I-P-A RIVER: July 2026

8/17 - My six-pack of the limited-edition Spiderman cans (and box) from Bero Brewing arrived while I was gone. No autographed can from Tom Holland unfortunately. The zero ABV beer was OK, but nothing to get excited about.

Additional Note: I did get a nice shout-out on the 8/31/26 episode of "Movie Mike's Movie Podcast" from the host, Mike Deestro, for an email I sent him about these beers since he's a big Spiderman fan.

My monthly BeerBox.com order arrived today also, and for the first time it has three repeat-for-me beers in it. Oh well, when you top 6K check-ins of unique craft beers, the chances increase for that, I guess. Still, some great stuff in here though. Cheers!

I went to see the new action/sci-fi flick, The End of Oak Street, tonight at the Regal Theaters in Mt. Juliet (discount Tuesday!). Even though I said I would wait and see it this weekend with friends, I just couldn't (in JJ Abrams - producer - I trust). Sadly, I was pretty disappointed in it. Great story idea, but some of the acting was just awful and despite it being a fantastical tale, a couple of things that happened in the plot were just stupidly unreal. Too bad. I had a lot of hope for this one.

I snuck a beer in that was so much better than the movie. It was a can from my recent BeerBox order. It was the very good Working for the Weekend DIPA from Spiteful Brewing (Chicago).

8/19 - I dropped $150 (mostly recent poker winnings - see below) today on a legacy brick to be placed at the new Titans stadium in honor of our G.A.M.E. trips over the last 18 years. I am proud of these trips despite the fact that my co-founder and I are sadly no longer friends. I've put a lot of time and money into this sometimes-woeful team, but the experiences have all been memorable and worthy of recognition. Now I can't wait to see it in person when the stadium opens next year!

Despite what the picture above shows, I actually chopped our local PokerStars tournament tonight for a nice 300%+ ROI. I also cashed in the weekly Wednesday night tournament on ClubGG, so the total helped mostly pay for the G.A.M.E. brick at the new Titans stadium that I ordered earlier today (see above).

8/22 - I thought about skipping this one, but I did want to see the # 1 team in the MLS at home vs. Columbus. I was going to just buy a ticket, but then my pal, Nate, said his wife decided not to go tonight, so I took her seat. And I am so glad I did! I thought I had made a mistake when we were down 2-1 with time expiring in the second half. But we had 6 minutes of extra time and only needed two of them to get two goals and to get the win 3-2!!!! Unbelievable!!! What a team we've got here! We also broke an MLS record tonight by recording 49 points through just 21 games!

We parked for free at Broadcast Brewing and I had a couple of new-to-me ones of theirs. First up was their very nice take on a Kentucky common historical beer called Common Channel. I finished with their outstanding spiced beer called Speculoos Shortwave which was served with a Biscoff coffee for dipping. Delicious!

8/23 - My favorite new can art and brewery logo was on this very good pale ale called Hopular Kid from Alter Brewing (IL). Note how you can read "Alter" upside down as well in the brewery name. Pretty cool. I had this one in the pool this afternoon. I also had a really good Lounge Lager pint can from Maplewood Brewing (Chicago). Both of these were from my latest BeerBox order.

I also started another easy cat-sitting gig this evening at the $2 million dollar lake house for a few days. I also had some cat drop-ins at the house in Geers Place again over this long weekend.

And at the lake house tonight I got another 1st place (chop) on our local PokerStars tournament for another nice ROI of 340+%. I used most of those winnings to buy a couple new $30 Cumberland U hats at CVS the next day.

8/24 - I had a remote workday today and decided to have lunch at Cedar City Brewing to take advantage of my monthly free flight as a Mug Club member. One of the tasters in my flight was their new Lemon Hefe. I had their burger of the month to eat which included fried bologna on it = winner!!

8/25 - Autumn work travel starts today! It was a long day of (dirty) windshield time as I was way up in East Tennessee but came back late to stay at the lake house overnight because I just can't lose this sweet cat-sitting gig.

In between fairs today, I did have time to run up into SW Virginia into the Jefferson National Forest and check out Little Stony Falls. It was easy quick hike to the base of this beauty. And I do believe this is my first-ever Virginia waterfall visited which is surprising. There are evidently two more smaller unnamed falls downstream from this one, but I didn't have time to investigate today.
(Song companion: "See the World" by Brett Dennen)

I also had time to grab an early dinner at Uptown Cheesesteak Company in downtown Kingsport. My "works cheesesteak" was outstanding - maybe one of the best ones I've ever had! AND they have great craft beer too!! I started with a pint can of the excellent DIPA called Delusions of Grandeur from Xul Beer Company down in Knoxville. I finished with another pint can of Xul's, their Helles lager called Dizzy. I toasted the loss of the amazing Dolly Parton today with this one. RIP, sweet lady of Tennessee.

8/26 - It was back to East Tennessee today, but at least tonight I was staying overnight and that gave me a chance to go see my best bud, Craig, down in Burnsville, NC, tonight at the Birdfoot Taproom. Cool little place with a great beer list! Hanging over the bar is what I assume is an empty box for a "Godzilla 99-pack" of PBR (photo above). Pretty funny, and, yes, that have it...on draft! But instead, I started with a half-pint of the solid Island Hopper - Citra IPA from Pilot Brewing over in Charlotte. Then a full pint (at only 3.3 ABV) of the very nice English Dark Mild from Diatribe Brewing down in Asheville. I concluded with another half-pint of the Crusher Run Helles lager from Leveller Brewing in nearby Weaverville, NC.

