Posts Tagged → dirt road life

Not Easy, But Not Unenjoyable

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I opened my eyes,  rolled over and shut off the alarm clock a mere minute before the French ambulance siren on speed screech could emanate from its tiny speaker. I stretched, unfurled my man blubber, let out a loud clack of a fart and tried to remind myself of why I had the alarm set for 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Oh yeah, Wifey asked me to set the alarm, because she had an appointment with the Lord, or was at least going to church to meet up with B-Man who stayed the night at a friend’s house and would be attending 9 a.m. mass with his family.

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Drinking Local (In The 989) II

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Bell’s beers are brewed here in Michigan, but I wouldn’t say they are exactly local (in the 989) with the brewery located a couple of hours southwest in Kalamazoo County. However they are more local than I had though! It turns out that the 2-row barley used in their Midwestern Pale Ale, Christmas Ale (seen in my fridge drawer above) and Harvest Ale is grown just a few minutes from my house on a farm down in Shepherd, Michigan. A farm that I have no doubt passed at one time or another on my rides. Of course I’ve ridden by so many farms, they all start to look alike.

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As you can see, the Shepherd wheat field and farm are both depicted on the labels of the Christmas Ale and the Midwestern Pale Ale. It’s pretty neat to know that beer that I enjoy quite often is made with ingredients grown just minutes from my home. You can see more about the Bell’s Brewery Farm at bellsbeer.com.

By the way, Bells’ Christmas Ale is one of my favorites of the season. It’s unusual in that it doesn’t have all the spices that one comes to expect in a Christmas beer, yet the lack of hops and the malts they use somehow give it a bready, candied toffee/carmel-ish taste that is very Christmasy and reminiscent of a Scottish Ale. I didn’t think I would be into it, since I usually like either BIG hoppy IPAs and Oatmeal and Imperial Stouts, but I am digging it.

Fast ‘N Loud On Dirt Roads

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I believe I may have watched way too much Fast N’ Loud the past few days, given that the first thing I thought of when I rode past this old F150 on Sunday was “I wonder what the guys from Gas Monkey Garage could do to that?” Later on that day, a little bit of Googling would have me not at all surprised to see that they have indeed worked on an older, badass F100 in Fast N’ Loud, Episode 6. Check out the pics on KC (the paint dude’s) blog.

Still, I found myself rolling along thinking that if I was Richard from Fast N’ Loud, I’d say– “I picked up this old Ford F150 for $1,800 along a dirt road in the middle of Bum-F*ck, Michigan. Now it’s time to get it back to the “bearded wonder,” so he can turn it around by next week and I can get it to auction to make some fat cash and pay the bills. Thinkin’ maybe we’ll drop it, get a new exhaust on, some new wheels from our friends at JagOff Custom Wheelz N’at™ and have KC throw on a killer two-toned black paint job to make it badass and scary rolling down the road.”

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But as we all know, I am SO not Richard from Fast N’ Loud, so I would probably just buy it, get it painted back, have it not run, park it in a field and have some chick in a green bikini stand beside it.

I’m thinking it would be unwise to go back and make an offer on it.

Top photo credit: Me.
Bottom photo credit: Hell, I don’t know, it came up when I Googled: Ford F150 truck, black, field, girl, green bikini, Auburn fan. This was the only photo that came up, so I used it.