Saturday April 26. Woke up before 1:00, which is what I wanted because I would be leaving very early. Wrote for a while, then at 2:40 I heard a bang and the power went out. The lights across the street were on, as were the street lights, so this was apparently specific to the motel. Fortunately I had brought a flashlight with me.

Left at 3:45 on another cloudy, drizzly, mid 40s day, and drove up to South Dakota (a state I'd never been to before). The first part of the journey was on lonely highways without a single street light. When the sun came up I could see that I was surrounded by Wyoming prairies and pastures with cattle grazing.

Arrived at Jewel Cave National Monument at 8:20. The only tour time available to me was 9:00, which is why I had to leave so early. There was no cell service there. Incidentally, the difference between a National Park and a National Monument is that the former must be approved by Congress, whereas the latter can be established by the President alone.

Since being in a cave is a completely immersive experience, a camera (at least mine) cannot begin to capture it. But here are some photos anyway.


Tried to drive the Needles Highway to Cathedal Spires and Sylvan Lake, but it had been closed for a few days due to snow. There is a tunnel on the road that plows cannot fit through, so when there's snow they close the road until it melts.

Made it to Mount Rushmore National Memorial at 12:15. Admission is free but you pay to park. When you pay at one of the machines, it asks you if you're over 62 or active military (both get you a discount). But it doesn't check, so you can lie and pay $5 instead of $10. Anyway, here are some photos of the monument.


There is a short (0.6 mile) loop called the Presidential Trail, but most of it was closed. There was one spot on the open part of the trail that led to the base of the mountain. Upon getting there I saw that it isn't extremely tall.


There is an amphitheatre in front of the monument.


Then it was on to Rapid City to visit Zymurcracy Beer Company, which opened in 2019. I got there at 2:10 and sampled:


Then I went to Woodland Republic Brewing & Blending, which opened on Halloween 2021.


Checked into a Days Inn at 3:25, wrote for a little while, and walked to Lost Cabin Beer Company, which has two locations. Got to their Rapid City location at 5:20. Only one beer had a good enough rating for me:


A tenth of a mile away is Dakota Point Brewing.


Walked back to the motel and crashed at 7:30ish. Woke up sometime before midnight and couldn't get back to sleep.


Sunday April 27. After lying in bed for an hour or so, I got up before 1:00 and wrote for a while. Then at 3:15 I turned the lights out and was able to drift off to sleep a few times. Woke up for good around 5:00.

Left at 6:45 and drove to Badlands National Park. When I arrived at 7:35 it was cloudy and 59 degrees. I hiked two short trails whose trailheads are near each other. First was the Door Trail.

Pano shot from the same spot as the previous photo.


Then the Notch Trail.


At one point there was a ladder to climb.

Near the top.


There is an expansive view at the end.


There is this view near the parking lot:


Here are a few videos I took wile driving:


On my way out of the park there were these views:


Left the park a little before 11:00 and headed east. Drove through hundreds of miles of plains to Sioux Falls. When I stopped for gas it was a pleasure to pay $2.85 per gallon after what I'd paid in California. Close to 4 hours after leaving Badlands I arrived at WoodGrain Brewing at 3:50 (I lost an hour due to the time zone change). My beers here were:


I was hoping to visit Covert Artisan Ales, the highest rated brewery in Sioux Falls, but the taproom was closed and a new one was supposed to open in the summer.

Went to nearby Remedy Brewing at 4:13 and sampled:


Hotels in town were a bit pricey (though not nearly as expensive as Denver) so I checked into an Airbnb about a mile from the breweries I'd visited. Settled in around 5:00, took a gummy, and spent a relaxing evening on the couch writing and watching old Married With Children episodes (the first time I watched TV in over 4 weeks). Went to sleep a little after 10:00.


