When I'm 64 finally

 My son and I embarked on our Master Plan around 2 pm...

Hopping in his car to head for objective #1, a local brewery.  Of course, we've never been able to get there without screwing up the journey somehow...

...which led us to turn around in the parking lot of the Rang Dong grocery...

...before at last landing at the Fortlandia nano-brewery.

Now I don't make taking pictures of restrooms a habit, but...

...the restroom at Fortlandia IS an exeption!

Fortlandia sevres what they brew and it will either be on tap or in their frig...

Realizing my pic of the tap board was crap, you had... 1) Strawberry Guava sour; 2) Man-I-Juana-Lei-U pineapple blonde ale; 3) Dad's Not Drinking That Craft Crap lager (one of KCs choices for his flight- four smaller glasses of different styles-tastes like a decent pale ale); 4) Blackberry Gosaic Sour (which the barman accidently gave KC in his flight); 5)Knickers Optional English dark (which was KCs actual choice, and he got it for free- I thought it was pretty tasty) 6) It's Hazy Mate IPA; 7) Night Train lager- KC's favorite of his flight); 8) the one I had 2 glasses of, E-Vil Belgian Golden, a truly top-flight Tripel; 9) Maple Bacon Coffee Porter- we've had this before- emphasis on the bacon; and 10) Black Hearted IPA.  After drinks and chit chatting with a group that joined us (to whom KC said I was born in 1904), I raided the frig for a couple of take-homes:

One of course was the Belgian Golden; the other was their Standing Hampton Baltic Porter.  They will be next week's business.   But for now, we move on...

To another local spot, the Arena Bar and Grill.  There we talked to a young man in Komets gear, who was getting ready to leave for Army Basic in South Carolina.  He told us an amazing story that I will relate in abridged form:  He was at the annual Blueberry Festival in Plymouth Indiana, weighing in at 340 lbs and not surprisingly in line for a free blueberry donut.  The line ran past the Army recruiting table, and with extreme persistance managed to get him to sign an "I'm interested" card.  Flash foreward a few months, and happy go lucky had changed to troubled due to work and relationship troubles.  He prayed to God that if God would give him an open door- no matter what door God decided to open- he'd go through it.  Moments later, the Army recruiter called!  He had to go on an extreme diet which cut most of that weight down (though he said the Army was still gonna put him in 'fat camp'), and with his ASVAP scores, he's got some very wide-open doors now.  What an answer- God provides again!

After a couple of more commercial drinks, it was food time...

And soon we were on our way back home, to meet with Daughter Shenan and beau Lloyd, and more birthday stuff...

The haul from Shenan included a bottle of body wash (that apparently I had to be warned not to confuse with beer), some scratch-offs (which I hit one for I believe $10), and a six of Founders Dirty Bastard Wee-Heavy (of which only half survived the night...)  and that litte black shot glass who played a part in the rest of the proceedings.

Euchre ensued, as well as more drinking.  As the skill of my camera work declined as we went on, my card playing improved- after losing 2 tight games, Lloyd and I came back to win 2 blowouts, and took the finale with a last hand I might have made alone, but we were in the barn anyway.

Nearing the end of the night, I closed with a 'stirring rendition' of the Jayhawks' "Everybody Knows".

So final count, two loving kids, one great boyfriend in law, 3 bars (including Bobs), 8 beers (one liberally spiked with bourbon), one candle (which I almost forgot to blow out), and all the memories.