Royal Hotel Parkes - CORY LOVES BEER

So after departing Grenfell and its myriad bottle openers, we headed up Henry Lawson Way in the direction of our final stop on this leg of the Tour, the Royal Hotel Parkes.

We were staying in Parkes for the night. So we dropped our stuff at the Airbnb and headed into town. Parkes was easily the biggest town we hit on this leg of the tour. So even just wandering through was a bit of a different experience from places like Mirrool and Mt Hope.

Pretty standard as far as Royals go, but still a pretty good vibe

The Royal itself is a pretty standard one. It was later on a Saturday arvo, so there was a pretty good crowd building already. And the place did have a pretty decent vibe. There wasn’t anything particularly unique or special about it, but it was pleasant and had a good buzz. So we did what any group of guys on a weekend-long pub crawl across the state would do on a Saturday night: we grabbed a table in the corner and started reading each other trivia questions.

To be fair, trivia is one of my favourite ways to spend an evening with a beer (dorky as that may be). And the other three went along with it so they’re dorky by association. All was going well, us in our corner, the pub starting to fill up around us.

All was going well that is until we came across the question about what an antechinus was. I reasonably confidently went with ‘marsupial rat’. The answer turned out to be ‘marsupial mouse’. I thought that was close enough. But Jase (who had not the first clue of what an antechinus was before reading the answers) exploded into an irrational rage threatening to tear his shirt off Hulk-style. Naturally I graciously conceded the argument to avoid any further escalation and to preserve the friendship.

Editor’s Note: I write the posts so my version of events is the only one that matters

Jase still raging about the antechinus/lack of fireball

The only slight negative on the Royal Hotel Parkes is the menu didn’t look amazing. It probably would’ve been fine, but as we found ourselves in a reasonably sized town with numerous other dining options, we decided to head off from this final Royal to find dinner elsewhere. Although in hindsight, I’m pretty sure Jase and Bert were more keen to depart in order find a pub with an even greater supply of fireball.

Wandering off in search of pub grub and fireball respectively

All in all, it was an excellent leg of the tour. We had our first surprise Royal in Coolamon. We definitely hit one or two that are likely to feature the next time we update our Top Ten Royals list as well.

As if any trip to Parkes wouldn’t finish with a trip to The Dish

Royal Stats

Town/Suburb: Parkes, NSW
Population: 10,919
Date Visited: Saturday, February 10, 2024
Visited By: Cory, John, Jase, and Bert
Beer Sponsorship on Sign: Toohey’s New
Beer Consumed at Pub: VB
Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $7.50
Unique Award: Royal Most Likely to Ruin Friendships Over Trivia
Tour Progress: 41.6% (57/137)

Royal Stats

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