Last stop on tour..

On the way to Alpharetta I saw someone hit a possum, but I didn't have the song to play :(
I got to Alpharetta and used the directions my dad gave me to get to Outback Steakhouse to use up the last of my giftcard and get a good meal. I ordered a steak with snow crab and baked potato, and it was absolutely delicious. The bartender took good care of me, she poured my drinks strong after I asked her to, and I left her a nice tip before I headed to Wills Park to camp. I got there and there were horse trailers everywhere, so I guessed that there was some sort of equestrian event going on there. I set up my trailer in the same spot I had for Phish and went to sleep fairly quickly. The next morning I woke up and hung out in my camper til Chris and Keith hit me up or until Charlie from Phish came. I watched this cool new show called Wilfred which was quite original. A little after noon Chris and Keith hit me up and headed my way. We explored the park a bit before deciding to hang in the A/C of their hotel room. We sat around talking about what songs we wanted to hear them play, and Keith wanted Wharf Rat or Half-Step, Chris wants Ruben and Cherise every show I go to with him, but he hasn't gotten it yet, and I wanted Magnolia Mountain, more beatles, and I've been saying they'll end the tour with Terrapin Station for a long time. The song everyone wanted but was a long shot was Fool in the Rain. We hung out there for a while until I got a text from Charlie saying they had made it to Wills Park, so we headed there. By the time we got there they had left for food, so we headed to the lot. We got parked and walked around, and since I was low on money I was looking for ways to make money. I happened to find 5 hat pins on a piece of cardboard on the ground, and I walked around and sold 3 of them by the time the show was about to start. I headed up to the venue to try and get a miracle, and there was a group of 5 people standing in a chalk circle with signs that said "We need a big ass miracle". They were getting people to step in their circle for good luck, so I stepped in, and ended up making friends with them and staying there to try and get a ticket too. They had already gotten one miracle, and only needed 4 more for the rest of the group. Once the show started they realized that they might not all get a ticket, so since they all couldn't go in, they traded me the ticket for one of the hat pins, but I gave em both that I had left.
I hurried in to the show as "Not Fade Away" was playing and found my seat down in the Orchestra Pit. "New Speedway Boogie" was next and flowed smoothly into "I Need A Miracle". "Miracle" was special for me because I had gotten a miracle to get into the show. During this song I was looking around the crowd and saw Keith and Chris a little ways away, so I made my way over there and sat with them right as "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" came on, with Phil on vocals. It was ironic, because just a few hours before when talking about what they might play Keith said he didn't really want any more old obscure Dlyan tunes, but we all agreed that more Beatles would be great. Even though it wasn't what we wanted, this was prob the best "Tom Thumb" that I have heard them play. "Magnolia Mountain" by Ryan Adams is quite possibly my favorite cover I've ever heard Furthur play, and I had been hoping for one all tour, and finally got one tonight! It was amazing to hear this song again, and it was enough to bring tears to Keith's eyes. JK did a great job singing it. Next was a Jerry Band tune, "Mission In the Rain". Furthur performed this for the first time earlier this tour, at one of the shows I missed, and I was Grateful to be able to hear it. When they started playing the first notes of the next song Keith got excited and I looked over and then Chris realized what song it was and his face was priceless, because he was finally going to get to hear "Ruben and Cherise". JK sang this one too, and they really jammed out. They kept jamming right into "Deal" to end the set, with Jeff Chimenti really shining on keyboards.
The second set opened with a bang on "Samson and Delilah" which had Jeff and Joe really jamming and stealing the spotlight. I got another one of my wishes when the next song came on, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" off Abbey Road by the Beatles, and JK did a great job wit the Beatles vocals as always. Another Jerry Band song came next, "Bird Song", and Phil sang this one and did a good job at it. "Bird Song" was super crazy and then continued straight into "Terrapin Station Suite". I was to the point of tears during this song, and it lasted over 20 minutes. Joe Russo grew another set of arms while he was playing the drums on this son, that's the only way he could have done it. And JK killed the vocals until Bobby came in and started singing. After that greatness came "Unbroken Chain" which Phil really did great on, both vocals and bass, and at one point the tempo really picked up and they played it super fast. That flowed into "Standing on the Moon" which I hadn't heard from them before and really enjoyed. Then came "China Cat Sunflower" into "I Know You Rider" which is known to heads as China Rider. The crowd was really great on "Rider" and at points you could hear the crowd singing over Bobby. They then went back into what they started with, going into verse 3 of "Not Fade Away", and when they were done the crowd kept clapping and chanting until Phil came up to give his Donor Rap before the encore.
The encore was "U.S. Blues", which had also been the encore of the first night of tour other than festivals at Bethel. They then kept going into another Beatles tune, "The End".
Overall this show was the best of the tour, and I told Chris and Keith that. We went back to the lot and walked around and got some food and I waited on Charlie to see if they needed a ride, but they had walked back to Wills Park, so we headed there and Chris shared one beer before they left for the hotel, and Charlie, Leotis and I were all that was left there. We stayed up talking until I fell asleep.

Brokedown, and not in a Palace

We woke up in the hotel and got everything ready to leave and followed Jess and Dlyan to a Bojangles to eat and then hit the road. We decided it would be better to split up so I didn't hold them back since my trailer won't do more than 70. We hit the road and made it almost to Winston-Salem when my car started slowing down and acting up. I drove along the shoulder to get off Interstate and see what was wrong. It felt like the transmission was acting up, as I had no power in the higher gears. We got the car pulled off and looked at it, and there was no quick fix, so I called roadside assistance and arranged a tow. Since Drew and Jason had to make it to the show to keep finding rides, I called Jess and had them turn around to come pick them up. The tow truck came like a half hour after Jess picked them up, and my trailer wasn't covered under the roadside assistance, so I found someone on the street I had pulled onto who let me keep my trailer there for $5 a day. After arranging that, we took the car to the Acura dealership, but by that point it was too late for them to look at it, so they took me to a hotel, and I stayed the night. The next morning I woke up and hung out in the hotel room until a little after noon when I talked to the dealership and found out that it was the catalytic converter, and not the transmission, but they wanted 1,600 to fix it, so I thought for a while and figured that I could just take the converter off and it should drive fine. The guys at the dealership agreed that that would work, but they couldn't legally let me drive off without a catalytic converter, so I had to take it off my self. After walking to the dealership to get my car, I drove it to AutoZone to try and take it off, but was having trouble getting it off. Someone in the parking lot ended up helping me, and instead of taking the whole cat off, he just took out the O2 sensor and that gave a big enough hole to allow my car to drive. I then set off for Alpharetta.

Hanging with Roanokins

We woke up in the morning and hit the road south to Roanoke, where my friend Jess lives. After a long drive we made it to Roanoke and met her and her friends at a coffee shop, and hung out there for a while before going to her friend Dylan's house to stay the night. We partied there for a while til we all finally went to sleep. The next morning we woke up and most everyone had already left, and Jess was getting ready for work. We said goodbye and hit the road for Raleigh. The show was originally supposed to be at Time Warner Pavilion where Phish played, but due to poor ticket sales the venue was changed to the Raleigh Amphitheater. We had a little trouble finding it, but once we did we were surprised to see how small it was. The way it was set up the parking lot was directly behind the show with a view of the stage and everything. The parking lot was like a giant lawn that you didn't have to pay for. I immideatly decided that I wasn't even going to look for a ticket, and just enjoy the show from the lot. All the shows I've seen so far I have been able to make it in, but I've always wanted to stay on lot for a show. This was a perfect chance to do that. I walked around lot and eventually met up with Dylan and hung out with him while he was waiting on Jess to arrive. We got spots where we could see the show and sat on the ice chest full of beer and waited for the show.
Furthur opened with "Alligator" and "Gloria", both of which were songs I hadn't heard them play before, and they did a great job with them. Listening to the show from lot was quite different, as I spent lots of time talking and making friends instead of just listening to the show. "Ramble on Rose" was followed by a Phil and Friends song written by Phil and Robert Hunter called "No More Do I". I hadn't ever heard that song before, and no one around me could place what song it was. Next was a Bobby song, "Hell In a Bucket" followed by the great "Row Jimmy". The last song of the short set was "A Hard Rain a-Gonna Fall" which is an old Bob Dlyan tune.
I spent the whole set break walking around making friends and drinking beer. The second set opened with "Good Lovin'" which got things off to a roll. Next was a Viola Lee sandwich, starting with the first verse of "Viola Lee Blues" and going into "Bertha" back into "Viola Lee" into "Next Time You See Me" and finally back into "Viola Lee". "Bertha" was the highlight of the sandwich, but all the "Viola Lee's" were great. Next was a "Crypitcal Envelopment" sandwich, with "The Other Ones" stuck in the middle. This is also known as "That's It for the Other One". "Morning Dew" was followed by a great "Mountains on the Moon" which Phil killed. "Let it Grow" and "Sugar Magnolia" were the last two songs of the set, and by this point I was pretty drunk from all the lot beer. "Johnny B Goode" by Chuck Berry was the encore, and I was running around dancing in the street all during the song. When the people started to come out I stood by the exit looking for familiar faces and passing out flyers for some guy.
I eventually found Drew and Jason and let Jason drive because he was sober, and I got in touch with Dlyan and Jess and we found the hotel they were staying at and we got a room too. We wandered around the hotel checking out different rooms before I finally went to sleep.

Canadaigua show.