Monday April 28. Woke up around 5:00. When I left at 7:18 it was cloudy and 66 degrees. Drove 3½ hours to the Bloomington/Minneapolis area. As I was driving I thought about how while fun life experiences are good, it is even better to be in a place where you feel good just being, so that you don't need to chase experiences. Once you find your true self, life is good almost all the time, and problems don't bother you as much because you have a comfortable sense of well being. This begs the question: if you live in bliss, then why do anything at all? If lying on the couch is just as good as seeing a mountain landscape, then why put in the time and effort to do the latter? Well, certain experiences certainly are more enjoyable than others, whether you're in bliss or not, so pursuing better experiences can make a better life. It's just that when you feel your true self, there is no sense of urgency to experience anything in particular, and you don't have to wait for peak experiences in order to enjoy life.

Some of the breweries I wanted to visit in this area are closed on Mondays, so I put them off until the next day and visited two that are open on Mondays, plus the Mall of America. First I went to Bricksworth Beer Company's Burnsville location, arriving at 11:15. (The owner's father owns BlackStack Brewing, which I would visit the next day.) Sampled:


Then I spent several leisurely hours at the Mall of America, which is the largest mall in the United States. Got there at 11:50 and walked around for almost 4 hours. It has a zillion stores, some arcades, two mini golf places, and more food stands and restaurants than you could eat at in a month.


It also has an aquarium, which I didn't go inside but could see the rays swimming around.


There is a sushi place that has a robot that brings food/drinks to tables. I asked one of the employees if it ever drops anything. He said, "Yes. All the time."


The entire center of the mall is occupied by Nickelodeon Universe, which has a ferris wheel, a rollercoaster, bumper cars, and many other rides.


The most fun part of the mall for me was the mirror maze. At the end it has a couple of funhouse mirrors.


Went to a nearby brewery called Wild Mind Ales, which opens at 4:00 on Mondays (and I got there right when it opened). It shares its taproom with a coffee shop called Wild Grind Coffee, which is open 7:00-3:00, so in effect the taproom is open all day - you just have to wait until 4:00 to get beer (although beer was already being served when I walked in). Both beers I tried were good.


Checked into a local Super 8 at around 4:45 and had another relaxing evening writing with the TV on. I guess being alone on the road so long made me miss human voices.


Tuesday April 29. Woke up sometime after 3:00 and lay in bed for a few hours. Got up a little after 6:00. Wrote for several hours and left at 10:30 on a beautiful sunny yet cool and windy day. Got to Super Moon Buffet 10 minutes before it opened at 11:00. There were lots of different food dishes. My favorite was the Mongolian barbecue.


Got to Back Channel Brewing at 12:30 and tried:


Arrived at Brickworth Beer Company's North Loop location at 1:30. It was closed for a corporate event (which they called a "private buyout") so I couldn't order any beer. Good thing I'd been to their other location the previous day. Here are some photos of the place.


Modist Brewing is across the street but didn't open until 4:00 on Tuesdays. Fortunately I'd already been there in 2017.

Got to BlackStack Brewing a few minutes after it opened at 2:00 and had:


Arrived at Falling Knife Brewing 10 minutes before it opened at 3:00. It's been in business since fall 2019. I sampled:


Got to Surly Brewing at 3:30. It's a big place. It's been there since late 2014. I'd visited it in 2017 when HomebrewCon was in Minneapolis. Got a taster of:


Dealt with heavy rush hour traffic and arrived at an Airbnb at 4:30. A half hour later I Lyfted to Barrel Theory Beer Company, which opened in 2017. Since I wasn't driving anymore I could drink as much as I wanted, so I got:


Lyfted back to the Airbnb at 5:48. Wrote for a little while, dozed off, and finally turned out the lights at 11:30.


Wednesday April 30. Woke up sometime in the wee hours, lay in bed for a while, eventually fell back asleep, and woke up a little after 4:30. Had plenty of time to write, shave, and shower. Good thing I had this time because upon doing some research regarding the final several days of my trip, I decided to reroute my itinerary so I could visit a highly rated brewery that otherwise would have been closed when I was in the area. This resulted in the trip being one day shorter than originally planned.

