Winter is nearly here..."well, whoopty effin' do" (RIP Bill Paxton)

10/27 -  I had a Friday off  today and headed down to Murfreesboro for an afternoon of leisure after sleeping in (tough life).  I started off with an excellent lunch at The Green Dragon Pub and Brewery where I had a pint of their very own Withywindle Brown Ale that was fantastic.  Congrats to these guys for getting the go-ahead to make their own beer now.  I look forward to trying more of their products in the future.   I moved on to Flashback Arcade for some nostalgic video game fun before checking out the sad, but very well-done, film,  Only the Brave, before heading back home.

Spanish potato soup with chirizo.  Half a pastrami sandwich.  And a tasty brown ale.  Cheers!

(Editor's note:  Sadly, the Green Dragon Pub and Brewery closed in 2019.  Only the good die young.)

10/28 - I grabbed a Variety four-pack from The Casual Pint in Chattanooga (the Hixson location) today to take with me to a birthday/Halloween party for our friend, Michelle.  I made four good choices for the night that included:

A Southern Juice IPA from Jekyll Brewing in Alpharetta, GA
A Brown Bear Ale from Catawba Brewing over in Morganton, NC
A Daycation session IPA from Highland Brewing in Asheville, NC

and a Quinannan Falls IPL (India pale lager) from Bell's Brewing in Comstock, MI.  Not a real falls, I checked, but I liked the idea of an actual waterfall series of beers.
(Editor's note:  My waterfall/craft beer idea came to fruition in 2019 with the creation of Living Waters Brewery in East Nashville!) 

10/30 - It was Lebanon Poker Night again, so I grabbed a variety 4-pack from Lebanon Wine and Spirits for the game.   I only had two before my kings got cracked...nuff said on that...at least the beers were good...I had the Pinball pale ale and the Domain DuPage ale both from Two Brothers Brewing (IL).

10/31 - I went ahead and cracked open one of my extras from poker night last night so I could get the UNTAPPD Halloween badge.  It was another tasty concoction from Two Brothers Brewing (IL) called the Wobble IPA.

11/3 - My online poker lately has fared much better than my live results.  In fact, I won two different online tournaments this week and that seemed like a good enough reason to celebrate with my fourth variety-pack beer from the other night, the tasty Snow and Tell Scotch ale from Boulevard Brewing (Kansas City).


I got first in a $5.00 tourney with 86 people in it including one rebuy for $193.78, and then first again in a $2.00 tourney with 124 people in it including one rebuy for $119.75.

11/7 and 11/8 - I had two days off from work...well, sort of...to start the week.  My mother-in-law, Evelyn, was in the hospital in Chattanooga and since Ashlee and her sister were out of town with work, I volunteered to look in on her on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  I took a little time while I was there and while I was traveling back to grab some brews as well.

11/7 - While on a break from Chattanooga hospital duty I stopped by the Hixson location of The Casual Pint for a couple of beers.  I started with the solid Oren IPA from Reformation Brewing down in Woodstock, GA, and then the excellent  Tough Kitty (photo above) milk stout from Boulevard Brewing (Kansas City).  

11/8 - I got a little earlier start back home from Chattanooga today and since the weather was pretty good and I had most of the day to kill, I took "the long way home" with four pretty cool stops along the way...

First up was lunch and a couple pints at Monkey Town Brewing Company in Dayton, TN.   What a great brewery name celebrating this town's interesting history with the Scopes Monkey Trail.   This place has been on my radar to check out for a year or so, and it did not disappoint.  I had a great lunch of salmon tacos and two of their concoctions including their flagship Evolution IPA: Batch #18 which was outstanding, and their very similar in juicy goodness pale ale, the Kirby's Down B Is the Ultimate Finishing Move.

Next stop was up the road a ways in Crab Orchard, TN, at the 100+ foot Ozone Falls.  Recent heavy rains had it booming, and only a few people were there when I stopped by.  This was a real blast from the past since I haven't been here since my early years with Ashlee when we were so poor, hiking to free waterfalls was about our only entertainment.  It's now a state natural area and hopefully getting the preservation it deserves.

Stop # 3 has been on my To-See List for a long time.  Known as The Minister's Tree-house or the Horace Burgess Tree-house, this colossal structure in Crossville, TN, is only visible from a distance now and is off limits due to being condemned as a safety hazard.  It took Burgess 13 years to build it.  It's over 100 feet high, and encompasses seven trees and is estimated to be over 10,000 square feet.  It is unofficially the largest and tallest tree-house in the world.  
(Editor's note:  Sadly, this amazing structure burned to the ground almost two years later,  No official cause, but arson is quite probable.)

I continued on west on I-40 to Cookeville for Stop # 4, the Hix Farm Brewery.  This nano-brewery is just getting started, but I like where they are headed.  I had their excellent Basic Bitch pumpkin imperial stout.  I will make an effort to get back here ASAP.   This town now has three microbreweries and Lebanon and zilch...life ain't fair.   But, hey, what a great Tuesday this turned out to be!  

11/9 - I was a bachelor tonight so I headed down to Murfreesboro after work to catch a flick (loving my new Movie Pass card by the way!).   Beforehand, I stopped by Mayday Brewery and had a pint of their tasty Soul Dark Lager.

Marshall is a well-done historical drama about the early days of Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall as a young discriminated-against lawyer in an early significant case win by the NAACP.