For everyone who thinks Nebraska is all flatland, I challenge you to do the pint-a-gon tap room bike ride where you will suddenly become very aware of every incline and/or hill in this state. And by in this state, I mean in Papillion where the 9-mile event takes place.
My friend, Olivia, was celebrating her birthday this past weekend and unfortunately for me, she is quite the athletic lady. This meant she wanted to kick off the weekend by getting a group of us together for a bike ride on Saturday morning.
Ugh, a Saturday morning bike ride the day after flying back from a work trip?! Oh, but wait, the bike ride stops at 6 breweries? Ok, I’m interested and suddenly feeling very sporty.
So, Saturday morning I’m feeling pretty cool in my Nikes and workout clothes and my bag filled with water bottles, a bike lock, helmet, and sunscreen – I looked the part. But then I had to get the bike loaded onto the car rack and let’s just say, anyone who passed me on the highway would immediately know I was a phony because that thing looked so jacked up and there were strings blowing the breeze like crazy. Ah well, we made it with no incident.
Each month the ride is hosted by a different brewery or distillery, so for May we started things off at Patriarch Distillery. Registration starts at 10am and the ride starts at 11am. Although, registration is a very loose term here. By registration they mean make some friends, grab a drink, and get a quick overview of the route from the ride coordinator.
Of course, no one remembered the route and we got so distracted organizing our group of about 15 that we were the last to leave. No worries, we are a smart bunch and figured things out. The sun was shining, we had the speakers blasting, life was good. And then our friend got a flat about half a mile in. DOH.
I won’t bore you with the details, but the bike situation was resolved and we made it to the first brewery, Pint Nine. This leg of the ride was only about a mile and it was flat so I was jazzed up and feeling confident. We grabbed a beer, played a few rounds of UNO, a few rounds of cornhole, and then made our way to the next stop…directly next store. Dang, this bike ride is a breeze!
This one was called Kros Strain and my friend convinced me it was actually a CrossFit gym/brewery because it sounds like “cross train”. I’m such a sucker. Anyhoo, they had some good brews here and they also had a food truck outside for snacks, The Churro Truck.
3 stops down and 3 to go. I was given fair warning that the 1.5 mile ride to the next one would have a hill, but given that I crushed these first 2 legs, I wasn’t sweating it. Until I was sweating it, a lot. Literally.
I made it about halfway up the hill before having to hop off and walk the rest. Of course, right as I’m nearing the top and looking less than ideal, I bump into a coworker who comments he didn’t know I was so into cycling. Aha! The outfit is working!
Anyways, so we stopped at Nebraska Brewing company where I spent most of my time playing giant Jenga and losing at cornhole. Good times. Then we had a 2-mile ride to Infusion Brewery where we had some snacks and snapped some group pics. What a lovely looking bunch, eh!
Finally, we made our way to Liquid Sunshine Tap Room. This last leg took a lot out of me. I was hot, it was on an incline, we had been out for 4+ hours. I was on the struggle bus and called it quits at this stop. I pretended like I lost track of time and had to get going back.
“I should probably just grab an Uber from here back to my car and then I’ll come back for the bike….ya know, because I need to get going on those errands for the BBQ tonight.” It was half true! I did have BBQ errands to run…they just weren’t as urgent as I made them seem. Don’t judge me. 
All in all, I had a blast, even if it was challenging for me at times. It was fun to explore a new part of town and visit some cool breweries along the way! The next ride is on June 9th and will be hosted by Nebraska Brewing Company if you’re feeling adventurous and want to give it a go!
-Leah