I poked my head out of Derrick and Lauren’s front door simultaneously scratching behind Nicco’s ear. The rain outside was coming down in sheets so I closed the door and Nicco wagged his big fluffy tail. Tika lay across the hallway looking at me indignantly and he didn’t move when I stepped over the pretty white Husky’s body.  The two dogs watched us pack up our bags and we patted our good-byes to them. Tom and I ran out the front door to get to the car quicker and Joey locked up behind us and booked it from the backyard.
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Derrick had recommended we go to his favorite brewery for lunch so we made tracks for the Bluegrass Brewing Company (BBC) by way of the biggest baseball bat in the country. The Louisville Slugger outside of the museum was so tall it took great pains to get the whole thing into a picture. We skipped the inside of the museum after a quick photo shoot and followed the rumbling in our tummies down to the BBC.

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Joey called Derrick at the fire station, where he’s a lieutenant, to ask him what we should get to eat and drink. The boys each ordered beer samplers and I got a round of jokingly disappointed side comments for just wanting a Diet Coke. We ate delicious food including garlic fries which had almost as much garlic as fry and a buffalo chicken salad for yours truly. I have to get those veggies in somewhere…

After our meal we sat in the car perusing the GPS’s attraction options for Kentucky. With a dreary day in front of us and not much that caught our eye on the GPS list we decided that today was a good day for a movie and a little bit of catching up on our blog. We made a short drive into Indiana and found a theater that was playing the shocker of the summer – Brüno. I watched Borat and felt like once was all I needed, and now I’ve seen Brüno once. I don’t have plans to watch it again in the future but it was funny the first time. Shocking, but pretty funny. I don’t recommend it to anyone I don’t know but am glad to know what it’s all about. Now I don’t have to wonder, however, I do have to remember.
On a trip across America, it’s kind of interesting watching a movie where a guy pretends to be ignorant of American culture and pulls these outrageous stunts all across the nation. It’s a unique way to acquire more knowledge about a certain area when you see how against homosexuality a certain state or group within a state is, or how far some parents are willing to go to get their children in a photo shoot or movie. America the weird and judgmental as exploited by Sacha Baron Cohen I guess… we’re not quite getting that in depth with people’s opinions nor are we pushing the emotion violently out of them by enraging their sensibilities, but we do get into some pretty interesting conversations about race, religion, local and national pride. Sometimes we notice how far away from home we are and sometimes we realize we’re not so different from the people right in front of us. Vague, I know, but as we get along with our posts you’ll start to read what I’m talking about a little bit more.  
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After we came out of the movie we finished the drive into Indianapolis and waited for Tom’s mom’s friend, Dale, to finish up his work day. We stopped with a little trouble at a WiFi restaurant called Alcatraz Brewing Company in the center of the city. Here’s what the trouble was about: I pulled us into a parking garage; I pushed a button to get a ticket and the gate lifted allowing me to pass below it. I had to drive down hill into the garage and as I passed under the roof we all heard a scraping noise… the car was too tall to fit in the garage and I couldn’t get a new ticket out of the machine (which would reopen the gate and alow us to back out) without having the car on the opposite side of the bar. Tom and Joey acted fast and pulled our roof rack off and shoved it in the back seat. They were good humored about it and I gritted my teeth expecting some woman driver jokes. Fortunately they spared me and we enjoyed a few long hours of blogging and tasting local beers and nachos. Tom got in touch with Dale and we headed off to meet up with him at his apartment.

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He was waiting out front for us and greeted us with a large smile. He is tall and fit with blonde hair and a sparkle in his eye. He led us upstairs and fixed us his specialty - gin and tonic. We spent a few minutes in his living room chatting with him and watching a program on magic tricks on his analog TV. Now, I’ve heard of bachelors before - I’ve seen My Fair Lady and movies like that - but after meeting Dale I have a new sense of the word. Let me paint a picture for you of the ultimate bachelor.

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First the living room - Tom was young when he knew Dale. He mentioned to Dale that he recognized almost everything in the living room from the pictures on the wall to the book ends. Dale laughed about that and guessed he hadn’t changed anything in awhile.
Next the bathroom - I noticed on the side of the tub that there was a bar of hotel soap. No other soap was in the room, just the thin free bar, a toothbrush and a cup. Dale seemed very friendly and easily laughed often so I mentioned that I got a kick out of the fact that he had some hotel soap. “You think that’s funny? Come check this out!” Dale led the three of us into the bathroom and opened two deep drawers full with rows and rows of neatly stacked hotel soap. “I’m on the road a lot,” he explained.

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After that, the bedroom - Dale was on a roll now. Since I thought the soap was so funny he led our group next into his bedroom to show us his penny jar. This jar is more like an archeological gold mine. It is an office sized water cooler jug full of pennies, but the pennies had been slowly added to the jar over the past 38 years. It may be layer after layer of American coinage history if only it could be lifted to be examined.
Finally - and most amusing to me - the kitchen. After getting the OK I opened Dale’s refrigerator and freezer to put the contents of our cooler in a chilly environment over night. I was immediately struck with a giggle fit. In addition to ice in the trays, there were three items total in the fridge. They were: gin, tonic, and beer - and the beer was for us. I opened a cupboard looking for a plate and instead found a stack of jeans and some white t-shirts. 

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So in a nutshell Dale is a very friendly, kind and easy to be around man, and he is the textbook definition of the ultimate bachelor. Nicely done sir.
We stayed up well into the night with Dale and his gin and tonics watching his analog TV and laughing often. Thanks a million, Dale, it was great to meet you!

-Sarah




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