I woke up in the park and got my stuff together and headed north through the beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York. I stopped at Taughannock Falls State Park and drove up to the overlook. The falls were absolutely gorgeous, dropping 215 feet to the valley below, making them the tallest in the area. They carved out a huge gorge that was hundreds of feet below me, and I could see the people walking below me. After spending some time there, I continued onward. All along the Finger Lakes are winery', and I stopped by a few, but my favorite was Sheldrake Point Winery on Cayuga Lake. I purchased two bottles from there to give as gifts, and then continued on. I got to Canadaigua a little after noon, and since lot wasn't open I looked around town and found a brewery called The Naked Dove. They had several different kinds of beer, but my favorites were the IPA and a blackberry ale. I ended up buying a growler of the blackberry ale and then went to wait in line for lot to open. I ran into my friend Jenn there and we hung out til lot opened at almost 4. It had the worst lot of all the shows, people just didn't seem into the lot scene as much at this show. I spent most of my time hanging out around my car, and ended up making two new friends, Jason and Drew, who needed a ride to the next show. I cleaned out some space in my car, and they loaded their stuff up. By then it was time for the show to start, so I headed in.
They opened with "Golden Road" which is what they opened with on my birthday, and is one of my favs to start a show with. Next was "Beat It On Down the Line" and "Promised Land", which is one of my favorites because it is about moving to California, which is what I am fixing to do. Next was "Tons of Steel" which is the first time I have heard Furthur play it. "Dark Hollow" and "They Love Each Other". "Dark Hollow" was a highlight of the night, and so was the next song, a Clash cover, "Train in Vain". I knew it was a Clash song, but wasn't sure which one until after the show. "Big Railroad Blues" ended the set, and it was fitting because the set seemed to have a trains theme running through it. Most of the songs in the set mention trains in some way. After a typical long set break, the second set started off with a great "Truckin'", which just so happens to be my dad's favorite Dead song since college. That flowed into "Smokestack Lightening". Then was an AMAZING cover of the Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". This will definitely prove to be a highlight of the tour, they killed it!!! After the awesomeness that is the Beatles, they played "New Potato Caboose", continuing with the trains theme. Then was the entire "Dark Star", and this time the crowd remained standing, instead of sitting like at Jones Beach. The next song was "Uncle John's Band", another classic. "Black Peter" was another highlight of the night, as was "Gimmie Some Lovin". They played another song from my birthday night, "Goin Down the Road Feeling Bad". They ended the set the same way they did at my first show, with "Bid You Goodnight". This time wasn't quite as emotional as the first show, but it still managed to bring a tear to my eyes. The encore was "Lazy River Road", which Jerry wrote but didn't have a chance to record before he died. It had many of the old heads tearing up.
I went back to the lot, and the cops had already made the vendors take down their stuff, which is the first time this has happened on tour. I waited around for Jason and Drew to make it to my car, and we drove south to find a hotel, since they wanted one. We got to Watkins Glen and stayed at the Seneca Lodge, which was beautiful, and very reasonably priced. We had our own little cabin, but no TV or the like. We went pretty much straight to bed once we got settled.

Vibes Sunday

Sunday morning we woke up and hung around camp for a while, and I spent part of the day selling stickers and necklaces. Vibes doesn't allow people to camp Sunday night, so we all packed up camp Sunday afternoon before heading into the stage area. I made it in right as Dr. John and the Lower 911 was coming on. He of course played numerous New Orleans songs, and was the funkiest band of the weekend. The Lower 911 featured a guitarist, a bassist, a trombone, and a drummer, along with Dr. John on Keys and vocals. The song "Save our Wetlands" was awesome, and had a great message behind it. After seeing him twice this summer, Dr. John has become one of my new favorites.
The Rhythm Devils were up next, and consisted of the Dead drummers, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, along with Steve Kimock and Keller Williams on guitar, and Reed Mathis on bass. They opened up with "Not Fade Away" and during the song Mathis broke a string, but kept on playing while he was changing it. They flowed from that into "Franklin's Tower", which Kimock killed. This went into a song I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's a Keller original, followed by another of his, "Gotta Get to Your House". The Devils really jammed on this next one, a cover of The Kinks' "Ape Man" and Keller's vocals were great. Next was a Rhythm Devils original, written with the great Robert Hunter, called "Next Dimension". It goes 'Love is the ocean and time is the tide...' I hadn't heard this song before, but it was incredible, and great to hear a new Hunter tune. They went back into the Dead after this, with "Scarlet Begonias" into "Fire on the Mountain" to end the set. They came back on for an encore of "Samson and Deliah", which is one of the two songs I was really hoping to hear the Devils play. It is some of the best drumming of any of the Dead songs, and it was obvious that neither Bill or Mickey have lost steam over the years.
After that great show came the John Butler Trio, which consists of John Butler on guitar, Nicky Bomba on drums, and Bryan Luthier on Bass. They opened with a song I didn't recognize, but the second song they played was the classic "Used to Get High". That went into an amazing "One Way Road" with John on slide guitar. Michael Keys came up as a guest on piano, and John told everyone that its his brother-in-law, and so is Nicky Bomba. He sat in for "Gonna be a Long Time", and it sounded awesome with the addition of keys. Luthier pulled out an upright bass and a didgeridoo for "Treat Yo Momma" and did a great job with em. After "Momma" the band left, and John pulled out his 12 string and played his trademark song, "Ocean". I swear that each time I hear that song it gets more and more beautiful. I still stand by my opinion that he is the best 12-string player touring. The band came back out for "Revolution" and "Don't Wanna See Your Face". There had been tons of little tennis ball sized foam balls thrown around the crowd, and at this point lots of them had made it on stage, and instead of getting mad, they began throwing em at each other and at the crowd. Lots of energy, and everyone jumping around. They also kept great stage banter, telling how Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa are their idols. John brought out his banjo and played a new instrumental called "Never Eat Acid on a Stage full of Balls" or something like that. The instrumental jam flowed nicely into "Better Than". Brother Michael came back up with a guest percussionist for "Zebra", and they were an awesome addition to the song. John then started scatting his voice and led the crowd in a chant/scat. The last song he dedicated to everyone's ass, hoping to get it moving like a disco. The song was "Close to You", and it definitely had everyone shaking their ass. There was so much dancing, a cloud of dust was rising over the crowd. There were extra drums for this song as well, and all 3 members played the drums for an amazing drum solo to end the set. For the encore just John came out, and played "Losing You" dedicated to all loved ones. The band came back on for "Funky Tonight" which featured another drum solo. The encore was super long, and after over 15 minutes I left to head to my car so I make it to Dave's before too late. I'll have to hear the rest of the set on a recording.
I left Vibes and headed to Dave's and made it there around 9:30 and started washing some clothes and then went to bed. The next morning I awoke and chilled around the house until around 11 when I hit the road for the next Furthur show in Canadaigua. Last night I made it to Ithica and found a park to sleep in where I could plug in my computer. I am gonna head up towards the show and stop by the finger lakes for a while on the way.

Jane Says its Vibes Saturday

After the long night of partying, I slept all day, and woke up at 5 in time to catch the end of Deep Banana Blackout. I had really been excited for them, but only ended up getting to hear one song, but that one song rocked. I'll catch them again somewhere else. After that moe. came on, and I stayed under Riki Jee's Tree of Love to listen from the back, and ended up falling back asleep. I slept through lots of Elvis Costello as well, but woke up in time to hear him cover the Dead's "Must have Been the Roses". He did a great job on "Roses", and the sound was impeccable for all the songs I heard.
By this point I was wide awake to make sure I didn't miss Jane's Addiction, and we made our way up near the front. There was a giant tarp blocking the stage from view, and all of the sudden it dropped right as they started playing. They started putting on a great show right away, with girls swinging from ropes around the stage, and blow up dolls as tall as the stage. Perry Ferrell did a great job as the front man, and Dave Navarro absolutely killed on guitar. Stephen Perkins was on Drums, and I think Chris Chaney is the Bassist. They did a cover of Pink Floyd's "In the Flesh", and also an instrumental "Sparks" by The Who. They teased Floyd again right before going into "Been Caught Stealing" and "Summertime Rolls". Those 3 songs were the highlight of the night for me. There was also an awesome drum solo near the end of the set. Throughout the night Perry Ferrall kept saying in not so subtle ways that he wanted someone to throw him a joint, saying things like "glowsticks are hard, joints are soft" and "i'd really like a smoke right now, but I don't have any". He finally got some when they came on for the encore, and thanked whoever threw it. The encore was an acoustic "Jane Says" and was phenomenal. Epic end to an epic set. I went into the show liking Jane's Addiction, but not really a fan, and just hoping for a good show overall, but I left the show a converted fan. They were incredible live, and I will be seeing them again if I get the chance. Perpetual Groove was playing late night, but we all walked back to camp to settle down for the night.

Vibes Furthur Friday

A heat wave hit Vibes Friday, and the temperatures went above 100 for a good part of the afternoon. Due to the heat we stayed in camp resting most of the day. I wanted to catch the Tedeschi Trucks Band, but it was too hot, and the set was being played on the radio, so we sat in camp and listened to them play. They were good, but I just wish he'd play an Allman Brothers song or two. I started heading down to the stage right when Levon Helm was scheduled to come on, and I only missed a few songs. Levon Helm was the Drummer for The Band, in case you didn't know. Levon's band was huge, with several singers and guitarists and a whole horn section. Shortly after I made my way to the front, Levon welcomed Joe Russo, Furthur's drummer, to the stage. He sat in on "Mississippi Queen" and several others before Levon called Bob Weir on stage. Bobby sang "Deep Ellum Blues", and then went into "Attics of My Life". For "Attics", Levon wasn't even on the stage, but it was the highlight of the show. The A Capella singing was incredible. The song right after "Mardi Gras Day" I don't know the name of, but the female singer sang it with such soul, and I can't wait to download the show to see what song it was. After a few more songs with Levon back on the drums, he introduced the band, which seemed more like a family than a band. His pregnant daughter was a vocalist, and the leader of the band was Larry Campbell, and Howard Johnson the jazz player was the saxophonist. The encore had the whole band back out, and had both Joe and Levon on the drums for "The Weight", which is arguably The Band's most popular song.
After what seemed like forever to wait, Furthur came on and opened with "Minglewood Blues". Then JK killed "Friend of the Devil" sounding incredibly like Jerry. They then played "Mama Tried", a Hank Williams song that DSO covered the night before. "Dire Wolf" was next, and jammed on this for a long time before playing "Sugaree", which had the whole crowd shakin'! Next was an impressive "Deal" followed by another cover DSO played the night before, Cash's "Big River". Hearing both country songs that DSO played the night before was really cool, and begs the question of if they maybe played them because DSO played them, since John used to be a part of their band. Either way it was cool. The last song of the set was a rarity, "Mason's Children". this was a song off Workingman's Dead that was rarely played.
The second set started off with a blast on "St. Stephen" and then into "The Eleven". Then they played a Furthur original, "Mountain Song", which is my second favorite original behind "Colors of the Rain". They did a great job with it, showing that they can still write fantastic songs after all these years. That was followed by another song DSO played, "I Know You Rider". "Golden Slumber" into "Carry that Weight" was one of the highlights of the night, with everyone harmonizing nicely. Then came "Let It Grow" which they played a few nights before at Jones Beach. Then came "Stella Blue" which again had JK channeling Jerry's spirit. The awesomeness continued on into "Sugar Magnolia", and I found a dance partner for this song who was really cute and really topless. The last song of the show was "Around and Around", continuing the trend of playing songs from the DSO set. The encore was an absolute tearjerker, "Ripple". Incredibly emotional way to end the set, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Highlights were Mamma, Sugar, slumber>weight, and ripple.
After the show I went and checked out Big Gigantic before I realized that they don't play their own music anymore, and just remix songs. Dom used to be incredible, and still is, but I want to hear his music, not other people's. So I went back to the camp and partied there for a while before heading to the silent disco with my friend Ryan. We danced there until the sun came up, and he went back, but I went down to the beach to make more friends. By the time I finally went back to the camp I had been skinny dipping in the ocean, walked a long ways down the beach, danced my ass off to a car alarm, and found lots of cool shells. When I finally stumbled back into camp I passed out instantly, and slept ALL day.

