Tour d'Liquor

Unfortunately, this year's 14th Tour d'Liquor was poorly attended.  Maybe it was the 20 degF temperature, or maybe it was just a reflection of the busy season...but no matter of attendance was going to slow down Steve Brewer, Mike Maher, the stiCk, and Henry Dimmick from enjoying themselves on this annual ritual.  In fact, as small as we might appear (see below!), we planned to have a BIG time this night!

Dropping down through the Boulevard, we found only one oasis of color amist lots of no-lights or white-only-lights cookie cutter houses.

Once in to town, we hooked up with Dirty Mike and his custom maflector wheelset!  Each time he started moving, we all fell into a trance... "You are getting very S L E E P Y ..."!!!

Halfway through the first neighborhood, we realized that stiCk's bike decoration lights battery pack was hanging from his tool bag... much like a set of "Truck Nuts"!

Upon arriving at our first stop, we began our lube job with a handfull of BLUES while setting about the only real business of the evening...our Annual Foosball Tournament!

2007 / 2008 Repeat Champion (tHe stiCkman) successfuly regained the top rung of the ladder, receiving the ceremonial winning Blue Label on the only part of his body that it would stick to!

Back out into the cold, we found a new kind of light this year...what looked to be REAL icicles...except in BLUE... seemingly the nights favorite color!

Right across the street were these really weird BLUE pipes with a strange BLUE gas coming from them...and before we knew it, we were overcome with the need to ride over the frozen gravel piles just behind them. 

Funny thing about WINTER piles of gravel...they are FROZEN. After MANY crashes...and seeing many BLUE stars, we decided to ride on before an Ambulance was necessary!

NOTE TO SELF: Frozen Gravel = Frozen Points. Most of us found "clusters" of quarter sized bruises on our legs in the "daze" following the ride!!!

Not knowing what the rest of the evening had in store for us, we thought it best to stop and say a prayer...

...before heading over the the multi-year repeat Winning Decorations house!

Problem was, that by this time in the evening, we were seeing the house more like THIS...!

Anyway, on to our next, and mostest favorite bar!

After too much time, and too much fun on "The Island"...

...we HAD to leave in order to get to the Swinging Bridge...

...where on this COLD night, we made lots of "Steam"...!

Next up, was Papa John's Pizza before they CLOSED. (In 2009, we arrived too late for Pizza, and went without food for the entire evening...which you can understand was NOT a good thing on THIS ride!)

After pounding down too much Pizza, too fast, everyone felt sick...so we put our tails between our legs and pedalled home...

NOTE TO SELF:  Pizza right before bed DOES make for a restless sleep!

So with another year's ride in the books....and a few more days for our memories and hangovers to fade, we will all be looking forward to next year's ride!

Merry Christmas!