Stoudts Microfest

Every year there is this crazy thing in Adamstown called Stoudts Microfest. You pay about 28 bones per ticket and that gets you all the beer you can drink out of a small tasting glass and all you can eat German buffet. Its a pretty good deal if you ask me.

This is kind of rich's thing since his parents are the ones that found out about this place and have gone several times. i went last year with a bunch of guys and we stayed in two hotel rooms. This year since it was just rich, graham and i we decided to cut costs and stay at a camp ground where it would just cost us eat 11 bones instead of 40 bones staying in a hotel room.

Our campsite ended up being next to rich's parents trailer. Everything seemed alright until we went to drive stakes into the ground. We were on top of literally solid rock. The stakes would go in about an inch before starting to bend.

Our solution was to use rocks, a lot of rocks. We stuck several rocks in the corners of the tent and the sides. As for the rain fly we used rope and the ties on the rain fly to tie it down to whatever we could. Such as the water line, the electic meter, the picnic table, and giant rocks we had found at the campsite across from us. Turned out really well. This tent wasn't going anywhere.

i finally got to meet rich's new dog, Abby. A chocolate lab that never barks. She was very friendly and reminded me of daisy...although daisy was a lot smarter.

After setting up camp and chillin' around the camp fire a bit we finally left for the Microfest a little after 7pm. We hit a bunch of breweries. i believe the first beer of the night was Stoudts' Oktoberfest. It was pretty tasty, as far as i remember. The other breweries we hit were Smuttynose, Troegs, Rock Bottom, Magic Hat, Union Barrel Works, River Horse, Allagash...and it all gets kind of fuzzy after that. By the 8th or 9th beer we decided to hit up the buffet.

Last year i remember the buffet being amazing. But for some reason, this year i wasn't a huge fan. The red cabbage sauerkrout was pretty bad...it was all mushy and just didn't taste fresh or delicous like i remember from last year. The sausages were pretty weak too. i remember last year having thirds but this year i could only get one plate down. i just wasn't on top of my game. It might have been caused by my late lunch at the diner earlier that day.

graham isn't very good at getting his picture taken.

Beer! It was very crowded at the beginning of the night but after an hour people start getting on the dance floor leaving more room to navigate to the different taps.
i recognize the decor on the ceiling from last year but the chandeliers look different...maybe i was too intoxicated to notice them last year. By this point of the night i was feeling pretty awful. i just felt full. i couldn't eat or drink anymore. The worst part was that i wasn't even buzzed. My stomach must have shrunk since the motorcycle trip. Next year i'll have to do a little training. Maybe do a case race or a power hour by myself the week before the Microfest.

Again, graham just looks creepy...

i decided to bring my hookah since its been about a month an a half since i've smoked it and i knew i'd be in the mood for it after the microfest. Thinking that we wouldn't be coherent enough to set up the hookah after drinking, we set it up before we left discovering that my vase had pretty much shatttered leaving it useless. Not sure how or when that happened...probably got dropped while in the garage. For a solution we used a cranberry juice bottle. We had to fill it up practically to the top since the tube on the hookah is so short which ended up being a good thing because with so much water in the container we wouldn't have to worry about tipping the hookah over when passing it around. Woot!

It was freezing out. Felt like 35 degrees. Not quite freezing but cold enough it might as well have been freezing.

Luckily i had brought a space heater! Not just any space heater...an Edenpure heater.The Edenpure heats up to 1000 square feet...and we're using it for a measly 96 square feet. Maybe a little overkill but i don't want risk getting cold!
Here you can see my ugly foot with a bunion.i tripped over a picnic table at the Microfest and banged my shin pretty hard. It hurt a lot which is a sign that then alcohol wasn't doing its job.
Overall i guess i slept pretty well. i need a new mattress pad that's for sure. The one i have now is like 9 years old and has gotten so compressed that i could feel the gravel through it. But at least i was warm? Rich was practically sweating since he was right next to the heater.

Babo was along too. But he didn't have is license on him so he couldn't get into the event to drink.

There were some other dogs at the camp ground too. Like the ugly pit bull with massive under bite. Its tail looked like a cinnamon bun. But the dog was very nice and playful...just couldn't get over that crazy under bite.
After packing up the tent we had all these rocks that we didn't really know what to do with. No way were we carrying them back to where we got them...that's just silly. So i stacked them. Not really sure what i was going for...either some rock garden look or indian burial ground...not really sure. i think it looked pretty sweet.

rich on the other hand...not so much. He tore it down thinking he could build a better one. Yeah right.

While he was doing that, i decided to do a photo shoot with Abby. i swear i wasn't strangling her in this picture, she just wasn't being very photogenic.

Lemon, i really want a puppy...

Here is rich's finished product. It sucks, i know. What a noob. A monkey could have built a better stacked rock thingie.
Went back to rich's and graham's place in Philly to get a look at this Force Unleashed game. Not as cool as i thought it would be but still pretty fun. Good times.