38 Years Ago On This Day...

My mother battles contractions as she watches "The Winds Of War" miniseries on television as my grandmother, Bonnie Bridges, anxiously watches and paces back and forth urging her daughter to make her way to the hospital before her water breaks. Meanwhile my dad is in conversation with a neighbor, on a home telephone, who has built a literal airplane in his garage so that he can fly with his experimental pilots license.

I have decided that today is the day, Tuesday February 8, 1983 is going to be the day that I enter the world and begin the adventure of my life. One with a sun, moon, oceans and oxygen in its natural environment. What I am going to do or how long I am going to be there is undecided to this very day. All I know is I want to get out there and begin the next stage of my adventure!

Grandma Bridges successful gets my dad off the phone to begin the trip to the hospital, as they are being corralled towards the door the phone rings again! Mom turns around to answer. Grandma is exasperated! Who could it be but a friend from mom's art club so mom takes the call. The friend asks about the pregnancy. Jane nonchalantly explains she was walking out the door because she is going into labor. Bonnie just doesn't understand this younger generation!

All this while I am trying to break on through to the other side, a node to Jim Morrison!

Mom, Dad and David (Circa 1977)

Fast forward to today and here I am, living an outstanding life. I have a great wife, the most excellent dogs and cats. A nice home, reliable vehicle and income. No real complaints to be honest. All of that said, what did I do in celebration of my time here on earth during a pandemic? That is a fine question, allow me to answer it for you.

First things first. A few weeks ago Jaclyn tells me that I need to get my buddy Josh and go out for the weekend because my birthday lands on a Monday this year and both Josh and I need to get out of town and do something. About a week after Jaclyn has expressed this to me I receive a text from Josh's wife asking me if I will take Josh out with me for the weekend because he is under a lot of pressure at work, not only does he need a break, he has earned a break. I told Josh that the wives are conspiring against us, both of them deny that. His wife just claims they operate on the same wavelength. Either way, we decide to visit Blanco, Texas for the weekend. This was decided on recommendations from other friends who have enjoyed their time there, it's in the same state as us and one of my friends lives nearby in San Antonio.

I hop onto AirBNB and find us a home to rent for the weekend that is near all of the places that we have researched and added to our itinerary:

1) Texas Cannon Brewing

2) Iron Wolf Ranch & Distillery

3) Andalusia Whiskey Company

4) Spicewood Vineyards

Now, there are many great places in that area to visit believe it or not, we only have one full day to these things in and they are some awesome places with lots to do there so time goes by very quickly. I missed out on a number of distilleries and breweries so there will be another trip. I truly am a fan of Real Ale Brewing Company which we didn't make our way to that alone is a great reason to drop back in. Our first night in Blanco we arrive late in the evening so we check into the AirBNB. The AirBNB we selected was exactly as described, the place on the property that we picked wasn't anything fancy yet nice and fulfilling of the amenities Josh and I would need for our weekend, it was used only to store our things, shit, shower and shave.

We load up to head down the street to get dinner and some drinks at Texas Cannon Brewing to conclude our hours of driving. We discover Texas Cannon opened not long ago, something around a few weeks is what the waitress said to us. Not sure what a few weeks ago is in this case, I take it as the place hasn't been open long and is still new in town. The place was packed even during this time where many people cry about social distance while forgetting what it is like to be out in public. People need to keep their cool about them, here in Blanco everyone is chill, some might even say too chill. Time waits for no man.

The mood we experienced in Texas Cannon Brewing was inviting, encouraging of it's guest to relax and enjoy themselves. Our waitress was young and enthusiastic about working there, she expressed nothing but how amazing the place was. Blanco is a small town for which this is one of the more active things to be there in a while I am guessing. There are some other excellent things that come out of this area without a doubt.

Josh and I begin with each of us having a flight of beers, generally I find this to be a wise decision on your first visit of any place that brews their own beer. We range the selection from light to dark so that we can have a full spectrum of different flavor. I like to think that I have had so many different styles of beer from around the world that I can appreciate many different styles and seem a bit lax on my judgement. Just because I appreciate the beer doesn't mean I am going to like it enough to desire more!

My selected flight

Upcoming beer tangent:

It seems odd to be considered not to be too harsh just because you aren't one of those critics, who generally, have tried a vast assortment of styles. Yet they seem to get aroused by criticising others but that isn't here or there. It was great to see some people following their dream and doing well especially in this day and age.