Vibes Thursday

We met up with Riki and his friend Harry and his two sons in a WalMart parking lot and everyone loaded up on food and supplies. Harry was going to be staying in a hotel, but wanted to be able to hang with us, so I took his EZ UP and some other stuff in so that they wouldn't have to walk it in. We hit the road for Vibes and got to Bridgeport and almost as soon as we got off Interstate we were in a line. The line moved super slow, and we didn't make it to the wristband station until after 2. Once we had our wristbands we had to go the other way towards the security check, and that took another 2 hours. Along the way someone had set up a box of free CDs, and I grabbed a Dead show, a Phil & Friends show, and left a Furthur show. Once through security we all regrouped our cars and headed in. They parked us in the very very back, right up by the back road. We were also parked extremely close to each other, not leaving us very much room to set up. We made friends with our neighbors and began setting up our camp, and by 6 had everything set up. I wanted to go down and catch Dumpstafunk, but no one else would make the trek to the stage, so I stayed there with everyone else drinking beer and getting ready for Dark Star Orchestra. We made it to DSO right as they were ending "China Cat Sunflower" and into "I Know You Rider". Then Donna Jean Godchaux came out for "Jack Straw" and "Loose Lucy". Then came "Passenger". I thought they played "Brown Eyed Women" next, but on the site it says "Blow Away", but I remember hearing Brown Eyed. Then came a nice country section with a Hank Williams cover then Johnny Cash cover, "Mama Tried" and "Big River". Donna came back out to end the set with "The Harder They Come" and "Around and Around".
The second set opened with a fury going from "Help on the Way" into "Slipknot!" into "Feel Like a Stranger" and back into "Help". Donna came back out to sing one of my all time favorites, "Sugar Magnolia", and she sounded just as good as she did 40 years ago. She stayed on for an awesome rendition of "Fire on the Mountain", and "Playing in the Band" followed. Next was an epic "drums>space", which gave the crowd a long time of super psychedelic jamming that flowed into "St. Stephen". It was amazing to get to hear drums>space, and it sounded like the drums>space's from the late 60's. That flowed into "Alligator". Rob Barraco on keys sounded amazingly like Pigpen on this song, and its the closest I've heard since Pigpen died. "Morning Dew" flowed into a reprise of "Playing in the Band" to end the set. Donna came back for the encore, which was "My Sisters and Brothers" which I hadn't heard before, but was an awesome song. One of the cool things about DSO is that they will re-play old Dead setlists from back in the day, but this was an entirely original set.
After DSO, That 1 Guy was supposed to be playing, but no one could find the stage, and the map didn't help. After 30 minutes of looking, we headed back to camp to party until we went to sleep

SPAC to Vibes

On the way from Jones Beach I decided to avoid toll roads, and that's hard to do getting out of NYC, and it required me to drive through the city. It took me more than 3 hours to get on the other side of NYC, and then it was smooth sailing until I got to just south of Albany and had a flat tire. Luckily it was right by an Advance Auto Parts, and I was able to talk to them and find a Walmart nearby to get a new tire at. Walmart had the right tire, but my card wasn't working, so I had to wait til the next morning to call and get it taken care of. JB and I slept in the car in the parking lot, and I woke up and got the tire changed and on the road by 11.
We got to Saratoga Spa State Park, which is where Saratoga Performing Arts Center is, around 1 or 2 and found out that they weren't opening the lot until 5, but there was a Dead tribute band playing in one of the park's pavilions. I paid the $10 to get in and parked by the pavilion. A band called The Garcia Project was playing, and they were pretty sweet. They played a while and I sat on the grass and listened with sam and JB and some other friends. After The Garcia Project played, another band called the Stella Blues Band came on and played, then then played together, and then back to another set of the Garcia Project. They were both great bands, and together played most every popular Dead song. I spent some time exploring the beautiful park, and went down to a creek and sat by it for a while. The entire park is prob the most beautiful venue I've been to yet. Once five o'clock came, I moved my car to another lot closer to the venue and then walked towards shakedown street, which was over the highway. I spent some time walking around lot and found a ticket quickly. Once showtime came I went to my seat, and it was pretty good, Jeff's side about 25 seats or so back, right in front of the expensive box seats. I got to meat my neighbors, the guy on the right was an old deadhead, in maybe his middle 60s, and the guy on the right was who I bought the ticket from.
Furthur opened with a cover of the Beatle's "Here Comes the Sun", which reminds me of my sister Rachel, as that is her favorite Beatles song. Then came a nice "Cosmic Charlie" and "Pride of Cucamonga" which I had to ask what song it was, but I still enjoyed it. Then while I was in the bathroom they went into "Hell in a Bucket", which is one of my favorite Bobby songs, and he sang it great! "So Many Roads" followed, and was one of the highlights of the night, with everyone singing along and dancing. That segued into a great "Lost Sailor", one that I can't wait to hear again. They kept jamming right into "Saint of Circumstance" which I had been wanting to hear for a while. The last song of the set was "Casey Jones", and they built the song up into a blazing fury bringing the tempo up faster and faster. This has become a Furthur signature on this song, and this was the fastest one I have heard from them yet. It was a great way to end the set and leave us hungering for more.
During the second set I talked with the old Deadhead the entire time and traded stories until the band came back on. On my setlist I have the first 3 songs out of order and one of them is completely wrong. The first 30 or so minutes was solid jamming, and I got confused with the order. They opened with "Born Crosseyed" into "Caution (Do Not Stop On the Tracks)" which Phil killed, and then into "Cryptical Envelopment". That jam continued into "The Other Ones" which has such great lyrics. "Wharf Rat" was next, and another great lyrical song. They then did another cover, this time the final track from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, "Eclipse". It was awesome getting to finally hear Furthur cover Floyd, especially a Dark Side song. Next was "Mountains of the Moon" which is another great ballad, followed by the classic "Uncle John's Band". The last song of the set was "Viola Lee Blues", and again this time John absolutely killed it. It is creepy how much he sounds like Jerry on this song. The encore was "Box of Rain", which Phil Lesh wrote for his dying father. It was a great way to end the night on a peaceful note.
I then walked to the car to try and find JB, but he hadn't found where I moved the car yet. He doesn't have a cell phone, so I walked all around trying to find him, and finally found him after walking around for a while. He had someone else with him named Lee who needed a ride to Gathering of the Vibes, so I cleared out some room and we all headed on. We got to the campsite where all the heads were staying, but they wanted $20 per person, so we decided to keep on, and I drove until we were just south of Albany and we parked behind a K-Mart to sleep.
The next morning we woke up and I drove JB to Hartford, CT where I dropped him off so that his brother could pick him up. He had some sort of family problem he had to take care of, so it left just Lee and I. My friend Riki from Nateva last year arranged for me to crash at his friend David's house, and I got permission from him for Lee to stay the night as well. While there I borrowed his car ramps to change the oil on my car without spending the money for a mechanic. We went to bed fairly early after talking and watching some TV. I woke up in the morning and took a shower and helped load up the car. We then all headed south to meet up with Riki in a Walmart Parking lot.

Furthur!!!! Bethel and Jones Beach

Saturday morning we woke up and hung around camp until it was time to head to the show. I got on lot around 2 and it was pretty slow then, so I made some food and ate and took a short nap. When I awoke a little while later there were more people, and I walked around selling my necklaces and water. I got some cool new hat pins, and helped all the other vendors out by buying their beer. While walking around I ran into my neighbor Jenn from SuperBall, and turns out she was parked like 3 cars down from me again. Once I had made enough money for a ticket and it was show time, we walked up and I bought a lawn ticket.
We missed the first song, "Feel Like a Stranger" while in line for a ticket, and as we were walking through the gardens in the venue they played "Crazy Fingers". We made it to the lawn while they were playing "Cumberland Blues". "Bird Song" was next, and John Kadlecik played it incredibly well. Around this time I started to get a headache, but fought through the pain as "Cassidy" came on. This song always reminds me of Red Rocks and Chris getting a text about his cat Cassidy right as the song came on. Next was "Built to Last" during which I went to get a burger, and I missed this song on my setlist. Then was "Big Bad Blues", which is a new Furthur song written by Bob Weir and Bob Hunter. I didn't realize it was an original until after the show, I assumed it was a Ratdog song or something. The last song of the set was "Playin In the Band", and they really jammed this song. During set break my headache got worse, and Jenn gave me some Advil and I lay down on the ground. When they came back on, I didn't get up, and listened laying down on the ground. The second set opened with "The Music Never Stopped" and went into "Golden Road". "Golden Road" is one of my favorites, and always a treat to hear live. "Eyes of the World" was next, and I sang along from my bed on the lawn looking up at the stars. The next 30 or so minutes was solid jamming consisting of "Help on the Way" > "Slipknot!" > "The Eleven" > "Franklin's Tower". An interesting progression, and the first time I heard "The Eleven" thrown into help/slip/franklin's. They then brought the tempo down for "Comes a Time" and had the whole crowd swaying or sitting back to just listen to the beautiful notes cascading down to our ears. This was definitely the highlight of the night. The last two songs of the set were "St. Stephen" and "One More Saturday Night". I was glad when they ended the first set with "Saturday Night" because I didn't want to hear it as another encore on Saturday night. The second set was really heavy with Bobby tunes, and he did lots of singing. The encore was "U.S. Blues", which was the encore at my first Furthur show. When it came on I started walking back to the car and listened on the way. I just felt to bad to stick around. I got to the car and as soon as I got in the seat I fell asleep and took a good hour long nap, and woke up feeling much much better. Right as I was pulling away JukeBox and our friend Sam rolled up and told me they needed a ride. They had left me a note, but I didn't even see it, but they caught me just at the right time. We went to Hector's where the afterparty was, and I went in and bought a beer for Sam and I and we sat by the fire talking with all the other heads. I went back to the car to go to sleep, and she stayed there. JukeBox had been asleep in my car and said the cops told him that the car needed to be moved, so we drove back to the flea market and fell asleep in the car there.
The next morning we woke up and stopped and thanked the owner, Loyd, for his hospitality and I gave him a little money for letting us stay. We found a burger king where I could plug in and get directions to the show and hit the road. The next show was at Jones Beach on Long Island, and we had to drive through NYC to get there. We got to the show around 2:30, and went to check out the beach. There were people everywhere at the beach, I hadn't seen a beach so crowded before. I waded out a little ways just to get my feet wet and then we went back to Shakedown Street. I spent some time walking around selling my necklaces and checking out all the goods on Shakedown. Before I knew it, it was time for the show, and I went in around 7. I walked around the venue for a while making new friends and talking with people for the hour before the show started. I found a good seat left of center just behind the sound tent. This was to be the first time I've seen Furthur from stadium style seating, most shows have been in amphitheaters. When they came on the stands were still surprisingly empty.
They opened with one of my favorites, "Samson and Deliah", which really let the drummer, Joe Russo, shine. This was followed by "Dear Mr. Fantasy" which was originally a Traffic song, but has been a Dead staple for many years. The vocals started a little shaky, but by the second verse they were sounding great. The next song was one of Bob Weir's old solo songs, "Black Throated Wind". I hadn't heard this song before and remembered it, but it something about it caught me. It was absolutely beautiful. That was followed by "Jack-a-Roe" which was alright, but not their best work. Then was a Dlyan cover, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues". They always shine on Dlyan covers, and this was no exception. Phil's bassline was outrageous during this song, and kept me boogieing on. "Brown Eyed Women" was next and followed by another of my favorites "Throwing Stones", which was incredible as always, and let Bobby shine. The last song of the set was "Shakedown Street", and it has to be the best Shakedown I've heard from them. They jammed out the whole song, especially Jeff Chimenti, and the whole crowd was dancing and moving. There was even a little vocal jam that I hadn't heard from Furthur before. It was a great end to the set. The second set started really strong with the entire "Weather Report Suite" followed by "Let It Grow". These two were incredible, and got the second set started of on a roll. "Mississippi Half-Step" was next, and was a great sing-a-long. That flowed into a long and really jammy "He's Gone" which is always a crowd pleaser. "Dark Star" was next and the highlight of the night. It was like the Dark Star's of the 70's, long and really spacey. Much better than the short Dark Star we got at Red Rocks last year. During this song almost the whole crowd sat down to just watch and listen, but I stayed on my feet swaying to the beat. This flowed seamlessly into "Unbroken Chain" which Phil sang absolutely beautifully. This went into "The Wheel" which didn't slow down and went right into "Good Lovin'" to end the set on a high note. After Phil came out and gave his Donor Rap speech the rest of be band came on for the encore of "Brokedown Palace". I love the way Bobby sings this, and the deep voice I feel is more suited to the style of song than the original. He did great singing it, but forgot a line, but the crowd just cheered him on. Brokedown was a great way to end the night and left us feeling great.
I got back to the car and found JB and we headed out. I couldn't find camping, and didn't want to drive through NYC at night, so we found a neighborhood to pull off and sleep in. Now we're in Starbucks on Long Island getting ready to head onward to the next show at Saratoga Springs.
Gonna try and meet up with Sam and some other friends in the Allegheny Mountains today and camp until the show tomorrow.

