When i was a kid, I was a huge wrestling fan. Some of my favorites we're Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper, George 'The Animal' Steele and of course, Hulk Hogan. Brutus Beefcake started off under the wings of Hulk Hogan, and quickly made a name for himself. Eventually, he picked up the title 'Barber'. His finishing move was the sleeper hold. He would prance around the ring with a pair of scissors or hedge trimmers, and chop off the losing opponents hair. I went to Wrestle Mania 3, when Hulk Hogan wrestled Andre The Giant. The same event, 'The Barber' wrestled with Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine in a tag team match, but later, he cut off Adrian Adonis' hair, in a match Adrian lost to Roddy Piper.
Jen and I were standing in the coffee shop in Kalkaska Saturday morning and saw this poster for wrestling at the local ice rink, the Kaliseum. EWF I believe was the wrestling association. On the bill was Sting, midgets, a tag team group called Demolition (Road Warrior rip offs), and of course 'The Beefcake'. With nothing else to do, we both agreed we were going to spend our evening at the Kaliseum.
We ended up getting to the rink an hour early (for lack of anything else to do). We had about 6th row seats, right in the front of the aisle, about 10 ft from the ring. Jen made a friend, some highschool girl that sat down next to her and started jabbering like crazy. The girl did tell me that they had beer for sale, so I ran off to grab one.
Finally the wrestling. It was ok, but some of the dudes we're so bad at it, it was terrible. Pretty soon the better wrestlers got up there, and it looked a bit more real. I was bored again, so I ran out to get another beer. Who's standing at the beer counter, but the Beefcake. I grabbed a beer and stood there talking with him. We talked about his good buddy Hogan, and his new reality show. He said he was there when Hogans daughter was born, then he went on about his daughter for a while. The funniest part (and this was before his match) was when he pounded the beer that was in his cup, tapped it on the counter and said 'Hey, can I get another one Boss'..
I guess that's the life of wrestlers from the days when I was younger, join up with a minor wrestling association, tour around, make money off autographs, and slug a few beers before the matches.
Anyhow, the wrestling was a good night out. I don't think I'm going to start watching it again, but it passed the time for an evening - and apparently, this was the best thing ever to happen to the small town of Kalkaska. The place was pretty packed, and the fans were SO into it!
To back track a little bit.. We cruised out of Monroe Friday night around 730pm. I called my buddy Russ, who lives around the Flint area, he said that the construction has been backed up for 13 or so miles all day and night. He then gave me directions to get to his house to drink a couple cases of beer. Although it was tempting to go see him, I had a destination in mind - I already cancelled out on a mexican restaurant party so we could leave Friday.. so I wasn't about to change plans now. We took 96 to 127. 96, goes through Weberville, which is the home of the Michigan Brewing Company. We had to stop. I was bummed because I didn't bring my growler.. I always bring my growler!! (Growler: a half gallon jug that you can get filled with your favorite beer, for a decent price). I opted for the IPA (which I do every time), Jen got a Root Beer. I had a conversation with a cocky fella up at the bar, he swore by the Celis Cru - so much so, that he proceeded to knock the beer I was drinking, and lack of being able to make a decision of what kind of beer I really liked. I tasted the Cru, and it was ok, just very light. I figured out he was just some guy, that probably lives near the brewery.. and knows nothing about fine beer. Ass knocker. Jen and I got a bowl of the chili, which was pretty spicy, Jen didn't finish hers. I bought a sixer of the IPA on the way out.
We headed north, for what seemed like forever. We hit Grayling around 11ish. We had no problem finding Spikes Keg o' Nails. The place was pretty quiet for a Friday night, I imagined this loud and rowdy hole in the wall sort of bar. It was actually pretty nice in there. Old wooden booths with names of patrons carved all over them. I was disappointed that they didn't have Sam Adams on tap (as the website stated!).. so I settled on a Bass Ale. To eat, I had a world famous 'Spike-Burger' and Jen had mozzerella sticks. Burger was basic, nothing too out of the ordinary, for sure I wouldn't call it a 'world famous' burger.
We made it to the cottage by about 12:30a.m.
The rest of the weekend has been pretty mellow. We met some of Jens friends from work in Gaylord (they had just finished a triathalon), ate at Goblers (a restaurant known for turkey dinners), had a fish fry with my mom and her husband, went to the casino where I came out $2.50 ahead out of $10 (WooHoo big winner!), and here I sit in the Daily Grind coffee shop, like a nerd on my computer. Best be getting back to relaxing.. I think today will be the big city of Traverse, or 9 holes of golf. More pictures to come - check out the flickr site for more.
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