Badlands and Beer Redux

The badlands of Makoshika State Park

I didn't get enough of southeastern Montana a couple weeks ago so I decided to take the long, Independence Day weekend and go back.  This time I got pals and excellent roadtrip buddies, Adrienne and Aurora, to go with me.  We had a general agenda, but very little written in stone.  All we knew for sure was that we were planning to spend the 4th in Miles City at Niedgefest, going to see Jesse Taylor and the Rainy Day Devils at Beaver Creek Brewing in Wibaux on the 5th, and visiting the Evelyn Cameron Gallery in Terry (my primary destination) somewhere along the way. 

We loaded up Adrienne's truck with our camping equipment, our bedding and duffels, my modified Radio Flyer wagon, camp chairs, a camp stove, and most importantly: a cooler filled with those growlers Aurora and I had gotten at Carter's on Sunday in Billings (as well as a few random bottles of other craft brew).  Then, about an hour and a half after our planned departure time (my fault), we were on our way.

First we stopped in Ingomar, once the "Sheep Shearing Capital of North America" and now mostly a ghost town.  Now it's claim to fame is the historic and world famous Jersey Lilly bar, known for its steaks and beans.  I'd had the pleasure of stopping there on my way home from a trip to the Black Hills last summer and was eager to share another visit with my friends.  Unfortunately, in my excitement, I forgot that it might be closed for the holiday, and dang it!  It was.  As long as we were there, though, we gladly made use of the Heifer Pen (Bull Pen for the men), also known as the outhouse, out back.

The Jersey Lilly in Ingomar, MT

Me at the Heifer Pen behind the Jersey Lilly

Thwarted, we continued on to Miles City where, after setting up camp at the local KOA, we instead found a meal of sorts at the Golden Spur Sports Bar.  We were hoping for burgers and sandwiches, but weren't too terribly disappointed to settle for hot wings, chicken strips and steak bites.  And some good beer.  Part of the draw to the Spur was their big sign that said "MICROBREWS".  I wasn't hoping for anything wonderful, but we lucked out with a few selections from Red Lodge.  I was very happy with a Red Lodge Ales Bent Nail IPA; it's a one of my Montana favorites.  Aurora went with the Resurrection Doppelbock, also from Red Lodge.  I've tried that recently and really liked it.  It's a strong one at 8% ABV but Aurora handled it well.  Actually, it was just what the doctor ordered as she'd knocked something heavy on her foot that morning and it was causing her all sorts of pain and trouble.  Adrienne tried the Shock Top Honeycrisp Apple Wheat and let me have a go.  Shock Top describes it as "a unique, refreshing, hand crafted brewed hybrid of Belgian wheat beer and sweet cider," which pretty much sums it up.  Not too sweet; just sweet enough.  I prefer something a bit more dry when it comes to ciders, but I wouldn't have any trouble putting a few of these away if I had it around.

After a quick trip to Wal-Mart for a few supplies, like waterproofing for the tent, and another stop at Dairy Queen for desert, we went back to our campsite to get ready for the holiday festivities at Riverside Park.  We got ice for the cooler which was loaded with our beer growlers and snacks, loaded up the wagon with camp chairs and blankets, and walked over to the park to settle in at Niedgefest.  From the Niedgefest facebook page:  Niedgefest is an annual classic rock concert in Miles City, Montana. Celebrating the talents of local musicians, Niedgefest showcases Montana-made musical acts, including its house band Supersonic, Dirty Harry- a Miles City legend, and other bands, big and small, from around Montana. Band after band, most pretty darned good offerings for a town the size of Miles City, kept us entertained until it was time for the fireworks display.  My early favorite was a band with a female lead who did great on a couple Guns & Roses covers.  Sorry, I didn't catch the names of most of the bands.  Bad me!

One of the first bands to play at Niedgefest

By this time I was 3/4 of the way through my growler of Derailed IPA from Carter's and I was hyper as all get out.  Aurora and Adrienne were about that far along with their two growlers of Saison de Carter and were feeling pretty good themselves.  Also, about this time, my friend Rex arrived with his nephews.  He's the gent I met back in February in Boise at the Kilted Dragon.  It turns out he is originally from the area and was visiting his family.  Over the music and bombs bursting in air, we talked a bunch, mostly about - what else? - beer.  Perhaps I should find some new topics for conversation?  They left after the fireworks were done, but he and I made plans to try to meet up for beers again sometime when I'm back in Boise.

After the fireworks, the best band of the night made their appearance, the Moustache Bandits from Bozeman.  We polished off our growlers and headed for the stage where a great deal of crazy dancing commenced.  Here's their rendition of Charlie Daniels' Devil Went Down To Georgia from that night: YouTube Video of the Moustache Bandits.

