Monday, January 10th, 2011—Bar 365
Sunday, January 9th, 2011—Bar 365
Mike’s Tavern
Okay, this is it. To quote Bobby Zimmerman: “It’s all over now, baby blue.” I decided to wind this whole crazy journey back at the bar that I first had heard of as a little kid growing up in Peoria, Illinois, Mike’s Tavern in West Peoria. It seemed only fitting to end it here. One of my favorite relatives of all time is my Grandpa Seitz, who died back in 1980, but when he was alive, Mike’s Tavern was his hangout and he was a regular and a character in this tavern. I’ve written about this before, but when I turned legal drinking age in Peoria and stopped in at Mike’s, I wasn’t welcomed with open arms, until they found out I was Leo Seitz’ grandson. Then I was treated like a rock star in this place. Years later, when I was publishing the magazine POP, Mike Foster wrote a great feature story about Mike’s Tavern and its owner, Tony Ward and we had a great day hanging out there. This is the only bar I’m repeating on the bar crawl. I can do this because there were a few days when I went to more than one bar in the same day, so in actuality, I’ve been to over probably 370 bars in my travels. So today we make a well-deserved repeat visit to Mike’s Tavern. And here we go to the 365th bar in on the 365th day. A year of beer is soon to be over. Come along, a splendid time is guaranteed for all!
It all begins and ends here. I've got so many pictures from this great night out, that I can't possibly write captions for all of them, so I'm just going to post the photos and let every picture tell its own story. Thanks to everyone who showed up, it was one of the best nights of my life. Okay, here we go!
Review
You can read my Mike’s Tavern review and story about my Granspa Seitz here: Mike’s Tavern. TO LEO SEITZ AND TO MIKE’S TAVERN!
Thanks so much to my family who supported this crazy idea and all my others in the past. You guys are the best and I love you lots! Thanks for all you do for me, any other family would have had me committed years ago.
And now it’s all over. 365 bars in 365 days. I’d really like to thank Tony Ward for allowing the last night to happen at his fine bar, Mike’s Tavern. Thanks to 365 resident artist, “Boris,” for the great artwork and for maintaining the 365 Bar Store (the store will stay open by the way!) And thanks to Gidget for creating the 365 facebook fan page and to her and “Boris” for maintaining it (check them both out on Woody Radio.) A big thank you to the Waugh family who supplied food on the last night and are always there when I need them, thanks for being my second family. Thanks to Tim and Colleen Carey from Butch’s Pizza for supplying pizza, I ate a fair amount of Butch’s Pizza on the bar crawl and I suggest you all try it, you can order it online if you don’t live in the Peoria area (just remember to cut it into squares when you serve it.) I also want to extend a big, whopping thanks to all of you who have read and commented on the 365 blog, those of you who have written about what I did and every single person I’ve met while doing this and that is literally thousands of people. Think about it, I was able to meet thousands of people in bars this year and share conversations, stories and ideas with them. Really crazy, but that’s what I’ve always said was the purpose of this bar crawl, to go out and meet people and then report about these people and the bars that they were housed in the next day in words and pictures. I thank and appreciate all of you who played along with this kooky idea.
18 References
Reader Comments (61)
Happy 365
You did it ,& I wish I was there !!
TO : The Wombachers
Cheers To All !!
What will Marty come up with next ?
Next stop the Betty Ford clinic?
An epic post of the last night! Congratulations! This was one hell of a ride and a genuine blast. One of the best blogs of all time! TO MARTY AND 365 BARS!
THE FAT LADY IS SINGING & CRYING AT THE SAME TIME :(
I feel it's like New Years all over , so where the champane !!!
I waited so long for this last page to be put up , & don't know what to say.
Oh & I am using my iPod touch to view it & not used to small key pad.
Again Cheers to All , got to go back to work .
CONGRATULATIONS DADDIO!
(I just got off the phone with you)
PROUD to be a small part of this Epic Feat!
Let's get ready now for the next step forward!
Somehow, when we first discussed this over a year ago, I KNEW you could and would do it.
"Boris"
AWESOME!
Congratulations Marty!
What the hell will I do know at noon everyday.
As they say in Brooklyn: "Howaboutanother365days!"
awesome that you ended this in your grandpa seitz's hangout! he's looking down and smiling at you and all your friends. this was the coolest thing in the world, i'm with terry, what are we supposed to do now??? LOL! congratulations marty!
Oh man,,,What a night it must of been for you. So many friends and family at Mike's, a great sendoff to a great year. Happy for you that you did it and now the pressure is off. Sad because it became a routine to check my computer everyday to see what bar you walked into the previous night, something I will miss but the journey to all those bars was a once in a lifetime experience. I feel like I drank in those bars with you. See you at Betty Ford.
Wow I really need to get unblurry here so i can type...
WOW
i knew you could do it!
I am sooo proud of you
congratulations!
