Road Trip: First full day in Eugene

From Cory’s Travel Journal (revised)

6/12/13

Retro logging out days in Eugene.  On our first full day, we got up and got ready for the big bike ride.  The night before, we had been up watching a movie, and I had fallen asleep.  It’s difficult to stay awake even for a great movie with the pace we have been keeping…

We did the Beer and Bikes (Brews and Bikes?  Beercycle ride?)  we were generously loaned bikes and helmets by our family.  We rode all over Eugene and Springfield visiting breweries and getting flights of samples to try at each.  IT was great to see the brewing culture in Eugene so strong.

After our 5^th (or 6^th?) brewery, we went home to get the car to go downtown for the night.  We visited the Rogue pub (popular micro brand even in the Midwest) for another flight of samples.  Turned out it was Bingo night at the pub.  Looking around the bar and seeing only two or three other people, we figured our chances of winning were in our favor.

Success!  Sara and her sister both won Rogue margarita glasses… so yeah…  After our Bingo success, we visited ONE MORE pub.  This place sold drinks with fluctuating prices depending on the demand that night.  There was a big stock ticker board behind the bar showing each beer, its current price, and the recent price trend, represented by an up arrow or down arrow.  What a great concept!  I had a glass of ginger mead which I thought was lovely.  Just a little bit better than the mead I made with some crystallized grocery store honey and white table sugar. 

Post-pubs, we went to the coolest hangout I’ve been to in a long time, the Shoryuken League. For $5, it was all the video games you could play including arcade, console, and PC games.  We all started on The Simpsons 4-player beat-‘em-up I remember from my boyhood skating rink.  With teamwork (and unlimited continues…) we beat the game!  I could never get to the second boss in that game, because I never had more than a few quarters to rub together.  What fun!  The ladies played Donkey Kong Country on the SNES.  After their game, I played Castlevania on the NES.  I made it to Dracula, but wasn’t able to beat him (as usual.)  After Castlevania, we all played Mario Kart 64 until well after midnight.

It was such a great day.  Riding the bikes (18+miles?) felt really good after all the car travel.  Going to and all-you-can-play arcade was even better.  Doing it all with family we don’t often see made it just that much sweeter.