Arriving in Asheville

We woke up with the sun (aka Amanda woke up and said "lets go lets go lets go lets..." and Eric groaning and saying "but where is my coffee...?" We packed up the car and hit the road again. We took the highway all the way south, and began to see the mountains peeking up from the horizon. We toyed with the idea of taking the blue ridge parkway, but had difficulty deciding what road to take. We knew that if we took the highway all the way there, then we would arrive in a timely fashion, and be able to explore a few breweries before bed. But if we took the parkway, think of all the gorgeous scenery and photo ops along the way! And so clearly we chose to be late (I mean really, come on, we all saw that coming) and took the parkway. The views were breathtaking, the serotonin was pumping and then we saw the first sign, "180 miles to Asheville." Oh man, this is going to take a while.

We cruised on, Amanda occasionally grabbing the Oh-Shit-Handle, Eric refocusing on the road with an "oh come onnn." We came to the next sign "165 miles to Asheville." WHAT? Thats it?! This is going to take a while.

We did finally arrive in Asheville where we met Jordy, our host for the next few days. We went on a 2 wheeled tour of downtown. We ate at Barley, an incredible tap room and restaurant with hundreds of beers both bottled and on tap. We had our waitress create a flight of beers to our specification and she was spot on.

A few brown ales, IPAs, and even a coconut beer later (oh and a large vegetarian pie...with sausage added) we continued our tour of the town.

We arrived at a chocolatier/coffee house that was totally unique. They specialized in truffles and "sipping chocolate," or more simply 5 delicious truffles, melted with other flavors (in our cup, maple and salt) and served in a warm mug. Needless to say, death by chocolate does exist. We sat in total food coma after the delicious escapades of the night. Again we mounted our trusty steeds (mongoose, miada and trek) and rode through the hustle and bustle of the city back to house 320.

This morning we write from a funky coffee shop downtown filled with eclectic decorations from the world. Indian music satisfies our auditory sensors, lemon poppy seed and crisp ice water our gustatory, a chilly air conditioner with the rays of sunshine our tactile, and the african tribe masks our curiosities.

We are ready to explore the rest of Asheville and sip our way through the city. Back to the steeds to make more adventures, be sure to check in later.

cheers,

E and A

...and they're off! The E and A Brew Tour of 2010!

As most people who read this know (does anyone actually read this?!?), our new adventure is a 10 day, East Coast microbrew tour. Why? Because what's better than mixing hundreds of miles of driving with great beer! For the Moms reading this, don't worry, we brought our bikes!

Our first stop was not too far from Saratoga in a town that we have always wanted to visit, New Pulse. I'm not sure if it was the hippie draw or the town's wild obsession with the outdoors, but we both approved. While driving on the thuway, we called the infamous Jan (of Jan-Clean) for some help finding our first brewery. Out of all the websites of breweries in New Pulse (we found out later there were 3), the Gilded Otter Brewery looked the best. Jan explained that this was one of the better sites she had seen!

Our first impression was a massive brewpub hustling with the Friday night crowd. Amanda assumed that with the crazy amount of hub-bub, no would connect with our adventure.

We couldn't have been more wrong!

Sitting at the bar seemed to be the best idea to get full brew knowledge instead of a hurried server. Todd gave us some great hints of the town (like all of the beer names come from local road names and landmarks). AND he came our home-sweet-home, SARATOGA. He spent his life there before moving to New Pulse to climb and become a park ranger.

We split a burger and had a flight of beer. We tried the following beers:

• Huguenot St. American Lager
• Dusseldorf Altbier
• New Paltz Crimson Lager
• Three Pines India Pale Ale
• Stone House Oatmeal Stout
• Back Porch Summer Lager
• Hefeweizen
• Rail Trail Pale Ale

Out of the 8 beers that hit our palate, the unquestionable winner was the Rail Trail Pale Ale. Eric explained that the sweet toasty malts were in perfect balance with the fruity American Style Hops (probably the cascades??). Amanda could have drank it all night long...too bad for an upcoming 3-4 hour car ride! Some of our other favorites was the Oatmeal Stout and of course, the IPA.

Overall, the duo concluded that not only did the Gilded Otter Brewery have a rockin' website, but the beer, food and company were exceptional!

We ended the night sleeping on a utility road under a massive radio antenna...how romantic! Roxie (our Subaru Forester) provided us with the perfect den. Tomorrow...Asheville, NC here we come!