Hey man, I've been following this blog since March and have never commented, but I have to today. What a great way to end this, a true class act to go back to your hometown and celebrate it with old friends and family. This blog is a real celebration of people. Be proud, you did something truly original here. Cheers to you and everybody out there!
What a turn-out for your last bar (and nice sign)! Looks like quite the party, and I'm sooooo happy they had a buffet complete with slow-cookers and cups o' nuts. Glad you got to wrap it up in your hometown with old and new friends (and your awesome parents) in tow. And thanks for doing this Crawl. Not only did we all get to discover some classic bars (and be warned about the few duds), but we got to meet some classic people along the way. I look forward to visiting a ton of the places I've read about, and I can't wait to see what you have in store for us next!! TO MIKE'S TAVERN and EVERY BAR THAT'S TREATED YOU RIGHT ALONG THE WAY! TO GRANDPA SEITZ! TO THE 365 CRAWL! TO THE 365 READERS! TO THE 365 CO-STARS, CO-PILOTS, AND CO-NSPIRATORS! But mostly TO YOUR LIVER! May it live long and prosper. Nanu nanu, motherfucker. And well done.
Congratulations on making it to 365! Looks like you had a great night - a great way to finish it up.
TO: Marty! You little bloody legend!
promise me you won't do "a guy walks into a gym" what if you got a pet and took it to a bar every day. just a thought
Marty, YOU CRAZY! I enjoyed meeting all the people you met in all the bars in all the places. What I think this proves is that even in this day and age of smartphones, tweets and electric cars, people still need to connect face to face, enjoy a beer, and illuminate the night. Congratulations! If you're ever in San Franciso, I'd be happy to buy you a beer!
Marty, Congratulations again on finishing your quest. I admired your attitude and your good humor throughout, and I looked forward to your updates ever since that hung-over day I re-discovered your business card in my empty wallet and found online your record of a visit to one of my favorite NYC dives. I have to say though that Peoria and Pontiac, Illinois seem like mighty fine places to share a drink with salt-of-the-earth people, and I'm glad you got to wind up your crawl amongst friends and have a great time. I hope that you'll treat us to an epilogue of some sort.
Because I have no motivation at work and because for some reason "Rent" is on my mind I offer this hastily scribbled song parody:
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a beer?
In dive bars, in airports, in midnights
and sips of whiskey
In bar crawls, in New York, in Peoria Illinois
In three-hundred sixty-five ba-rs that Marty crawled to
through subways
and highways
and other ways too
How about beer?
How about beer?
How about beer?
Measure in beer
Seasons of beer. Seasons of cheer.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred keystrokes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
pics to upload
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred hassles
How do you measure, measure a year?
Remember, the barmaids,
the barflies and the creeps
Remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Seasons of love!
"Todd"
Congratulations Marty from The Knuckles Tiki Bar!!!!
Great job, I know it was a lot of hard work to keep up this site.
I really liked coming to this site to check on your progress & now you finally did it.
I am glad to have been a part of it.
When are you staring the next one??
Congratulation & happy 365 ! :o)
(what about a monkey?
...AND HE'S COMMING UP TO THE FINNISH LINE...COMMING UP ON THE INSIDE...HE LOOKS WINDED AND HIS COLOR IS TERRIBLE...HE LOOKS LIKE HE'S GONNA PUKE...LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, HE"S DONE IT!!! MARTY WOMBACHER IS ...THE...NEW...WORLD'S...RECORD...BAAAAAAR CRAAAAAWLER!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! LISTEN to that CROWD LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!!
!!!!!!!!HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! THE CROWD IS GOING BERSERK!!!
!!!!!!!!HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
OH, THE HUMANITY...THE HUMANITY!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations, Marty!
YAAAAHOUUUUUUU !!!!!!! YOU DID IT !!! Congratulation Marty !!!! :D
So now here is what we sing in France when someone has finished to crawl : "il est des nôtres!"
The lyrics are : He's one of us! he had his drinks like all of us! He's a drunkard! we can see it on his mug! Dear friend, raise your glass, and watch out don't spill it, from frontibus (here, you have to touch your forhead with your glass) to Nasibus (your nose) then from Ventarium (your belly) to Pissarium (your dick/pussy) and drink and drink and drink !!!!!! :D
OK, we have thousands of songs like this, because french always sing to celebrate "the act of drinking" (yeah an alcoholic concept!), or maybe it is because we are always drunk that we invent all these songs! hahahaahaha
SO !!!!! TO MARTY AND THE 365 BARS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The photos are great and tells a story itself ;) We can easily see the evolution of your state from sober to drunk !!!! HA!!!
I'm very happy that I've been part of the crawl 3 times! And to see all these people commentating here who I've been part of it too!
(Jason got the first comment = Jason! you fucking NERD ! HAHAHA) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
Cheeeeeeeeeeeers Marty and Everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TO JESUS HOLE!
The crawl was fun yesterday. A fitting finale!
Terry