I-P-A RIVER: March 2020

2/20 - I headed over to the Providence Theaters in Mt. Juliet tonight to exercise my Regal Unlimited account and checked out the new comedy, Downhill. I kinda liked the movie although it was really more of a drama than a comedy, and the story was somewhat uncomfortable, but interesting. I took a coat-pocket beer with me as usual. This time it was a pint can of Mustang Oil, a terrific milk stout from Homeplace Beer Company in Burnsville, NC. This beer was from my variety-pack purchase in Asheville, NC, a few months ago.

2/23 - I finally got to check out the new Top of the Rock Restaurant and Brewery up on Jasper Mountain just off the interstate in Kimball, TN. This is the first craft beer in Marion County where I grew up. I was very satisfied with their Stout (photo above) and their IPA. The food was great too. We will be back here for my birthday weekend in April looks like (Editor's note: or not, eff you, coronavirus!).

Not a lot of moola, but still quite an achievement. I won my first-ever "Buckament" tonight on Global Poker tonight. As the name indicates, it's a NLHE tournament that costs a buck to enter. There is no guarantee added, so the prize pool remains small. However, I did defeat 75 other players and turned my dollar into just under $18 in profit. Not too shabby, and I really needed a win since I have not been running very well online recently.

2/26 - I had dinner at Catch 22 in Mt. Juliet with my old friend since grade school, Mick, who was in town for business. (Photo above : Just a couple of O.G's PCES representin'! ) I had a couple brews with my dinner, of course, and chose to start with the outstanding French Toast Bastard Scotch ale from Founders Brewing (MI). I finished with the decent Happy Amber red ale from MadTree Brewing (Cincinnati).

2/27 - I took another "sick day" today before they took the hours away from me, and I decided to head east instead of west into Nashville as usual. I had three unique places I wanted to check out and scout out for future visits possibly. After a leisurely breakfast at a Waffle House in Gordsonville, my first visit was actually a repeat, but one of my regional favorites, just off the interstate in Crab Orchard. Lovely Ozone Falls was flowing well thanks to all the rain recently and I had it all to myself for my brief visit there.

As I headed back east through Crossville, I stopped for a quick look at the interesting and historical Cumberland Homestead Tower there. Built in the 1930's, it and scores of the surrounding houses in the planned New Deal community all made of the beautiful "crab orchard sandstone" are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

My first of the three unique places I wanted to visit came next at the fairly new Head of Sequatchie State Park well north of Pikeville. This tiny outflow pictured above is the source of the long, wide and meandering Sequatchie River which I grew up near about 60 miles or so downstream. I got lucky to see this since the park is actually closed in winter except on the weekends, but the gate was open and by the time I parked, a kindly caretaker gentlemen allowed me to have a quick look and take a few pictures. My good luck continued as the day continued. This beautiful area is definitely a place to return to and explore in the future.

The second unique spot I visited was the amazing Isha Institute USA, an inner -sciences retreat near McMinnville. I only stopped long enough to snap this picture of their Adiyogi: The Abode of Yoga, a 30,000 square foot structure costing millions of dollars. It even had a little snow still on it from last night. I definitely would like to return here to explore some more since it is open to visitors and you can even stay overnight. They own a large amount of surrounding land also with hiking trails that include waterfalls.

My next stop was not new, but it's been a helluva long time since I have been here and I forgot what an amazing place it is. Twin Falls in Rock Island State Park north of McMinnville are incredible and it was a perfect day for a visit. Although technically "man-made" by a dam's construction upstream forcing excess river flow through caverns and dumping out back downstream, it's still an awesome site. I definitely want to return here sometime and maybe try my hand at fishing for walleye and muskie in the beautiful Caney Fork River that the falls flow into or even rent a cabin for an overnight stay.

