Brewery Recap #1 (Buffalo, NY to Rapid City, SD)

Shawn and Bryn enjoy craft breweries and beer in general. Throughout our travels so far, we've been to quite a few local breweries and wanted to document them, both for our sake and for anyone who may be interested in visiting these places!

Southern Tier Brewing, Buffalo, NY

They make Pumking, which is an Imperial pumpkin ale and Shawn's favorite beer since Slumbrew stopped producing the Porter Square Porter. Their bartop was constantly changing colors. Great vibe, beer, and food!

 

Pearl Street Brewing, Buffalo, NY

This brewery had a very brewpub feel. We enjoyed their pumpkin beer enough to get a 4 pack to go. Bryn loved the belt-driven fan system. We were drawn in by their wings and blue cheese graffiti ad on their exterior, which also caused Shawn to order wings.

Good City Brewing, Milwaukee, WI

Their fried cheese curds were exceptional. The vibe was great and all the food was delicious! We appreciated the variety in their beer menu. They were very kind and let us spend the afternoon working at a table. If you find yourself in Milwaukee and need a solid place to work, this is it! There is something for everyone here.

 

Surly Brewing, Minneapolis, MN

Surly is a very popular spot! We actually had to go next door to O'Shaugnessy Distilling Co. first (a nice bar with delicious, creative cocktails). Surly was crowded but we were lucky to get bar spots! The food menu is surprising  (for the Midwest) and there is also great pizza from a separate company with its own menu. Shawn got a pizza and Bryn got a tofu bowl. Both were tasty! The food is rivaled by the great beer selection and quality. Unfortunately, they are limited on the beer we can take to go, only offering crowlers and growlers, neither of which last long. We got a crowler of Petit Ami, a Belgian-style table beer to go. It was one of the best of this style we've ever had! 

Indeed Brewing, Minneapolis, MN

This brewery is off the beaten path but offers a nice indoor-outdoor space. We went here with friends who wanted us to try the pistachio cream ale. A super unique beer! We tried to get some to go but they were out. So Bryn got some Lavender Lemon THC seltzer instead. Delicious! This was our last stop of the night, so Bryn didn't really drink (she DD'd) and we had already eaten so we didn't partake in the food truck. We wish we had more time to explore this brewery!

 

Firehouse Brewing, Rapid City, SD

This brewhouse cleverly advertises along I-90 with vintage firetrucks and signs. It is a good touristy stop! The beer is decent, but nothing special. Their IPAs are a little harsh. We did enjoy their "Wings and Rings" appetizer. The upstairs area is well set up for a gameday watch party. It's located in Rapid City's city center, so there are a lot of other bars and restaurants nearby as well.

 

Sturgis Brewing, Sturgis, SD

This brewery is an odd one. Located in Sturgis, about 30 minutes from Rapid City, this building is quite new with a warehouse/industrial feel. But the décor is so weird! There is a wooden sign for the Original 13 Colonies and their Mug Club is called "The Betsy Ross Mug Club."  We even asked the staff about the name, wondering if there was some connection to her that we aren't aware of and there isn't. However, we enjoyed the beer and had some great wings. One of the sauce options is 'honey garlic' which we liked so much we asked for some to go.

Lost Cabin Beer Co, Rapid City, SD

A very Portland ME brewery vibe here, specifically Lone Pine because of its size. Lost Cabin is a few hundred feet from a public park with a small disc golf course. A garage door opens to their patio. They advertise a rotation of food trucks, and the Indian food truck there the night we went smelled amazing. Straight Outta Yankton was a very good IPA, though it is a limited release. They have a great selection of VERY good beer. This might be our favorite stop so far!

 

Dakota Point Brewing, Rapid City, SD (150 ft. from Lost Cabin)

You can get 6 beers in a flight, and the flights come well presented with very detailed cards about each beer. Excellent amber (Better Half) and peanut butter porter (Itstha Nuts). This brewery is in an industrial style building and feels a little corporate and cold. If you're taking the time to go to Lost Cabin, Dakota Point is worth a stop.

 

Hay Camp Brewing Company, Rapid City, SD

Their space is a mix between the standard industrial brewery and a wooden pub style vibe. They've got a pool table. The space is very large, clean, and new. The décor is fun and western. They have a large variety of styles and the bar tenders were very cool and friendly. Overall a nice, relaxed space with plenty of room for larger groups.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Bryn's favorite: Lost Cabin. It's cozy and fun with great beer and a good selection of rotating food trucks. The best beer was Jerry the Pidgeon, a saison aged in white wine oak barrels. Lost Cabin's creativity in their brewing process really stands out in this beer.

