As always, the camera comes with so I can snap along the way. Nothing like hauling ass up a hill with a good photo op as a reward.

As for Fermentable Friday (or Friday? BEER!) you can rest assured that I enjoyed a tasty brew after a ride like this.

And worst of all, I rarely go out to eat anymore, the dollars just adds up too fast.

A year ago today I made my first trip to Cafe de Wheels, and man was it good. They were giving out chicken sandwiches and chili, and my boss and I bought burgers and fries as well. I never did blog about it, by the time I thought to post it everyone and their brother had already done so.

But I sit here now with little interesting to post other than long winded articles that are still ranting drafts IMO, and with the unwillingness to post them, I’m reaching into the picture archives.

At this point you’ve had the burger truck, it’s damn good. I’m glad the food truck thing has stuck around for the past year, and I hope it’s not going anywhere soon. In honor of that, I’m gonna go get myself a Wheels Burger…

We got a nice little send off from the Mayor and one of the YPKC guys who was leading the ride.

Parting words said, we headed towards the river first, smart move as there were a number of people who were going to bail after downtown because of “The Hill.”

Did I mention there was a dude riding with a bird on his shoulder?

We hit the stadium just as the Reds game was letting out, and the frowns told us the outcome (although I asked anyway).

We had trouble keeping the group together through the traffic lights, but it was a leisurely cruise, so no one was stressing about it. We waited, people caught up, all was well. Until we hit the light at 6th street, half of us making it and half left behind. Naturally I took that opportunity to start hopping around on my bike a la this or this.

All of a sudden I hear *PING* and my tire is rubbing on my frame.

Must have knocked the hub out of the chainstay, no worries, I can pop that back in.

But wait, it’s in there just fine, why is this thing off center?

No, go ahead guys, I’ll fix this real quick and catch up…..

Or not.

Cracked a weld on the left chainstay, and a piece of the linkage above it……Shit…….only one thing left to do…..I went to Arnold’s and grabbed a beer.

So RIP Jamis Dakar XC Pro….you served me well for about 18 months, and while you will be parted out for my next ride, the good times we had together will not be forgotten.

That said, I did go out for lunch twice last week, not only to switch things up from my daily brown bag, but also because sometimes you just need to get out in the fresh air. With weather like we’ve been having it felt sinful not to go out and enjoy the outdoors at some point.

So Friday rolled around and I heard there was going to be free ice cream on the square. Add to that I had an errand to run downtown…lunch by the fountain just seemed like the right thing to do. I called a friend and we sauntered down to ingredients for a sandwich before hopping across 5th to the frozen action.

We get to the front of the line and the woman in charge gives me the “Sorry, free samples ended at 1.” I give her the “It’s 1:00:29, can we just get some ice cream?”

Sometimes all you have to do is ask.

Ice cream in hand, we walked along fourth st…the plan was to hit central and turn north. I was going to drop off a package and my friend was heading back to her house. It’s not like I’m on this stretch of fourth every day, but I hit it enough that I was surprised I had never noticed the doorstep to a building no longer there.

A taste of something new, a taste of something old. It all adds up, more reasons why it’s great to be downtown.

I really miss running. It feels like I never got back into it after I hurt my knee running the mason mini marathon last November. From January of last year up until I had my appendix removed at the end of August, I was kicking ass and taking names. I lost close to 30 lbs (most of which has stayed off). But more than anything, I just felt good.

So to those running the race this Friday, HAVE FUN! I hope to join you for every awesome step of that 3.1 mile route around downtown (the fact it’s not a morning race is great too).

Looking back on 2009:

Pre-race shot: Go OTR 5k

Stretching before the downtown Tri

Crossing the Tri finish line....the closest I've coming to throwing up at the end of a race

Mid-race at the Reggae Run

Run Like Hell...as Michael Phelps

I hope the Downtown Dash can be my triumphant return to road racing for 2010!

All of a sudden we were met with a set of glass doors, on the other side of which was sweet, cool A/C. “Tickets please fellas,” called a lady at a narrow podium, slipping us pink wristbands after verification of our seats.

The next words out of her mouth really threw me for a loop. “Go ahead and help yourselves to some food, there’s stuff all along the concourse.”

To think I almost bought peanuts to bring in the stadium

I picked up my jaw off the floor and kept moving. I had been mentally preparing myself to spend loads of cash on food and beer, all the while sweating my ass off, and here I was in the A/C with free Montgomery Inn, La Rosa’s, and what’s more, 20 oz Moerlein OTR on draft for a reasonable (ballpark) price.

Club seats are the best of both worlds. Right along the first base line above the suites, the concourse has A/C while the seats are still outside. I’ve been in boxes before, they’re cool, but you’re a little detached from the actual ballgame experience (“Beer Here!”). In the club the seats are padded, and the nosebleeds above provide some shade, so you’re still on the luxury side of ballpark seating.

