We have lived the past 7 years in Colorful Colorado. While living in Colorado, we encountered a fresh perspective – craft beer culture. For those of you that aren’t familiar, craft beer culture is about so much more than just drinking beer. This culture encourages people to be curious, to move into a mindset of exploration and trying new things – like skiing at 13,000 ft, hiking in the backcountry, kayaking class 5 white water, volunteering for worthwhile causes like restoration projects in remote wilderness – and then reminiscing over a few beers at sunset. In essence, just pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone to grow, always learning and never settling for the regular.
When we first moved to Colorado and knew absolutely no one, we found friendship and inspiration through folks that lived this craft beer culture. People were kind and welcoming instead of judgmental and aloof, excited to share their passions and life stories. It has inspired us knowing there must be other places like this. We have always wanted to go to South America and explore some of the most beautiful landscapes, thriving cultures, and a vast amount of endemic species of plants and animals. There is also a newly forming craft beer scene there as American craft beer has made such an impact upon the world.
To explore this continent – from its diverse, exciting cities to the grand Andes mountains, into the rainforests and under the falls, through the salt flats and over the sand dunes, past the fermenters and to the bottom of a pint – this is our Hoppy Purpose.
Like all purposes in life, sometimes you have to be flexible with the roadblocks that are thrown at you. We made it 73 days in South America and it was wonderful. Then the ensuing pandemic caught up to us and we had to fly back to the U.S. We decided to buy a motorhome and travel North America instead until we can safely make it back to South America. So now we travel, hike, take too many pictures, visit breweries, national parks, state parks & just anywhere there is wilderness. Our purpose of the enjoyment of life, along with a tasty brew or two, is still our Hoppy Purpose.
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Fill with mingled cream and amber,
Edgar Allan Poe
I will drain that glass again.
Such hilarious visions clamber
Through the chamber of my brain
Quaintest thoughts — queerest fancies
Come to life and fade away;
What care I how time advances?
I am drinking ale today.”
Hoppy Purpose 