Drive to Hartford and the show…

So after lunch in Provincetown i hit Hartford on the GPS and it came up with t a travelling time of three and a half hours, arrival time of 5:30pm. I wasn't planning on stopping on the way back as id seen what i wanted to see on the way up. I'd arranged to meet Matt, Erin, John and his son Seth at a bar next to the venue at around 5pm so wasn't going to be that late at all.

The drive back was pretty straight forward, it was the same way i'd driven earlier in the day and the day before. I then headed down towards Hartford on the main highway. John called me to check where i was and Erin called to say she was still working in Hartford and would be there around six.

I hadn't seen John and Seth since the Dark Side tour and Erin since Boston a couple of weeks ago. Erin and i met online after she had come over and returned to the UK for Gilmour's Meltdown show in 2000, we didn't know each other when she was there which was a shame. We had however met up in various other places around the world since them. She had come over in 2002 for Rogers press Conference and Gilmour's shows at the Royal Festival Hall,  she had also flown over for Rogers shows in Verona, Italy several years ago, plus she came over for the Live 8 show in 2005 and we’d met up several times for dinner over the years while i was in New York. She had offered me her place to stay for tonight after the show for which i was real grateful.

I arrived at the meet up place about 5:45pm John and Seth were waiting outside and he had just seen “some guy with glasses and long hair” leave the bar and go around the corner, this later turned out to be Matt.

John and I                                                     Seth and I
     

Matt soon came back to the bar with his friend Wes and Erin joined usafter work about 20 minutes later with her friend Tom. The bar was packed and the wait for a table was thirty minutes upwards! Erin had gone across the street to see how long the wait would be for a table and came back over to tell us they could fit us in straight away, we headed over there.

Seth, myself, Erin, Wes and Matt
 

We had a bite to eat and John made a trip back to his hotel with Seth to drop off his video camera before coming back to join us from the walk over to the venue. Erin an dTom had left to get their tickets from will call so the rest of us just wondered over at our leisure. This was the first and only time John and Seth would be seeing the show. It was actually Seth's first gig ever! You just know that no other gig is ever gonna compare now Seth dont you ?

We went in the venue a they took their seats (which were great !) and i headed down onto the floor to see Erin, Tom, Wes and Matt.

Seth and John                                      Matt and Wes

 

I was 10th row on the aisle in the middle block, my favourite position after the front rail. It had been a day off from the shows yesterday and i was looking forward to seeing it again. It’s just not possible to get bored of this show one bit! there's just so much going on all the time! 

After the first couple of tracks you could tell the band were very tight yet again, the sound was incredible and everyone was on fine form (Dave told me earlier today he had food poisoning and was throwing up a lot so didn't feel 100%!) and Roger was just as animated through the show. After 4 or 5 tracks a young girl came and sat next to me and we got talking at the intermission, she was a guest of Dave's and her name was Eve. She had seen the show in New York and the rehearsal show at the Izod and had driven up from New York today just for the show tonight.

One thing that was different tonight was the kids during Another Brick, i think they were actually better than the Chicago kids! someone had done some choreography with them and told them to really go for it tonight as you can see from the video below!

Kids in Hartford

I got a call on my cell at intermission from an my friend Casey. He told me his section and row and i went up to see him. Casey and i met in 2000 at Gilmour's Meltdown show, he had come over to the gig with his friend Jason from the USA. We got talking at Gilmour's gig, exchanged e mail address’s and said we'd keep in touch. It was a couple of weeks after Gilmour's show that i had a terrible e mail off Casey telling me that Jason had been killed in a car crash the day before. I remember reading the e mail several times and i couldn't believe we had been hanging out together a couple of weeks previous, such a tragic loss. Casey and i had kept in touch and i think the last time we saw each other was at Gilmour's gig in New York, i also met Jason's brother there  who had joined Casey to see Gilmour.

Casey had come along to the show with his girlfriend Deb and Jason's brother and his girlfriend. IDeb told me she had heard all about me and had been looking forward to meeting me, i said hopefully everythging she had heard was good! It was great to sit and chat to them and its such a shame we didn't have more time,  Casey and i had a chat while the girls were off buying a drink and we both said that Jason was sure to be looking down on us and seeing the show some how, i got a little teary eyed after that.  It was fantastic to see you again Casey and to meet you Deb. I know you said you've both been enjoying my blog and hope you continue to do so.

