I posted to the blog late yesterday. Today I want to add a few lines about new friends and a great evening. I mentioned having a plan to meet Iain and Kate Gilbert (The Scenic Route). Around 4pm, Donna and I headed over to their site. I had a few 22-ounce bomber bottles of beer and Donna had a plate of carrot sticks, pickles and sopressata sausage.

We hadn’t met our hosts Iain and Kate before, but we messaged each other on RVillage. I didn’t know if they liked different beer styles but I thought they might since Iain mentioned hearing our names while having a brew with Hans and Lisa (Metamorphosis Road).

They have a 27-foot Airstream travel trailer. Their site is one of the premium view sites on the bay with a view toward the marina at Campland on the Bay. Their Airstream has a panoramic rear window, making this a great view from inside the trailer. It wouldn’t work as well with our coach since all of the sites are back-in only and we don’t have a rear window.

We sat outside and chatted while Iain worked on getting the cork out of a bottle of Saison Dupont. This is a Belgian farmhouse ale that I’ve had before and it’s quite tasty. The cork was stubborn but Iain was persistent and eventually it came free. We split the bottle four ways and toasted “cheers” and enjoyed the beer and snacks as the sun was setting.

Donna, Kate and Iain

Iain is originally from Scotland while Kate hails from England. They’ve lived in the USA for more than 15 years though and are US citizens. They left the corporate world to travel in their RV and also spend time abroad. Their next destination will be Malaysia where they’ll spend a few months. Kate authored a book “Happy Campers” about their transition into full-time RVers. Donna and Kate have had common experiences as copywriters and self-published authors.

After we had the saison, I opened a bottle of beer from Avery Brewing in Colorado. It was a special Anniversary Edition Ale called Twenty Two. The story behind it starts in Belgium in the Beersel municipality in Flemish Brabant. The brew master at Avery had a wild ale there that he thought was the best. He brought a couple of bottles back to Colorado and used them to cultivate the wild brettanomyces drie yeast. This beer is fermented with this wild yeast. I expected the beer to be a sour ale and told everyone that’s what it was. Donna passed on the Twenty Two and had a Boatswain chocolate stout. Kate, Iain and I shared the Twenty Two. It wasn’t sour at all. It’s hard for me to come up with a description. It was smooth, slightly malty and we all liked it. Donna even tried a sip and thought it was good.

Avery Twenty Two

After sunset, the temperature fell quickly. We moved inside their Airstream to continue our conversations. Earlier in the day, Donna prepared a casserole that she intended to heat for dinner. We decided to share the casserole with Iain and Kate, so I walked back to our coach and retrieved it. Kate heated it in their oven and made a salad to go with it. Our happy hour turned into dinner. This was the first time Donna made this ground beef, macaroni and cheese casserole and unfortunately it was on the bland side. Donna is such a great cook, I hope Iain and Kate don’t think this was typical of the dishes she serves! Donna thinks she went too light on the salt and would add more cheese if she makes this casserole again.

After thoroughly enjoying our time getting to know each other, we called it a night around 7:30pm and headed back to our coach. They’ve invited us to join them again on Sunday when they’re hosting a happy hour with some other neighbors. Hans and Lisa will come over then too. We also made tentative plans for a group Christmas dinner.

Once again, we’ve met some great people sharing the nomadic lifestyle and we look forward to meeting again in the next few weeks and sometime down the road.