The Moustache Bandits

Adrienne, Aurora and me.  It was a fun, fun 4th!

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Me and Aurora about to die at the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum

Day two of this crazy adventure, we packed up our campsite, found some breakfast at the 600 Cafe on Main Street, made a couple other stops, then headed for Glendive. We stopped first at the Green Valley RV Park to set up camp (decent place, with showers!), made a quick stop at the K-Mart, then headed to the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum.  There are a number of dinosaur museums in Glendive as the badlands in the area are full of dinosaur finds, but we were interested in this one because, according to the VisitMT.com website, "it the largest dinosaur and fossil museum in the United States to present its fossils in the context of biblical creation".  We were curious to see what it was all about.  Regardless of your viewpoint on the subject, the displays were impressive.  I particularly enjoyed the skeletons of the giant turtle, the T-Rex and the stegasaurus.  I also found out, 19 years behind the time, that the brontosaurus is no longer the brontosaurus; it is now the apatosaurus.  What's up with that?  It'll always be a brontosaurus in my book.

Onto the beer!

Since we were going to be more or less in the area, I decided to check and see if there would be any live music happening at the Beaver Creek Brewery in Wibaux while we were around.  Woo hoo!  Yes, there was.  Jesse Taylor and the Rainy Day Devils were playing a Friday night show.  Of course we had to go, especially since Adrienne and Aurora had never been there.  We had plenty of time to enjoy some brews and eat before the show.  The brewery, as I mentioned before, is attached to the Gem Theater which is where the shows are actually held.  The Gem is also the source for all the eats.  Their special that night sounded excellent: ribs, spuds and more for the low, low price of $7.00, but we were geared up for their fancy pizzas.  While waiting for those, I thoroughly enjoyed a Beaver Creek Pale.  Did I miss this the last time around?  I certainly must have.  It was delish!  So, of course I had to have a several more.  Both Aurora and Adrienne ended up settling on the Paddlefish Stout.  Lucky ladies, they got a fresh made chocolate chip cookie with every pint.

Beaver Creek's brew selection

Beaver Creek Brewing, Wibaux, MT

The show was worth the trip.  Jesse Taylor has a nice, easy going, cowboy song singing voice, and his originals were good.  His Rainy Day Devils made the music that much better.  Their lead guitarist was particularly great, not only for his musicianship but for his comedy.  My only disappointment in that part of the evening was that I had to switch from the Pale to the IPA since they could no longer serve from the brewery after 8:00pm and they had no Pale on tap in the Gem.  The IPA was good enough.  I survived.  But that Pale was excellent.

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On day three, Saturday, I contacted my friend, Charlie, a former resident of Glendive to get a recommendation on a breakfast spot.  He did not steer us wrong sending us to the Yellowstone River Inn.  After fortifying ourselves, we took a quick drive through Makoshika State Park.  I got to see a bit more this time around since the roads were dry and we didn't have to worry about getting stuck in the gumbo.  Beautiful!  I love the badlands.  As both of my friends are into range management, they know a lot about the flora, so we had a lot of discussion of the various grasses, flowers and shrubs in the area.  I learned the names a few more native plants - yay!
 

Crazy women at Makoshika State Park:  Me, Aurora and Adrienne

 
Then on to Terry - hip hip hooray!

A trip to Terry to visit the Evelyn Cameron Gallery was my main reason for wanting to take this trip as I'd missed the last trip through.  I became interested in Evelyn Cameron after watching the PBS documentary, Evelyn Cameron: Pictures of a Worthy Life.  She was a fascinating character.  She came from British aristocracy and ended up making a tough life of it in the Montana badlands.  She supported herself, and her ornithologist husband, through her photography of local people and places.  Her photos aren't dramatic works of art, but depict life as it was.  I enjoy her photography all the more for that.  She had a unique eye and I truly enjoy her viewpoint.  The Gallery isn't fancy, but they did a nice job with it all the same.  I only wish they'd had a camera on display like the one she used.  I would have been very interested to see one.

A photo of Evelyn Cameron

I enjoyed a delicious caramel malt.  Mmm...

I'd also wanted to visit the Calypso Trail, on old bootlegging trail through the Terry Badlands that is supposed to have some of the most spectacular sites of all the Montana badlands.  Unfortunately, with Aurora's gimpy foot, the possibility of gumbo roads (rain had passed through the area), as well as the heat and humidity, we opted to save it for another time.  Instead, we visited a couple more Terry hot spots:  the Historic Kempton Hotel and the Dizzy Diner.  The Kempton Hotel is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Montana and is supposedly haunted.  Their slogan: "Where all the ghosts are friendly."  It can also boast to hosting such guests as Teddy Roosevelt and Calamity Jane.  The Dizzy Diner was a nifty little place that makes yummy, yummy shakes and malts.  Ice cream for lunch - I love being a grown up!