Left shortly before 11:00 and drove southward to Forager Brewery, which opened in September 2015. Arrived at 12:15. It has a kitchen and a café, and some antique objects such as an old television, typewriter, and adding machine. I tried:


Drove past lots of farmland and pastures to Decorah Iowa, where I'd been in 2019, and visited the same two breweries I'd visited back then. First I went to Pulpit Rock Brewing, which opened in 2015. Arrived at 2:23 and sampled:


Checked into a Super 8 at 3:00 and wrote for a bit. My server at Pulpit Rock suggested Hometown Taxi for local transportation, and since they were cheaper than Lyft/Uber, I used them to travel to my final brewery of the day. The driver told me that the company started in 1987, and if you ride with them after 6:00 PM they charge an extra $25.

Got dropped off a little after 4:30 at Toppling Goliath Brewing. It makes good IPAs and even better stouts. The stouts are very expensive though: $10 or $20 for 4 ounces. The final beer in this list cost me $20, which is by far the most I had ever paid for a 4-ounce sample. When all was said and done I paid $70 (including tax and tip) for 8 beer samples.


I had arranged for my driver to pick me up at 6:00. He dropped me off at the motel around 6:15. I wrote for a bit but because I was inebriated I didn't last long.


Thursday May 1. Woke up around 1:00 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I had lots of time to finish planning my altered schedule. Left at 7:10 on a cloudy, drizzly morning. Drove past lots of Iowa and Wisconsin farmland to New Glarus Brewing, which I'd visited in 2019. The hospitality facility was undergoing a two-year, $55 million construction project to be finished in fall 2026 (but beer was still being brewed there). In the meantime, visitors were being welcomed at an old location a mile and a half away. Arrived 15 minutes before it opened at 10:00. It has two facilities across the street from each other. One is a production facility with a self-guided tour.


Across the street is the welcome center, which has a tasting room and a beer-to-go shop. A tasting is $8, which includes 3 samples, a free taster glass, and a coin that can be exchanged for a free New Glarus beer at any one of about 25 local pubs.


I tasted:


Bought a case of Wisconsin Belgian Red and headed toward Chicago. Drove past more Wisconsin farmland into Illinois and arrived at More Brewing, which has 3 locations, at 12:25. I was at their Huntley Brewery & Restaurant. Sampled:

The place has hundreds of barrels with beer aging in them, some of which were leaking.


Got to Mikerphone Brewing at 1:25. My old friend Susan, whom I've known since the mid-1990s, met me. She is retired from the same place I am and had recently moved to Chicago. We tried several beers:


Traffic was bad in the middle of the afternoon on our way to Hop Butcher for the World, where we arrived at 3:00. Everything we tasted was good.

Growler-filling station next door.


We got to Half Acre Beer Company a little after 4:00 and tried:


On the same block is Spiteful Brewing. We sampled:


At this point Susan went home and I checked into a low-class OYO Hotel with traffic whizzing by 24/7. Walked to Une Année / Hubbard's Cave at 6:45. The place had a wonderful aroma of smoked meat, so I ordered a nice pulled pork sandwich and got:


Walked back to the OYO and crashed around 8:00ish.


Friday May 2. Woke up and went back to sleep a few times, waking up for good sometime before dawn. Lay in bed until after 6:00. Left at 9:35, which was earlier than I needed to leave but the motel room was ugly and stuffy and I wanted to get some fresh air.

Arrived at Phase Three Brewing more than a half hour before it opened at 11:00. It has two locations; I was at the one in Elmhurst, which opened in September 2023. Brewing is done at the main location, which opened in 2019. I sampled:


There had been a highly rated brewery on my route called Afterthought Brewing that I'd put on my itinerary while planning this trip in 2024, but it closed at the end of that year. Bummer. Instead I went to More Brewing's Villa Park Brewpub. Arrived at 11:41 and tried only one beer because I'd tried two of their beers the previous day at their Huntley location.