Casey and I                                             Seth and John at intermission

 

I made my way back down to my seat and sat for the second half pointing Roger nuances out to Eve, i think her comment was “ i can tell you've seen this show before” There were a couple of mistakes  but nothing real big, Roger sang into the megaphone when he should have sung into the mic but realised pretty quick and covered it up well. He was in a talkative mood tonight. Someone shouted out to him from the audience between one of the tracks and he replied with a shout of “what?” he then said “sorry i cant hear you because of these things (ear pieces) in my ear” its unusual for him to interact tin hat way and i haven't seen it very often at all.

I love how Roger is even more into the fascist character now, during In The Flesh at the start of the second set when he says “id have all of you shot” he’s picking people out in the audience and pointing to them and mouthing the words “you, go on, get out”  he then fires an imaginary gun at them,  then doing the same to someone in the front couple of rows and then the left side of the stage.

The wall came down great and Eve and i made our way to the front rail for Outside The Wall. I love seeing the band this close up when all the lights are on them, during this track, they’re just sall miles and happy the whole time. Roger sang “all alone and in fucking two;s” which i haven't heard him do before. He then did what seems to have become a regular thing at the end of the shows, he goes over to stage left and thanks the audience, then stage centre and does the same and then as he points to stage right he’s been saying “ and the people on this side always tend to be the loudest”  which of course generates a huge cheer from the people in the seats in that area!

After the show i hung around with Eve for 10 minutes and had a quick chat with Dave before i left to meet up with John, Seth, Matt and Wes to say goodbye. I then headed down to Erin's place about 30 minutes south of Hartford. Erin had prepared the spare bedroom for me and even left me a little tray of bath products in case i'd forgot anything, thanks ever so much for the hospitality and i really appreciate you letting me stay over, it was great to see you again.

Eve and myself after the show.                   Usually only found in hotels!!

  

Day in Cape Cod

So i was in bed for 7:30pm last night, the swim in the pool earlier on had cleared my headache a bit but i was still feeling a little under the weather. I laid in bed watching Gossip Girl (i know, i know!) on my laptop and must have fallen asleep within 10 minutes. I woke around 3am to find me laptop on my chest. I managed to get back to sleep for a few hours and went down to the Gym around 9am. I still wasn't 100% but felt good enough to do 25 mins on the treadmill.

I’d picked up a couple of tourist maps from the hotel reception and a couple of friends had suggested places to go and visit on my way up to Provincetown. I'd been told Provincetown was a really cute town and if i had the chance to see it then it was worth the 1 hour drive north. I had also been told it was the gay capital of the USA! 

I'd heard the rain last night outside and it sounded pretty bad! there was no sound at all this morning so i was guessing it had stopped, thankfully it had and although it was thick cloud it was dry but real windy.

My first stop was Fort Hill, my friend Franz had suggested i stop by here as the view fo the ocean was great, he wasn't wrong. When i said it was real windy that was an understatement, its was blowing a gale! i got out of the car at Fort Hill and it nearly took the car door outa my hand and off the hinges! it was nice to feel like i was back home in England!

   

I sat there for 20 minutes or so just watching the wind blowing the surf off the top of the waves, it cleared my head a lot and i felt great after getting back in the car!

Fort Hill Panorama:

As i drove to the car park at Fort Hill i passed a beautiful old house and stopped by on the way back. It was uninhabited and as i got closer it was obvious it wasn't just any old house and was somewhere special.

Penniman House:

   

The whole of Cape Cod is littered with Bed & Breakfast places,I've never been a real fan of bed & Breakfasts to be honest but it would be worth staying in some of them on the Cape just to stay in such beautiful houses! they look amazing from the outside and i can only imagine what the rooms must be like on the inside!

   

As you can see from the above pictures, the weather was picking up and the sun was coming out, it was still real windy though but i can handle this, its the rain i don't like, i hate getting wet! and it's no fun wandering around in the rain.

My next stop was Marconi beach. On the way i passed the biggest Halloween display I've ever seen! this was just someone's house and they had gone all out to decorate their garden! Halloween is HUGE in the USA and the more the days go by the more people are decorating. Not sure I'll see another one as good and  as big as this though.

   

   

I would have loved to have seen the above at night, there were lights all over it and it must have looked great when it was dark.

My friend Matt suggested i stopped over at Marconi beach as it has a bit of significance sinec i was English! Guglielmo Marconi built the first radio station near the beach and sent the first transatlantic radio transmission from the USA to King Edward VII in the UK!

