What a whirlwind trip! A rollercoaster of emotions! In case you missed it, I’ve been on an RV roadtrip with some of the crew from URGE American Gastropub, reporting from the road as they collect some very tasty, very rare beers from some very special breweries with the end goal being that they would make them available throughout San Diego Beer Week. The idea had come about to URGE co-owner Grant Tondro when talking to his dad, a vet who’d been stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, and would frequently make trips out to Colorado to stock up on Coors, which wasn’t as ubiquitous and easy to obtain as it is now.
Our own modern day journey kicked off at Goose Island Beer Co. in Chicago early Monday afternoon. (Not without incident, mind you, as the slightly dilapidated rental RV—which we named Bobby Jo—got pinned into a parking lot for several hours and when the guys were able to get it free, it still took somebody else’s taillight out with it. And yes, they of course left their contact info and it’s being taken care of.) After getting a nice tour of the facility and the barrel aging rooms, we got a great send off from the founder himself, Mr. John Hall, along with a nice supply of eight kegs that don’t ever make it out this way (full list below), made possible by our fellow travel companion Kevin Luckey from Markstein Beverage Co. (the local Goose Island distributor) and Goose Island rep Christina Perozzi.
From Chicago, we headed toward Munster, Indiana to get some goodies from Three Floyds Brewing Co. After that, we were St. Louis bound, getting a tour of relative newcomer Perennial Artisan Ales and veteran Schlafly Beer. Then, it was off to Kansas City for a delicious tour of Boulevard Brewing Co., though we had a little too much fun at dinner and forgot to actually go back to the brewery to pick up beer. Yes, we all amazingly neglected to remember that we came there to buy goodies, and we didn’t even realize it until we were well on the way to Denver.
Believe it or not, this is when things got really interesting. Our overnight driver, fellow URGE proprietor Nate Higson, came scarily close to hitting a deer that thought it could play Frogger across the highway. Luckily, no people, animals, or beer were hurt and we trekked on, though we did make an unexpected stop thanks to a police officer who wanted to kindly remind us that the speed limit for large vehicles such as ours was 55mph, not 65mph. Luckily, he was a Chargers fan and let us go with a verbal warning.
We grabbed a wonderful breakfast at City O’ City (try the biscuits and gravy, you’ll thank me later), did some personal shopping at Argonaut Liquor, and went off for a quick pint at Great Divide Brewing Co. before going to stock up on some serious sours at Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project. Time was ticking, though, and we wanted to hit the road before an incoming storm got too bad. Nate Higson once again somehow drew the proverbial short straw and found himself very cautiously navigating Bobby Jo and her precious cargo through quite a bit of snow. The main highway out of Denver was closed down and we took a detour, complete with a sighting of a car that had skidded off the road and into a snow bank. (Everyone was OK, but still! Not something we wanted to have happen to us!)
After clearing most of the storm, some of us were able to relax a bit and catch some sleep as Nate surged on into the night. That is until we all heard a terrible sound and felt Bobby Jo lose her drive. At a little after midnight. In the middle of nowhere, Utah. With no cell phone reception. We were finally able to get a signal after walking about a half mile out—in 30 degree weather, mind you—and got in touch with the RV rental company, Cruise America. They secured the nearest tow truck for us, which was about 90 minutes away, near Richfield, Utah. We got into a campground there at around 4 a.m., and spent the night parked in the RV. Once a repair shop opened, Bobby Jo was towed over there to find that our suspicions were correct: her transmission was fried. We’d need a replacement, and the nearest one was at Utah’s only Cruise America location, about two and a half hours away in Salt Lake City.
We spent the day in Richfield, taking in the sights, taking naps in the now deceased RV, and grabbing a bite at the quaint (albeit kitschy) Little Wonder Café. It came recommended by the campground host as a good place where locals like to go, which might explain why we bumped into our tow truck driver there. Though it’s apparently popular with out-of-towners as well: woodcut signs adorned particular seats where celebrities had once dined. Kurt Russell, Stephen King, Selena Gomez, Wilford Brimley, and the like.
But I digress. Back to Bobby Jo. We’re not entirely sure why it took until 4 p.m. to get her replacement to us, 16 hours after our breakdown, but we couldn’t have been happier to finally see a new ride pulling up. We transferred our bounty between vehicles—a total of 14 kegs and 30+ cases of beer, plus special glassware we’d picked up in Lawrence, KS, and our travel bags—in a little under an hour and got on the road right around 5 p.m. The three co-owners of URGE are all dads, and they’d told their wives they’d be home mid-Thursday to help with trick-or-treating, but those hopes vanished pretty quickly after Bobby Jo crapped out on us. Vanished just like the few hours we’d wanted to spend in Vegas, doing the usual Vegas stuff. We managed to still stop into Sin City to grab a beer and a bite at the new Aces & Ales location there, but we needed to get back on the road immediately after, landing us back in San Diego this very morning at 5 a.m.
URGE will be kicking off San Diego Beer Week today at 3 p.m., offering all eight Goose Island beers listed below…
- 2012 Bourbon County Stout (Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout)
- Gillian (Belgian-style Farmhouse Ale with Strawberries, Honey, and White Peppercorns)
- Halia (Sour Peach Ale)
- Juliet (Sour Blackberry Ale)
- Lolita (Sour Raspberry Ale)
- Matilda Lambicus (Wild Ale)
- Night Stalker (Imperial Stout)
- The Illinois (Imperial/Double IPA)
…along with pours of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale as well as a few special bottles brought back from our adventure. Additional kegs, like Surly Furious and Surly CynicAle, and many more bottles will be made available throughout SDBW. Some bottles will also be for sale at URGE’s sister café/specialty market, Brothers Provisions, also in Rancho Bernardo. Updates of what’s available will be posted to each location’s Twitter accounts: @UrgeGastropub and @BrosProvisions, respectively.
Disclosure: URGE is covering the cost of Randy Clemens’ plane ticket as well as some trip expenses in exchange for these words and pictures.