Page 92 - Issues131-133

Bo le Hun"ng Across the U.S.

The Liquor Stores

When planning this bo le hun"ng road trip, the first thing I did was try to maximize the best bo le
hun"ng states and not worry about the distance (and then a$er the route and poten"al stops were
planned, gas prices jumped up from the $3 range to the $5-$6 range). So Washington has good selec-
"ons BUT there is a 40% tax on liquor. We could head through Idaho (State run so fewer choices) or
Oregon (again state Run, all stores have same stuff) BUT California is a gold mine for bo les (and we
would return through Idaho) so it was South we would go. From California we could cut across Neva-
da (believed to be a good state), though Utah (No minis, they are outlawed from being sold), Wyo-
ming (never had luck there, mostly plas"c but hey Fireworks and drive through liquor everywhere)
then down through Colorado (believed to be another good state) across Kansas (Had no idea but
there was a dis"llery there) into Oklahoma (for a collec"on stop and hopefully decent liquor stores)
and across Missouri (another good bo le state). A$er the show it was on to kentucky (dis"lleries
and hopes for good liquor stores), to Cincinna" (another collec"on) then across north to visit my
granddaughter and pick up a mini from North Dakota (and hopes of some good liquor store finds)
We skipped the stores in Washington because of high taxes and we can (and do) catch them all the
"me. We made a couple stops in Oregon just to see if there was anything new in the state and we
picked up a few things for the show but we knew the next day (California and into Reno Nevada)
would be a good day...and it was.

We arrived at our first stop, All
Star Liquors, right across the Cali-
fornia border before it was open.
So we spent some "me posing for
pictures while we waited for them
to open. It was a good start pick-
ing up a few bo les for my collec-
"on and a few more for the show.

From there it seemed like we stopped every 15 minutes at a new
store. Some were okay some were busts but all were fun. In all on
that day we stopped at between 15 and 20 liquor stores. A couple
of the stores that stand out that day were The liquor barn in Red-
ding, California and Long’s bo le shop in Grass Valley , California.
The liquor barn had an amazing assortment of minis and it was one
of the few liquor stores that everyone in the group bought bo les.
Long’s had a nice assortment and we planned to stop for a specific
Vodka that is dis"lled in Grass Valley but the bonus was they had a
few bo les le$ that the dis"llery had made for a charity, with a
special label. Needless to say all of those bo les le$ with us.
We would some"mes
pull into a small town
looking for liquor
stores and other "mes
just stop if we saw a
store (or signs) we saw
everything from small
mom and pop stores to
big na"onal chains.

The next day going through Nevada we didn’t find
much. One store that looked promising (and said it
would be open) was not, there were a few decent
stores but they didn’t have anything new. No stops in
Utah and the stores we stopped at in Wyoming either
had all plas"cs or just common bo les. Then we had
Colorado. By this "me we had slowed down on trying
to hit every liquor store, we had done really well in Cali-
fornia (and Reno) and we focused more on the dis"ller-
ies in Colorado. But we s"ll found some great stores.
Among them Daveco, which bills itself as the worlds
largest liquor store. And Hazel’s which was another
store we all got something. Daveco had a nice selec-
"on , but there was not much we had not already seen,

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