decided to get some “Stone Style Soft Pretzels.” They were pretty awesome if I do say so myself. They came with some gourmet mustard made specifically for Stone and some spicy cheddar sauce as well. Overall, it was an incredible place to have a beer and food.

After Stone, I set out for LA. The brewery sucked me in for longer than I expected so I unfortunately ended up in a bit of LA traffic. It stunk but passed in due time. Once in LA, I met up with Kelly and Tim for dinner. Nothing like a steak and beer to finish off a good day. I am now enjoying a slow morning and will go see some stuff this afternoon.

You're Not Worthy...

Mmm. San Diego. Drink it in, it always goes down smooth.

Its been a few days since I've gotten on here. Mainly because driving leaves you in a terrible blogging mood. And I have done a LOT of driving in the past few days.

Houston was a good time. Chris and Carolina could not have been any more awesome. We got Maple Leaf'd, BBQ'd, and Burger'd. The stay in town was so good that I decided to spend Friday night as well. It was worth it. Rest was needed for the journey ahead of me.

Saturday came and it was time for me to do battle with the entire state of Texas. Boy was it a battle. It was the longest time I have ever driven in one state continuously. 12 hours to El Paso. Lotttttts of Texas. Luckily as you get into Western Texas, the mountains spring up and the view is quite awesome for many hours (makes the drive easier).

I decided to continue driving after El Paso and kept trucking through New Mexico. After about my 14^th straight hour of driving, the sun finally went down and I began to get very sick of driving without any scenery to look at. I decided to spend the night in a motel right near the border of Arizona and get an early start the next day.

I set out from New Mexico early on Sunday. I breezed through what little was left of New Mexico and proceeded through the very bare Arizona desert. I had been driving on I-10 for the past 1000 miles and I finally had to change roads to I-8 to San Diego. I thought I was going to die once I was on I-8. Absolutely nothing. It was one of the most boring and hot drives ever. Just desert and nothing.

I finally crossed the border into California! But I was quickly greeted with even dryer desert. I'm talking just sand dunes dry. It proceeded to be immensely boring through California. But then...it alllllll changed.

I-8 went from the most boring road in the world, to the coolest drive I have ever made. The desert quickly rises into huge mountains of boulders. The road zigs and zags through the mountains as you climb and climb and climb. The scenery was seriously AWESOME. It was great cruisin through that area. The highest elevation that I reached was 4,181 ft. Pretty darn cool.

The views continued until I reached San Diego. But I had finally made it. Around 2,700 miles later, I was in San Diego! I met up with Billy, with whom I was staying with, and we quickly headed out for “Sunday Funday.” Met up with a couple friends and headed to a bar at Pacific Beach to watch the Heat game. To make a long story short, after many pitchers of beer and a few jello shots, I found myself being enrolled in a cherry pie eating contest. No hands. No rules. Just right. It was me and one of Billy's friends that signed up. It was quite easily one of the most bizarre things I've ever done. I got through half the pie before I had to bail. It would not have ended well if I kept going. However, Alex, the friend we were with, did mad work and ended up winning the contest! He won a $150 bar crawl too. Pretty freakin sweet. It was a good time though.

Today I headed and decided to do some explorin around the city. I decided to go to Ocean Beach for lunch at Pizza Port OB. Pizza Port is a San Diego brew pub chain (4 total) which one of the four wins Brew Pub of The Year almost every year at GABF. I must say, it was pretty awesome. The Shark Bite Red Ale was fantastic. Nice and hoppy, but balanced with the red malt characteristics.

After lunch I met up with a couch surfer that was also visiting SD solo so we did some sight seein together. It was cool. Saw some cool stuff.

Once Billy was off work, we took a trip up to Torrey Pines. Best. Place. In. The. World. We got there just as the sun was going down and the views were out of this world on top of the cliffs. It blew my mind. We then walked around La Jolla which was also pretty awesome. Finished the night with some Mexican food and called it a night.