Shawn's favorite: Pearl Street Brewing. The beer and food were both very good, and the interior was quirky yet cozy like a pub. My favorite beer was Southern Tier's Pumking, though I already knew that before trying it at the brewery.

Our Top Picks:

1) Surly

2) Lost Cabin

Honorable Mention because it seems like just the type of place we'd love, we just didn't have time to try enough beers: Indeed

Weekly Recap: Badlands (SD)

Sunday was another long travel day, though thankfully one with nice weather.  We drove from Minneapolis to Badlands National Park, which was primarily hours of heading directly west on I-90 through corn fields. Of course we saw the notorious "Wall Drug" signs, a series of billboards advertising a store in Wall, SD that started out as a drug store and now covers an absurd variety of stuff. Our first sign helpfully told us that we were "only" 335 miles to Wall Drug, and we passed by dozens more along the way. They did a pretty good job breaking up the monotony and keeping the ads humorous. Near dusk we got to the national park and had to drive a few miles through it to get to our campsite. This gave us a beautiful sneak peak of the scenery the park offers.

Sign #57

The bulk of the drive

The weather on Monday was kind of wild; we woke up to 55 degrees and it was 98 by the afternoon. With the heat we decided not to do anything too ambitious, so we worked and planned to run some errands to the nearby town of Interior. Unfortunately Google was a bit out of date on the town, and one of the two bar/restaurants had closed and the general store hours had changed. With these things closed, we only managed to gas up the truck and pop into the now undisputed "Best Bar in Town" to cool off for a minute.

#1 place in town by default

We got an early start on Tuesday, sticking to east coast hours, so that we could finish up work by early afternoon. Then we took a very scenic drive towards Wall, aiming to get groceries, dinner, and a look at the fabled Wall Drug. The drive to Wall took us along the Badlands Loop Road, which is the primary path through Badlands National Park. The 40 minute drive took us 3 hours from all the stopping we did at the scenic overlooks. In addition to the beauty of the Badlands wall, we also saw hundreds of prairie dogs, a few deer, 3 bighorn sheep, and a bison.

Bryn in the Badlands Wall

Bryn in the Badlands Wall

A canyon in the Wall

Enjoying the incredible views

A bison grazing near the park entrance

Once we left the park and made it to the town of Wall, we checked out the giant dinosaur statue advertising for the Wall Drug exit. Next we did a grocery run before this store closed as well. Then we finally made it to Wall Drug. We explored the store for about 30 minutes before they closed. It is a very eclectic experience, and every room feels like a separate store. Finally we had dinner at a nearby restaurant and heading back to the camper. On way back through the park, we saw several people doing night photography, so we stopped at one of the overlooks and stargazed ourselves. The Milky Way was super vibrant this far from significant light pollution (though we didn't have the cameras necessary to capture it).

355 miles later

Wednesday we worked out after work (Bryn with an erg test, and Shawn with a bike ride up into the closest Badlands pass). After dinner we played the next scenario of Jaws of the Lion.

Thursday we did a couple of short Badland hikes, focusing on the eastern end of the Badlands Wall (our previous drive was on the more western section). The Notch was about a mile long and started by walking into a canyon. This hike included a small ladder section to climb out of the canyon notch, and at the top an incredibly windy view out over the lower plateau. The Window is a very short walk along an accessible boardwalk to an overlook of the Wall's primary dropoff into canyons. Finally we did the Door, which is a half mile long walk out into the Wall. It ended in a great vista surrounded by canyons. Our favorite was the Door, but the Notch was also a very cool hike as well (though a bit harder).

The Notch ladder

Halfway through up the Notch hike

The Notch view

Climbing back down

The Window

The Wall

A view past the Door

Past the Door, in the Wall itself

Friday we worked an early day, getting off work in the early afternoon Mountain Time. Then we went to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, checking out the exhibit halls and watching a ~30 minute video. The Great Plains region held many ICBMs during the Cold War (and still holds a smaller number of newer ones). The Badlands area has a decommissioned missile field, and you can separately view the visitor museum (which we saw this evening), a missile silo itself, and the launch control center (with a prescheduled tour). After the museum we drove over to Wall for dinner.

