The Drive Home!

The next morning we drove through Shenandoah National Park.  We drove the Skyline Drive for 25 to 30 miles and saw some of the Appellation Mountains.  We saw a black bear on the side of the road, and after she went into the woods, we saw two little cubs with her.  It was really cool to see them fairly close up.  We decided to drive straight home rather than stop for another night.  We got stuck in traffic in New York City, going over the George Washington Bridge, and again in CT due to construction.  Other than that it was not too bad, and we got home about 12am Tuesday morning.  It was nice to be home.  We saw Sandy, and she was so excited to see us.  “There’s no place like home!”

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The Bon that is Roo....BONNAROO!

We made it to the hotel to meet everyone on Wednesday night around 6.  It was good to see our friends again.  The 4^th car in our crew made it to the hotel at 6am the next morning.  We all took showers, got some last minute stuff at walmart, and then hit the road.  It was an hour and a half drive to the venue.  We got to about 2 miles away before we hit traffic.  Due to the rain the previous nights, there was flooding in the venue.  So to give the area more time to dry up, they blocked off entrance we were suppose to enter at.  They detoured us all the way down the highway 15 miles, and then had us turn around and go back up the highway in the other direction back another 13 miles to another entrance (all in bumper to bumper traffic that was not even consistently moving).  It was pure crap.  We sat in traffic for several hours before we realized what they were doing, and dug deep for our inner Mass-Holes and formed a plan.  We drove got out of line, and drove past the exit in which they were turning people around at, and went to the next exit to turn around.  Then we cruised by all the traffic and cut in only 6 or 7 miles away.  It saved us, hours and hours of traffic.   We finally got into the venue about 3pm, and managed to keep all four cars together.  We got a sweet spot, and set up a nice little community of 5 tents and two easy ups for shade for the 12 of us.  That night there were still people coming into the venue at like 11pm that had been in traffic all day.   It was ridiculously hot all weekend in the mid 90’s and super humid.

There were so many good bands to see it was hard to choose.  We saw, Mike Snow, Temper Trap, Damian Marley, Nas, Tenacious D, Kings of Leon, Bassnector, LCD Soundsystem, Weezer, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Deadmau5,  Disco Biscuits, Blues Travelers, Dropkick Murphys, Phoenix, and Dave Matthews Band.  We also saw pieces of lots of other shows as well.  It was really fun, but really tiring.  We were up til like 4, sometimes 5am, and then the sun comes up and beat down on your tent until it is unbearable at like 7:30, 8:00am.  It is so hot out all the time you are just sticky and uncomfortable all day.  Luckily Billy and I brought a portable tent shower and some solar shower bags which worked great for everyone.  We also had battery fans with spray bottles to keep us somewhat cool.

The port-a-potties were disgusting.  I could not believe I survived four days having to use them.  They only time they were fairly clean was in the morning at 7:30 before the rush of people waking up.   After four days of that, I could not wait for a real bathroom.  They had water areas to fill up buckets, and wash up as well, but by the second day it was so muddy that you needed rubber boots to get water.  It was crazy people were up to their ankles in mud.  It was so gross. We had rubber crocks which worked well.  By the end of the 4 days the venue was really muddy in low areas, and people were just slipping everywhere.  We steered clear of most of the mud, and managed to stay in the grassy areas further from the stages, where we could sit in our chairs and on blankets.  Any and all fountains, baby pools, and or slip and slides that you could used to cool off were just muddy, sweaty water.  We steered clear of those as well.  Four days of hot sun, 80,000 people, sweat, human waste, and garbage was a smell that took over the entire venue.  Haha, it was a rough weekend, but totally worth it.  We had a blast with good music, and good company.  However, we were definitely ready to leave and get in some AC.

Most people left Sunday night, but Billy and I, stayed and packed up Monday morning.  We drove all day to Virginia, and stayed at a crappy hotel.  It was so funny, I was telling Billy, “I can’t wait to sleep and not work about ants, and bugs,” and yet we got to the hotel and there were ants, and flies all over.  It was awful.  Probably one of the worst hotels we stayed at.  Below are some pictures from Bonnaroo.  Enjoy!

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