The Historic Kempton Hotel: "Where all the ghosts are friendly."

From Terry, we headed to Billings for the night.  After setting up camp at the original KOA campground - quite a nice one - we headed downtown for the Thai dinner at Cham Thai Cuisine Adrienne had been craving ever since we'd decided on Billings for our final night.   Aurora and Adrienne split their dinners of yellow curry and pad thai.  I grossed them out by eating California House, a combination of shrimp, mussels, squid, fish, krab, mushrooms and onions - very tasty.

A half block down the street is the new Angry Hanks location and Himmelberger Brewing next door.  I opted for Himmelberger since I'd only been able to make it there once before.  It ended up being a very quick stop since we had decided to go see the Lone Ranger at the theater and discovered that the movie start time was only 15 minutes away after ordering our beers.  Knowing there would be at least 15 minutes or more of previews, though, we were at least able to enjoy our beer before scooting out of there.  I tried the IPA, and while it wasn't indicative of a good IPA in my book, it was still a good beer.  I liked the flavor.  Since we were in such a rush, though, I didn't really take the time to properly size it up, nor do I have any idea what the gals had to drink.

The Lone Ranger was very entertaining.  Not perfect - silly at times, overly violent at others - but definitely entertaining.  We exited the theater into a torrential downpour complete with wild lightning and thunder.  That made me quite glad that I'd done a double dose of waterproofing to the tent our first day.  All the same, not wanting to get soaked before going to bed, we ended up sitting in the truck for quite a while waiting for the rain to abate.  Eventually we made it into the tent and to bed where, despite the weather, I slept like the dead after three full days of fun.

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What a weekend!  I'm glad to be home, but I can't wait for the next adventure!  It won't be long...

Save Me From Cheap Beer!

Oh, my goodness.  I think I've had more Busch Light, aka water beer, in the last couple weeks than I've had in my entire life.  First a weekend full of small town fun where other beer options were nearly non-existent, followed by two weekends of weddings where that was the primary option.  And to be honest, I didn't really mind all that much.  Busch Light is about as inoffensive as fizzy (barely) yellow beer gets; one of the few that doesn't cause me to have horrific headaches or internal distress.  My biggest problem with it - it goes right on through nearly as quickly as I can take it in.

This is what happens when your only option is fizzy yellow beer: Annie Oakley shows up on a donkey wearing her Electric Horseman hat.  Actually, this is a friend of mine getting crazy in a very small town bar at her bachelorette party.

It wasn't all Busch Light, though.  I've also been trying to work through the excessively large IPA selection in my fridge.  Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but most of what can be found in there are the remaining five bottles left over from each of the multitude six packs purchased in the course of my travels, tried and found wanting.  Generally I've found with IPAs that if I try one and don't really like it, by the second it will start to grow on me.  Most of these, however, only seem to get worse. 

Ninkasi IPA (Ninkasi Brewing, Eugene, OR) - When I first tried it, I thought it was horrible.  Over time, though, I've learned to appreciate it more.  One of our local dives carried it on draught for a while.  As I'd only had it in bottles previously, trying it on draught made all the difference.  Bottled, it's a bit more rough around the edges.  While it's still far from my favorite, at least I had no problem finishing off what was left in my fridge.

Lucky Bucket IPA (Lucky Bucket Brewing, La Vista, NE) - This one was recommended to me by a few different folks, and it being a Nebraska brew (Go Big Red!), I was eager to try it.  Nope, nope, nope!  I can drink it, but only just barely.  Lucky Bucket says it's "big, bold and shall we say, in your face... as it should be."  They've got the "in your face" part right.  It's not that it's aggressively hoppy; it's just harsh.

Hop Wrangler 3 IPA (Peace Tree Brewing, Knoxville, IA) - It came in the cutest little stubby bottle, and it had a great label.  I had to try it.  Eh.  It's got a bit more balance to it than the Lucky Bucket, but it's still rough.  It starts off a bit sweet, but it finishes mean.  The do have a nice description on their bottle, however:  "Hop Wrangler 3 is a multi-national take on the classic India Pale Ale, which is known for its intense hop bitterness, flavor and aroma.  We use American, English and Belgian malts for flavor, body and color.  This brew includes six hop additions of American and English hops, one each in the mash and first wort, three in the boil and finally a dry hop addition in the fermenter.  It is finished with Belgian yeast which develops esters that complement the bouquet of hop aromas."  Yes, I'm confused, too, and so is the flavor, in my opinion.  Does the fact that it just took me nearly two hours to finish one tell you anything?