The Catskill Chill

After getting the tire fixed last Monday, I headed north towards the Catskill Mountains to find a place to spend the week. On the way up there I passed a big building with the words Tibet Center on it, and after I had gotten a few miles down the road curiosity got the best of me and I turned around to check it out. The downstairs was a thrift store with lots of clothes and LOTS of books. I spent almost an hour going through all the books, and picked out over a dozen books and held them on the counter while I went upstairs to check it out. The upstairs had lots of pictures of the Tibetan kids and information on their plight and how to help. It made me really want to go spend a year helping out. More than any other group in need of help, the Tibetans are who I would go spend a year volunteering to help. When I go to climb Everest I will hopefully spend some time helping the refugees in India. After spending some time talking to the owner upstairs I headed back down to buy the books, and spent $5 on all those books. I got some Grisham, some Crichton, some Paul Christopher, and some other books. I then continued on to the Catskills and found a nice campsite to set up in and went to sleep after getting a nice fire going. Tuesday morning I woke up and hung around the campsite all day finishing Crichton's The Terminal Man and Andromeda Strain. There was a creek running right by my site and I laid on a log across the stream reading for much of the day. I also got in and rinsed off and got clean in the cold mountain water. I kept the fire going all day so that I wouldn't have to start a new one at night, and I sat around the fire reading well into the night before I went to sleep. The next morning I woke up and hung around camp for a while and met a new friend named Cory and we talked about Mountain Biking a lot and his father and him gave me some suggestions on where to go ride. After we talked a while I got ready to go on a hike. I decided to hike up to the spot called Giant Ledge to check it out, and the hike was almost entirely uphill. Along the way I saw many beautiful sights and at one point I followed a small stream and found some wild onions I gathered. I was looking for berries to pick, but all the raspberries and blueberries weren't quite ripe this high in the mountains. I found a spring coming out of a rock and drank from it, and the cool fresh mountain water was amazingly crisp and refreshing. Once I made it to the overlook I stopped to enjoy the view. The trees were hundreds of feet below me. I sat up there and made a few calls and read John Grisham's A Time To Kill. While up there I saw 6 different snakes, one of which almost slithered over my leg and gave me a start. While I was up there it started to rain a little bit, and since I was so exposed on the rocks, I decided to head back down the mountain where I could find a tree for cover if necessary. Once I had gotten a little ways down the mountain the rain stopped, and I had hardly gotten wet, it was just a little shower. I walked back down to my camp, stopping along the way to admire the scenery, and got back to camp a little after 5 and built the fire back up from the embers. I again read until I fell asleep. Next morning I woke up and began breaking down camp and talked with Cory for a while before heading out to head to Woodstock.
I spent most all day Thursday walking around exploring the town of Woodstock, NY. There were hippie shops all over the place and lots of sidewalk cafes. My favorite was a shop called Not Fade Away where I bought a poster. I found a nice little sidewalk cafe to stop and people watch at. I ordered an everything bagel with cream cheese and a beer and sat on the sidewalk for a long time just watching. Once it was time to leave I got directions to Bethel, the town where Woodstock Music Fest actually happened, and where Furthur starts their tour.
I got to Bethel after stopping at a walmart for food and drove through the venue to check it out before trying to find a place to stay. The local State Park didn't have camping, so I stopped at an old Head bar called Hector's and talked with them for a while. They wanted $20 a night to camp, and wouldn't let me bring my own beer, so I said I'd find somewhere else. I met some people there looking for a spot to camp too, and we became friends. They had picked up a black kid named JukeBox a few days earlier in NYC who wanted to get out of the lifestyle he was living and get away from the city. They had picked him up and offered to take him on tour, even though he had never heard of the Dead before. I talked with a local and he hopped in my car and took me to the Yasgur farm where the owner of the Woodstock land lived back in the day. We talked with to current owner, who was super nice and wanted to let us stay, but they got in trouble for letting people stay just a few weeks ago for Phish. The town was passing ordinances and such preventing people from camping. The town just wants that evil green money. Since they couldn't let us stay, they gave us directions to a guy who owns a junk yard and flea market where we might could stay. I led my new group of friends there and we set up camp on the top of the hill and met the owners and his whole family. They were super nice people and got us a campfire going and everything. We stayed up talking and drinking beer until it was gone, and then went to sleep. The next day I spent pretty much all day in my camper reading, and in the afternoon we went to see if we could check out the museum at the venue, but tickets were $15, or free with a show ticket the day of show, so we didn't go in. We went back to camp and chilled there all night.

Alex Grey and CoSM

Sunday Dylan and Sarah and Kevin all left early, and I continued to sleep in. When I woke up I got to work cleaning up camp and packing everything up, and I was out of Bisco around 11. I got on the road to Alex Grey's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM) and stopped along the way to get directions. Once I got there, I had just pulled in on the gravel road when I got a flat tire. I limped on down the shoulder on the rim and parked the trailer and went into CoSM. CoSM is an amazing place, 40 acres of beauty. There are 6 buildings on the property, and the one we were in was the biggest. The day started with the Nadis Warriors playing a set, and having D.V.S.* sit in on mandolin again. They played an AMAZING set, one of the best I've seen from them, and it was because of all the great energy at CoSM. Their music is available for free download on their site, and the recordings of their shows from the weekend will be on their facebook page. After they were done playing the 30 or so people that were there went into another room where Alex and Allyson Grey gave a presentation about art. It was like a 2 hour long art history lesson from one of the greatest living artists. He explained how he believes that art is spiritual, and creative expression is the highest way to honor god. He also explained his plans for the chapel he is trying to build on the land which will include altars to each of the wisdom traditions. After his presentation was done he sat around and we got to talk to him one on one for a while before heading out onto the grounds for a tour. The grounds were beautiful, and if you are ever in the area it is worth checking out even if there isn't an event going on. By the time we were done walking around it was almost dark, so Alex and Allyson bid us goodbye and went up to their house for dinner and sleep. I then set about taking the flat tire off the trailer and one of the staff at CoSM was very helpful and got me a floor jack to help lift the trailer. I then left and found a parking lot to sleep in and made some dinner and read until I fell asleep. Sometime in the night I must have accidently hit the hazard lights, and around 3am a policeman knocked on my window to make sure I was alright. After explaining my situation and giving him my drivers license he told me to have a good night and left. This morning I woke up and found a place to take the tire and dropped it off. I am now waiting in Burger King until 3 when I can go pick up the tire. After that I am going to find somewhere to stay for the week until Furthur in Bethel on Saturday