My last unique stop was The Burlap Room Beer Garden and Taphouse in Smithville. I have heard about this beer bar located in a long-standing tree and plant nursery for a while now and have been wanting to visit. It is also the home tap-house for the nano-brewery, Von Seitz TheoreticAles. The only Von Seitz brew that they had on tap, pictured above, was the very good Flanders sour called A Moment in Time. Aging it in cab sav wine barrels gives it a sweeter less harsh taste than most sours I have had...and disliked. I finished with a half-pint pour of Farmer Dave's White Winter Wizard Wit from nearby Calfkiller Brewing over in Sparta. I only had a half-pint since I poured it myself (badly) while the barkeep was busy working in the nursery. He left me in charge and I welcomed another beer-traveller and UNTAPPD disciple, Robert, from over at Cookeville where he teaches at Tennessee Tech. We became fast friends in person and on UNTAPPD and he has an impressive number of check-ins like moi. I feel lucky to have met Robert and luckier still when the barkeep gave us each a free bomber bottle of Von Seitz beer to take with us. Thanks, man! I will definitely be back here as soon as possible.

The other "lucky" find while at The Burlap Room was a TV show that was on starring a beautiful and impressive young lady known as, Darcizzle. Yes, her blonde hair and amazing body got my attention at first, but then what was equally beautiful to watch was here deep-sea angling ability, deft filleting of what she caught, and just overall toughness out on the ocean. She's not just there to be pretty. She handles her own rod (insert tasteless joke here), reels in the sometimes massive fish on her own, unhooks them, and prepares the one she keeps! A little more research finds that her actual name is Darci Arahill and that I am woefully late to the Darcizzle Party as she is a well-known YouTube (and now regular TV, I guess) star worth millions and with tons of followers on Instagram.

OK, one more silly stop on the way back home was to grab this shot of the somewhat famous (hey, it's mentioned in Wikipedia, so it's gotta be important, right?) Allen Bluff Mule in Liberty. This way I have record of it in case it ever goes away, although according to local legend it's been there for well over 100 years. Who knows, but it was a fun way to cap off a secret, fun day to myself. Cheers!

Lebanon Poker Night, I had to cover for my partner, Chip, who couldn't make it for the game tonight. I got a variety 3-pack at Providence Wine and Spirits to take with me. I toasted all of them to our poker friend, Richard Whitener, who we sadly lost last year. We miss you, Rich! First up was a tasty and refreshing pint can of Stillwater's World Famous Pilsner (NY). Next up was a can of the excellent double IPA called Galaxy High (2019) from MadTree Brewing (Cincinnati). I finished the night with another pint can. This was the very good oatmeal stout called Even More Little Tiny Baby Jesus from Evil Twin Brewing (NY). I finished 5th which kept our team in the lead in points, but those behind us did gain ground. So, it's down to the last 3 games to see who goes to Vegas with Chip playing two of the remaining games and me one.

2/29 - It was a historic day here in Music City today, as our brand new MLS team, Nashville Soccer Club were taking on my current favorite MLS team, Atlanta United, at Nissan Stadium for their first-ever regular-season game. I bought two tickets from my friend, Nate, who has season tickets, but couldn't make this game. Bad for him, good for me!! My friend, Danny, went with me since Ashlee had a scheduling conflict. There were over 50,000 tickets sold before today!

I met Danny early for some pregame libations. After parking at the stadium, we took an Uber over to East Nashville from the Quality Inn nearby. I had to take a look at their "famous" indoor guitar-shaped pool while waiting on our ride. Does it remind you of anyone else's outdoor backyard pool?

We headed over to Smith and Lentz Brewing in East Nasville for some pre-game party libations. The place was packed and we were lucky to find a table open up. I started with their excellent IPA (photo above) called Melanie, From Cali.
(Editor's note: a few short days later Smith and Lentz suffered severe tornado damage, but no loss of life thankfully.)

Oh yeah, Happy Leap Day, everybody! My second beer at Smith and Lentz Brewing earned me this rare UNTAPPD badge. I had their solid oatmeal stout called You've Changed.

Back at the stadium before the game, the tail-gaiting was large and flowing with brews. I don't remember them letting you have these much beer out in the open at Titans games. Cheers!

Nate's seats are pretty good in the north-end goal. It was a great, competitive game with Atlanta eeking out a 2-1 win on a controversial second goal. There was a pregame mini-concert with Judah and the Lion. The national anthem was sung by Chip Eston of the "Nashville" TV show fame. Nashville's own, Fat Bottom Brewing, has two new beers dedicated to the new team and I had one of them, a pint can of Pitch Invasion Lager (Nashville Soccer Club) and it was pretty good despite the biting cold temps during the game. More history was made tonight also as it was announced that the attendance had swelled to a final count of 59,069, making the largest crowd to ever see a soccer game in Tennessee! The only downer of the night came later when it was reported that my favorite player, Josef Martinez, of ATL UTD has suffered an ACL tear that would keep him out for a good while. Get well soon, Viper.