There are a couple others in my fridge as well, but they're ones I do like (Hazed and Infused, Boulder Brewing, Boulder, CO) or ones I have yet to try - mostly big bottles from obscure places.

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Happily, I went to Billings yesterday and really got my beer on.

My friend Aurora and I had a little shopping to do (mainly I really needed some paint so I can finally finish painting my front porch a bright, obnoxious lime green), and we wanted pedicures (something difficult to come by in Lewistown, MT), and WE WANTED BEER!  We barely made it through my shopping list, and even skipped one stop entirely, to get our main stop, Carter's Brewing.  Overall, Carter's is my favorite brewery in Billings.  They have a lot of really good standard options, and they usually have a big selection of seasonals and specials as well.  Big bonus: they're open on Sundays.

Aurora

Carter's is one of the only breweries I've visited in the western states, outside of Colorado where they're everywhere, that makes saison.  This is one style of Belgian ale I really enjoy.  They tend to be fruity, spicy and very refreshing.  Most folks know I'm not generally a fan of fruity beers, but saisons have an overall fruitiness rather than a specific fruit flavor.  Yummy.

This time, Carter's also had a Green Tea Saison as well.  I opted to try that one, while Aurora, who had never had a saison, went with the Saison de Carter.  I loved the look on her face when she took her first sip.  Her eyes lit up and a smile spread wide.  It's so much fun to share the beer love with others, especially eager novices.  I'd brought in four growlers to fill for an upcoming camping and road trip Aurora, my friend Adrienne and I are doing over the long July 4th weekend.  I was planning to fill one with the saison, one with their Derailed IPA (love it), one with Black Magic Porter and the last one with the Boxcar Brown, but after taking that first sip, Aurora declared that we would most definitely be filling two growlers with the saison.  No problem!  We left out the porter and went with the saison.  I would have done a growler of each saison, the de Carter and the Green Tea, but the Green Tea really didn't have the zing of the de Carter.  It was actually quite boring - kind of like green tea.

After their magnificent lady barkeep got us all filled up and we'd finished our pints, we were really jonesing for a burger at Überbrew down the street.  I know I've mentioned them before, but they truly are one of the most wonderful things ever.  As is their beer cheese soup.  I've mentioned that before, too, haven't I?  I'm drooling just thinking about it.  Please, give me a moment...

Okay.  Even though I haven't liked their beer in the past, aside from their porter, I decided to try another flight.  I selected the Diesel Punk Porter (to be sure I'd have something to wash down the rest with),the Humulus Ridiculous Double IPA, the Conehead IPA and their Diesel Punk Stout.  Aurora also chose the stout, as well as their regular kölsch (I've had it before and it's decent), their raspberry kölsch and the Calibrated Imperial Hefeweizen. 

The best word I have to describe the Conehead is dank.  As hops and marijuana are in the same family, dank is an appropriate adjective.  But instead of the definition commonly used for marijuana meaning good, potent stuff, I refer to the common definition of the word: disagreeably damp and musty.  I did not like it, Sam I Am.

I am quite pleased to say, however, that I did enjoy my other three choices.  The stout was as smooth as they come.  It had a light, simple flavor.  Nothing fancy, but nice and solid.  Aurora agreed and was planning to order a pint of it until I had her try the porter.  "Oh, that's gooood."  Yes, it is.  And while I did not love the double IPA, I did like it.  Our bartender also helps with the brewing so I was really glad I was able to give him a positive report.  I've also mentioned how great the Überbrew staff is, haven't I?  Yes, they are.

Shana & Toby

I'd also like to mention another Überbrew patron we had the pleasure to meet.  Shana was sitting a couple stools down from us and somewhere along the way we discovered that she recently left her job and life in central Pennsylvania and is bound for Portland to start things fresh.  She's taking her time along the way, though, visiting all the states she's never been to, hitting all the good coffee shops and breweries she can find.  She's camping in her car with her long-haired Chihuahua, Toby, with no definite plans, just ideas.  My hero!  She's also relatively new to the craft beer world, but she's already more than caught up with my brewery visits, and she's quickly come to realize, you meet the best people wherever you find good beer. 

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Back to that cheap beer issue...  I believe that I have been given the cure.  My friends, Jordan (pictured below) and Linda, were lucky enough to attend the Epic Beer Festival in Denver this past weekend.  As I was unable to go, I asked her if they would bring me back some Colorado brews.  Happy, happy me, my wish was granted!

Avery Maharaja, Avery IPA, New Belgium La Folie, Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro and a Funkwerks Saison

Thanks, Jordan!  Looks like I need to share & save you from the cheap stuff, too.