Although there's nothing at all left of the actual radio station there's lots of info there about it including area maps, models and details of the whole transmission that took place in 1901

      

I thought it would be cool to call my dad on my cell phone while i was there so called him and explained where i was and why i was calling, this was kinda cool and ironic that i was stood where i was  and calling the UK some 109 years later on a cell phone that was no larger than a couple of credit cards stuck together! Click on the above pics for larger images to read about Marconi.

I sat on the edge of the sand cliffs for a while just taking in the view, there were signs everywhere warning of the eroding cliffs. As i got closer to the edge you could see just how high the cliffs were and they were just pure sand, no rock at all and these must erode back at an amazing rate! Again, it was nice just to sit there and watch the surf and the waves crashing down.

The pictures below give you no idea at all as to how steep those sand cliffs were, they must have been 50ft high and very steeply raked.

  

I was about 15 miles away from Provincetown and all the way through the cape were seafood places at the side of the road, these ranged from large restaurants to real small shacks selling muscles, lobster, clams and anything else you can get from the sea and eat! Being from the UK i wasn't a huge seafood eater and had only eaten seafood while i was in the US and specifically on the east coast. One of my favourite dishes is the clam chowder you get in the bread bowl, they do it on the west coast in San Francisco and it comes in a sourdough bread roll which i love. I was going to stop for lunch on the way up to Provincetown but thought id get there instead and find somewhere to eat up there, this turned out to be a good decision.

I love the style of houses in the Cape and i don't think I've ever seen as many cedar shingle clad houses in my life!! Every single house was different, there were no two alike, each one was unique in both style and colour. Just as i saw one that i liked i saw another and this went on the whole time i was around the Cape. I love looking at houses and this was heaven for me.

 

   

I arrived in Provincetown around noon and parked in the car park for the Pilgrim Tower. It was $7 to go up and i thought it would give a great birds eye view of the area from the top.

 

There were 116 steps to the top, no lift, just concrete steps all the way. The steps weren't like one after the other like the staircase in a house but like 2 long steps, then you would turn 90 degrees and 2 more steps and so on and so on walking around the inside of the tower. I'm not sure how many floors it was equivalent to but i would have loved to have run up it in my running gear, would have been a fantastic workout!

The steps up the tower

The view from the top was nothing short of spectacular, you could see for miles and miles in either direction. It was however VERY windy, as i walked round the top of the tower and walked to the east side i had to hang on to my hoodie to stop it blowing off. You were totally out in the open at the top but there were railing all around and plastic lookouts where you could take pictures.

Views from the top of the Pilgrim Tower:

   

   

I was the only one at the top of the tower and didn't see anyone else on my way up or down! i wanted to get a picture of me at the top but the only way was by taking a picture using my cell phone, hence the comb over from the wind in the pictures below!

 

   After 20 minutes at the top i made my way down to look round the town centre. As i said earlier i had been told that Provincetown was the gay capitol of the USA, i had no idea at all just how gay it was! There were same sex couples EVEYWHERE! i have no idea how it came to be like this in a little sleepy town but it was very obvious from the moment i walked down the street. I'm pretty sure had i waited long enough in one place i could have taken five or six pictures and assembled a montage of people resembling the Village People from the video for their song YMCA!

The town itself was real nice, it was very similar to Key West, lots of real small streets with small boutique shops and real nice architecture. Again each of the buildings were very unique and each had their own style and colour.

   

I did a little shopping and went in and out of the stores for an hour. I then saw a little seafood place and went in for lunch. I sat at a table inside the restaurant on the ocean front looking out over the ocean at the boats moored up and the wind blowing the waves onto the beach and had THE best clam chowder I've ever had!

The Lobster Pot                                 My clam chowder lunch                     The view from my table

   

I headed back out onto the street and just wandered up and down the alleys taking in all the people and buildings around me, if your a fan of people watching then believe me this is THE place to come. You cannot even begin to imagine the sights i saw! as I'm sure a lot of people say in Provincetown, what happens in Provincetown stays in Provincetown!!

Some of the shops and buildings (yes it was a bakery for dogs with their own cookies!):

The beautiful colours of the trees turning.

   

It was now past 2pm and i had stayed in Provincetown a little longer than i had planned, i had no idea it was so nice and would have booked a hotel here instead of in Hyannis the night before had i known, ah well its another place to come back to some day i guess. iIhad a three and a half hour drive to do to get to Hartford for the show tonight and i was meeting a few people around five before the show so i had to get moving.

Provincetown beach panorama

Just wanted to say thanks to Franz and Matt for suggesting the places i went to, had it not been for you both i wouldn't have known about these, cheers.

Lots more pictures in the album here, click below.

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