Bisco

Wednesday night I met up with Sarah and Kevin in Saratoga Springs and stayed with them in their motel room and got all the SuperBall shows downloaded. We woke up early the next morning and loaded up the car and headed to Camp Bisco. We got in line around 10am, and sat in line until 4 when I drove past Sarah and Kevin and headed to the Volunteer check-in. I got there and stood around just listening, and I realized that there were lots of people waiting for wristbands who hadn't gotten one yet. I waited with them while someone went to find more wristbands, hoping to snag one when they arrived. When they got there I just waited with everyone else and they gave me a wristband without even asking any questions. I then went to try and find a place to park, but no one knew where to send me with my pop up, so I ended up driving around for almost 30 min before I found a place where I could set up. It was real near the stage and less than 100 yards from a flush bathroom and showers. After setting up I called Sarah and Kevin to see where they were, and they were still in line for security. I walked down to the mainstage for Borgore and listened there for a while before The New Deal came on. Here I found out my absolute favorite part of Camp Bisco - there was no security checkpoint into the stage. This allowed us to bring in our own beer and liquor, which is almost NEVER allowed into the stage at festivals. This is the last year The New Deal is touring, and I'm glad I am getting to see them so many times before they break up. They played an amazing set as always, and I really enjoyed it. They sound a lot like the Biscuits did back in the 90s when they still jammed. After The New Deal I headed up to camp to try and find Sarah and Kevin. They had parked their car on the other side of the fest and were walking around. After I finally found them, I drove their car to where I was and helped them set up camp. We then went down to the main stage for the Disco Biscuits. They were fun as always, and played my favorite song, "Home Again". After the show was over we went and walked down Shakedown Street looking at the vendors, and I left them to go see Archnemesis. I had a handle of rum that I got as a ground score and was trying to give away as much as I could at the show, but no one wanted to drink. Only one group of people in the crowd kept drinking it, and the four of us kept taking turns taking shots from the bottle. After Archnemesis was over I went back to the tent and passed out.
Sometime in the night our friend Dylan arrived and came in and he needed a place to crash, so I let him crash in the camper. The next morning we woke up and walked around a bit before heading down to see Papadosio. They put on an awesome, high energy show as always. I tried to keep up the setlits, but the paper I used got soaked in the rain. I remember that the ended with the same song they ended with last year at All Good, but I can't remember the name of it. I think its "The Plug". After that Easy Star All Stars came on and played a few originals before going into Pink Floyd's "Speak to Me/Breathe". This got me excited, then when they played "On the Run" I knew they might be doing the entire Dub Side of the Moon After they played their version of "Time" they went into a cover of Radiohead's "Karma Police". They did a great job on this cover with the female singer doing a good job of sounding like Thom Yorke. After that they went into another original, called "First Light", that the band wrote in tribute of Easy Star. That was followed by another original titled "Paid My Dues" and then they went into covers of the Beatles songs "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends". They did a great job on these covers as well, with the members switching out the job of singing much like the Beatles did back in the day. After that was another Radiohead cover, and possibly my favorite Radiohead song, "Paranoid Android". They remained faithful to the original while adding a bit of dub flavor to it. The last song of their set was their version of "Money" complete with a dub style rap in the middle. During this song the lead guy who I assume is Easy Star took off his hat and let his dreads down. He had some of the coolest dreads I've ever seen, they were perfectly formed and came down past his waist. He looked to be having a good time swinging them around on stage. After Easy Star All-Stars we checked out Black Moth Super Rainbow, but they are a band that is best enjoyed from a CD. They don't translate well into the live setting. We then went back to camp to get ready for SHPONGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After getting everyone together and mixing a few drinks we went down and caught part of Conspirator before Shpongle came on. They opened with "Divine Moments of Truth" and it was amazing how well they can replicate the complexities of the electronic music with actual instruments. I tried keeping a setlist, but right around the time they started playing Raja Ram called down the rain from the heavens. Raja is one of the founding members of Shpongle along with Simon Posford. He has had an aversion to the US for a long time, and this was his first US appearance, and the first appearance of the Shpongle Live Band. Since they were playing fairly early in the day there was still light out, so they had different performance artists dancing on stage. The first was a human slinky that is too hard to describe other than a psychadelic colored human slinky. They also had a contortionist who somehow managed to fit himself into a box that was wayyyy too small for anyone older than 5 to fit in. But he managed to fit in. They also had a hula hooper dancing with them. I can't find a list of the members of the band, but I know Raja Ram played his flute and lended his voice to the songs, Simon was DJing, Ben "Encanti" Cantil was doing live mixing on Ableton, Joe Russo was on Drums, and the guitarist is Pete Callard. Everyone else in the band I hadn't heard of, but they were all impressive. Some songs I remember being played are "Vapour Rumors", "I am You", "Dorset Perception", "No Turn Un-Stoned", "Nebbish Route", "My Head Feels Like a Frisbee", and I believe "Shpongle Falls". The best part of the whole performance was watching Raja Ram. He is THE MAN!! He was having absolutely sooo much fun dancing around onstage and playing with all sorts of cool toys. He threw lots of stuff out to the crowd, and kept the energy up. Halfway through the set they stopped playing and acted like they were done, and then in the middle of bows started the music up again. They really know how to put on an amazingly fun show. After the show was over Simon announced that they would be returning to the US October 28, I think, to NYC for Simon's birthday bash with the entire live band. I plan on being there. You should too.
After that was the Disco Biscuits, and I had become separated from the group, but somehow they found me in the crowd. We listened to them until Ratatat came on, and stayed there for a while. The coolest part about Ratatat was the holograms. They had holograms on either side of the stage that looked like real people and animals. We grew tired of this after a while and headed back to camp to regroup. We then went back for the last Biscuits show of the night and enjoyed it from back on the lawn. We then went to the late night tent to check out MSTRKRFT, but didn't stay there long before going to walk around and people watch. We walked around for a few hours before I had to go back and go to bed. They stayed up to walk around.
Saturday morning I woke up before everyone else and stayed at camp reading Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain. I listened to The Disco Biscuits and Lettuce from up there, and Lettuce was great and funky as always. They were all asleep still, so I took a nap and woke up about an hour later with everyone else. Wiz Kalifa was playing, and I didn't really care to see him so I walked around the campsites making family until it was time for the Nadis Warriors. They were amazing as always, and I got to meet some people involved with the band for the first time in person. I helped them pass out flyers for Alex Grey's Art Church, and also ran into a friend from STS9 on New Years and I bought a poster from him. After Nadis was over I went to check out the biscuits and had fun there until Bassnectar. The crowd at Nectar was the biggest I had seen all weekend, shoulder to shoulder all the way back. He threw down an awesome set, with lots of heavy metal remixes. He played some stuff off Mystic Grrove Compilation, which is one of his older albums. After nectar was more Biscuits, and the second set seemed to only have a few songs that were each really long. After the Biscuits I went and met up with Dylan and the crew at Wolfgang Gartner and then went to Emancipator until that was over. D.V.S.* played the mandolin with Emancipator because his violinist was sick. I then went back and went to bed.

I don't want to leave this place!

When I woke up Monday morning around ten I got up and talked with the neighbors and we all decided to stay an extra day because we were in the volunteer camping. I then went looking for tents and groundscores with Daniel and Sara. They collect tents from festivals to donate to Haiti, and I walked around with them helping them pick up tents and tarps and looking for other useful items people left behind. We got lots of tents, and I got a cart that I can put my ice chest on so it will roll now. We also found an entire trash bag FULL of great food. There was all sorts of snacks in there along with about twenty pieces of pre-cooked vacuum sealed chicken, lots of corn, asparagus, hot dogs, cheese, and my favorite, an entire package of bacon!! Someone came by and started yelling at us for going through the trash and was quite rude, but we just finished what we were doing and left. He said we were making more of a mess to clean up, but really we were just making sure that usable food doesn't go to waste. We went back to see what all we had gotten, and divide it up, and I ended up with a half dozen new chairs and as many tiki torches in addition to a new pipe, flashlight, and lots of bug spray. Most all the neighbors I was hanging out with had decided to stay, and we cooked some of the food and sat around and feasted. Around 5 it started looking like we were some of the last ones in volunteer camping, and we realized that maybe the post-fest volunteers maybe camped somewhere else. Around that time we all decided to go ahead and leave to avoid being hassled.
Sara and Daniel offered to let me follow them to a place nearby where they knew to camp, and we drove maybe 25 minutes through the beautiful NY countryside to Finger Lakes National Forest and a small little camp on the side of a dirt road next to a beautiful pasture. On the way we passed by a beautiful lake, a very large waterfall right off the side of the road, and several vineyards. We set about cooking some corn and black beans and then went for a walk around the pasture. Then I set about getting firewood and starting a fire while Daniel heated up some of the chicken. After we had eaten and Sara had gotten the car to read, Daniel and I were sitting by the fire when we see a car drive by and back up and stop at our site. It was a nice gentleman named David who had seen a piece of art on the hood of their car that looked like a Rainbow. He was looking for a small local Rainbow gathering that he had heard was in the area, and thought we might be it. I invited him to come sit by the fire, and we talked for a while before going out to the road to try and see fireworks from the valley below. Seeing the fireworks from 20+ miles away was incredible, they looked like they were tiny and almost touching the horizon. This went on for a while and then Daniel went to bed, and David and I stayed up talking about all sorts of things. He likes to do Native American crafts and showed me some of what he had, and I was blown away. All sorts of rattles and skulls and pouches and the like. The coolest thing was called quill work, and it is how the natives ornamented things before they had beads. They would dye porcupine quills and use those folded over as a sort of beadlike design. He told me about his kids and his late wife who had just passed, and I told him about my travels over the summer. We stayed up a while talking before I had to go get in my car and go to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning everyone else was already up and I got up and went and sat by the fire where David had some steaks cooking, and I ate one and we talked a lot about beads, and he gave me a lot of antique glass beads from the 1800s which I will use on my hemp necklaces and give to special friends, but not sell. After it got to be around 1:30 I realized that I had to go into town so I could update my blog, so I got everyone's contact info and hit the road back to Watkins Glen where I picked a package from my wonderful father which included his amazing cookies, notes from the family, a gift card, and some amazing crafts my sister made me at camp which included a quartz crystal, a leather bracelet, and an awesome tye-dyed shirt. I then went to the local library til it closed and have been at Burger King for the past 5 hours on my computer. But now I have the blog completely update, and I think I'll stay in walmart lot tonight before heading on to Mariaville, NY for Camp Bisco where I'll be meeting up with lots of friends.

