Just Another Saturday Sudsday

I had a Saturday to myself for the first (and likely last) time in a while, which means adventure time. The weather was slightly threatening:

I hope this picture spoke to you

As such, I had a rather ambitious but flexible idea that came to me on Saturday morning, visiting microbreweries in the Camden suburbs just a few miles outside Philly. I mean, why mess with what works? I say ambitious because I looked up three stops, knowing I'd likely only want to visit two (that, or I wouldn't be able to ride if I visited three). They were all within 5 miles of each other, and roughly equal distance from my house.

Believe it or not, I'd never rode a bike across the Ben Franklin Bridge until Saturday:

Obviously, stay to the right

It was much more of a workout than I thought it would be, with a steady 3/4-mile climb to the apex and wind shears to boot. Still, it was neat to see the city slowly getting further below me, then looking left and right near the top to see the skylines of Philly and Camden (sorry I didn't stop to take pics because of the potential rain).

I survived the climb and made my way through Camden, a city well-known for its less-than-stellar crime rate. Of course, daytime is the time to go if you go at all. I actually kinda liked riding through, passing by old buildings, looking at the graffiti...it all tells a somewhat sad, yet interesting, story all too common in post-industrial America...

Anyway, once through Camden, I ended up on a bike path in Merchantville, which led to my first rather timely stop, Eclipse Brewing: 

Obviously still riding my girlfriend's beast

The place is seriously a small house, with the entire brewing operation housed in what used to be a garage. The owner/brewmaster is a horticulture enthusiast as well, with kale and other assorted vegetables (hops!) growing outside. Bonus, they have Eclipse Glasses:

See what I did there?

While enjoying the last beer, I received a fortunate phone call (more on that later) and decided to head back rather than exploring further. The Jersey side of the Ben Franklin is a bit more challenging, with stairs leading up to the pedestrian ramp:

It's always tougher to get out of Jersey

At least there's something resembling a bike trough on the right side. That might have been the most challenging part of my 18-mile trek. With gray skies overhead and slight fatigue already setting in, I decided it was time to join my buddy for a nap:

You could call it a cat nap

I awoke later that afternoon to act on what I'd heard from my phone call earlier. My friend Jake asked me if I would open for his gig at the Urban Village Brewery in Northern Liberties. Go figure. Another brewery. Natch, I'd already been there several times (including once to see him play last month), but any excuse to ride a bike, drink beer and play guitar, I'll take:

This isn't what I meant when I asked for some fuzz on the guitar

Sadly, the cat did not join me. In the end, things went exactly as planned, and that means that they didn't go exactly as planned, which was quite alright in this case. I love when I get to say that. The best part is that I didn't get to two of my three intended stops, so I'll absolutely need to go for another ride out there...what a tragedy.