Chimichanga 1992!

Okay, the scanner has been working overtime the past two nights as I digitize a large chunk of my old photos. Fun times. Got the old brain firing overtime, enough that I had a hard time falling asleep last night. Thankfully Tylenol PM knocked me out around 12:45.

Bust out your VHS tape rewinder (the one shaped vaguely like a Ferrari) and zip on back to 1992.
I, along with friends Don and Joe, have been bitten by the mountain biking bug bad. The legendary Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival is coming up, but, like most years, it's sold out.

So we make our own, the weekend before Labor Day. We had 50 t-shirts made, with one-of-a-kind tire treads on the back, thanks to some fabric ink and a front wheel in my parent's garage. "Admission" is $5 for the shirt and beer.

Don secures the key ingredients - a Cook County Forest Preserve picnic permit for the Swallow Cliff area of Palos along with a cash donation from LaGrange's The Wheel Thing bike shop - enough to cover the necessary keg o' beer.

Of course any good picnic in a Cook County Forest Preserve (where the mafia dump their victims) also needs tunes and a BBQ.

Brother Dan and his trusty and rugged Sony Outback (before Subaru utilized the term for a gussied up Legacy) boombox and a bag of Kingsford.

Don brings an ESPN banner and a fish-eye lens and I kill a roll taking goofy shots.


We had a Huffy Toss - see who can throw the junker bike the farthest, but I sadly don't have any pix of us mauling the cheap-ass bike.

Joe + fire
Joe's then girlfriend (name since forgotten by me)

Don and (likely) radioactive water. Nice Bell helmet, Don!
Roxanne
Tom
Snoopy (Celeste has this on her bike now)
yours truly
Michele
Michele's friend - Amy (?)
Karen
blurry Vic + Karen
Joe + girlfriend
Tom's lil' bro
brother Dan + chips
Jason
chips

We continued the traditon for a few years, most of the time we were able to secure the same shelter on the same weekend. Kinda like Moose Murphy.

Funny - no riding shots. Oh well, we had fun hanging out and drinking beer in the woods that day.