Come Hell or High Water

Another trip to Amish country, and the forecast was for a bit of rain.  I considered stopping into seeing my folks, but two parking lots on the highway changed my mind for that.  Instead, I decided to take advantage of the trip to stop by some old favorites as well as some new beer spots.

I first stopped at the Porterhouse, a former brewpub in New Hope. Yes, sadly it is a former brewpub, and the best I could come up with was a Yuengling Oktoberfest.  So I moved on and went to the Drafting Room in Exton, one of Beer Advocate’s top beer bars, and got out of the rain for some dinner.  The Drafting Room has good food (my ham and bean soup certainly hit the spot), and they had Troegs brew an ale and a lager for their 16^th and 17^th year anniversary.  I had both, and got a bottle of their Perpetual IPA (based on their Scratch Beer #45 recipe) to go, and headed over to Downington to Victory Brewpub.  I had hoped to get a specialty bottle to go for my friend, but they didn’t have anything, so I settled with trying this year’s version of the Storm King Imperial Stout on draft and cask. 

I checked into the hotel, and yes it was still raining.  I took a guess where my coworkers were, and found them at Iron Hill brewery.  I had their Smokin’ Blonde on draft, and stole a couple of fries.  I was glad to make it to Lancaster, and then made it to our meeting the next day.  Wednesday night, we went to Lancaster brewery, a nice place in the center of town.  The food (nachos), the conversation (will Philly meet the Steelers in the Super Bowl), and the beer (Boss Hog Double IPA) were excellent.  I avoided the rain and made it back in time for my Fantasy Football draft (season’s looking promising).     

The next morning we woke up to over 8” of rain, and flooding everywhere.  We all dreaded the trip home, and we had good reason.  I had planned to make a couple of “stops” but it looked like the weather was going to be a problem.  Right off the bat, SR-222 was closed to Reading due to flooding (there goes the shortest route).   Then I took SR-283 to Harrisburg, hoping that I could stop by the Troegs brewery to get some bottles, but the road was closed due to flooding, and the state workers were sandbagging the capital building.  I’ve been dying to go to Selinsgrove Brewery, but it is on the Susquehanna River and when I called they were being evacuated.  Headed north and I-81 was closed (so was I-88 and portions of I-90 in NY), so I went east on I-78 to NJ.  I stayed away from the Delaware Water Gap “shortcut”, which was a good thing since they closed the roads (missed out on the Country Inn in Krumville).  NJ and eastern NY were sunny, but when I tried to stop by Mahar’s on the way, the roads were closed in Albany due to the flooding.  So I got in the line of cars trying to cross the twin bridges, and finally made it. I was glad to be home, glad that I wasn’t stranded somewhere, glad to give my family a big hug, and glad I was able to see the kickoff for the 2011 NFL season kickoff.  – 5805/11414

"The world drinks to forget.  We drink to remember." – Zion Lutheran Church, Pleasant Hills, PA. I pray that you remember the lives lost on 9/11/01 as we approach the 10 year anniversary.