Thursday 15th March (Cycle Day 5)

 After a night of homo erotic karaoke, catfish and ribs at Mo Mo's BBQ in Harrisburg which, BFGUL thinks is the murder capital of the States having watched the television news at the hotel we had an early start again. Up at 6am and out of the hotel before 7am and into the city traffic.

Chimp Boy is at the wheel and we're heading north for a while before cycling to Chatham this evening where we will meet our host Pat Barnett-Mulligan, his wife Wendy and their friend Tom  (pub landlord) and play an acoustic set (with accompanying screaming Strat and harp) at The Peint O  Cwrw. Let's hope they're into it and we put on a decent show.

We have a hard but great day cycling into and through NY State around the East Delaware reservoir (Pepacton). A massive body of water that feeds NY. There are some climbs as we are in the Catskill Mountains and even on the decents we have to pedal hard because our old friend the headwind is back. We do a twenty miler then move to tens for the rest of the day.

Lyndon says to me before one leg, "it's OK last day today!" but it's not we have more to come tomorrow.

Our last leg is from Hudson into Chatham and Teddy and I take a wrong turn in part due to our sketchy sat nav (thanks again Chris and Noelle) which took us down a dead end in a less than salubrious part of town. Turn around, turn around is the call and we make a hasty retreat.

We have a tough 17 miles into Chatham of climbs and small decents and are truly grateful to find the Peint O Cwrw and meet Tom the owner and Jim the barman and some locals for a swift cider before cycling back out of town to go meet our hosts. We also get a $200 dollar donation from Tom and the offer of free food and drink this evening...does it get any better.

We all get a much needed lovely hot shower and a bed each for the night. Now it's off to the bar to entertain and eat. Let's hope it's a good one and there are less male dancers around this evening compared to last nights outing......

Update 23.30hrs

BFGUL takes Chatham By Storm - Anglo / American relation suffer in the process

We arrive at the Peint O Cwrw at 7.45 and meet and greet everyone. BFGUL is clearly fired up for the evenings performance. Like a prizefighter he is bouncing on tip toes ready for action at the sound of the bell.

He's early into a cider and demanding to be plugged in and have stands, mic's, lyrics etc set up to his liking and then wandering off to bask in the affection and friendship of all around who are soon to be engulfed in his power vocals.



We open with a half dozen numbers and the maestro has to reign himself in but you can see he's straining at the leash. Fellow musos come into the venue bearing percussion, recorders, harmonicas and our host Pat with his Dobro.


 BFGUL floats like a butterfly between groups directing proceedings loosely and then disapearing into the crowd leaving others to actually sort things out.

We play numbers with all that arrive and then the BIG moment arrives......DELILAH.




 The strat is laid down, it's magic and work done for the evening, now its time for the vocal chords to man up and fulfil their destiny.


Within the first 10 bars of the song, the Pencoed Warbler has taken his mic and stand in hand a' la Rod Stewart and is doing press ups against the bar. He's then moved across in front of both the big man and I and is exercising his larynx to the max. All that was missing was the whipping off of a pair of  velcro'd together trousers to reveal leopard skin briefs. If he had I don't think anyone would have been surprised. In BFGUL world this was Wembley...

At the end of the gig it turned slightly sour with accusations of missing plectrums and mic leads with compulsory searches of everyone's bags that were leaving. " I can't play NY without a mic lead" he was heard to repeat over and over.

Lead located, tantrum reduced to manageable and we head back to Pat and Wendy's where we exchange gifts and count at least $200 in further donations in addition to what Tom had earlier given.

A great night in a great town with great people.


Nos da