Foam, Foam on the Range...

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Planning requires a leap of faith. In order to plan you must assume you have control over future events. You assume things will play out as you expect. You assume you will not find yourself half-delirious and sleep-deprived, wondering if it's possible to rent a room by the hour in the middle of the night somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. You assume, because you had a plan. And that, my friend, that was your downfall.

The Journey

Eventually this will be a great story, a testament to our summer of roughing it on the road, but at the time it was no laughing matter. The plan was simple. We wanted to get away from the red ants and dry heat of Capital Reef as soon as possible, so we broke camp early knowing full well we didn't have a prayer of camping anywhere else close by and agreeing that we could budget an evening at a roadside motel in the nearest down of Fruita, Colorado (incidentally, not the same Fruita, Utah that we just departed). We left in high spirits as the sun dipped below the horizon and settled in for an uneventful drive. It's nearing 10pm when we arrive in Colorado and there are several run-of-the-mill hotels to choose from.

We pick the closest and confidently walk into the lobby to get a room, only to be told that they're booked solid as is every other hotel in town. You're kidding! This small little town miles from anything has been inundated with guests? What on earth for? We inquire about hotels at the next exit only to find out that they're booked too. The front desk attendant politely informs us that we probably won't find anything available for another 150 miles, but good luck! Gee thanks. Apparently there is a big country music festival going on and hotels all up and down the I-70 corridor have no vacancies. Country music in Colorado, that's a new one for me.

Frustrated by this turn of events, but still fairly sure she was exaggerating, we drive up to local fast-food joint to get something to eat (our first fast-food all summer I'm proud to say) and ask the guy at the window if there's any camping at Colorado National Monument, only 10 miles away. He turns out to be no help whatsoever as he's never been. Lived here all his life, he says, but never has he driven the ten miles that-away to see what was there. Perfect. With plans A and B out the window, we turn out attention to the previously non-existent plan C which involves a stop at the now closed Colorado Welcome Center, hoping they've got some sort of brochure or literature placed outside that we can get. A visitors guide lists upcoming festivals in the state and we discover that Brewfest, a local beer festival, is being held in Fort Collins, the very same city that our favorite eco-friendly and sustainable beer manufacturer, New Belgium Brewery, is located. Finally some good news! It's nearly 400 miles (650 km) away so we figure we'll arrive in time for Sundays festivities. We still don't have a place to sleep for the night, but at least we have a direction to head.

The drive over the Rockies is, according to my map, quite scenic but we'd never know it. The lights of the last remaining town fades away behind us and through the darkness I can just barely make out the jet black of the mountains against the charcoal grey of the night sky. The teapot shape of Sagittarius hangs in the sky out my window as moonlight reflects off the water revealing the presence of the Colorado River. Neon lights in the distance present some more opportunities -- The Winchester Inn, Rusty Cannon Motel -- establishments we'd normally ignore completely now disappoint us with their "No Vacancy" signs. We continue driving into tomorrow. Sagittarius is now far overhead and I have to crane my neck against the window to see it. Buckhorn Inn, Red River Motel, even dives with nothing more than flashing "Motel" signs are full. This is getting ridiculous. Suddenly a flash of movement pulls of from our thoughts. A white-tail deer has darted out onto the interstate in front of us. Andras slams on the breaks to stop our forward progression but the deer stops directly before us. He swerves right, but the deer turns and moves in front of us again before jumping the barrier back into the forest. We miss it by mere inches. Our hearts are racing; we're now wide awake. We've been traveling 70 mph (115 kph) and there is no question that if we had so much as glanced her hindquarters it would have been all over. This is turning out to be quite a night.