Tomorrow is a big day, I visit the Mecca that is Stone Brewing Company. I'm pumped. Until next time...

Why is No One Wanting Beads From Me?

Greetings! Just pulled into Houston. Sitting at a bar watching the Astros game. Drinking a Shiner. If I could just find oil on my property then I'd be living the Texas dream.

Due to the Marines having a pretty early starting work schedule, I was up and out of the house rather early this morning. Once I left the house I headed directly for the French Quarter. Once I knew I was getting close-ish I found a pay lot and parked my car. However, I wasn't exactly as close as I thought. I'm pretty sure I walked a total of 5 miles this morning. But it was all good. I finally made it to the French Quarter. I first walked the whole length of Royal St. and then doubled back on Bourbon St. You wouldn't believe how NOT crazy Bourbon St. is at 8 am on a Thursday. It was just me and the people that were in charge of cleaning the puke from the night before off the street out and about. I threw beads at one particularly attractive road cleaning lady, but she just threw them back at me with some velocity. Isn't something else was supposed to happen? Oh well. But the entire area was still rather awesome. Every place had signs how THEY had the strongest drink of Bourbon St. and that they were selling Hurricanes, Daiquiris, "Big Ass Beers," and so on. Got to see Tropical Isle, home of the infamous "Grenade." Man do they really make that their selling point. They only had about 5,476 signs saying they created the Grenade. So since again it was only 8 am, I had to imagine what everything would be like during Mardi Gras or Jazzfest. It must be insanity. And amazing. Mark my words, I WILL make it back for one of those events in the future. I've got unfinished business with you NOLA!

Anyway, I finished my French Quarter experience with a walk along the VERY high Mississippi. At that point, my legs were done and I decided to hit the road. Fast forward 5 hours, and Houston is where I be. Waiting for Chris to get off work and then will be hanging with him tonight.

Steak night at the Maple Leaf? Bring it...

NOLA! HOLA!

Abita Brewery. Bizarre Location. Awesome setup. At first glance one might notice that the brewery is located in a trailer park. But then one takes a further glance and sees the gem in the rough. The brewery is rather incredible. Their “visitor center” (tasting room) is brand new and rather awesome. They have Abita brew inspired art and games and a longggg Mahogany bar with only Abita taps behind it. Two big flat screens top off the atmosphere of the room. A short, older woman begins the tour with a “Can I have everyones attention. Soon we will open up the bar.” Everyone shuts up immediately. She begins to tell us how we will soon be able to walk behind the bar and pour our own pints for the rest of the tour. There was a group of (clearly by the boat shoes and pink collared shirts) frat guys standing next to me who at that moment began to believe in Santa Claus again at the open bar announcement. I, on the other hand, was looking forward not to the fact that it was an open bar but to the fact that they had ALL their current beers on tap. I got in line and waited my turn. As soon as it came my turn to choose one of the many tap handles to pull, I had to choose the Double IPA (a brew not available everywhere). It was exactly as I expected, enough hops to melt the enamel off your teeth. Also rather boozy. But delicious. As I stood talking to an older couple of my journey across country and how they were also just sort of passing through (although they were just coming from Mobile, AL), the tour lady came on the mic and announced that the bar would be temporarily closing in 5 minutes so that the tour could begin. I have never seen such a wide age range of people down their beers so quickly. Of course the frat dudes pounded theirs and congratulated each other as they went back up to the bar. But I saw one woman around the age of 60 just tilt her cup up and let gravity do the rest for a few seconds. You really have got to love the South... But anyway. I was luckily done with my beer and was able to get a Restoration Pale Ale (get it?!) before the tour started. The only other brewery that I have ever toured was located inside a warehouse in Raleigh and consisted of about 6 or 7, 30 bbl fermenters. Abita on the other hand, had about 25, 300 bbl fermenters and a few 400 bbl ones as well. Just so you can get an idea, one 300 bbl fermenter holds over 16,000 six packs of beer. That is massive! As the tour leader told us, Abita is currently the 15^th largest among American craft breweries as of right now. Can't wait till I get to Stone and New Belgium...