Defunct Cold War ICBM Facilities

On Saturday we had a short travel day. We relocated from our Badlands campsite to one about an hour and a half away in Rapid City, SD. With such a short drive, we were able to add cardio workouts, some shopping errands, and a stop at the Delta-9 Minuteman Missile Silo. During that stop we let Percy explore the Badlands grassland (while on a leash). He was incredibly happy to hop around in endless hay. At night we went out into Rapid City to get drinks at Firehouse Brewing (who had been advertising for miles along I-90 with antique firetrucks) and dinner at Que Pasa Cantina. Bryn said we had to go because of their clever I-90 ads.

The actual silo itself

Percy eats Buffalo Gap grass

Weekly Recap: Wisconsin and Minnesota

Our next long travel day was unfortunately also very wet again. (If you happened to watch the Bears-49ers opening weekend game, we drove past Chicago in the middle of that storm). Percy was much more active during this long trip. We drove all day and traveled through a total of 6 states, ending in Wisconsin. For the second time we set up in the middle of a soaking downpour, but at least this time we were better prepared to do it. This spot was our first back-in site, but it went smoothly despite being dark and wet.

Morning after the rain in Wisconsin

We wanted to be close to Milwaukee, so we chose Cliffside Campground as our home for 3 nights. It's an easy drive to downtown Milwaukee and is south of the city, which helped shorten our already long drive there. Monday was a trailer day. We set up Starlink, worked, and ate leftovers for lunch. Bryn erged and then we went to Walmart to pick up some groceries and other small items we felt we needed. 

Tuesday we had a full day in Milwaukee. We woke up early to go to Planet Fitness, then headed to a laundromat close to a cafe in East Side. Our morning was spent working and popping over from Colectivo Coffee to East Side Maytag to check on our laundry. We switched to Good City Brewery for a late lunch and stayed there for the rest of the work day. We liked all these places. The coffee shop had delicious breakfast and lunch options and the brewery was an awesome find--great wifi, food, and beer selection. Of course, we got cheese curds.

 

After we finished work, we headed to Great Lakes Distilling for some cocktails. They have a wide selection of alcohol and the drinks were delicious. For dinner, we walked down the street to Zocalo Food park. They have a group of food truck gathered so we could pick whatever we were craving! Shawn got pizza and empanadas, Bryn got sushi. This was an awesome find and we highly recommend it if you're visiting Milwaukee!

 

The next day (Wednesday) we drove to Minneapolis, trading off driving and working in the car. Our campsite setup was pretty quick and uneventful. Bryn went on a nice sunset row with Lake Phalen Rowing.

On Thursday night we went into Minneapolis to have dinner and catch a Twins game. We got seats for $7 (and the stands were still mostly empty). The difference between a decade old baseball stadium (Target Field) and a century old one (Fenway) was very noticeable. The weather was great and we had a blast despite the lack of any interest in the two teams playing.

We spent Friday night in the camper due to forecasted rain (which didn't really materialize). After work we did another Planet Fitness workout and then cooked dinner at "home". We didn't realize it at first, but our entire dinner was from Costco. We played another scenario of Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion and went to bed early to prepare for our big Saturday in Minneapolis. We are about a quarter of the way through a campaign of the main Gloomhaven with some friends back in Boston, so we've decided to play through the smaller Jaws of the Lion with just the two of us while we are on the road.

Saturday was a packed day. We started with an early workout. Bryn did a Row House class and Shawn ran outside. Next we checked out the Mall of America. We did a little window shopping and walked around investigating the ridiculous size of this mall. We got a snack at the food court and debated doing some of the roller coasters in the indoor amusement park. Eventually we decided to just do the Fly Over America "4-D" experience, which was enjoyable.

After the mall we drove to Minnehaha Falls to have a picnic lunch. It turned out that the river is currently dried up so there was no waterfall to view. At least a plaque informed us that we were in good company: the same had happened when Lyndon B. Johnson visited in 1964. Though the city pulled out all the stops (literally!) for him and temporarily flooded the riverbed from some hydrants. Despite the lack of waterfall, it was a very nice park to eat our lunch in.

For our afternoon activity we visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art. We didn't realize that it is free entry, which was a pleasant surprise. It had a great and diverse collection. Shawn's favorite were the "period rooms" (whole rooms designed in a certain style/time period), Bryn's was "Halloween" and Percy, if he appreciated art, would surely love "Peeling".

After the museum we met up with some friends who had moved to Minneapolis a couple of years ago for med school. We had dinner and drinks with them at O'Shaughnessy Distilling Co., Surly Brewing, and Indeed Brewing. It was great to catch up with them, who we haven't seen since pre-COVID besides a chance encounter at the Chicago airport. Fingers crossed for a Boston-based residency!