Over dinner Josh and I loosely plan the following day's adventures and confirmed with Benedict that he was going to be able join us, thankfully he was able to work it out and could come in from San Antonio. We decide to have Benedict meet us at the Chess Club Cafe. Funny enough I enjoy having an eggs benedict for breakfast which was a good choice to order from this particular food joint.

We tell Benedict of the places on our list and that's when we learn that Benedict got married at Spicewoods Vineyard. After finishing breakfast we start the the mission by getting some coffee down the road at an excellent coffee place called "Johnson City Coffee Company" sorry I didn't get any pictures. We were distracted by not only the most excellent coffee but some fellow car fans had driven in and having some coffee on what I describe as a small band enjoying a "Cars and Coffee". They were your normal band of car fans who not only love cars but go out of their way to get noticed by driving Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, Jaguar and a lonely R35 Skyline. I nodded at the fancy European sports/luxury cars but Josh and I chatted with the R35 driver as we all waited/enjoyed our delicious coffee.

Now for our first stop...Andalusia! I have promised some close friends that I will bring them back some fine Andalusia Whiskey Company. They have a very fine product that I recommend giving a sample. One of the things that draws me to this distillery is it's support of Strykers. One of my closest of friends and many people I have known depended greatly on Stryers so I am very grateful that they are reliable and good at their job.

Following a relaxed visit we made our way to Spicewood VIneyards, this being where Benedict was married his wedding photo is in the photo album in the sampling room. The wine was delicious and has a great selection of styles, not to mention the atmosphere is quite chill which provides the opportunity to sit down and enjoy whichever wine you desire. Spicewood offers a wine club where you receive a fresh bottle of wine for the season directly in the mail and a discount on purchases to which Benedict is a member. The three of us took our time to catch up as we sipped on our wine. I have truly enjoyed my visit to all of the vineyards I have visited, I find the atmosphere of vineyards to be more leisurely than at breweries or even distilleries, generally speaking. I made sure to pick up a bottle for my mother before leaving and heading to our final stop on the ethanol alcohol enjoyment path we have begun. Benedict also purchases me a tasty red wine as a birthday gift as we depart, thank you Bene!

Treats for my mother bear.

The drive isn't too far off the beaten path to Iron Wolf but the land is very open. This family has been wise with what they have established. The master distiller has an engineering degree from Stanford University according to his son who ran our tasting.

We learned Iron Wolf Ranch is similar to Wildcatter Ranch. I say this because of the diverse activities that are openly available for you to enjoy while visiting the public areas of the ranch. You get to enjoy the freshly distilled liquor with live music being performed while you visit with people, play horseshoes, corn hole, washers, bocce ball, life size “Bourbon Pong” or even play a game of nine holes PDGA disc golf! Here is a list of available activities while you are visiting Iron Horse Ranch.

As with all of the places we visit we partook of a tasting. I must share the fact that Iron Horse distills a whiskey that is a horseradish flavored called "Giddy' Up!" which is surprisingly awesome, I REALLY look forward to mixing into a Bloody Mary! I am a big fan of gin, yeah, one of those weird people. My favorite all time gin is from a distillery in Lyons, Colorado called Spirit Hounds Distillers. However I must point out my experience visiting Iron Wolf was WAY more enjoyable! I found the people who work at Iron Wolf to be far more inviting and there to be drastically more things to do at the Iron Wolf location. I am pretty sure there is more to do during a visit to Iron Wolf than any other distiller I have visited in the United States Of America. In hindsight it is best that we ended the visits with Iron Wolf because we might not have made it out in time to visit any of the other places.

We are featured in the bottom left of this flyer.

As the day came to an end the three of us decided to conclude with a dinner before Josh and I rested up and Benedict began the drive back to his badass wife in San Antonio. We decide to eat at this Tex-Mex place "Hacienda El Charro". We were the last people to make it in before they closed. The employees were kind enough to feed us without being upset that we were more than likely going to hold them there passed normal operation time. Like with 95% of Mexican food places they handed me bottled jalapenos being a gringo requesting fresh jalapenos yet one of the employees translated in Spanish when I went back to them and asked for fresh jalapenos again. Outside of that it was damn near a flawless day of good times with close friends.