On the road again. The first day was a long day. We started early with closing up Pine Point. We drained the water from the cabin and winterized the pipes. We finished packing the truck. We couldn’t fit everything we wanted to bring to Cactus Point, but we did a good job of packing and had a very full truck. Before we left, we had a quick visit from Kevin and Emily and said goodbye.

After everything was packed, and we put everything away, we hit the road. Unfortunately, I had problems connecting my phone to the truck. I had issues earlier and I bought a Bluetooth connector. Today I could not get the Bluetooth to connect. We knew where we were going so we kept going.

Our first stop was St. Cloud. It was great to see Mom and I am glad we got to hang out before heading south. As we were sitting there, I checked my options for a new phone. Best Buy had a new phone, and with my trade in, I could get a new phone within an hour, at no cost. I was nervous, but ordered a new phone.

We had a little time, so we said goodbye to Mom and went to Bravo Burritos for lunch. They have fantastic burritos, but both Karla and I agreed that the burritos that we had from Hatch Burrito Food Truck we had this past Saturday were a little better.

Before we were done with lunch, my new phone was ready for pickup. We went to Best Buy to pick up the phone and then we sat in the parking lot to start the set up. We had to sync with the old phone, so we got that going and kept driving. After an hour or so, the sync was complete, so we stopped at a rest stop for a bathroom break and I checked out the new phone. I could get it to connect, but I couldn’t get the CarPlay to work. We could use the navigation and listen to music, so it was better and we kept going.

I had researched some breweries along our route. After some more driving, I thought a quick stop would be nice. However, when we got to Lake Time Brewing in Clear Lake, IA, they were closed. Their web site and Google said they were open, but they were not. So we continued on.

We got to Ankeny around 6:30 pm. We checked into our hotel and settled in. A couple blocks away was a restaurant named 30hop so we walked over. It was not too busy and we took some spots at the bar. They had a great beer selection and we tried a couple. Karla got some delicious peanut noodles and I got a tasty burger.

I still wanted to visit a brewery, so after 30hop, we took an Uber to Uptown Garage Brewery. We sat at the bar and looked at their beer list. After a brief discussion with the bartender, it turned out that they do not brew beer at that location. I was disappointed, but I knew there was another brewery a couple blocks away. We left without getting anything at the Uptown Garage.

When we got to Firetrucker Brewery, we were the only customers. But the people working there were great and we tried a lot of little samples before getting a couple pints. We continued to talk with the Firetrucker employees and got a couple more half pours. It took a while to get there, but I am glad we finically made it.

We took an Uber back to the hotel and were soon in bed.