More Phellowship and Phamily

I woke up around 10 Sunday morning and sat around camp talking with the neighbors, Sara and Daniel for a while before heading out to go try and sell some necklaces. I walked around with the necklaces for a while and stopped by Dana's camp for a bit and continued trying to sell the necklaces around their camp. I ended up getting like 3 sold before heading back to my place to rest for a bit. The 6 hours of music the day before had exhausted me haha. After chilling at my camp some I headed back out to work my necklaces and sold a few more and went to camp so I could go into a show with the neighbors. We went in together, but I stopped to buy a sticker from a walking vendor and lost them. I knew where the girls would be, so I headed to the rage side (Page side) near the front and found them fairly quickly and waited for the show with them.
I was still holding out hope for an entire set of TMWSIY complete with narration, because they haven't played a single Gamehendge song from there yet the weekend. It is a long shot but that was all I could talk about before the set.
When they finally came on they opened with a Bob Marley cover of "Soul Shakedown Party" which was a great way to start the night with a lot of energy, because the entire audience was worn out from the previous night. The next song they played was "AC/DC Bag" from TMWSIY. When it came on it killed my hopes for an entire set with narration, but that feeling quickly faded into one of joy for getting to hear "AC/DC Bag" live is always fun. They went from that into "The Curtain" and they did this one 'without' the jam session that sometimes accompanies this song in the live setting. This was the first time in 202 shows that this song had been played. After this the band stopped to talk amongst themselves, and I could see trey mouth "Colonel Forbin's" and told everyone what was coming on before they played a single note. Some of the girls thought I was psychic. After "Colonel Forbin's Ascent" they quieted down and Trey began narrating.... He told a story of coming through Watkins Glen in 1988 on the way to Colorado and the entire band getting trapped in a storage shed. They proceded to jam and jam and jam until it felt like they had left the storage room and Trey said all SuperBall IX was is a mental projection of a reality that the band created in that storage room back in 1988. This led up into the song "Fly Famous Mockingbird" and was the first time that song has been narrated since Sept 2000. That also put 3 Gamehendge songs almost in a row in the same order as the album. After rocking out to "Mockingbird" they played "Destiny Unbound" which is a cool song I hadn't heard before. Sometime during this song or the next a giant balloon fish with 3 eyes floated into the crowd and bounced around for a while. That led into "Big Bad Furry Creature From Mars" which is a very punk sounding song that is lots of fun. I had been wanting to hear that since I first heard it on the Hampton Comes Alive CD set. During this song Mike teased the theme to Leave it to Beaver They then played the two chords that signals the start of "Wilson" and the crowd immediately yelled "Wilson" and began to sing along. That segued into Mound which I hadn't heard all the way through yet (they stopped in the middle in GA and started again where they left off) and really enjoyed it. After that was another song unfamiliar to me, "A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing" which Dana was able to tell me what it was. It was interesting, and I can't wait to hear it again on the show download so I can actually try and listen to the lyrics. After that was another cover, this time of Little Feat's "Time Loves a Hero". They definitely did Little Feat justice with their cover, jamming it out. They then went into Reba complete with whistling and all. When they played it earlier in the tour they had done it with the whistling, and the whistling made the song soo much better. Trey looked he was having a lot of fun during this song, playing air guitar while Mike rocked, and bringing the guitar over to Page to play air guitar on. They went from this and continued jamming smoothly blending into "David Bowie". "Bowie" was a great way to end the set, and during set break I went to buy a beer, and got the FOAM beer brewed especially for Phish by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. It was a great beer, and I hope they end up putting it into production. The music during the entire set break was all American themed music for the 4th.
Fishman opened the second set by singing the opening to the AC/DC song "Big Balls", which is a Phish debut. During this song about a dozen ballons with a 10-12 foot diameter were thrown into the crowd and bounced all around. Mike looked like he was having lots of fun playing bass on this song, and the whole crowd loved singing "I've got big balls". After that they jammed right into Down With Disease, but didn't finish the song, instead segueing into a cover of "No Quarter" by Led Zeppelin. This was the highlight of my night, and Page again proved he is the best vocalist of the group, although not quite on the level of the mighty Robert Plant. They played this for around ten minutes with Fishman definitely doing John Bohnam justice. That was followed by a energizing "Party Time" with the band dancing all around stage. After a short pause came "Ghost" which I had called for the night, but I called it to come after Rock and Roll. "Ghost" was great, and even better than the other time I had seen it. "Gotta Jibboo" followed "Ghost" and was another song that got the crowd full of energy. After that the lights grew brighter and brighter as the band began playing the song "Light". That was followed by another one I was unfamiliar with, "Waves" and followed by the instrumental "What's the Use?". After talking with the band, Trey began playing "Meatstick". The crowd always goes crazy for this song, and they played it complete with the Meatstick Dance and singing the song in Japanese. I've heard the song enough now that I know the dance and the Japanese lyrics. The exhausting Meatstick was followed by "Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan" which left me with a blank space where my mind should be. The last song of the set had the entire band come up to the front and sing "The Star Spangled Banner" which had the entire crowd taking off their hats and masks and placing their hands on their heart and looking to the American flag. It was a great way to end the set on the fourth (it was after midnight by then). I was betting on a YEM encore because it hadn't been played yet over the weekend. They came onstage and Trey had a piece of paper with all the people he wanted to thank, and he proceeded to thank everyone involved with the festival. When Chris Kuroda, the light director's name, came up the crowd went wild, as most phans consider him an unofficial 5th member of the band. After he was done thanking everyone they went into "First Tube" which was also their encore at the last festival they played, Austin City Limits. During and after this song there was an amazing fireworks display, which had smiley faces and hearts and giant balls and other cool designs. All in All it was a great way to leave the weekend on a high note. After the show all the girls had to leave to get Allie back to work at 9am, so I told them all goodbye and told them to get in contact with me for future shows, and then I headed back to my camp. I talked with the neighbors for a minute or two, but went to bed pretty early.

Wait, which set was that??

After I got off my shift I started texting Talia so I could meet up with them, and we met up in the festival ground. Dana, Talia, Nicole, Allie, and Allie all walked with me back to my tent where we hung out for a while with my neighbors drinking Bloody Marys and talking about the last night's set. After a while I walked with them back to their campsite with a handle of rum in one hand and a handle of vodka in the other. I am sure I looked like a drunk carrying that much alcohol around. We all sat around their camp with the rest of their crew drinking until we left for the afternoon set. We left an hour early, around 2, and ended up with great seats again, even though we had to wait in the sun while waiting for them to come on.
They opened the daytime set with "Tube" and the crowd got right in the groove. Next was "Kill Devil Falls" which went into "Ocelot". These are two of my favs, and they really jammed "Kill Devil Falls", but I feel the "Ocelot" earlier in the tour at GA had more soul. That was followed by "Lawn Boy" which made me smell the colors haha. "Divided Sky" was next, and right as it came on a chilly wind came down and blew over the crowd which was spooky. Then came a cover of the Stevie Wonder song "Boogie on Reggae Woman" and I enjoyed dancing to that with the girls. That was followed by "Camel Walk" which isn't played very often, but is such a fun song to hear live. They then did another Talking Heads cover, this time "Cities". Next was a song Mike wrote about a tape recorder, "Poor Heart" and that was followed by the Phish classic "46 Days". After that was a Phish setlist debut of the song "Suskind Hotel" which is one of Mike Gordon's side project songs. Then came another song I had been hoping for all weekend, "When the Circus Comes" which is so much fun to sing along with. "Timber (Jerry)" was next, and I think its the first time I've heard it live, and I really enjoyed it. That went into "Back on the Train" which one of my neighbors had really been hoping for. The song that always seems to get stuck in my head came on next, "Suzy Greenberg" and I had a great time singing along with the crowd. The last song of the daytime set was another setlist debut, and another Rolling Stones cover, "Monkey Man".
After the set was over I split up from the girls and headed back to my camp to talk with my neighbors and take a nap before the evening set at 7:30.
I woke up around 6:30 and hung out with the neighbors for a bit before heading into the venue to try and find the girls in their spot. I found them without too much trouble, which is one benefit of being alone at shows so you can snake through the crowd quickly. We were even closer this time, maybe 25 yards at most from the end of Page's grand piano. They opened the set with "Runaway Jim" and during the song Trey announced the winners from the 5k race held earlier in the day. Each winner got to come onstage and get a trophy from Trey and shake his hand, which must have been incredible. After that came "McGrupp and the Watchful Horsemasters" which is part of the background music during the narrations on TMWSIY the album. This was followed by another song that ties into gamehendge, "Axilla". After that while they were looking around, Page locked eyes with me for a few seconds, which was absolutely incredible. Next was another song I was hoping to hear live this tour, "Birds of a Feather". After "Birds of a Feather" Mike did a tease of the Simpsons theme song, which I found out later is part of the secret language Phish developed with the crowd in the 90's and the whole crowd was supposed to shout "D'oh" like Homer. This was the first time they have used secret language since they have gotten back together. This was followed by a rousing "Stash" and "Sample in a Jar". After those two songs they didn't stop playing again for the rest of the set, going from "Heavy Things" into "Horn" which was a fun progression, and then continuing on into "It's Ice". "Ice" was really fun and one of the Phish songs I had never heard before at all, and I really enjoyed it. That was followed by "The Mango Song" which was another one that had been on my wishlist for the weekend, and was every bit as fun as I expected it to be. That was followed by "Rift" and "Scents and Subtle Sounds" which hadn't been played since sometime in 2009. The last song of the set was "Run Like an Antelope" and one of my neighbors had given me an Antelope hat earlier in the week and I was holding it up waving it the whole song while running out of control. There was also a MASSIVE glow stick war during this song. When I say MASSIVE, I mean I have never seen that many glowsticks flying through the air ever before. There were wayyyy more than Bassnectar at All Good. When they got done and took their bows Trey pointed directly at my hat which was in the air. I then sat down and put my head in my hands and just waited patiently for the next set.
The third set Saturday didn't have a single break in the music the entire time, just straight from one song into the next. They opened with a strange cover for them, a cover of the modern band TV on the Radio's "Golden Age". They did a better job with this than the original, I think, and it was a rare treat to get to hear Phish play it. This was followed by "Prince Caspian" and "Piper" which is always a funny song to hear live. Next was "Tweezer", and it was in my opinion the best "Tweezer" I have heard to date, either live or recorded. They absolutely jammed the heck out in this song. Mike kept doing teases from "Scents and Subtle Sounds" throughout the jam. This was followed by "Julius" which I had heard for the first time at the Portsmouth show. Then came my favorite birthday song of all, "Backwards Down the Number Line". Then we got to boogie to "Twist" which went into another of my favorites, "Also Sprach Zarathustra", which Kuroda always does a phantastic job on lights. Then came one of the most iconic Phish songs to me, "Harry Hood". "Hood" always strikes a chord with me and reminds me of all the people I have met along the way. Then came "Cavern" which is fun to watch Trey dance around while he sings. The last two songs of the set were some of the best of the night, an AMAZING "Golgi Apparatus" into "A Day In The Life" by this small band called the Beatles. Talia and I were singing Golgi to each other the whole song, and I just absolutely LOVE it when Page sings, and "A Day In The Life" is most certainly Page's song when performed by Phish. His voice is so angelic when the song starts, but as it progresses he is able to sing all the different parts almost perfectly. It is always a great way to end a set or the night.
The encore was a cover of "Loving Cup" and then they went into "Tweezer Reprise" which I had expected as an encore.
After the show we all sat down for about twenty and waited for the massive crowd behind us to dissipate before heading back to camp. All weekend we had been hearing of a secret set, and I had seen the stage while I was setting up the festival. As soon as we got back to the camp at like 1, we get a text telling us to come back in because something is going on. We go to where I knew the stage was and there was a crowd of people and all these weird trippy noises going on. Some of them made it sound like a racecar was circling the crowd. Everyone had their eye on the giant silver ball in the middle of the clearing, but I knew to watch the storage shed off to the left, and eventually the panels started coming off the building. This revealed a stage that was surrounded by a white visqueen type material that only allowed shadows to be seen. Trey told a story of how the town we were in had to be powered by water, and a guy came to the top of the water tower and poured a bucket in, which started a chain reaction that eventually led all around to the stage, bringing everyone's attention there. The band then began jamming with complete surround sound. I have never in my life heard or seen or heard of anything like this ever happening. The four of them were on the stage and all you could see were shadows jumping around with the lights, and I could catch each members shadow on occasion. They were all swaping instruments, and Page was on the Theremin, which is the only instrument in the world you play without touching. Watching Page on that was incredible because the shadows would keep jumping around showing him arms extended looking like he was possessed. The coolest part though was the sound. It would be circling us and then bounce across the speakers going front to back and right to left complete with lights from all sides as well. How the band knew what was going on is beyond me, they had to be hearing the sound from their monitors which would only be one channel, meaning they don't know as their playing where the sound is going, I just don't know how they were able to play like that. It was absolutely cutting edge technology, and will not be the last time something like this is done. About halfway through this exceedingly weird and trippy set they went into an even weirder rendition of "Sleeping Monkey" with different voices coming from different speakers and rotating around. I had been wanting a "Sleeping Monkey", but never expected to hear it like this, and they will NEVER do it again like that. They then went back into jamming and continued for over an hour total. Watching this crowd wasn't like watching a normal Phish crowd, hardly anyone was dancing. Everyone was just in utter shock at what they were witnessing. After that we slowly made our way back to the camp, but our brains were somewhere in a puddle in Ball Square along with everyone else who saw that set. I LOVED it, but most of the people I talked to either didn't know that that was even Phish playing, or they just thought it was too weird. I explained to them how unique it was and how lucky we were to have seen it. Back at the campsite we sat around and talked about the shows of the day, and everything just kind of blurred into one, considering that they played over 6 hours over the course of the day. After a while of reflection I walked back to my tent to chat with the neighbors and go to sleep after a long day that had really started friday morning since I hadn't really slept since then.