3/1 - I am kinda proud of my first week fully using the new Mirror Interactive Fitness Device that Ashlee invested in recently. I am just in the beginner classes, but a start is a start.

I had a pretty successful night in online poker tonight with my first-ever double-cash in the nightly crazy pineapple tournaments on Global Poker. I got fourth in the early game, and an improved 2nd place in the late game vs. 40 other players and turning my $5 investment into $40+ in earnings.

3/1 - I took a half-day off today and headed to Opry Mills to catch the new horror/thriller film, The Invisible Man in IMAX. I am not much into horror movies and wasn't super jazzed about this movie, but it was getting good reviews and it was kind of my only new option to see with my Regal Unlimited membership. Plus, the director is Leigh Whannell who directed one of my favorite films of 2018, the highly underrated Upgrade. This movie was fine, but didn't do much for me overall. The invisibility special effects were great as was the story of how it was created, but it was basically just a stalker/jump-scare movie...whoopdee-do. I also don't care for the lead actress much either although she's very popular. There will definitely be a sequel which I might have slight interest in. We shall see.

After the movie, I stopped by the Catch 22 gastro-pub in Mt. Juliet for some tasty wings and a couple of brews. I started with the solid and tasty stout from Rhinegeist Brewing (Cincinnati) called Moose. I ended with a light and interesting witbier on nitro called Limoncello First Impressions (photo above) from 4 Hands Brewing (St. Louis). It was a great combo of lemon and vanilla.

3/3 - I usually avoid talking about work on here since most of these entries involve me getting away from it, but the next few days will become my most memorable working at Middle Tennessee Electric. Our county (as well as East Nashville and Cookeville on either side of us) were ravaged early this morning by some of the worst tornado activity I have ever witnessed. I got the call to come in at 2 AM and didn't leave until 17 hours later. I spent most of the day drawing jobs from one end of service area to the other where poles and line had been completely destroyed. The damage assessment points are shown on the map above in almost perfectly straight line across northern Wilson County. How we only lost 3 people in this chaos is beyond me. Our home was unscathed and we are extremely grateful and humbled by that fact since so many others were not spared.
When I finally did get home, I cracked open a well-deserved pint can of a deliciously hoppy pilsner called Sonnenaufgang from Foreign Objects Brewing (NY). A solemn toast to those who lost so much.

3/4 - Today I moved outside and into the devastation to help out where I could. Two other guys and I drove through a large fairly-new subdivision and pulled over 70 meters from homes that had been totally or significantly damaged enough that they would either need to be rebuilt from the ground-up or have massive restoration before power could be back on. I was proud of my work today, but it was nothing compared to our linemen, plus many other contract and utility crews who were out there rebuilding the miles of line that were destroyed. Thanks to my company's Facebook page for the photo above.
While I only clocked in 12-hours today, this was my most significant and affecting day seeing all the damage up close and personal. It was rather overwhelming at times and I will never forget what I saw. I cracked open a pint can of an outstanding New England IPA called Powder Dreams (Dry Hopped w/Mosaic Lupulin Powder, SImcoe and Ella Hops) when I got home and raised it to all those dedicated linemen out there and everywhere keeping the lights on for us.
Even though I probably should have been in bed, I eeked out a late-night second-place finish in another Crazy Pineapple Tournament on Global Poker tonight for about $50 in profit vs. 49 other players.

3/5 - I logged in 13.5 hours today doing an array of tasks including more meter pulling, delivering materials to crews on site, designing and drawing jobs, etc. I also got to walk through the home (or what was left of it) of one of my co-workers whose house took a direct hit and they survived by laying in the central hallway of the small structure. Truly incredible. We made great progress today restoring power to what was 20,000 meters after the tornado hit to just under 2,000. It's a great feeling.
When I got home I happily popped open another pint can from the old RCC, Refrigerator-Crisper Collection. It was another solid New England IPA called Specter from Fulton Beer Company (Minneapolis). I snapped the screen-grab photo above the night of the tornado and I think I basically captured the tornado cell. The width shown in pink is pretty close to the size of the large damage-path that tore through our county. As devastating as it was here, the death toll and destruction was much higher in Cookeville (one of my favorite little beer towns) to the east. I raise this one in honor of the 20+ killed in that area, most probably while they lay sleeping.