It is kinda crazy, I think half the people in this section were under 12.

This kid was either dancing or running up for more cinnamon breadsticks

Too bad they lost 1-0, but at least they got 2 outta 3 in the series.

Still a blast to be at a game.

And I got a new angle of QCS.

Oh yeah, and not only is there free food inside, but free icy pops being handed out in the aisles! Beer cooler anyone?

This was my first Reds game of the season….might be my last cause I won’t get to live this good at any others (unless I win tickets to the county box again like I did last year [which I just read they are not doing this year...BS!])

Besides Race St, work, and some casual social outings (like Monday night pick-up soccer) I don’t have much else going on. Desperate to stay in some sort of shape, I’ve been getting on my bike at least twice a week. Due to the nature of the above schedule I’m pretty much confined to night time rides (the fact that it’s a million degrees out doesn’t hurt either).

I already ride around with a backpack, and I’m thinking a little tripod might be in my future, because finding ledges and things to use as a stabilizer can be difficult, especially when I need a specific angle to try and shoot, say, a new skyscraper.

By that last sentence you’d think I was an actual photographer with something other than my little Point and Shoot. I’m not….

After running home to change I started my journey by heading back up to OTR before sprinting down Race St to the river.

Over-The-Rhine fascinates me even more than it did 3 years ago when I moved here. Majestic Music Hall sitting right across from boarded up treasures labeled with the plight of the neighborhood.

Moving on….

It’s always a nice cruise down race (or walnut) from OTR to Downtown. Once you cross central parkway the lights time up, almost egging you on to pedal faster and hit the river without stopping. Although sometimes I loop around 5chw4r7z’s so I can get a view of QCS.

Being close to the river feels good. Sure, it’s not the cleanest body of water out there, but I did swim in it and live….so I like cruising down to Friendship Park and the Serpentine Wall. I guess the sun knew it was the reason I was out and about…it certainly caught my eye on the south shore….

When I’m that close I always ride over to NKY and back. Something about crossing state lines make any workout seem that much more badass.

Returning to the other side of the river I always face a dilemma: do I ride back through downtown, or torture myself on some hills in Mt. Adams?

Yeah, the hills normally win.

When it really started to get dark I kept my camera in my pocket and just rode. I put my headphones on to drown out the world and got lost in endless pedal strokes. It felt good to just zone out for a while and wear myself down.

The last rays of sun had set and the sky was growing darker by the minute as I cranked down Reading Rd. Living so close to Neon’s can be a great thing, and that night it seemed appropriate to just show up on my bike as opposed to going home and showering first. I ran into a couple of friends (oh neighborhood bar, how I love thee) and enjoyed a pint (or two) before we all remembered it was a school night.

A little break and a few beers can do great things though, and I wasn’t ready to pack it in yet. I know it’s closed, but frankly I just felt like going to hang on the Serpentine Wall…so I did.

One reason not to hang out there at night (besides the fact you will be asked to leave pretty quickly) are the crazy looking bugs that swarm the light poles.

With creepy bug pictures under my belt (was that really necessary, prolly not) and security in my ear, it was time to pack it in for the night. With a gentle ride up Eggleston I was home, completely content with my summer solstice ride.

A couple of weeks ago Randy posted this article on Urban Cincy about the new Fountain Square garage racks. Per usual, everyone has their opinions about what’s best for the city’s bike culture as you can read in the comments.

I however, don’t commute to downtown (I live here), and I rarely leave my bike locked up for any extended period of time. Normally I’m out riding for fun, and I may stop to poke my head in a store or something of that nature. Centralized bike parking is of little use to me, and most of the time my bike is locked up to any number of singular post-like objects. That’s why I would like to see more of the parking meter ring racks within the city.

You see, instead of forcing people to congregate at one spot to lock their bike up, you can ride closer to your destination and park (generally) with your bike within view. Again, this does little for the commuter who needs to lock his ride up for hours at a time (or take it up to their office). It does help those people who are already out and about and on a whim decide to pull over and stop in somewhere.

Both types of bike parking help the city economically. Parking for commuters encourages alternative transportation for workers in the city (boosting payroll tax revenue by keeping those workers in the city) while the racks I would like to see more of cater towards the food/shopping crowd (boosting sales tax revenue and supporting local businesses).

The important thing when discussing bicycle and bike parking theory is that we all do things a little differently, with different ends in mine. I’m not going to say that Fountain Square racks are dumb or useless because they certainly serve a purpose, just not mine. It can be difficult to remember all of the different ways people use their bikes in the city, and consequently it can be hard to plan for. From what I’ve seen Cincinnati has actually done a pretty good job at including a variety of people from different facets of the biking community as they form new policies and install new and improved infrastructure.

