Happy July and Happy HPI month

I'm currently enjoying a drink as I sit here enjoying the peace for a moment. I completed several tasks around the house today for the 5th or 6th day in a row in preparation for the baby. Tomorrow it continues as I need to pull the carpet in the room that is coming on Thursday along with a few other projects. Thankfully my wife and I had the help of my mother in law from NY the last few days who assisted my wife with meals, cleaning, organizing, etc.

She got to experience a real Chicago storm that ripped through here today. We all got to enjoy my bathroom during the tornado sirens and even after 3 hours of delays/rain we still ended up driving her to the airport to try and catch her flight that was to have taken off right now at 12:10. The plane hasn't even arrived... The winds were 80+ MPH and rain that made it so I couldn't see more than 5 ft. FU Southwest for not cancelling the flight. My MIL said the airport is an absolute train wreck right now and she is planning for a long night there. If they had just cancelled the flight she could spent the night here and saved us the drive in the terrible weather.

Boy, I am glad I live in the Southeast, where tornadoes are not so common and we only get the occasional hurricane which can last hours and hours.

Did she spend the night at the airport?

I'm going to carry over our beer conversation from the June thread, because, as they say these days, beer.

I enjoy all styles of beer, though I am trying to break away from a recent hops addiction. I will say some lighter lagers are not my thing, like kolsch.

NC has a fairly nice assortment of craft breweries and micro pubs. I've sampled many of the breweries on this map, but a great vacation trip would be to hit more of them.

Some of my NC favorites are Foothills, Mother Earth, Lonestar, Mystery, NoDa...okay, I'll stop now. Our local Costco has a great price on cases of Foothills Hoppyum, hence my addiction. Their Jade IPA, which you might find in bombers at your local beer store, is the absolute nuts.

Fullsteam in Durham has some really unusual beers using local ingredients, and is a fun place to hang out, with pinball, a free pool table, ping pong, and movies. Food trucks visit each night. I don't care for all of their beers., but Cack-a-lacky is really exceptional. It is made with just the right amount of hops and ginger, and is a great hot weather beer or with an assortment of foods. This is their first canned beer, but they can't seem to keep up with demand. It is hard to find.

Asheville has become one of the country's fastest growing craft beer producers. Highland and some others have been there for years, but some big boys have moved in, like New Belgium and Sierra Nevada.

If you like German altbeers, and you are ever in Sylva, NC (who isn't, right?) you have to visit Heinzelmannchen Brewery. Omigosh. And awesome domain name, right?

Sorry to hear that, jz. Were other airlines cancelling their flights? They all have pretty similar policies.

I've flown a lot for work, and you'd be surprised at the rotten weather than a passenger jet can get through safely. I've taken off and landed in horrible storms, and once was in a plane that was struck by lightning (saw the flash on the wing while looking out the window). It freaked me out a little at the time, but I found out later that it happens (on average) 1-2 times a year to every commercial aircraft, and it's almost never dangerous.

I hope your MIL made it home without too long a wait in the airport (been there too, it's not fun).

She flew out at 2 in the morning.

Oh, I forgot to mention Fullsteam's Summer Basil Farmhouse Ale. This is another incredibly good beer.

Okay, enough about beer. It's barely noon here.

Thanks for all the great suggestions out of the Carolinas..as I will be vacationing there soon.
I work at a beer store and we carry around 500 different crafts, but in our area (Akron/Cleveland), we hardly have any beers from that region. I think its just a distributing thing.
Not sure if it's available in your area but some of our local breweries have been gaining national attention..try em if you see them, Thirsty Dog and Hoppin Frog. Cheers!

A lot of small breweries only distribute locally. I travel somewhat often for work, and I always try the local beers when I do. I've found a couple of great breweries this way (Straight to Ale in Huntsville, AL is one example).

Voov where will you be?

I'll loan you some of mine as long as you pay me back at HPI.

Now that's just not right. I think we should decry calling for the Rungoot to show up at HPI and let it fall where it may.

@jz & eneely, when I was a child I used to be a bit of a geography nut. I thought long and hard about why people congregated so heavily in the NE in the USA. You've hit on why that is in your recent posts. Sorry to hear about the MIL's rough night though jz. Hopefully she had a good bar near her terminal.

BEER

@eneely, I've heard from friends of mine that Asheville is amazing. I feel like it's become mainstream now though, so I am reticent to take a food/drink trip there. Any articles--or better yet personal experiences--to convince me otherwise?

@Voov, da faq do you need SE brews for when you have Great Lakes and those two breweries opening up in Ohio City 'hood this year? Nothing beats GLBC's tasting of everything on tap for like $14. (Usually it's 8-11 brews.) Also, the sausage medley/sampler is a wonderful accompaniment to their beers. I was so happy 2 or so yrs ago when we could finally get stuff like Lake Erie Monster and Alchemy Hour (now Doublewave due to a trademark dispute with Widmer Alchemy Ale) here in DC.

Haha gotta side w/ bull on this.

As I recall, the Northeast was industrialized because of the deep water harbors, navigable rivers, and fast running streams to generate power. Look at a map of NC, and you see what looks like the most amazing inland waterway imaginable, but it's mostly 2-6 feet deep. Light craft had to be used to load and unload ocean-going vessels. And the rivers are shallow and slow moving.

Industry required people to work the factories, so the NE population grew more densely. That got the ball rolling up there. Down here, it was all cotton and tobacco.

There had to be some reason to put up with those winters.

Asheville is a great town to visit. It's mountain meets hippie. The downtown scene on a nice day is fantastic. People everywhere, lots of music, good food and drink. Patios, sidewalk cafes, and those garage style bars that open to the street. It was once a summer town for the uber-rich (Vanderbilts, eg), and there is still money, architecture, and interesting places catering to that crowd.

There are some attractions in the area, of course, because you are in the mountains. Take a browse.

I guess fads come and go, but I like visiting there.

Been to Biltmore twice. Highly reccomend it and Asheville. A totally astounding place. When you consider it was originally a "family home" for the Vanderbilts it becomes even more astounding. The "gap" between the classes is NOT something new is it?

Fair enough. I'm putting a moratorium on rungoot callouts during HPI.

You're a good man, Schmendr1ck Brown.

Otherwise it'll get fickle and we'll all get blasted out of our bankrolls by the Star Destroyer in the form of one of your locals.

Actually, I will be near Myrtle Beach, but was thinking I should be able to find some of those you mentioned.

@Rapini -- Concerning the Great Lakes comments, I guess it's kinda like the hot, outta your league, girlfriend. You even take her for granted after awhile.
They do have a very solid lineup, with outstanding seasonals.

Didn't see the new thread

Someone's hogging the run goot so I'm bout to shoot some machine guns to relieve my stress

Save some of that stress for HPI, we're hitting the gun range on Friday.

I know but playing wsop today so had to relieve stress

Wow good stuff, especially re the shallowness of the Carolina waterways.

I'm not much of an outdoorsman, but sounds like it might still be worth checking out sometime. Thanks!