It's 3am by the time we reach Denver. I stand outside buzzing the front door of the one with the emptiest parking lot but when the attendant finally answers, he tells us he's full as is everyone else he's called tonight. Country music fans have taken over Denver too? No, but there's a big conference in town. Maybe we should try 50 miles north? At this point we're not even sure it's worth it. I'm half serious when I say we ought to consider finding a place that rents by the hour -- a 4am check in and 10am checkout isn't worth the money we'd end up paying for a nights stay. All we wanted was a hot shower, a firm mattress and a thermostat but now we'd settle for a legal place to park the car. Somewhere headed north I begin to drift off. I try to keep my eyes open to watch the road but half-thoughts and scattered dreams swirl around in my head. Andras' eyes begin playing tricks on him. I remember the sun rising over the plains to the east, thinking about how yesterday we watched the sun rise over the canyons of the desert. Around 5am we make it to Fort Collins. We see signs for a visitor center and pull off into the parking lot, where I lay my head on the dashboard and am immediately out. Andras closes his eyes and rests but cannot fall asleep after such a long trek in the car. Thirty minutes later he wakes me up and we start looking for a place to settle in. There's a state park a few minutes away that says it has camping. Wonderful. I don't even care that there's a fee for out-of-state visitors. We get our day pass and attempt to locate the campsites, only then to discover that although they do exist, they are walk-ins located 2 miles away.

You know what? Stop. Is this some sort of test? There is seriously not a single hotel room in all of Colorado and the only campsite around us requires a 2 mile hike? No. I refuse. That's it. We pull into a picnic area and throw the foam on the ground, pull out some pillows and a blanket and fall asleep, exposed, a few feet from the parking lot. We paid our day pass. We are painfully aware that it is indeed the next day and I don't see anything that says sleeping is not an approved activity. I vaguely remember a ranger pulling in and walking around us, apparently noting nothing wrong. I remember the warm sun beating down on us, lulling us to sleep. It feels soo good.

Around 11am, we wake up and head into town. Obviously lying under a picnic table isn't going to be a long term solution. Of course, there are no rooms at any of the hotels we try in Fort Collins either. Why? If that fact that Colorado just books up in the summer isn't reason enough, the annual Brewfest and some Rocky Mountain motorcycle rally are in town this weekend. We finally find a room at an unnamed hotel toting a big banner reading "We're still Open During Renovation" over the front door. Seems to me that the lack of the name and piles of old junky hotel furniture outside turned people away. Not us! Our standards have dropped considerably since yesterday. The room ended up being very nice for the money. It was all brand new as a result of the renovation, had a large bathroom and king-size bed not to mention hot running water and air conditioning! We spend the rest of the day with the blinds closed, reveling in the use of electricity and a water heater, not to be disturbed.

Getting our Brew On

Thank goodness for beer festivals. If it hadn't been for this town overrun with frothy plastic cups of hops and water, yesterday might have done us in. As it were, arriving during the 18th Annual Colorado Brewers Festival almost made it all worth it. Anheuser-Busch, Coors and dozens of over smaller breweries all flock to this area because of the superb quality of the local water. Sunday, after a quick jaunt through the park we slept in yesterday, we headed over to downtown Fort Collins to partake in Brewfest. Over 400 kegs from more than a dozen local Colorado brewers were on hand to tap and distribute to the surprisingly un-obnoxious crowd. Admission was only $6 for a cup and a token and after that an 8oz pour was only $1. Can't beat that, considering there were tons of specialty microbrews to choose from that would cost well more than that in a store, plus a few that can only be purchased locally.

A crowd of over 40,000 was expected and participants ranged everywhere from 21 year old college students looking for a buzz to amateur home brewers looking for advice to beer connoisseurs searching for this years best of show. I certainly had no idea that beer was judged almost as extensivelyas wine. Color, clarity, residue, yeast, malt-hop profile...all important characteristics I had never considered. Even the size and consistency of bubbles can be indicative of the brewing technique. Wow! So much to learn. I see beer from a whole new perspective.

As always, Andras and I take two completely different approaches on how to start. He goes straight for a tried and true favorite (New Belgium "Fat Tire") while I meticulously read through the Brewers Guide trying to determine which unknown I will sample first. My first choice (Estes Park Brewery "Raspberry Wheat") was completely gone by the time I got there, so I headed instead to sample Fort Collins Brewery's "Major Tom's Pomegranate Wheat," their best seller. I definitely didn't taste any pomegranates, but I thought it was decent enough. Next up, San Luis Valley's "Hefe Suave." Mm...not bad. Smooth, mild. And Golden City Breweries "American Honey Wit", a hybrid of American and Belgian style wheat beer, was deliciously refreshing. Hmm....they seem to be getting better the more I drink! Wonder why? Objective evaluation of the beers was simply not going to happen, so I resisted my 'but I need to take notes for later' impulses and just sat back and imbibed. A local band, the Caleb Riley Funk Orchestra, was playing live in the city square and their jazzy, latin, swinging tunes kept our feet taping and the crowd thirsty for more. We ended up purchasing their CD, which sadly didn't have some of the numbers we'd heard on it, but will be a great addition to our music list for the second half of the trip none-the-less.

