Neuski.com

Nashville Bicycle Lounge held another photo contest last night. You may remember my last contest attempt. The last prize was a bike seat but this one was for “private tour of the Yazoo Brewery, swag, and beer.” The stakes were much higher. The contest was announced to begin at 7pm so I planned on being on the road by 7pm to get a head start. I made it to James Robertson when the photo was posted. I didn’t know where the location was but figured it must be downtown because of the old building and stone road. 

My first guess, Printer’s Alley, was a bust. Most of the alleys downtown I thought were paved in stone instead had concrete pavers. I continued to zig-zag all over downtown to check out every little alley I thought may fit the description. I went out to Broadway and then south of Broadway on 1st. Then I thought it may been near the brewery so I hoofed it to The Gulch and came up empty handed.

There still wasn’t a winner this morning so the following posted on the shop’s Facebook wall.

really? no one knows where this is? it’s not that hard. we thought it was actually kinda easy. don’t let the CMA tourists get in your way (hint hint)

This confirmed that the photo was taken downtown. I went to Google Maps and studied an area I suspected between 1st & 2nd. Yesterday I thought the alley going North & South was the location but it was not paved in stone. The end was fenced for the CMA Music Fest so I didn’t ride through there and continue around on 1st. But today, with Google’s help, I noticed a sign hanging on the back of the Fuel Bar & Nightclub building that could be the sign peeking in the corner of the original photo.

I felt good enough with my hunch to tell my coworkers that I was going to run an errand at 10:15 this morning. I enjoyed my ride so much last night that I decided to ride to work today and test this heat. (It wasn’t bad!) So I flew down Broadway, jumping on the sidewalk to bypass backed up cars. Broadway at 5th was closed so I walked, then slowly rode, through the crowd. I made it to 2nd, barely hitting a family of four I apologized to. The alley looked different in the picture because of the added fences but the missing pipe in the window. I snapped the photo and emailed it to the shop with “I skipped out of work” as the subject. 20 minutes later I was confirmed the winner.

I haven’t toured the brewery before so I’m very excited. The “swag” hasn’t been defined; I’ll be happy to replace the Yazoo glass I broke last year.

The obvious followup question is “Who are you going to take with you?” and I don’t have an answer yet.