I got back in time to my nice Fairfield Inn in Kingsport to chop the nightly local tournament on PokerStars vs. just four other people. I had it won outright until I got sucked out on at the river - pretty typical. Just a 180% ROI, but you take what you can get I guess.

8/27 - I had a full day of work in Johnson City today. Between fair times, I went back to Uptown Cheesesteak Company in downtown Kingsport for lunch. How could I not? The food and the craft beer choices are just too good! With my sandwich called "The Works" I started with a pint can of the decent lager from Xul Beer Company (Knoxville) called Awful Nice. I finished with a fantastic collaboration DIPA from Xul and Burial Beer Company called Over the Mountain and Through the Woods (since that's what that are from each other basically).
Back at the hotel tonight, I had some more good results in the local NLHE tournament on PokerStars vs. 6 other players. I took it down outright for a 280%+ ROI. I also made the final table in our Ante Up league on PokerStars playing limit razz which seems like a game with a lot of luck to me. Not so much skill. This was second final table this week with Ante Up as I came in 6th in the monthly NLHE tournament out of 21. Tonight's razz game had 16 people in it and I wound up getting 3rd.

8/28 - I drove back from Johnson City today after an early fair, I made a stop in Cookeville for lunch at Father Tom's Pub where I had a great grilled chicken house salad and a pint of the solid pale ale from Highland Brewing (Asheville) called Saint T's. I finished the audiobook that I bought called Sunrise on the Reaping which is a Hunger Games prequel that was OK, but kind of pointless since most readers already know the fate of the main character, Hamish Abernathy, anyway, but it passed the long hours on the road so that's good enough, I guess.

8/29 - We had a fun Saturday morning "hang" at the Nashville Zoo today for a behind the scenes look and feeding of Fern, the two-toed sloth. This was an early birthday present for Ashlee that I got her after her perked interest in the animals after our trip to Costa Rica earlier this year. We also had front-row tickets (thanks, Ashlee) to a Mat Kearney concert tonight to close out the day. In between, I took a float in the pool and enjoyed a can of White Lights, a wheat bear infused with apricots from Middle Brow Brewing (Chicago). This one came from my latest BeerBox.com order.

3/30 - My pal, Toney, and I went to see the new Ridley Scott post-apocalyptic flick, The Dog Stars, tonight at the AMC Theaters in Antioch. Toney's been bragging about how nice these theaters are so I thought I'd give it a look. And, yes, they are very nice, but the drive is a bit of a nag. I loved the book this movie is based on, so I was not sure how this adaptation was going to be, but Ridley's one of my favorite directors, so I was hopeful. It turned out to be fantastic! It followed the book very well, but with some added dimensions that I really thought were great. That's pretty rare when the movie is just a little better than the book.
Beforehand, I got some pool time in along with a cold can of the excellent Zombie Ice (2025) from 3 Floyds Brewing (IN). This was my last brew from my most recent BeerBox.com order.

8/31 - I had a remote day today before heading back on the road tomorrow for work. The August edition of the Ante Up Poker Online Magazine dropped today too and I'm very happy with this particular column. It got talked up on the podcast too which is nice.

Page 1 of 3 - Three full pages again!

Page 2 of 3

Page 3 of 3 - I've been wanting to work my favorite quote of TR's into this column and it worked perfect on this month's topic.

9/1 - Zaddy in a Caddy headed to Chatty!

My much younger friend, Curtis, calls me "Zaddy" for some weird, funny reason, so that's where the little rhyme above comes from. I got an "upgrade" from a standard car at Enterprise Car Rentals this week to a luxury Cadillac CT4 350T sedan. It's OK, but not something I would buy.
In between fairs today I stopped by Sigler's/Alpha Brews on E. Brainerd Road and had a pint of the pretty solid white/wheat IPA called White Lightning made by Alpha Brews.

9/2 - I was still in the Chattanooga area today for work and started my new audiobook that I bought recently called Whalefall. This is another popular novels that's been made into a film to be released soon. So far, I am really liking it.

After a morning fair in Bledsoe County, I had time to stop by Monkey Town Brewing in Dayton and have a couple of beers. First up was their solid lager called Where's My Pizza? I finished with their surprisingly good (because I don't usually care for tequila) Vienna-style lager that had been aged in Gate 11 Distillery Agave Tequila barrels called Oak and Ember.

Tonight, during another school fair, I had my first fantasy football draft for the first of two teams I will be managing this season. I thought it went pretty well. Let's go team: Never Punt!!

9/3 - I had a long day at a big multi-school fair at Chattanooga State today, so with my free evening I decided to grab a couple brews at one of my favorite breweries here in the Scenic City, Tanasai Brewing Company. I started with their nice Kentucky common historical beer called Harvest Moon. I finished with their solid hefeweizen called Banana Hands. On my way out, Clint, the owner and sole brewer here showed me his sweet "new" ride out front in the parking lot. Don't cut him off in traffic, he's just installed a train horn in it!

9/4 - drove home from Chattanooga today

9/5 - UT game with Toney vs. tiny Furman who was there for the big check I assume. Before the game we stopped at Ed's Pizza in Oak Ridge which is sort of legendary. It was

9/7 - Labor Day pool beer

9/14 - Knoxville again for work

9/15 -

9/16 -

9/17 -

9/18 -

9/19 - Drive to Craig's?

9/20 - Craig's?

9/21 - Knoxville for work - The War on Drugs in Asheville?

9/22 - work travel and cat sitting

9/23 -

9/24 -