I was out riding without music, which leaves my head a little clearer to think about stuff (namely, how the hell am I going to rebuild the interior of a house!!!). It was a good time for reflection…which I then started taking literally.

I cruised up into OTR from downtown, figuring the sun was right to get some shots of the detail on my new place.

Right up the street is Rookwood Pottery, who was hosting the first tapping of Christian Moerlein IPA.

At the end of Race St lies a pretty cool church, with an iconic hand pointed towards the sky.

I then rode back down to the riverfront to meet up with the Thursday Night Slow Ride, a member of which informed me they would be at The Banks in 5 minutes. I beat them there, and snapped some photos of Roebling Bridge during the painting.

This was right below the stairway from the bridge down to the street.

The Banks.

I found the group, and we actually rode through the painting tarps on the suspension bridge. It’s not the first time I’ve ridden across the bridge during construction.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky-jtmdzBxI

We then cruised from Covington to Newport, and then back to Fountain Square. Oh yeah, and we found the Girls Gone Wild bus down by the Levee.

I know it’s a shitty picture, but it’s true. Life. Happens. Here. At least my life.

I was completely unaware of what I had gotten myself into (my own fault I realize). Friday afternoon and the clock was winding its way towards quitting time, and I was getting psyched to get my tasting on. I checked my twitter feed and found an article over at Circle 3 Concepts about the errors in the ways of the upcoming event’s organizers. It was kind of a bummer to read that what I thought was going to be another great craft beer tasting was going to be more of a BMC promo event with a lot of extraneous booths and only a handful of quality brews I hadn’t sampled.

Here were my notes from the event, some of which I will elaborate on below:

I understand that in order to prevent people from getting hammered there needs to be a way to control alcohol consumption, but tasting tickets is not the way. At GABF, I typically sample over 100 beers every day, and guess what, I don’t need a full sample of every brew. Yes, I enjoy as much IPA and Barleywine as I can, but sometimes I’m curious about a smoked stout or cherry porter, and I don’t need a 2 oz. sample to try it. But at this event you had to give your ticket up even if you wanted a half-pour.

It’s pretty simple really, if you advertise unlimited samples, don’t hand me 35 tasting tickets at the door, that’s BS. I wouldn’t make a big deal about this except the guy at the Meet+Greet was pumping that info hard (someone correct me if I’m making all this up, but I swear he bragged about unlimited sampling). Now, to be fair, by the end of the night people were handing us tickets, and I had as many samples as my stomach could handle. But what does that tell you when people are giving you tickets and leaving early? I think the quote below describes my view.

I did hear some awesome music, including Oakland Blackouts by Hieroglyphics….if early ’90s hip-hop is your thing you know that’s a pretty bangin’ track.

As far as people asking what’s popular at a beer booth, that doesn’t bug me itself, I do that all the time. It was the fact that I heard it over and over again at booths that had regular commercial beer. Have you really never heard of Becks before? I guess that was the crowd the organizers were going for, and good for them, they did a good job. It’s not that I expect everyone to know everything about beer styles and what they like (I learn plenty at every tasting) but this whole event just caught me a little off guard.

The last travesty on the list is something I couldn’t get over…it was a problem that stemmed from having a catering/event company manning the booths and not brewery reps or volunteers. I watched as a guy poured a sample for a patron, looked at the glass, and poured some beer out because there was too much in the glass. Excuse me, but COME THE FUCK ON. Even at GABF, where they enforce a one ounce sample rule (but you can have as many as you want), if a pour goes a few drops over the line they won’t pour it out! If college taught me anything it’s that pouring out beer is the worst case of alcohol abuse known to man (unless it’s for your dead homies, in which case, respect).

Enough bitching, let me tell the rest of the story in pictures.

Listermann finally got a license to start making their own brews, and they had some pretty good stuff to sample. My personal favorite was the cask conditioned IPA pictured below.

Craft beer in a Peroni labeled mug...sigh....

Und Becks? Ja, beer for the masses

Love Barrelhouse

I really hope the guys at Rivertown get control over their quality. When we tried the Hop Bomber at the Meet+Greet I thought it was a nice, well balanced pale ale. When I had it here smelled like pure butter. Diacetyl much?

Butter Bomb

Shiner had cool tap handles

Of the non beer-related stuff I found a few things that were cool:

Goofy Costumes, always a winner in my book

There were also Makers stogies....

At least there wasn’t a food debacle like the winter beerfest. We knew going in that there would be food inside for purchase, and that was OK. What has become a Cincinnati staple, Taste of Belgium, was on hand with crepes and waffles, joined by long-lived Cincy relic.

Mmmmm...the Inn.....

