This of course meant that beers had to be purchased and chilled. I guess if there's anything good about winter; you don't need ice when the temps are in the 30's. Just fill the cooler and leave the cover open overnight. Voila; chilled beers.
Of course, the bad part about low temps is that you don't know who else has the fortitude to go riding with you. Here, the beers are ready and Snoopy is waiting. Will anyone else show up?
Rally time was set at 11:00. At 10:50 my phone beeps with an incoming text. Uh-oh...let's see who the first person bailing out is going to be... Picking up the phone, I see the text is from Danno. But instead of it being a "Danno Out!" text, he's saying that "we're" on our way. Sweet, that means there's more than one! And no sooner had I put the phone down than Carl came pulling into the driveway. And then Matt, and then Danno and Chris M - we got 5 participants!!
We pounded a couple of roadies and then made with the gearing up. Kickstands were raised around 11:30 or so, and we were off!
Pulling into the PBP, we were surprised that the parking lot was devoid of any other bikes. What kind of welcome is this? A biker bar with no bikes? It's a good thing we came along to set things right!
Inside, we were greeted with a rather empty PBP, but that just meant we got our pick of bar stools. Bartender Chris was slinging the drinks and the Mayor was quick to do the greetings, as usual. There were about 10 of us at the bar and we were talking about this, that, and the other thing. Conversation ended up focusing on different bars we've all been to and one common name popped up; the old Anvil, in Wrentham. I told my story about walking in one night just in time to see a patron smash something into the (guy) bartender's face, only to then have the bartender come over the bar and lay out the patron with one punch. The guy landed right at my feet - sweet! Dinner and a show! LOL The Mayor then relayed a story about a buddy of his that had been barred from the Anvil for life. Seems he'd thrown the owner through the front window (Yeah, I guess that would earn you banishment.) The Mayor then points to the PBP's front wall and says "You'll notice we only have one window. And, it's pretty small." I replied that technically, you could still put someone through it, but you'd have to really mean it because it would take you a while, and you'd have to really work at it. We pondered this for a second and then moved on to other topics.
A bit later, The Mayor surprised us by saying he had to leave, to take care of a bunch of things. We assured him that he was leaving the bar in good hands. He gave us one of "those" looks and said "I'm not sure I'd call them "good" hands", so we amended our statement to "Well, you're leaving the bar in 'hands', how's that?"
From there, it as time to focus on football! Yeah, football! There was the usual pre-game coverage about different players and we started talking about how big the players have become over the years. There was one in particular (I don't remember now who it was) and we were joking about him having manly hands, really big, strong fingers. And that's when Chris tossed out what was to be this day's best line; "Shaking hands with him would be like shaking hands with a bunch of bananas." (Ha, that one's making the blog!)
Anyway, it was game time and we were hungry. Matt had scoped out the offerings and they were doing a special on wings; 25 cents each. Sweet - we'll take 80 of them! (They were a little taken aback by this, and weren't even sure they had 80 on hand. Fortunately, they did, and we were in wing heaven!) Thanks Matt!
We had 4 different flavors going, on four plates stacked high. I should have snapped a pic when they first showed up, but didn't think to until they were about half gone. That's right; these plates are only about half full compared to what they looked like when they arrived. Mmmmm!!!
Now, remember the little skeletons this place was using as markers (for owed drinks) the last time we were here? Well Halloween is over, so they're back to their usual markers; little tiny ducks. Why ducks, when everything else in this place is pig-related?
Another round, and Carl was still behind (judging by how I felt this morning, I think he was actually the smart one...). Anyway, another round, another duck.
We were making friends with other folk around us and whenever someone else got a duck, I had to get a pic of them. These things were pretty cool! And, it turns out, they did have some pigs, too...
They keep these things inside an empty pitcher behind the bar. See the pitcher next to it? It's got candy in it, and they use those as markers, too. Good thing they just gave us the ducks. If they'd started giving us candy, I probably would have eaten it.
Danno was setting a pretty furious pace with the beers, and before long, Carl had a third duck in front of him. I think they were making fun of him at this point, because it was a very pretty duck, with a little tiara and everything.
