So after a week in the desert, camping and riding, I drove through torrential rain in the Rocky Mountains all day to get to Boulder. It was nerve-wracking and my eyes were bloodshot and glazed over.
I went to the Walnut Brewery and had a burger and the sampler of all their beer- seven of them (taster glasses). The burger was really good, mostly because it was hearty and the bacon was great and bbq sauce was thick. The beers were all good too, and I decided on two different ones to put in growlers to bring home- the seasonal Hefeweizen and the Big Horn Bitter. Both distinctive and interesting.
After that, I ventured into another brewery on Pearl Street- the Mountain Sun Brewery. Full of people. I'm surprised a big puff of pot smoke didn't bellow out the door when I walked in. They even had a beer called Kind Ale. I got the Mocha Porter- every pot-head's second favorite vice is coffee.
After that, I needed to find some place to sleep for the night, so I could finish my drive back to Tulsa in the morning. It was after 11p, so the hostel was closed. But that's no big deal for me- I'd almost perfer to sleep in my car or on the ground. I drove around my old neighborhood (I used to live in Boulder). Remembered a big park full of soccer fields that I used to jog around on the Cottonwood Trail. So I parked in the lot and settled in to go to sleep. But the grass on the field was too tempting, so I got out to check on the conditions- to see if I would be comfortable sleeping in the open. That's when a cop pulled up. Shined a light in my face, told me to sit on the curb. Keep my hands out of my pockets. What was I doing out there? I was just walking around. Who's with me? No one is with me; I'm by myself.
The cop told me he was going to be pissed if he found out someone else was out there. He interrogated me. He checked my license. He asked where I had been and where I was going. He called for backup. He checked the field to see if anyone was with me. He came back and asked if I had peed out on the soccer field because he saw a wet spot. He searched me. He did a sobriety test on me (which made me laugh).
I just wanted to go to sleep. Eventually he told me I was free to go. So I drove across town and found a dark Baptist church parking lot on South Boulder Road. Pulled in back and went to sleep. And around 2a another cop shined his light in my eyes.
What are you doing? Sleeping.
You passing through? Yes.
He checked my license, asked me some questions, told me a neighbor was complaining about me being there. I asked him where I was supposed to sleep. He told me I could go behind a liquor store around the corner. Not at the church?
Some hippie town. Guess I should've parked next to the BMW's and stayed up all night playing bongos on Pearl St.
But the next morning, after 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep in the front seat of my Disco, I made my way to the local coffee shops. First I stopped at Peaberry Coffee, a coffee company headquartered in Denver. I got a medium (16oz) cup of Nicaragua Organic coffee. It was decent. Not bad.
Then I went around the corner to Brewing Market. Brewing Market used to roast in-house, but since the last time I was there, they moved their roaster to an off-site roasting facility. They have three Probat roasters, all 12kilo or smaller (according to the coffee bean guy). At BM I got a medium (12oz) cup of Papua New Guinea, and then a refill of their Red Sea Blend. I also picked up a pound of their espresso blend (which I will talk about in another post).
The Brewing Market coffees were interesting. Good. They roast even lighter than I do, so the coffees tasted a little greener and more acidic, but I liked them both. They really do a good job there. I'm not usually a fan of blended drip coffees because I like to pick out the distinguishing characteristics of single origins, but the Red Sea Blend was nice, heavy, earthy, leathery, with some fruit overtones.
One thing I really noticed while driving and switching back and forth between PB and BM coffee was the difference in styles. I could tell that the Peaberry coffee was roasted in a much larger roaster- probably a 60kilo. It was good, but it was a lot flatter. Not the liveliness and sense of the coffee being alive that draw people to my coffee, and that I found in the Brewing Market coffee.
Anyway, good beverages in Boulder. Lots to offer there. Just watch out for the Sleep Patrol.
Welcome to the People's Republic of Boulder, where nothing is as it seems.