But enough of me rambling about the beer (although prepare on later posts cause its gunna get worse). I finally made it to New Orleans, LA (NOLA)! Talk about a crazy drive in. I came via 27 miles of bridge across Lake Pontchartrain (I like to say it in a French accent as “Pon-Chon-Tron”). As you drive along the bridge, you can begin to see center city on the skyline and good golly Miss Molly is the Super Dome huge!! One of the first things I could see. I guess thats why its not named the “Pretty Cool Dome”. But anyway, once I got off the bridge of eternity, you could immediately tell you were in a different type of place. Thanks to an out-of-date GPS that I was trying to follow, I was weirdly lucky enough to miss a few turns and see just a small amount of what Katrina did. Man was it weird. Signs that are still faded from flood water. Cracks in pavement. Homes still a mess. You really don't get a sense of what happened on the news. It hits you once you're here. Completely out of my element. Comin up on 6 years and its easy to forget about certain things that popular media decides to drop. But I digress. I am staying with Paul. Paul is the man. I think as soon as I stepped on his property we began to discuss beers and brewing processes. The man really knows his stuff. While discussing, I was apart of my first brew ever (while we shared a few bottles that Paul had already made, great stuff!). Very exciting. We brewed an American style Cream Ale. It was awesome being apart of the process for the first time since I plan on starting up myself in a few months. Once the brew was done boiling, we set off for dinner. I gotta say, I am DIGGING the open container law in NOLA. The rest of the country needs to adopt the lifestyle. Walking to dinner with a Stella in a can somehow just feels right to me. Perhaps I should talk to my local Congressman...Wow I really do ramble. Well long story short, we went to dinner, me and Paul went and got a few beers at a sports bar, and then retired to home base. I can't leave this city without visiting the French Quarter so I'm gunna do that tomorrow. From there, I'm Houston bound. I need to sleep...

The journey begins...

The journey has officially begun. And I have decided to document my trip.

With my month off between college and career I have decided to follow one of the great American dreams and head west. I am riding solo throughout the country and meeting up with people along the way.

I left Raleigh, NC on Tuesday May 17^th around 6:00pm. Great weather for the beginning of a long journey. Warm. Sunny. Windows down. Tunes blastin'. Twas' a good feeling! However the beginning-of-journey-buzz quickly wore off and I was soon stuck looking at the BEAUTIFUL scenery which is interstate filled NC, SC, and GA.

Fast forward multiple hours and I found myself still driving around 1:00 am and decided to get a few hours sleep. I received a tip about a particularly nice rest stop right across the GA-AL border near the famous town of Shawmut, AL (google “Best Town in the Entire World” if it doesn't ring a bell at first). I parked at the rest stop and stepped out of my car for the first time in awhile. For a second, I thought I headed North on 85 instead of South. It was stupidly cold. Being the warm blooded northerner that I am, I figured it wouldn't be anything crazy sleeping for a few hours. However, I'm pretty sure it was one of the coldest nights the state of Alabama has ever experienced in May. And I was only armed with two sweatshirts and a semi insulated windbreaker. It was awesome...

With a good 4 hours of cold, cold sleep under my belt, I set off again and sailed down to the town of Abita Springs, LA (30 mi. north of New Orleans) where I currently reside. I totally forgot about the time change when planning what time I wanted to get here so I arrived a bit prematurely. I am currently at a coffee shop where I was able to find some Wi-Fi and caffeine and am killing time until Abita Brewery opens at 2. It will be the first brewery of my nationwide tour so I'm pretty pumped. I still have an hour and a half until tour time and I just learned Abita has a brew pub right down the road so I think I'm going to go get a pint and burger while I wait. Until next time...