Guys Weekend at Alexandria RV Park; Alexandria, MN
This past weekend my dad, brother and I had our annual guys weekend. Our choice this year trip was Alexandria RV Park in Alexandria, Minnesota. My dad, Scott and my brother, Kyle, drove down from Fargo, ND and I drove up with the camper and we met at the Alexandria RV park, about halfway between Brooklyn Center and Fargo. I left in the mid afternoon and we met in Alexandria in the late afternoon after a short two hour drive.
The Campground
The Alexandria RV Park is a combination campground and motel. They do not have a website but I was still able to find them through a Google search for camping in Alexandria, MN. Remember from our Pet Peeve post, not having a website is not a good thing, so strike one. After checking in and being directed to our campsite, we began the process of setting up. The campsites themselves were very small, once we got set up, we found we had no room to lay out our rug since the next site was so close. That’s strike two. Also, this campground had no restroom facilities at all, no toilets, no showers (let’s all agree with a tiny camper and three big guys, an extra bathroom would’ve been nice). That’s strike three. This campground has officially struck out. Finally, as we were sitting around the fire both nights, the sewer line from the site next to us was between two of our chairs. There was no smell or anything but still…gross. We have four strikes, that’s one out and one strike on the next hitter. (Sorry for the baseball terms) At least we had full sewer, water, and electric so we were ok. Anyone coming to the Alexandria area for a good camping trip should look elsewhere to camp if possible.
Friday Night
Once we finished the check in and set up process (which we did in record time) it was time to head over to Walmart and get our groceries for the weekend. We shopped like a bunch of guys, giant steaks, bacon, sausage, eggs, chips, dips, etc. Not healthy but delicious! After stocking up on weekend nourishment, is was on to the liquor store to stock up on beverages for the weekend, IPAs mostly, yum. Upon return to the campground, we filled the fridges with food and beer and decided to head over to Copper Trail Brewing Company, the local Alexandria brewery for a pint and some cribbage. Once we finished off our pints, we came back to the campground and grilled our giant ribeyes, sat by the fire and sipped our beverages, listened to music, and had some great conversation. Because Fridays are hard, we only made it until about midnight before turning in. For the first time, I slept on the pull out couch in the camper since we gave the old man (Dad, not Toby) the bedroom. I still slept pretty well since I was so tired.
Copper Trail Brewing Review
Copper Trail Brewing, the only brewery in Alexandria, was pretty good! The building itself was nothing special, in a strip mall. No patio to enjoy the Minnesota summer, or bring the dogs next time. It had several tables, one couch, a bar with 10 or 12 stools and an open space in the corner where they have live music on Friday nights. They had an acoustic jazz guitarist playing when we were there and he was fantastic. They run a seven ba
rrel system which I learned after a conversation with the beertender. Their first priority is to serve the local liquor stores with crowlers and the local bars and restaurants with kegs of their beer. The taproom in the brewery serves what they have left after serving the liquor stores, bars, and restaurants so they were out of a lot of beers on their menu. I would assume there is a higher profit margin in the taproom so I was kind of surprised by the way they do things. The bartenders were very friendly and I was able to have good conversation with them about the brewery and their beers.
I had a Hopshake milkshake IPA. It has an ABV of 6.7% which is pretty standard for IPAs, it was not as biting as most IPAs that I have had in the past and it was also very sweet with an orange flavor to it. I thought it was delicious and would rate it an 8 of 10. My dad had the Belgian Workhorse, a Belgian Golden Ale. He loves his Belgian style beers, which I am not a fan. It has an 8.8% ABV which is pretty !high but that’s not a problem since he wasn’t driving. Buzzed Dad is a hilarious Dad! He said it tasted like a typlical Belgian style ale with hints of fruit flavor but he couldn’t tell what fruits. He would give it a 7 of 10 rating. If you’re a craft beer lover, I would definitely recommend a stop in at Copper Trail Brewing in you are in the Alexandria area for a pint or two.
Golfing Saturday
The highlight of our guys weekend trip was a round of golf on Saturday. The Alexandria area is known for the lakes and also for its golf courses. So we got up around 8:30 in the morning and Kyle used my Coleman Roadtrip Grill to make us a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage and we then got ourselves ready and made our way to the golf course. Kyle set us up with a tee time at Geneva Golf Club, about a 15 minute drive from the campground. The golf course was very difficult, especially for me since I consider myself to be nothing more than a hack on the course. Kyle is very good so he easily out played me and Dad. It was a very warm and humid day so by the end of 18 holes, we were all pretty tired. After we finished the round, we hung out for beers and snacks and the golf course bar for a bit before heading back to the campground. We all three took an unintentional nap after returning to the camper. Once we napped and were alert again, it was time for dinner. We decided to try a local Alexandria restaurant. We jumped on our bikes and we went to the Boulder Tap House, a burger and craft beer bar and grill. There was a very large selection of tap beers and the burgers were amazing! In my humble opinion, this a must stop place when in Alexandria. With full stomachs, we decided a couple more pints at Copper Trail Brewing were in order so we cruised the two miles over there and played some more cribbage and more of the same beers we had the night before. Once we had our beers, we biked back to the campground after a short tour of about 5 miles. We sat around the fire and again sipped beverages, had great conversation and listened to more Pink Floyd before turning in around midnight again.
Sunday Pack Up and Tear Down
On Sunday morning once we got up and moving we had to do a quick tear down due to rain moving into the Alexandria area. We finished in nearly record time and the rain was just beginning to fall as we connected the camper to the truck. We decided to go out for brunch at the Travelers Inn in downtown Alexandria since we didn’t have time to have breakfast at the campsite because of our racing the rain. The food was standard breakfast fare with eggs, bacon, omelets, pancakes, etc. It was pretty decent, a little expensive for what you get. I had a meat lovers omelet with hashbrowns and toast. After brunch we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways ending an awesome guys weekend. We’ll be doing it again next year, just probably not at this campground in Alexandria.
