One of the things that I’ve learned about early retirement is that you have to make your own ‘current’. You can’t expect to be carried along with hundreds of other people by the the ‘stream’ that comes with the highly-planned cadence of work or school.
I wrote earlier this year about the schedule I keep from day-to-day in this POST. I also noted that it’s good to create an ongoing rhythm, or pattern, of fun activities with friends, rather than just one-off / catch-as-catch-can events. They don’t have to be very formal – just organized enough that you know when to meet next.
I just finished one year-long activity with my good friend, Dave, that took us to more than a dozen DIVE BARS – at least once per month for all of 2018.
The idea started with a newspaper article we came across last December touting “6 Dive Bars You Must Visit”. Being overachievers, we committed to hitting 12 dive bars in 12 months on a quest we tagged ‘Dive Bar Tuesday’.
Each month, we’d pick a date, meet at 5:00p, have a beer, and enjoy whatever dinner specialty they had: burgers, pizza, fish n chips, or “the best f*%#ing coney dogs in town”. Each stop was also a perfect time for us to debate & solve all of the world’s problems. 🙂
It was fun to have monthly mission and carry it out. We posted our ratings & reviews on social media and ranked them all at the end of the year. Many people pitched in comments and dive bar suggestions along the way.
Now that 2018 is headed to an end, we’ve picked out a new challenge for the new year: ‘Tap Room Tuesday’. There are dozens of microbreweries that have opened in the last few years in MN. We think they will be just the place to debate solutions to some of the world’s many problems we didn’t get to this year! 😉
What fun ongoing activities do you have organized with friends?
Image Credits: (c) MrFireStation.com
MrFireStation 
Fun! This is a tradition I can definitely get behind. If I didnt live a couple hours north, I’d join you!
Best,
-PoF
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I met another MN FIRE devotee for a beer in Newport last week and suggested he check out your website!
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Lol! We’ve been doing the Micro-brewery idea every Thursday afternoon for the last year and a half, since retiring! Loved it so much, that it’s just become our regular Thursday thing. (It’s actually how I keep track of which day of the week it is now!) Plus, all my business suits have now all been replaced with awesome brewery shirts! Several friends caught on, and we met a few new ones along the way, and we’ve definitely solved some of the more complex world issues on Thirsty Thursdays, like which is better…IPAs vs Stouts! 😉
Oh, I highly recommend a weekend trip to Ashville, NC for a ton of great breweries. There are like 70 micros within the greater area. Some of our favorites are the smaller brewery dives like The Burial. There are also other great ones like Wicked Weed and Green Man, and if you prefer the more high end…Sierra Nevada is very nice. Virginia has some of my all time favorites…Blue Farm Brewery near Winchester, VA is at the top of my list. It’s an old family hunting lodge on top of a small mountain. The facility and views are absolutely incredible, but the beer is just as awesome. Devils Backbone near Wintergreen, VA is nice too (but recently was bought out by AB, so we’ll see how that plays out). Blue Mountain is also great near DB.
(BTW…both are better…IPAs and Stouts…why have just one?!)
Cheers!
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Every week! That sounds even better than our 1x per month approach. I have league softball and league curling almost every week of the year and those come with plenty of frosty beverages too.
LOL on that’s how you keep track of what day of the week is!
We are a long way from Asheville NC since we live in MN, but curiously, we made two trips there this year! We stayed at the Biltmore Inn for a couple nights over spring break and my son and I shot down to BMW of Asheville to pick up an SUV in June. Beautiful area!
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We did the Biltmore a couple of times this past year. Beautiful area. We really enjoyed the visits too.
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We wished we could have seen the Chihuly installation this year. I also bet it is gorgeous at Christmastime.
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