Grand Junction beer and chili fest. Fun

This was one of those really long and yet really good days. :D We drove up in our old Honda Wagon the night before and made it even thought the alternator went out along the way and we drove up to Pablo's house on the last of the battery. Lucky for us Crys* found that the Autozone we'd pass along the way had, in stock, an alternator for an 88 honda civic wagovan. Go figure, so we stopped and ran in to get that and ended in Pablo's driveway in the fading light. He put us up for the night, and bought us dinner at nice place he knew of in Grand Junction. He drove :D since navigating by braille wasn't the best idea. Next morning I was up to put the new alternator in. It didn't go too bad, got all set up and Pablo got up at just the right time to point me toward his tools in the garage. He had everything I needed including a drift pin to line up "stuff" that was way down and impossible to see and impossibly tight. Let me just say that to get the old piece out required jacking up the car, pulling the oil filter off and help from both Pablo and Crys* before it was all said and done. The new one went back in the same way and needed about the same level of help but we were done by 10 AM, headed to breakfast and then the fest! That was an extremely well done fest. You paid $20 and got a 10 or 12 ounce glass and a ticket to vote for your favorite. (I found an extra ticket on the ground so I got to vote twice). My favorites were an Irish beer by Horsefly brewery. They sampled us an Irish and a Scottish beer. That made it tough, with my Wallace/Collins background. :D But the Irish was what I liked, Crys* preferred the Scottish with it's long smooth finish but her absolute favorite (and mine) was the Chocolate Porter by Great Divide brewery. She even got a shirt from them for free!!!! (Hey, if I wanted to advertise beer I'D put a shirt on that body!!!) We had the greatest breakfast at a place called Louis' there in Grand Junction, and the waitress was wonderful as well as the food. We all ate like pigs. OK I got out of order but with our workout program we haven't been drinking and there was BEER BEER BEER!!!!!! Goodness but there were between 17 and 20 microbrews at the fest and each of those vendors had at least 2 samples some with 3 and a few with an enormous pile of choices. There were wine like beers and oak aged beers and ciders and ....... Yes. I got shit faced and loved it. And the only things better than the beer were spending a nice day with each other and our Pablo. We came home late, arriving here about 11:30 to feed the goats and kitties and do chores, all because we all worked together to get that alternator changed so we could drive after dark. Wish Pablo coulda come home with us. We love him.