3/6 - "Let the clouds roll away, it's time for some blue skyyyyyy!" - Queensryche "Jet City Woman." That song has been on my mind recently since I am seeing lead singer, Geoff Tate, perform it solo next week, but even more with the events of this week where we've been blessed with blue skies and mild weather to get most our downed power lines and snapped poles back up and humming with power. I put in another 12-hour day today, so I deserved a brew tonight, plus it's Friday and let's face it...it's been a helluva week! I dipped into the RCC again and fished out a pint can from Clown Shoes Brewing (Boston) called Don't Fear the Blender # 2. It's a fantastic milkshake IPA made with strawberry and raspberry puree.

3/8 - I headed over to the Opry Mills Theaters this afternoon to catch a showing of the new film, Seberg, based on the life of actress, Jean Seberg. It was an interesting look at how the FBI n the late 1960's harassed this poor woman to death (literally) for her association with "radical" groups like The Black Panters. It was very well done with Kristen Stewart in the title role. And, yes, I do like that haircut! As a bonus, I also got to see the Oscar-winning and very sweet animated short, Hair Love, before the film. Afterwards, I headed over to Various Artists Brewing and enjoyed a pint of their IPA called Baby Pigeon out on their deck under warm sunny skies.

3/12 - I braved the coronavirus scare and went back to the late 1980's/early 1990's tonight with a show at the historic Exit/In featuring Geoff Tate, formerly of the heavy-metal band, Queensryche, performing the band's entire 1990 album, "Empire" (one of my favorites) for it's 30th Anniversary plus their earlier second album from 1986, "Rage for Order" in its entirety also.. God, I feel old! Joining me was my friend, John, who is one of the few people I know who still likes and clings to heavy metal music even more than I do these days. We had dinner beforehand at O'Sake Sushi just down the street. Before the show and dinner, I also stopped by the Hurry Back beer bar next to the Exit/In. It's good to see this place back in business after a recent fire and now connected to Exit/In...literally...you have to walk thru Hurry Back to enter Exit/In now. I started with the solid Cloud Harvest 01 New England-style IPA from Rhinegeist Brewing (Cincinnati). Next up was the excellent Horchata 10W-40 Imperial Stout from Hi-Wire Brewing over in Asheville, NC. After dinner, I picked up a lovely Cake Therapy pastry stout from TrimTab Brewing (Birmingham, AL) to enjoy during the show which was excellent by the way.

3/14 - It was a very surreal weekend and the country as the world are self-enforcing social distancing to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. We stayed at home the entire time and I cracked open a free bomber bottle of beer I got recently called Mollys Gruit, an ancient herbed ale from Von Seitz TheoreticAles over in Smithville. The barkeep at The Burlap Room gave me and my new UNTAPPD friend, Robert, each of bottle of it on our way out on a slow weekday. Now I know why. It just wasn't that good. Very earthy and hard to finish honestly.

Might as well have some beer humor through these hard times...

3/15 - Stuck at home, I played online poker most of the weekend and besides these two almost back-to-back full-houses with my favorite treys (neither of which netted me much of a pot), I took some of the worst bad-beats I have ever endured. Oof! What a forgettable weekend!

3/16 - If you can't go to the movie theaters, might as well do a little pay-per-view. I missed Black and Blue in the theaters a while back, and had heard good things about it, so I cued it up tonight. Good flick and well worth the seven bucks! My favorite character in the film was Mike Colter's portrayal of menacing drug kingpin, Darius Terrow.

3/17 - It was a fairly silent and surreal St. Patty's Day today with everything that's going on. I did crack open a bomber bottle of beer at home from the Refrigerator Crisper Collection for the occasion. It was the excellent Whiskey Barrel Aged Diatomaceous Irish dry stout from Hutton and Smith Brewing down in Chattanooga. This was hand-bottled # 56 of this limited edition seasonal that was aged five weeks in a Chattanooga Whiskey barrel.

