Chick’s Tavern, Bridgeport, PA

It happened on Twitter… a few Tweets about Mussel Bowl, a mutual tweeter’s son in the competition and Mayhem and Mischief were confirm witnesses to the spectacular.  It also firmly cemented, without question in anyone’s part, which one of us was truly Mayhem and which one of us was truly Mischief (so ok, maybe only one of us had questioned it).

*Ahem* Let’s just say that Danielle J has always known that she is Mischief. You may carry on with the tale now…

There seemed to be some confusion on the part of several as to the event–everything from “muffles” to “muscles” (though the latter was found during round two and properly inspected for, uh, quality assurance purposes).  In fact, however, it was mussels, and the winner of the event (being whomever could eat the most mussels in 10 minutes of eating) would be crowned for the year and receive… more mussels.  That’s right, the winner of the event wins not only bragging rights, but free mussels for a year on Monday nights (Chick’s All You Can Eat Mussel Night).  Entry fees for the event were donated to the AOH Club in Swedesburg.

Because we were late in our arrival, we missed the performance by the Irish Thunder Pipe Band–though we had the opportunity to meet several of them–at least it was assumed they were members of Irish Thunder unless kilts are suddenly all the rage (and I think they should be… they are quite sexy)!  Most impressive was the spare beer bottle holder on their belts.  An accessory that must be further investigated.

The kilts were indeed kinda awesome. Mick was gracious enough to give us an up close and personal view of the garment.  Personally, I could use one of those beer holding thingys to carry around my spare bottle of Coca-cola, and keeping a dagger in your um…socks? hose? is cool too. [slideshow]

We did arrive just before the contest was fully underway to cheer on the youngest contestant ever… he didn’t take the prize, but for turning 13 today, he did well up against the big guys! He should be proud for getting in the mix–competition, no matter the event is never easy to own–and he did it like a champ!

Upon entering Chick’s the atmosphere was one of pure testosterone… it was fabulous. My Mischievous counterpart took a safe spot behind the table with the event’s unofficial-official timekeeper, Amanda, and I very easily cozied into the bar for a beer.  I say very easily, because every guy in the vicinity put their arms around me to get me there–and really anywhere I attempted to go.  Polite groping. Most notable was the one guy who actually apologized to me for swearing in front of me–it was kind of sweet (even if I do, on occasion, have my grandmothers mouth).

Yeah, so please know that Mayhem really, really enjoyed the atmosphere of the bar.  I feel bad for the dude who felt the need to apologize for swearing. If only he’d known that just a few hours later Mayhem would be apologizing to me for blurting out obscenities during our evening repast.

Anyway, Mayhem is correct about me finding a place of safety because it was incredibly crowded in the tavern. No one groped me though (maybe they thought I would bludgeon them with my camera? )*shrug* Either way, I stood with the official, unofficial time keeper and enjoyed the sights and sounds of manly competition. I only call it manly because no women competed.

Since I had managed to take up residence in Amanda’s space behind the table, I asked her how she became the timekeeper.  She told me that her friend Tim, aka Bip, (who prepared for the competition by eating 13 pancakes and 6 sausage links the night before) was competing and she was there to cheer him to victory.  It would seem that she was standing too close to the announcer’s table and was coerced into keeping time (and selling t-shirts and ultimately announcing) for the event.

There were two rounds of competition, each with two five minute segments of mussel consumption. The winner was in the second round, and Tim ate somewhere around 280 mussels in 10 minutes to take the title…. I wonder if he will be in today for All You Can Eat Mussels?  We left shortly after the competition ended… but not without a commemorative t-shirt and box of Girl Scout cookies.  Some people can’t pass up the mussels, I can’t pass up a box of thin mints.

How is it that Mayhem forgot that people thought we were the t-shirt sales people? I mean, just because we were standing behind a table, where t-shirts were clearly for sale, wouldn’t make someone think that we were sales people, would it? Nevertheless, I/we sold one t-shirt.

It was a good time by all kind of day… even falling on my ass in the snow getting to the car could be considered a highlight (I laughed and snapped a few pictures before helping her up). If nothing else, it was certainly funny–even if I did whine about my jeans being wet later as we capped off the adventures with cake at Stone Rose.  Because all good adventures end with cake.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp9IHOxcwNA&w=560&h=345]