tour de fat

dad and tim after the parade

My sister-in-law Melissa arrived from Cape Town last Friday morning after her flight out of Amsterdam was so delayed that she missed her connecting flight and had to spend the night in Minneapolis. She'd given us the OK weeks earlier to join us for the annual Tour de Fat, but I don't think she knew exactly what she was in for. None of us did.

The Tour de Fat is a take-off on the Tour de France; it's a bike parade instead of a bike race. It's sponsored by the New Belgium Brewing Company, an award winning micro-brewery that supports sustainable energy. Their most famous beer is Fat Tire, named after the tires on the bike that the founder road through Belgium when he was inspired to start a micro brewery in the early '90's. Participants dress in outrageous attire, from bought costumes to home-made creations.

the parade

paul and the boys in the parade

more parade

and more parade

and more parade. That's melissa and me in the top left of the picture wearing green grass skirts and walking the bike. too crowded to ride.

and still more parade.

one of our monk companions in the parade

Everyone meets near the brewery and cycles through the old part of Fort Collins. It's grown so big that we had to walk our bikes for most of the parade this year, and skipped half of it when we learned that the front of the parade was already back at the park enjoying beer and listening to the bands play while we still had more than half the distance left to travel.

08:00 and ready to go

ready for the big ride

We started by riding our bikes over to my friend Jen's house at 08:00. That is a major feat in itself as getting four of us dressed (3 in Hawaiian costume), fed, and out the door at that hour takes the work of three adults. Melissa and I rode the tandem bike that my parents bought back in the mid-seventies, a dinosaur. We both hated it by the end of the day, but it was fun to have for the parade. Jen and Chuck gave us their bike trailer and Paul towed the boys in that. Tim loved it for most of the day. Luke mostly slept in it.

At Jen's we imbibed in some morning drinks: Bloody Mary's, Fuzzy Navels, and Mimosas. But not too much. We had a long day of riding ahead of us. Jen's family and friends were dressed as Monks and Nuns. The fifteen of us cycled from their house down to the start of the parade in Old Town North. That took at least an hour, twenty minutes for the ride and forty minutes to get a through the masses of cyclists to the start of the parade.

We were in the parade for at least two hours before we gave in to the call of more libations and pizza. Finding some shade, we parked ourselves on some blankets and took turns walking around the fair. There were bands, carnival games, food and drinks, and hundreds of people in crazy attire. They also hold a funeral for a car that someone donates but we didn't see that. BTW the brewery is powered by wind.

our hawaiian mascot at the helm of paul's bike

smile!

spiderman

crabs!

By mid-afternoon, we'd had our fill and headed back to Jen's for a little apres Tour, but we didn't make a bee-line. Instead we took the path along the Cache La Poudre River, meandering out to the east side of town before heading back to the south central area where Jen lives. We hung out there for long enough to sooth our back sides before heading home.

bike parking

can't have a costume party without at least one elvis.

an action shot of melissa

fancy

yummy pizza


that's our boy. (the cup is made of corn.)

We rode at least 18 miles (30K). The only good thing about the tandem is that it has large comfy seats. Still we were saddle sore, hot and dirty. Melissa may not be so willing to agree to what we suggest in the future until she knows the details, but she must not have been too miserable because she went for a bike ride with Paul the next day.

all in all, a good day