8:53 PM, May 21, 2004 
Draft Raft
I just spotted this on Boulevard's seldom-updated website.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 10, 2004 : Boulevard Brewing Company today announced its intention to float the soon-to-be-infamous "Boulevard Draft Raft" down the Missouri River this summer. Built in Oklahoma to Boulevard's specifications, the 28 foot craft is buoyed by pontoons constructed of dozens of stainless steel beer kegs. The vessel is currently in dry dock at the company's Kansas City brewery, where it is being painstakingly outfitted for its maiden voyage.
The upcoming float is a backhanded(and backwards)toast to the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark expedition, and an extension of Boulevard's summer-long "Pale Ale Adventure" promotion. Plans call for the raft to be launched at Yankton, South Dakota on June 22nd, arriving in Kansas City in time for the Lewis & Clark National Signature Event, "Heart of America: A Journey Fourth" over the 4th of July weekend. The epic journey is to conclude on July 13th at Laclede's Landing in St. Louis, after a trip of some 820 miles.
"We're putting on our coonskin caps and preparing to rough it for a month on the river," said John McDonald, Boulevard's president. "Somebody had better remember the bug spray."
The current will carry the raft and its rotating four-person crew of Boulevard employees through the heart of the brewery's 10-state distribution territory. Along the way, the Draft Raft will make frequent port calls to visit with distributors, retailers and Boulevard fans.
I, unfortunately(for the purposes of this event), will be in Massachusetts over the weekend the raft makes it to Kansas City, but I might try to catch it along its route somewhere. If not, someone here has to.
In other, related news, the Tour de Fat is happening much later than it happened last year. Last year, it came to Kansas City on a pleasant Saturday in early May. This year, it's starting in July, and isn't even coming to Kansas City. Boo!
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