3/21 - Ashlee and I just had to get out of the house today after a couple weeks of social distancing. We decided to head east to some places without a lot of people. We had a fun day-trip that culminated at Lily Pad Hopyard Brewing across the road from the Obed River, a national wild and scenic river, in Lancing, Tennessee. I brought a couple half-growlers along and filled them with Ginga-cocoa Ale (Ashlee loves ginger-flavored beer) and their Ferocious IPA. I sipped both on the way home and enjoyed them very much

Whoa! Talk about "the circle of life!" This keg urinal at Lilypad Brewing is awesome!

I usually don't report a fourth-place finish on Global Poker, but this one's definitely worth noting based on the severe bad beats and coolers I have experienced over the last couple weeks online. This one had a bunch of players with 154 registered with unlimited rebuys and add-ons. My $6 investment added up to over $90 in profit.

3/22 - I had some more online poker success today. This time it was on Poker Stars and a local home-game $100 stuck-at-home-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic tournament arranged by the host of the WSOP online series that I won a seat at recently. I was able to do a 3-way chop for $400 in profit!! I happily forwarded 10% of my winnings to the Mewsic Kitty Cafe which had to shut down recently due to the Covid-19 virus and is running a GoFundMe campaign to take care of the kitties that are there. The organizer is going to run more of these tournaments, so I hope I can have some continued success with them since they have great structure.

3/23 - I got my favorite hand of quad treys on Global Poker again today, but they didn't lead to any overall success unfortunately.

3/25 - Well, I didn't get to see the new comic book based film, Bloodshot, on IMAX as planned thanks to this crappy virus pandemic, but the studio did release it to stream and own earlier than anticipated because of it. So I bought it in HD today on Amazon Prime to watch on my computer since it was about the same price as an IMAX ticket. And since I am working from home right now, and there's not a lot going on at work, I needed the time-kill. The movie is decent and was worth my time in this unprecedented situation. I especially liked some of the supporting characters because Vin Diesel will always be Riddick to me.

3/26 - I rented another new film today in HD on Amazon Prime that I originally wanted to see in theaters, but missed it. I am not a huge fan of the slow, plodding style of Terrence Malick as a filmmaker, but A Hidden Life seemed like an intriguing WWII/Nazi Regime story and also looked beautifully shot from what I had seen in the trailer. It turned out to be (surprise) slow and plodding, but it is based on a very important and true story and was, yes, shot beautifully.

Woof! To say the least! Nearly a month without any sports has been weird enough, but why did it have to be in March!! .

3/29 - The weather was just too nice not to sit out on the patio and look at our freshly-opened pool with chilly, chilly water in it, and not crack open a brew or two. I raided the RCC again and dug out this fantastic bomber bottle of Dead 'n' Dead, which is Rogue Ales' (OR) flag-ship Dead Guy Ale aged in Dead Guy Whiskey barrels. Social distancing ain't that bad if ya got good beer!

I guess this "location" tag has become very used on UNTAPPD lately.

I continued the good times and good drinking with another bomber bottle from the RCC. This time it was the awesome Reboog Roadtrip 2: Are We There Yet?, an interesting and creative collaboration between Nashville's own Southern Grist Brewing and the Garagiste Meadery in Tampa, Florida. 360 pounds of wildflower honey, peanut butter and the largest dose of cacao nibs they've ever used resulted in a sweet and smooth super-dark product that will be hard to forget.

I enjoyed my second bomber of beer kicked back in the hammock by the pool (even with my old pal, Zippy, for a while who hasn't laid on this with me in years) playing online poker on my phone. The world may be closed, but the pool and our backyard oasis is open for business!!

I had some pretty good success with the online poker. I cashed in a big $22 tournament on Global with over 1,400 people in it and tripled my money. Later on, I got fourth in the same $100 online home tournament on Poker Stars that I chopped last week. This week it was vs. 22 other players, and I doubled my buy-in. I took the 10% of winnings I always give back and bought a couple of $10 Beer Bonds from The Picnic Tap in Nashville to be redeemed when they open back up after all this Covid-19 madness. Hey, just doing my part for the "war effort."