a SuperBallin first day

Friday morning I woke up and walked around selling my necklaces for a while before going back to camp and taking a nice little nap before the shows of the evening. I got in touch with Talia and Dana, who I had met at Waka, and met them and their friends in the venue near the front to wait for the show. They had a spot on Page's side about 50 yards from the band, with an excellent view of everything that was going on. I snuck a flask in and shared with all the girls while we waited patiently for over an hour for the band to come on.
They came on around 8, and of course EVERYONE went wild. Mike had on some killer shades. They opened the weekend with "Possum" which is also the most played song of their tour so far. The next song was "Peaches en Regalia" which is a Frank Zappa cover. This song was also the second song of the night two shows before in Raleigh. After that was "The Moma Dance" which we had also gotten earlier on tour. That was followed by a Rolling Stones cover, "Torn and Frayed" off their album Exile on Main Street which they played in its entirety at their last festival. This went into "NICU", which is one of my favorites followed by "Bathtub Gin". Gin was great, and they jammed this for awhile before pausing for a second to talk and going into a cover of "Life on Mars?" by David Bowie. This was the first time it was played since 2/15/03, and it weirdly enough we had been talking about how cool it would be if they played it over the weekend, and we got it first set! After that was one of the highlights of the set for me, an amazing "My Friend, My Friend" which Trey killed on his guitar. "My Friend" is a darker Phish song that has become rare in recent years, and I was really glad to get to hear it again. That was followed by "Wolfman's Brother", which I feel like came out of nowhere, and didn't fit after "My Friend". But they still jammed this one extremely well, and in a way I hadn't heard before. Next was another cover, this time Ween's "Roses are Free", another favorite of mine. This went into "Funky Bitch" which Mike was amazing on. After Funky Bitch it was time for my shift at 9:15, and I left right as they went into another cover, this time a cover of Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)". They really like playing this song to either end the night or end a set, and I knew when it came on that that was the last song of the set so I started fighting my way to the back of the crowd. I got to the WET check-in right as the set ended and got signed in and all. I was assigned to tollbooths, but traded with someone else and ended up sitting around the check-in for the entire set-break and for a while into the second set.
I listened to the beginning of the second set from a ways away, and they opened with a "Jam" that I racked my brain all night trying to figure out what it was, but it ended up being titled "SuperBall Jam". This flowed smoothly into a cover of the Talking Heads song "Crosseyed and Painless" which I would have liked to hear from closer up. After this they went straight into a tease of "Possum" and then into "Chalkdust Torture". Around this time one of the WET workers got the 5 of us that had been doing nothing and put us in a golf cart and drove us all around the stage so we could hear and see better. This was right as "Sand" came on, which is one I've been wanting to see for a while. This flowed into "The Wedge" which is the only song I missed when I was keeping track of the setlist, but I was in a golf cart haha. After that was another common song, "Mike's Song" which was followed by "Simple". I had been wanting "Simple" for a long time, and right as it was starting I got dropped off in the VIP camp so I could act like I was working while listening to the music. I was hoping they'd break "Simple" up and throw some random songs in between, like they have done in the past, but they played it all the way through, and it was epic! That went into "Bug" which we had also gotten in Georgia. Next was the short but beautiful song "The Horse" which flowed into "Silent in the Morning". This was followed by "Weekapaug Groove" which Mike again killed. After that came another one I had been hoping to see , the title track of the album "Joy". This song I walked away from my post so I could see the stage and lights better, and it was amazingly Joyful, and they definitely made the crowd happy like the song says. The last song of the night was a rousing "Character Zero" which ended the set on a high note. I started asking the group of people listening to the show around me what their calls were for the encore, and I guessed Simple Design and some other slower songs, I had a feeling they wanted us leaving feeling AHHHHHH instead of blowing our minds. The encore was "Show of Life" which was definitely a good encore for the last night and sent the crowd away feeling peaceful. Overall a great show with lots of covers, and not too much extended jamming.
After the show was over the golf cart came to get us and I ended up being one of the two to stay in that spot and wait for the last person to come check into their VIP tent. I figured it'd be easy work and I may get off early. I ended up sitting there all night dozing off here and there, but did absolutely nothing until almost ten in the morning when I started trying to find a WET golf cart for a ride back to my tent, but I just walked to the WET check in to clock out at 10:30 and head to meet friends

Pre-Festival setup

I got to Watkins Glen Wednesday afternoon and got signed and all my credentials at the box office and then headed into the venue. I tried to follow the map they gave me, but the print was soooo small it was impossible to read and I somehow ended up driving right up to the stage before I realized I wasn't where I was supposed to be. I then somehow ended up on the racetrack and got turned around by security. I eventually found the volunteer camping, and it was located maybe 100 yards to the left of the stage. I got there and set up my camp within view of the stage, and I had woods on the other side to provide some morning shade. I went in the woods and cleared a patch between two trees that I could hang my hammock. After everything was set up I met my neighbors and invited them to use my shade, chairs and hammock whenever they wanted. We all sat around for awhile before going into the venue to check it out. When we got back we hung out for a while before everyone went to sleep.
Thursday afternoon we all did pretty much the same thing, and I took a nap before my 6:45 shift. When it came time for my shift, I went to the check-in tent and got assigned to tollbooths putting on wristbands. It had been freezing cold the night before, and I realized that I was just wearing shorts and a shirt, so I sprinted back to my campsite and grabbed a jacket. When I got back all the tollbooth volunteers had been taken to their post, so I was re-assigned to parking. I stood on the side of one of the entrances to the park with a traffic signal and just signaled people into the venue. It was pretty easy work, and there was a Sheriff there who I talked to for a long time about Phish and the show and what to expect. The local police force were all very supportive of Phish and the scene. After a while the sheriff left and I was left alone there directing the cars, but all the people in the cars were nice to talk to. My shift was scheduled to end at 8AM, but around 3 another sheriff came around and told me to stop letting people in the gate, that they were closing the gate. So I didn't have anything else to do and walked back to the WET tent, but there was no one there, so I went back to my campsite to sleep. I got there and one of my neighbors, Mark, was still up and we stayed up a while and talked until we started to see the sun and decided it was time to sleep.

Rails to Trails

The next morning I woke up and continued on along back roads towards the state parks in the area. The route I had planned on taking had a bridge out, so I took a detour along another route, and this took me along a beautiful river in a valley. Along the whole way was a railroad track that had been converted into a bike path. At one point I stopped to check out the river, and where I had stopped happened to be a camping spot, so I carried my stuff to a campsite right by the river and set up camp. I then rode about 7 miles south and rode through a small town. When I got back to camp I noticed a couple stopped taking pictures of something on the ground, and when I went to see there was a large Timber Rattlesnake coiled up at the base of the tree. I went for my camcorder, and got some cool footage. I then went back to camp and fell asleep fairly early in my hammcok.
The next morning I woke up early and got stuff together to ride my bike and then went to my car and charged my iPod for about an hour before hitting the trail north. The valley had some amazing small towns I rode through, and everyone waved as I passed. Along the way I stopped in several places to take pictures and look around. One place in particular, Rattlesnake Rock, I stopped for a long time to have lunch. It got the name from a hunter in the 1700's who was passing it in a canoe and noticed over 30 rattlesnakes sunning themselves on the rock. I sat on the rock and didn't see any snakes, but I did eat lunch and watch the river flow past me. I then continued on as the trail broke away from the side of the road and headed into a forest. I rode along this a ways and saw a doe with a fawn getting a drink from the river. After going about 16 miles I turned around and headed back. Along the way I heard a rattle and saw a snake on the side of the road. I stopped and watched him cross the road. I got back to camp and set about starting a fire before it got too dark, and right after the fire got going good, it started to rain. It wasn't enough to put out the fire, as it only lasted about twenty minutes. I then sat around the fire until I went to sleep. I am now on the way to Watkins Glen and SuperBall to see the band The Phish play their loud and obnoxious rock and roll music. Updates to come.

Shout out to my lovely sister Rachel, who is expecting a baby soon!!!

Avoid Interstate? Yes Please.

