It's Raining Sideways!!

Wednesday afternoon I drove to the lot around 3 to see if they were allowing people in early, but there wasn't a soul there, so I went back to nap and hung out with the crew until around 5 when they dropped Mahya and I off at Lot A and they drove to the off-site lot to park. I sold beer and waters and Mahya was selling hoops. Business was somewhat slow, but I was selling stuff until it started to thunder and then pour. I drug the coolers a ways to the nearest canopy and about 15 of us were hunkered down under someone's ez-up. On the second trip to the canopy I saw an envelope on the ground and picked it up and inside were two pavilion tickets to the nights show!!! Now I am able to go into the show!!! The rain was coming down with such ferocity that we all had to hold on to the canopy to keep it from blowing away. I sold over a half dozen beers just to people in that tent. After about 20 minutes it let up and the skies cleared. At that point it was time to go into the show, so Mahya and I hid the coolers and hoops behind the porta-potties, and I stuffed my bag with beers and headed to the show. They didn't search the bag well, and so I was able to get about 8 beers into the show!! (that would cost $64 inside)
We were walking to find the rest of the crew since they were already inside, and ended up running into them on the way to the bathroom. We all sat up on the lawn with free lawn chairs.
Phish opened with "Paul and Silas" into "Back on the Train". "Foam" was next, and was pretty awesome. Trey killed on guitar during this song especially. This was followed by an especially appropriate song, "Water in the Sky", which they played differently than I'd ever heard it before. Not different in a bad way, but it was definitely different. This was followed by an awesome "Runaway Jim" that had us acting like a dancing fool! "Army of One" was next, and that is a song I didn't know at all. Then they did a Ween cover, "Roses are Free", which we had listened to the night before after the show. This segued into "Timber" into "Mound" and somewhere in there it started to sprinkle, so I took our stuff down to the seats to have someone watch it for us. I went back to the lawn, but it had started to rain hard, and the crew had vanished. I headed back the my seat and listened there for a while, but halfway through "Mound" they had to stop playing due to the rain. Everyone from the lawn came under the pavilion, but it didn't do much to help, the rain was coming in sideways. There was a river of water flowing down the stairs and under the seats. I took this opportunity to work my way down and into the pit again, and waited there in a pool of water for them to come back on.
After about 40 minutes (I think), the band came back on and picked up playing "Mound" right where they left off. I had worked my way to within about 50 feet of Trey and Page. I chose that side because Page side is the rage side! After they finished "Mound" they played one of my favorites, "Tweezer" Mike had some funky beats going during this song. At one point during "Tweezer" CK5 had the lights spell PHISH, which I hadn't seen before. This went smoothly into "Julius" then into "Slave to the Traffic Light". After "Slave" Trey called a meeting onstage and they huddled together for a while, and Mike looked like he didn't want to play whatever Trey was saying. They ended up playing "David Bowie", and I don't know why Mike looked like he didn't want to play it, cause he is great in that song. This was followed by another of my favorites and a song that always gets stuck in my head, "Suzy Greenberg". After "Suzy" was what felt like a long "Gotta Jiboo" that went into "Harry Hood", which is always a crowd favorite and Mike killed on bass. "Character Zero" was next, and it had some really jammy parts to it. The band then stopped playing for a second and huddled up while a stagehand brought a mike stand with 3 mikes on stage. Trey even acted like he was gonna jump into the wet crowd. They then did an a capella rendition of a song I hadn't heard before called "The Birdwatcher". This was really fun to watch, and it looked like they were having more fun than the crowd was, especially Page and Trey. They ended the set with a sick "Kung".
The encore started with "Funky Bitch" which I always enjoy cause I want the funk, gotta have that funk. Sometime during the song I headed up to the lawn because I had left my shoes up there. The whole time all I could think was the lyrics from the song "Cavern" that they played last night. It goes "whatever you do, take care of your shoes". And I wasn't taking good care of em leaving them behind. When I got to the lawn a worker told me that I couldn't go there, but I told him my situation and he followed me to find my shoes and back off the lawn. At that point they started into "Tweezer Reprise", but I had to leave so I could get the ice chest and start selling drinks.
I got the drinks and sold quite a few, and at some point I tried calling Charlie, but then I felt her phone ringing in my bag. I ended up with all the phones except Mahya's, and when I talked to her she somehow had gotten to Athens. I decided to cut my losses and get back on my own, and not hope for them to find me in all those people. I drug the cooler and hoops under an office building and then stood in the line of cars trying to get a ride. Many cars went by without slowing down, but finally a girl was walking by and offered to give me a ride. Her name was Rory and it was her birthday. Her dad was picking her up, and he was nice enough to give me a ride to camp. I got there and got in my car to go get the hoops and stuff and had just parked the car when I saw Cameron's Element driving through the parking lot. After hugs and all for the reunion we packed the ice chests and hoops up and headed to camp. Once we got to camp we went to sleep pretty fast.

This morning I woke up around 10:30 and got to work breaking down camp. Once I had the trailer packed I went into their trailer to hang out for a while before leaving. After a long goodbye I finally got on the road and drove to the edge of South Carolina and I'm currently camped at King's Mountain State Park with a nice fire going and my hammock set up.
Going phishing tomorrow!!!