Why touring breweries in Western North Carolina, that's what I'm doing.

During Christmas, Amanda and I stayed at my sister's house for about five days. On one of those day's, my niece's boyfriend and his family came over to the house. While we were sipping some local swill, we all thought it would be cool to tour some breweries in some state.

Several weeks later I get a call from the bro-in-law, "Hey remember when you, me and Big Deaner were talking about touring breweries?" Backstory on "Big Deaner": my niece's boyfriend's name is Tyler Dean...the kids call him Ty, guess it just sounds cool. To make him sound uncool, I started calling him Deaner, thus the pops being Big Deaner. Anyway, I says "Yeah, I remember that." Apparently the Big Deaner had planned the trip. I don't mean he said, hey guys lets go...he friggin' planned it. He had called breweries to schedule tours, got lists of what they made, rented a 12 person van, hired a driver, there wasn't one stone he left unturned. Of course he has everything planned down to the last detail, but when you get a rowdy bunch of guys together to drink...plan? Since when?

So, I'll be departing Bristol after work today to drive to my sister's house to crash for the night and the BeerFest bus will be at the front door to pick up my bro-in-law and me promptly at 9:30 a.m. Friday morning.

When I return, I hope to have some good pictures, great stories and delicious NC swill!