After eating nothing all day and walking over 20 miles, I was famished, and the selection of canned and dried food I have in my car was not looking very appitizing, so I decided to spend some of the little money I had and go get some real meat from the dining room at the Skyland lodge. I got there and sat at the bar, and the first menu I looked at was very expensive, with entrees starting at $15. The bartender could tell I was having trouble deciding so he brought me the bar menu, which contained more reasonably priced things such as burgers and fries. I ordered a half pound bacon cheeseburger with carmelized onions, and a Prohibition Punch, which is a drink made with moonshine and orange and some other liquors. While I ate the burger I chatted with the bartender and found out that there would be live music later in the night, so I decided to stay for that, and while I was waiting I chatted with people at the bar, including a softwear engineer named Patrick who works for Microsoft, and he ended up buying me a drink since I had spent all the money I brought in. The singer came onstage around 9, and his name was Mark "T". He played lots of Lyle Lovett and Jethro Tull, and a good mix of other songs. He did a great rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" in the style of the late Hawaiian singer Iz, and he also covered the Beatle's "Here Comes the Sun". After the show I stopped and talked to him for a minute and got one of his business cards. I then went to my car and drove it across Skyline Drive to a parking lot without any lighting and went quickly to sleep.
The next morning I woke up fairly early and drove back south towards Big Meadows where the celebration of the park's 75th anniversary was beginning. While on the way I saw several deer, a few turkey, and at one point I to stopped at an overlook and a coyote came walking down the road right past my car. He stopped for a second in the middle of the road and saw a deer up the hill and went chasing after it. I got to Big Meadows and parked, and the volunteer who directed me where to park commented on my Grateful Dead sticker, and we began chatting, and I found out that his last show was at Watkins Glen in 1973 with The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers, and The Band. This just so happens to be the last festival ever played at Watkins Glen....Until Phish's SuperBall IX this weekend!!! He said that The Dead wasn't even the highlight of the festival, he said that The Band stole the show that weekend. I then headed down the hill towards the festivities, and I got there just a few minutes before the re-dedication ceremony began. The U.S. Marine band opened the ceremony, and a local Eagle Scout led the pledge of alligence. There were then a few speeches by park officials, and after that a Franklin D. Roosevelt impersonator, who was dropped off in an antique car, came on and read some excerpts of the speech from the dedication ceromony in '36. After that was the re-dedication speech given by the park's director, and the color gaurd retired the colors for the end of the ceremony. After that I looked around at the different tents they had set up and walked back to my car. I drove to the parking lot to reach Hawksbill summit, the highest point in the park. I got there and started up the trail, and saw more wildlife along the way. I reached the top where there are spectactular 360 degree views of the park and surrounding lands. There were also some nice boulders and cliffs to climb, and I spent a few hours climbing the rocks there before heading back down to my car. I then drove north until I found a good overlook where I could watch the sun set. There was a guy there with a huge HAM radio setup complete with motor driven antenna attached to his car. I listened to his conversations for a little bit and then crossed the road to climb on some rocks on the other side while I waited the few hours it would take for the sun to set. The sunset was amazing, the sky went from a light blue to a bright yellow deepening into a vibrant orange that darkened to a color that I can only describe as rorange and then turing into a deep deep pink as the sun set over some distant clouds into tomorrow. Everything then had a purplish tinge to it before it got completely dark. I then drove farther north to find an overlook on the other side of the mountain so I could wake up and see the sun rise. I parked and got in the passengers seat to go to sleep, and not long after I had fallen asleep a ranger knocked on my door telling me that I couldn't sleep there, so I drove north til I was almost out of the park and I found a picnic area to park and sleep in.
I woke up the next morning and hiked up to a place called Snead's Barn where there was an old barn still standing from before the land became part of the national park. There were also some old ruins of what looked to be a farmhouse. While looking around I noticed a few small cannabis plants growing on the ground in one spot. I figure someone accidently dropped some seeds. The trail continued on and came to a point where it overlooked the valley and city below. A park ranger had told me that hang gliders use this as a point to launch off of. There were two local girls there I talked with for a while, and since this was their first time in the park, I recommended a few places they should check out. While up there I noticed more hemp growing. I walked back to my car and drove out of the park and into the town on the north end of the park, Front Royal. I stopped there to work on my blog and get some food. I went to Burger King instead of McDonalds because there were no open plugs at McDonalds. After I went back to my car at McDonalds, I realized I had forgotten to get directions, so I went in to look them up. After I had the map pulled up I asked what street we were on, and didn't get an answer from the staff, but an older gentleman came up and asked me where I was going and gave me very detailed directions on where to go. He sat down and we ended up talking for almost an hour about all kinds of things before we both had to leave. I drove north into PA and took back roads through the beautiful backcountry. I like taking backroads over interstate any day, there is so much more to see!! I stopped in a Best Buy parking lot to sleep around ten.

Hiking in Shenandoah National Park

Once I got to Waynesboro, VA on the southern end of the park I stopped at a walmart to stock up on trail food and gas. Shenandoah National Park (SNP) has one long road that goes the entire 100+ mile length of the park called Skyline Drive. I got on that Wednesday afternoon, and when I got to the fee station, it was thankfully a fee free day. I probably wouldn't have been able to go in otherwise, as at that point I was down to my last $60. I stopped at McCormick Gap overlook and watched as a storm moved across the valley. It was an incredible sight to witness, I could see the edge of the rain moving steadily closer and closer. Once the storm got to me it poured and hailed marble sized hail for about ten minutes before heading on. Once I got back on the road I saw a bear cub playing on the side of the road and stopped and watched him for a minute or two before he wandered into the forest and out of sight. I took these to be good signs. I stopped by Loft Mountain Campgrounds to check it out and get a trail map. While I was throwing all my trash in the dumpster a hiker came by and asked if I knew where the camp store was, and I offered to give him a ride there, even though it was less than a mile away. I also offered him a cold brew, which he gladly accepted. We talked for a bit, and he is on day 69 of his thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, which runs from Georgia all the way to Maine. As he got out of my car he thanked me and referred to the encounter as a bit of "trail magic", an unexpected and pleasant surprise from a stranger along the trail. We parted ways and I continued on Skyline Drive north, stopping at each of the many overlooks and taking in the sights. I arrived at Big Meadows later in the afternoon and set up my camper there and got a fire going.
I woke up the next morning and rode my bike around a little bit, and then rode up to the visitors center to plan where I was going to hike. The rangers helped me pick a route to take, and I ended up deciding to hike from Skyline Drive at Hawksbill to the base of Old Rag that day and set up camp there for two nights before going on to Corbin Cabin and setting up camp around there and hiking back on the fourth day (Saturday). The rangers also informed me that the park's 75th anniversary is this year, and the official celebration and re-dedication ceremony is Saturday, so I planned on coming back for that.
I hit the trail IN FLIP FLOPS around 2:30 and it was descended straight down into the valley below. I got about halfway down before I realized that I had dropped my map, and so I set down my pack and headed back up the mountain to find it. While going up I ran into some other day hikers who had seen my map and picked it up for me, they gave it back and I continued on my way. The trail passed by several waterfalls, and one of them was more like a waterslide and there were kids sliding down the rocks into the pool below. The trail was gorgeous, and nice and shaded and cool. Once reaching the bottom there was a parking lot for day hikers, and a fire road led off from this. I followed the fire road up another mountain towards where I planned to camp. I kept looking for a good place to camp right off the fire road but couldn't find one, so once I made it to a stream I walked through the woods looking for a flat spot to set up camp. While doing this I just about stepped on a large snake, and it made me loose my footing and fall a few yards down the mountain. After I couldn't find a suitable place, I decided to keep hiking and hadn't gone 100 yards when there was a beautiful campsite just off the road. Once there I got the tent pitched, bear bag set up, and started boiling water for ramen. After eating I set about making a fire in the fire pit, and stayed up watching the fire and making hemp bracelets until around 11 when I crawled into my sleeping bag and went to sleep.
I woke up the next morning and hung around camp for a little bit before setting off on a day hike to the summit of Old Rag, which is only about 8 miles round trip. I just brought some water bottles with me, and no pack or anything of the sort. The trail continued down the fire road I had followed the day before until it came to a trail leading up to the summit. The trail almost immediately began heading straight up, switching back and forth as it climbed up the mountain. At one point it reached a false summit which was where the rock scramble began. The rock scramble was about a mile or more of boulders and granite that you don't so much as hike across as climb across. I had lots of fun on this part, and took my time scampering up and down the boulders. This part of the hike was the only part where I wore actual shoes instead of flip flops, and this proved to be a wise choice, as granite can be extremely rough on bear feet. Once I reached the top I sat up there for a while just taking in the view before heading down the other trail back to camp. This trail was much steeper than the other one, but didn't have the rock scramble. Along the way it passed by a day use shelter called Byrds Nest 1, and I stopped there to pee, and while I was peeing a fawn and its mother stepped into the clearing near me. I watched them for a while before other hikers came up and scared them off. I got back to camp around 4 and ate some food and took a nice little nap. I woke up from the nap and sat around camp listening to Phish on my iPod and making necklaces until dark.
I woke up the next morning a little bit before 7 and took my time breaking camp and doing yoga and I hit the trail around 8 or so. Maybe 15 minutes on the trail I was going across a stream on a log, and when I looked downstream there was a bear only twenty yards away tearing up a stump looking for grubs. I sat down on the log and the bear acknowledged my presence with a grunt and continued rooting for grubs. The bear allowed me to watch him for a good thirty minutes before lumbering off into the forest. It was a truly magical experience, and I felt honored that the bear let me watch so close to him for so long. I continued on the small trail, and it was quite different from the trails the previous days. I could tell that this trail didn't see nearly as many visitors as the other ones. While walking along enjoying the forest sounds I heard something up ahead, and a few seconds later a much bigger black bear stepped out of the brush and into the trail maybe 5 yards ahead of me. He was just as surprised as I was and hightailed it out of there. I didn't realize it, but bears can run FAST!!! He was gone almost as soon as he was there. As I continued on the Indian Run trail I saw several garter snakes lying across the trail, and caught one and played with him for a while before releasing him. I got to Corbin's Cabin around noon, and this was the area I had planned to camp in. The cabin is set up for use by the volunteers who keep up the trails, and it remains locked. I decided that I would rather keep on than stop so early in the day, so I hung out around the cabin for more than an hour letting my shirt and bag dry and getting clean water. I explored the area around the cabin a bit and saw all sorts of remnants of the civil war, including long stone walls used as bunkers and the ruins of an old homestead. I hit the trail up the mountain towards Skyline Drive and the Appalachian Trail. The trail up the mountain was extremely steep and had had numerous switchbacks, but as I went up in elevation I could feel the humidity lessen, which was a huge blessing.
Once I reached the top I crossed Skyline Drive to the AT and began hiking south towards my car. The AT had incredible views of the valley on the other side of the mountain, and I could see hawks circling below me. While on the trail I ran across the same guy I had picked up a few days earlier and I stopped and talked to him and his group for a while, and they told me that I should not miss the side hike up to the top of Stoney Man, which was just a mile or so south of me. I got to the Stoney Man trailhead where there was a sign saying that that point is the highest point of the AT in the park. I hiked up to the top, but didn't stay too long, even though the view was incredible. On the trail up and down I saw LOTS of deer up close, and they all let me stop and watch them from only a few yards away. One doe I was watching saw another doe come into view and they stared each other down for a bit before they started chasing each other. They ran within arms length of me and then disappeared into the forest. Once I got back on the AT it ran through Skyland and I stopped there to fill up on fresh water and as I was walking through the parking lot I found out the only drawback to wearing flip flops to hike in. Bees can sting the bottom of your foot. Somehow a bee managed to fly between my flip flop and foot while I was mid stride, and when my foot struck the ground the bee stung the bottom of my foot. The pain only lasted for a little while before it was gone. I got back to my car sometime after 6 and right as I was crossing the road to my car a buck came out and stayed in the clearing for almost 30 minutes while I watched him. He would disappear into the woods for a while when another car came by and then reappear as soon as they were gone. It was a great way to end my hike, and all told I think I did around 40 miles. Probably 20 or more just the last day, and the whole time I was in flip flops. Doing the trail in this footgear made me realize a new goal of mine, I have always had thru-hiking the AT on my bucket list, but now I have made it my goal to do the entire trail in flip flops. Just to say I did it.