We sat on the patio of Coopersmith's Brewery, located right in the city square itself and continued to groove to the music while enjoying some good food and even more good spirits. I was a huge fan of their "Sigda's Green Chili" beer which was sharp going down and had a long hot, peppery finish, almost like a jalapeño cheddar cheese. It's not a beer I'd sit and drink by the pint, but I can only imagine all the fun ways I could entertain with it.

After a great afternoon savoring a whole variety of brews, we "followed our folly" the next morning over to New Belgium Brewery for a tour and tasting. What makes this brewery even more outstanding, apart from their wonderfully tasting product, is their sustainable business model. Any business which has a "Director of Fun" on the payroll is undoubtedly a company I wouldn't mind working for. From their watershed conservation practices to the ultimate example of recycling (spent grain goes to cattle feed, keg caps become table tops, un-usable packing material gets turned into a slide out of the employee room) to their new unit built using green technology, you don't only enjoy the beer you buy, you feel good about buying it.

Earlier this summer, I met a Peace Corp worker in Ecuador who was from Fort Collins and she told me that the thing to do is ride your bike from brewpub to brewpub sampling the flights until you just can't ride any further. I thought it was odd, the idea of riding your bike to different breweries until we came here and I discovered that everyone rides their bike in this town. Employees of New Belgium even receive a bicycle after one year to encourage biking to work to cut down on emissions. How novel! Of course, we now feel really stupid driving around with the mountains bikes attached to the car when everyone else is riding their around town, but without knowing where we're going half the time, I just see an accident waiting to happen.

Our tour started off in the room full of kettles surrounded by employee created and inspired mosaics. We sampled a fruity specialty drink developed for distribution only at the brewery itself. Employees who correctly guess the ingredients of a sample put forth by the head brewer get to create their own limited release vat of beer. I happened to like it quite a bit--too bad it's not for sale. We also saw the room where chemists test for quality and the bottling room before returning to the tasting room where we each received a tasted flight of four chosen from their menu. All were good, but we each had our favorites. I preferred "Skinny Dip," their summer seasonal, while Andras of course enjoyed "Fat Tire", their signature drink. Their darker Belgian Style "Abbey" had hints of banana and almost a sweet finish, which even I enjoyed and I'm not a fan of the darker ales.

Before heading out we purchased several growlers (gallon glass jugs) of our favorites from the different breweries, for the beer, yes, but also because the jugs themselves we so nice. It was only after we had gotten them poured that we asked how long they would keep. Silly us, thinking that they were bottled like regular beer, thought they when our server said "Five" she was going to follow with something like "months" or "weeks." Instead she said "Probably five days if you keep it cool." Oh geez! We now have, literally, gallons of beer to drink in the next fews days after drinking beer all weekend in order for it not to go bad. Beer and road-trips, not a good combination! Lets hope that the friends we plan on visiting in Denver are up for a toast or two! I suppose we'll find out soon enough.

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Photos

Taster Flight at New Belgium
From front to back, Skinny Dip, Abbey, Trippel and a limited release sour-peach beer, all brewed locally thanks to an excellent source of ground water.

Welcome to New Belgium Brewery!
One of the most sustainable large-scale breweries in the country.

Brewing Ingredients
Kaffir Lime, hops, yeast and other ingredients added during the brewing process to create the perfect flavor.

Employee Parking
Incentives after one-year encourage employees to bike to work to reduce carbon emissions.

Ready to Ship
Currently, New Belgium only ships west of the Mississippi River. We could never find it in Kentucky, so just one more reason to look forward to living in Seattle!

Steel Vat
Used during various stages of the brewing process.

New Belgium Trailer
Don't know who lives here, but I needed some more photos to add to this blog so...there you go.

Comments

[NNowack]

MMmm Beer
Ahh, New Belgium. I went to college at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins and have drank my share of Fat Tire. Nice Blog and Photos!!! Nathan

[Janice]

I have found your blogs to be so uplifting. Photography is so wonderful. I want to go on a vacation with you!!!