Drive to Columbia MO & Pink Boots at Flat Branch

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

September 27-28: Drove to St. Louis RV Park in order to dump my trailer's wastewater tanks. Followed the manager's directions to the freeway on-ramp. I passed through a neighborhood where the old brick houses were boarded up and some of them were falling down. Got to thinking, why do people generally view old falling-down farmhouses and barns as picturesque or quaint, yet if the building is an urban residence or business that's falling down, we think of it as blight?

Drove from St. Louis to Columbia, Missouri. Met up with Flat Branch Brewing Company's Brewmaster, Larry Goodwin and his assistant Kyle Butuson (photo above, L to R: Kyle, Teri and Larry).

Larry had already started his brew of the day. Larry attended the American Brewers Guild several years ago after a long career in quality assurance in the petroleum industry. Flat Branch is about the third brewery he's worked for, and he's been there for eight years.

Flat Branch has an 8-barrel brewery with four open-topped fermenters and about 20 conditioning and serving tanks. This allows Larry the opportunity to keep a dozen beers on tap at all times and I tried all of them. Larry's Chili Beer takes advantage of the open-topped fermenters. On about the 2nd day, after the yeast is in its logarithmic growth phase, Larry drops in 50 pounds of scrubbed raw Anaheim chili peppers. The chili aroma and flavor are there, but with only a hint of heat. Very nice.

Larry joined me for dinner and I tried an interesting Caesar Salad, where the romaine lettuce had been grilled first. Strangely smoky but I liked it. Larry lent me his pass for the parking lot across the street and I parked there overnight.

The next day I spent the morning trying to catch up on my blog. I was getting plenty behind. The kind folks in St. Louis had kept me busy till bedtime each night, so even if I'd had Internet access there I'd have been hard pressed to keep up.

After lunch, I finally got on the road late, at about 1:00 pm.