Road trip, friends and beer!

Things are about the same here in Maryland - still working through our list of medical/dental/vision appointments while we visit with family and friends. Flu and pneumonia shots are now up to date and the list is shrinking. No surprises - phew!

The lab our insurance now uses moved from the same building as our doctor and down to the end of the shopping center and into the Safeway grocery store (no, not a fan and won't use that one again). The tech was great but just going into a grocery store for lab work turned me off. But then again, if we hadn't gone, we wouldn't have met this adorable couple, taking care of each other. She could barely walk and he could barely hear. At one point he turned to her, smiled and said (looking at her wedding ring set), "I love how it sparkles. I remember when I picked it out for you. I had to make payments on it." They have been married 52 years and she was tickled when I asked if I could share their photo.

Here are a couple of other photos we took on the walk around the lake after seeing our primary care physician.

We did do one thing out of the ordinary recently - we decided to take a ROAD TRIP! Very good friends of ours recently moved from Maryland to Tennessee. Stu helped them load up their trucks and they wanted us to come visit. So we did! We made it a multi-purpose trip, taking four loaded footlockers and putting them in our storage shed on our property. We also made a side trip to a local microbrew in my old hometown of Sparta, TN.

Calfkiller Brewing had been on our must visit list since we first heard about it from new friends in Ecuador - they had just been through the area and raved about it.

It all began in 2001 with two brothers, Don and Dave Sergio, who dreamed of having some sort of a business together. Coincidentally, they were also beginning an aggressive home-brewing hobby – expanding their palettes and those of their families. [read the full story]

We sampled two beers, chatted with Don (I think) and his wife, bought two coffee mugs custom made for the brewery and took home a growler full of the beer Stu really liked. Beautiful location, great beer and friendly owners. What more could you ask for?

So, if you're in the area of Sparta, TN and like good beer, we highly recommend dropping in for a taste and a visit.

Ciao for now!