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.

At the Cottage Again...

The last trip to the cottage was mostly fixing up the porch so we didn't spend much time on the crazy vines and weeds that have gotten out of control...but today was the day i'd show them a thing or too. i decided to bring the weed whacker. No way was i just going to use some whimpy garden cutters...

i had a hard time figuring out where to begin because there was so much that had to go. i figured i'd start off small and start with the flower bed, more like weed bed, to get warmed up.

Take that! Okay, it doesn't look that great but i was just getting started!

My mom cleared out one of the walkways last time...

She got the other walkway today and i cleared out the alley and made a new walkway...there are no stones on the ground where i cleared it out so it looks kind of dumb..but maybe next year i'll steal some rocks from the creek and fix it up...who am i kidding i'll never get around that.

Hoooray for walk ways!

i cleared out the vines next to the cottage too! i haven't seen that walk way for like 7 years!

Took out some more vines! They're seriously like steel cable...i had to change out the cord on the weed whacker like every 5 minutes.
Here's the front? back? i have no idea what's the front or back....i guess what i call the back is really the front...but i enter the cottage through the back all the time....so i consider it the front...lemon, i have no idea.

i cleared out thise path too! Almost looks like what it did 15 years ago.

Well there you have it. i'm now done with the cottage until next spring. The only reason i'll come up again is to grab my snowboard when the snow comes.

Well Actually...

While on Antelope Island in Utah....

Rancher: Where you guys from?
Floyd: Well i'm from Indiana and my nephew and brother are from Pennsylvania. We've ridden from my house in Indiana to here and are headed to San Francisco, then dropping down to Los Angeles and taking Route 66 back.
Rancher: Whoa! You're doing this on motorcycles? That's a long distance on a motorcycle...
Floyd: Well actually, its about the same distance in a car...
Rancher: *dirty look*

That's how you come off as a smartass....

Just Thinking...

Ever wonder what truckers talk about while on the road? i sure did and didn't think i would have a chance to because the CB radio on my motorcycle is pretty weak and its even hard to pick up the signal from my dad or uncle. But i did luck out, i caught a short conversation between two truckers...

Trucker 1: hey, mr. dave...What are you listening to? NPR or something like that?
Trucker Dave: Nah, I'm listening to my thoughts.
Trucker 1: What was that? Didn't hear ya...i have the radio on let me turn it down. Say that again...
Trucker Dave: Nothing, just thinking.
Trucker 1: Wait, i don't think i heard you right...let me turn off the radio its still on. Say that one more time.
Trucker Dave: I'm not listening to anything. I'm just thinking. Its nice sometimes not having anything on you should try it sometime.
Trucker 1: Oh ok...Why?
Trucker Dave: Well it lets me reflect on a bunch of stuff and also lets me come up with a quick retort to your comments. See, that makes me come off as smart. i'm not smart i know that...but if you respond to someone quickly they think you are smart, and that's pretty much all that matters to me.
Trucker 1: oh ok, sorry to disrupt your thinking mr. sophisticated dave.

There you have it...what truckers talk about. Well, at least these two.

Paintin' the Porch!

The poor cottage has been neglected this summer. Sure we went up a couple times to clean the inside of the place but what really needed attention was the porch. When the porch was re-done, whoever that was hired to paint it used the wrong paint. As a result the paint faded and exposed the wood to the elements.

So today we decided to finally fix the porch by renting a massive sander and re-painting it. The sander was pretty ridiculous...it shook the whole cottage! Kind of wish i owned one...could be a fun ride. Your hands go numb after awhile of using it.
The sanding went pretty quickly. The only problem with the sander is that it can't get the edges of the porch due to its size. My dad had thought ahead and brought an old hand sander that use to belong to Grandpa. Of course, when we plugged it in it wasn't working and we had to do the rest by hand. But even that wasn't too bad, a little sweat and elbow grease never hurt anyone.
After the sanding was done i swept away the dust that had collected on the porch and it was time for paint! i always get a little nervous when painting because i'm a horrible painter. It all started in kindergarten. We were using our fingers and brushes. i forgot what i painted by the teacher pretty much said it was crap. She then walked me over to another classmates painting....and pointed out how much better it was than mine. It was an ocean scene consisting of a person (in red) swimming to the left. If you ask me it was shit. There was no marine life...no clouds...there might have been a sun but i couldn't believe the teacher actually thought this was better than my master piece. So that's probaby why i never got into painting..because my teacher said i was worthless in kindergarten...

i was left to paint the porch by myself since my dad had an eye appointment to go to. My mom decided to help after getting something to eat but after she did the areas outside of the railings i told her i would do the rest because her paint skills make me nervous.

After about getting 4/5 of the porch done my dad had come back from his appointment and i handed him the paint brush to do the rest.
Personally i think the color is kind of ugly but its still an improvement from before and maybe it will lighten up a bit after 12 hours of drying time.
While i was painting my mom went to town on the vines in that had taken over the walk way to the porch. i despise those vines. i wish they would just die. But no, they survive every winter and overflow their flowerbeds creating a woven mat of green leaves. Next i'm up i'm bringing the weed whacker and going to town on them. See how they like them apples.

Some More Randoms

Had a cook out. Someone busted out these 'special' balloons that you're not suppose to tie, just let them go after blowing them up and letting them fly.

Apparently julie is horrible at blowing up balloons and anna had to shower her how its done. You show her anna.

gabe sure enjoyed them. My cheeks (on my face) were so sore from this junx.

You haven't lived life to its fullest if you haven't had one of my mom's egg rolls...they're sooo good.

gabe wants a motorcycle...

anna sweeping in her diaper...nice.

Riding the Duck!

On the 21st of august we went into philly to get our fill of some history. Here we have the liberty bell. i wonder how many people live in philly and have never seen the liberty bell. This is like my third time.

Nothing like taking a Duck through philly!

Seriously, who though these duck bills were a good idea. That have to be one of the most annoying things ever invented.

Dano got the cork in case we sprung a leak!

What a crazy vehicle...i wish i was amphibious.

Hit up china town for lunch. i got an asian beer only to find out its actually brewed in california...lame.

gabe with the crabs...he's so funny. Should have seen his face when he saw the massive live frogs.