Headed to the West Chicago area and visited Riverlands Brewing at 12:48. It opened in March 2019.

My server's dog Boots.


Drove more than an hour to Brothership Brewing. Arrived at 2:38 and sampled:


Went to nearby Hailstorm Brewing at 3:30 and tried:


Rush hour traffic made what should have been a 40-minute ride take over an hour to get to Gnosis Brewing, which opened in 2022. It's the only Indiana brewery I would visit on this trip. It shares space with Manic Meadery. I arrived at 5:00 and tried:


Checked into a nearby Super 8 at 5:35. Fell asleep very early and woke up before midnight.


Saturday May 3. Spent the wee hours writing and planning the rest of the trip. Decided to go to an all-you-can-eat place called Kintaro, which has 4 locations in Ohio. I chose the one in Brooklyn because it was the least out of my way. It was a 5-hour drive, plus I would lose an hour due to the time zone change, effectively making it a 6-hour journey, and since the place opened at 11:00, I left at 5:00. About halfway through my drive it started raining, and would rain the rest of the day.

Arrived at Kintaro just before it opened. Had my fill of good sushi, hibachi, and teriyaki.


Went to Crooked Pecker Brewing, which opened in September 2019. Got there at 1:05 and sampled:


Arrived at Magic City Brewing at 2:35. Everything I tried was good. Also, I paid $2 for one of their stickers. Normally I refuse to pay for stickers. I'll take them if they're free, and if they're not, I'll try to barter with my stickers. Many places, including this one, won't barter. Well, there was one sticker that I particularly liked, so I bought it.


When I got to Hoppin' Frog Brewery at 3:10 there was a group of homebrewers brewing in the rain. It was a club called Society of Akron Area Zymurgists (SAAZ). The first Saturday of May is National Homebrew Day, and many clubs across the nation get together to brew in celebration. (Several Maryland clubs get together at Maryland Homebrew every year, and I missed it this year due to my trip, so it was a very fortunate coincidence that I stumbled upon the SAAZ event.) Each year there is a different "official" recipe. This year it was Big Blimp!, a barleywine that won gold medals at the 2019 and 2023 National Homebrew Competitions. The brewers of this beer, a couple named Larry and Donna, are SAAZ members - another coincidence. The beer got its name from the fact that the Goodyear Airdock, in which blimps used to be constructed, is located in SAAZ's hometown of Akron OH. One of the people brewing was Hoppin' Frog's head brewer, named Lee. Hoppin' Frog's owner, named Fred, was there too. I hung out for almost an hour and sampled many of the beers that people had brought, including:

Goodyear Airdock.
Larry.
Lee.


I went inside the taproom a little after 4:00 and tried:


Checked into an OYO Hotel at 5:51, then went to Ill Will Brewing at 6:25. This was the third of three breweries that were open only Friday-Sunday (and my final brewery of the trip). There is no sign; you have to know where it is. It's located behind a place called Smoke Worx. Ill Will specializes in smoothie "beers", which I don't consider beers because they are mostly fruit or other non-beer ingredients. I had 4 of their "beers" and one guest "beer".


Bought a can of Impeached to go (they were out of Conquest). When I left at 7:15 it had finally stopped raining. Returned to the OYO at 7:30 and went to bed an hour later.


Sunday May 4. Woke up in the wee hours and couldn't get back to sleep. Finally after an hour or two I got up at 2:30ish and wrote for a few hours. Left at 6:35 on another gray, drizzly day and got home at 11:20.

What a trip. Five weeks of nonstop fun. Everything went off without a hitch.

I've compiled some statistics from the trip, which you might or might not find interesting:

Miles driven: 8452
States driven through: 21
Breweries visited: 150
Breweries I'd never been to: 127
Beers sampled: 389
National parks/monuments/forests visited: 13
State/county/commercial parks visited: 9
Average lodging price, including tax (does not include free stays with friends/relatives): $84