Tuesday, May 13, 2008


AUGUST 2003
POLEBRIDGE, MT

When I came across this photo in my digital archive, the thought that struck me was "Amazing what extremes you do to accomplish your goals." The story behind this photo is we had an account in the North Fork up in Polebridge (if you've never been, get off your ass and get up there! AMAZING!), they just had a party or concert or something. Anyway, they had quite a few of our kegs and tapping equipment. So I volunteered to to get it. You can pretty much shoot the day to hell going from Polson to Polebridge and back so I was looking forward to some Montana windshield time and a visit to one of my favorite places, The North Fork/Polebridge. When I got there and I reconnoitered their empty keg stacks, it dawned on me how poorly I had judged how many of our empties were up there. Now, keep in mind that I'm the kind of guy that when I get home from the grocery store, I like to make only ONE trip from car to kitchen with the bags of groceries. I've been known to cut off blood flow to my hands from having too many bags dangling from them. It's just how I'm wired. So when I saw all those kegs, I was bound and determined to get them all back, come hell or high water! What you can't see in the photo is I also had kegs in the front seat as well. Funny what I thought was "normal" when we were trying to get this brewery off the ground!
That was also the year of the fires in and around Glacier National Park. On my way back down, I stumbled upon a firecamp and helitack. The helitack was offering public tours (or so the sign said). I pulled in and got out of the keg-wagon, securing stares from the ground crew. I looked around and saw I was the only "public" around! Hot Dawg! Well, they loaded me into a truck and took me out to where the Sikorsky Helicopter was parked. I love helicopter! I mean, I LOVE THEM!!! I was gonna become a helicopter pilot for the military but they told me my eyes weren't good enough, so then I was gonna become a helicopter mechanic. Well, a female sergeant yelled at me to remove my hat indoors (while I was taking the ASVAB test and all the associated bending and probing), I thought immediately "I'm not in your army yet, how dare you yell at me like that!" And so ended that dream!
But I digress! I got to talk with the crew of this helicopter, sit in the left-hand seat, and basically crawl all around the thing until they got a call to deliver some water onto the fire and they kicked my off this wonderful machine! That was a good day! I do believe that one very vital key to everyday happiness is to find "mini-vacations" during the day. Find something that gives your being release, joy, peace.
Until next time,
Prost!
Your humble brewer

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