In the end I still had fun at the event (great company never hurts =) and I certainly ended up with my fill of beer. But when I’m evaluating which Beerfest to go to next year, I think I’ll leave this one with the suds on the floor.

This year I made progress. I’ll have to save the full glory for next year (Baby Steps) because-like last year-I got caught up in Friday’s beautiful weather and went for a run. But I kept it short, and while I missed the Bockfest parade, I certainly got my fill of Bock beer.

Arnold’s, on the other hand got their fill of people.

What I imagine (or at least hope) Laura, Pam, and the other Bartender who's name I don't know were thinking

Drunk Monk*

*Please note this was around 8pm, and the Monk may or may not have been drunk, but entering that establishment I imagine he was there soon.

Moving on to Mr. Pitifuls.

We passed Jack Potts on the way, the existence of which I was completely unaware of. For someone that lives a block away, I really don’t get up Main St. much it seems. That’s all bound to change when Neon’s opens this summer. But I digress…

It was actually less crowded than Arnold's I swear

Cheers to mini decorative drinks

I took some people new to the city out and about, and we all had a great time. There were a few people that drove downtown to meet us, and as the end of the night approached, I couldn’t help but think about those poor souls having to either sleep on a couch or temper their drinking to pilot a vehicle home. Chalk it up as another win for life in Cincinnati’s center city.

Bockfest was roaring the whole time, aided by the phenomenal weather we had. Which means one of two things as far as your Monday is concerned, either A) You, like me, had such a good time all weekend, that it’s hard to be anything other than happy today or B) you had a great time, but that simply adds to the depression you’re feeling now that you’re back on the grind.

I enjoyed Bockfest a lot, and I’ll post about it more tomorrow, but the highlight of the weekend for me was the 11 mile bike ride I went on Sunday, hitting Downtown, OTR, Newport, Mt. Adams, and Eden Park, all the while snapping pictures.

My first stop was The Banks/QCS to get a few photos of the ongoing construction.

Next I rode over to Newport to stop in Reser bikes for a little air (and because I love saying I went riding in a couple states).

Then it was back to the Ohio side to tackle Mt. Adams and Eden Park

Music Hall and the heart of OTR as seen from the Ida St. Bridge

Then it was back downtown for a few more QCS shots.

The remnants of a great season of ice skating

I hope you were able to go out an enjoy the great weather like I did!

Editor’s Note: Is this a cop-out, everyone-in-Cincy-is-doing-this post? Yes. Do I really care? No.

QCS as seen from 8th and Sycamore

Various Downtown Shots

Central Pkwy/Reading Rd

Treacherous

Court St

Fountain Square

Sherman tailgating a cop in the snow

Snow tires...one of my better purchases in the last two years

These dudes work at Miller and use fancy words like "diacetyl" and "beer"

There were a lot of great highlights from the usual cast of craft brew characters. Founders had a great showing, with Double Trouble being the standout at the table. Not to be outhopped Bell’s brought along some Hopslam, but that lasted almost as long as it did when it was first tapped. Our good friends at Rogue decided to come fashionably late, but it proved worthwhile with their winter spirit:

The Madness was Epic

My favorite of the evening was Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch, which was so good I didn’t even bother to take a picture of the tap handle or me enjoying any of it. Cause that makes sense…..

I did, however, take advantage of a couple of great photo ops:

Chugfest

Any bottle of beer that big deserves a hug, even if it is inflatable

Even though most craft beer is domestic, I found a couple of imports

That actually hurt a lot more than I let on at the time

I’ve been to a number of beer tastings in a variety of venues. I have to say that for the most part, this was a great event. One gripe would be the pain-in-the-ass check in process. Allow me to add some constructive criticism: YOU NEED MORE THAN 2 PEOPLE GIVING OUT WRISTBANDS! This isn’t a door job at a martini club, it’s a BEERFEST. That means get us in and starting feeding us samples. Although the complete abandonment of the thirty sample punch card leveled the playing field, so I’ll take it.

While I’m talking negatives: the VIP food ran out, well, before I saw it, and I was there when the doors opened. If you can’t keep that table stocked until (at least) the end of the VIP session then don’t tease me with it on the flyer. The food for purchase wasn’t bad (pretzel and cheese, mini-burgers, etc) but just about anything looks gourmet after sampling so many different–and high alcohol content–beers.

But you don’t go for the food. That’s why Via Vite exists a few blocks away.

The conclusion: Cincy Winter Beerfest was worth every penny I didn’t-pay-because-Ryan-bought-my-ticket-on-the-condition-I-bought-the-pizza-after. You should probably go next year, unless you’re not into the whole fun thing.

I saw the crane spinning on my way to work and snapped a few shots of what will be Cincinnati’s tallest building.

12/22/09

12/22/09

12/22/09