Now I was minding my own business and wading through the wings as best I could when suddenly Bartender Chris puts a duck down in front of me. What the...? Is this a joke? No?!?! I've really fallen behind!?!? Say it isn't so!! Nope, it was true. I'd earned a duck!
With some quick thinking...er...drinking, I managed to get caught up once again and get rid of the duck. But no sooner had I traded it in, than Danno was lining up another round. Damn! And now it's getting personal; this time I got a pretty little tiara'd duck of my own.
I'm happy to say that I wasn't the only one having difficulty matching Danno's pace, and before long, we had started a little happy family of ducks and pigs.
Just before halftime (and already things were looking pretty dismal for the Pats), Danno starts chanting “Here we go Bruins, here we go!” And then he goes and plays a song off the jukebox, at top volume. I asked why he did that because now we can’t hear the game and he just does his Danno smile-and-shrug, looks at me and says “but it’s a GREAT song!”. I guess you can’t argue with that, and it was a great song (VH’s “And the cradle will rock”.)
Ka-Bang and Judy showed up and joined in the fun we were all having - in fact, the bar had pretty much filled to capacity at this point, and we were making friends left and right.
You can see how the rest of the afternoon went. But we needed the liquid distraction because our football team was getting their asses handed to them. It was an ugly, ugly game and that, combined with the waning daylight outside, caused us to wrap things up and hit the road before regulation time had expired. (We did manage to take care of all the outstanding markers, though.)
Back outside in the parking lot and still no other bikes except ours!
Danno was reaping the rewards of his feverish pace and had some difficulty with donning his chaps. Which of course made for a Kodak moment. (As soon as he saw the camera come out, he knew what was in store.)
Matt stepped up to the plate and, never one to shy away from an opportunity to touch another man's leg, soon got things going again.
From here, Chris M and Carl broke off and made for their respective homesteads. One of Matt's friends (Linda) was kind enough to show us a different route to get home (but afterward, we agreed our usual route was preferable). Anyway, we'd agreed to meet Mike (oh yeah; Mike had shown up about halfway through the game) at the Red Rooster. Instead of following us, he went a different way, and this turned out to be a snag. See, when Danno, Matt and myself got into Wrentham, Danno called for a pit stop at the Wrentham Legion. Ok, so we pulled in, got a roadie and visited the men's room.
I had to take a pic of this thing - when is the last time you saw one of these, and in the bathroom, to boot? This must be for the gentleman who simply can't not-smoke for 3 minutes to take a leak?
So anyway, back to the story. We were enjoying the roadie when I hear my phone ring. It's Mike. Crap, we forgot about Mike! He's at the Rooster and wondering if we're gonna make it there. Yep, just let us kill these beers and we'll be on our way. He says ok, no worries, he's going to head home. Ok, sorry about the mixup Mate, we'll catch you again soon.
When we left the Legion, Danno made for home, leaving it at just Matt and I. Finally arriving at the Rooster, we bump into some friends of Matt, and they’re doing Irish car bombs. So of course we decided that it would be a great idea for us to jump into the festivities as well. (What's better than Irish car bombs on Sunday night when you have to be at work in 12 hours??)
We hung there for a short spell then decided to hit one more spot to grab a bite, so we rolled up the highway to Applebees. The service was so-so but the popcorn was flowing, along with more frosties, and, we even got to take home some special glasses, made just for doing shot/beer drinks. Put your shot in the middle, pour your beer around the outside, then drink! As you tip the glass, the shot mixes with the beer and wheeee!
The day had been long and it was getting late so we decided to wrap things up. Outside, we found the storm that had been hovering in the distance all day, was making it’s arrival, and was blessing us with hail. Hail! No matter, we’ve got the gear, we’ve got the bikes, we’re good to go. (Good to go home!)
Another awesome and successful day was had by all. Today had been billed as the “last Pot Belly Pub run of the season”, and we’d squeezed a hell of a good time out of it.
‘Course, this coming Sunday’s weather forecast is calling for sunny and 55 degrees…Hmmm…
Ride Hard, Take Chances
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