I have yet to find anything that beer is not compatible with, and festivals are no exception.  Here in Toledo, OH--a historic melting pot of elasticities--there are numerous festivals held to celebrate any given facet of the city's heritage.  The Greek fest, the German fest, the Latino fest...they're all a blast, but it is the Polish fest that holds a special place in my heart, as I grew up on my grandmother's authentic polish recipes that came to America on the ship when her parents immigrated here. About a month ago our family of seven hit up the polish fest.  The food was incredible.  The sour cabbage and butter noodle, the pirogi, and the kielbasa tasted like they came right out of Busha's kitchen; in fact, I'm sure they did.  While the only polish beer available at the festival was  Okacim--just and average beer in my opinion--it worked great with the rich food.  Besides, the ambiance of the festival made it that much better. Interestingly (but not surprisingly) nearly EVERYBODY at the polish festival had a brew in their hands.  And everybody was happy. The great thing about these festivals, is that for a few hours you forget that you live in rust ...

Having come and gone, Dark Lord Day 2010 is but a recollection for those who participated.  Like last year, I wanted to elaborate on the experience, whether it was overwhelmingly pleasant, like last year, bad, or different.   Allow me to skip to the denouement and reveal the end result of the complications of the day in summing up my experience:  Different. Different isn't always bad. See that?  That's me holding part of the guts of my minivan in the parking lot of a car parts store 20 minutes away from 3 Floyds brewery, and several hundred miles from my home in Toledo, Ohio. [caption id="attachment_4989" align="alignleft" width="381" caption="Not quite Dark Lord Day..."][/caption] The morning of Dark Lord Day, Mike, Sandra (my wife), Ivan (my son) and myself set off from Indianapolis, Indiana, where we stayed the night before, in our 2001 Nissan Quest.  20 minutes into the trip, the minivan started convulsing.  After nearly two hours on the road, the van was shaking so bad and refusing to breach the 55 MPH mark.  I told Mike that I HAD to pull over at the next exit, which I did.  It happened to be our final exit. We pulled into CarQuest and diagnosed the problem.  ...