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"Time to get up"
My alarm went off at 7:30am, I set it a 1/2 hour
early so I would get up in time, but after I woke up to shut it
off, I knew I wasn't going back to sleep, today's the day. So I
got my coffee, got ready and got to Dan's about 8:45am, like I
told him the night before. Dan's still getting ready and in the
shower. So after 1/2 hour of sitting around kicking his cat and
watching cartoons on Nickelodeon, he's finally ready. I check
the oil and the radiator, everything's good there, I even bring
along a milk jug full of water just in case. We hit the road at
9:30am.
"Chapter 2 - A Long Journey Ahead"
We printed off the driving directions, and it
was kind of simple really. Just head north up I-35 till you get
to Minneapolis, take the interstates around Saint Paul, head
east on 30, and you'll be in Somerset, WI. We were off to a good
start. We're talking about stuff and before you know it, 2 hours
go by. We stop to get gas in Northern Iowa, I bought some
"breakfast tornadoes" for breakfast. Everything was smooth
sailing all the way thru Iowa and into Minnesota. We stop at the
first rest stop in Minnesota, and I got to say, Minnesota's rest
stops are way better than Iowa's rest stops. I think the last
rest stop we passed in Iowa was the one that didn't have any
bathrooms, it was basically a parking lot on the side of the
interstate. So anyways, we are at the rest stop in Minnesota,
and there's some old guy behind the corner giving out
information about stuff. I grab a Minnesota map, and Dan asks
him about the traffic. The old man said it might be a little
congested because of the construction, we think nothing of it
and hit the road again.
"Left lane closed ahead"
I swear every state has to do their construction
at the exact same time as every other state. Traveling into
Minnesota did start getting congested, and we finally got about
halfway from the border to Minneapolis when it happened. Cars
slowing down really quick, and eventually to a stop. It was very
slow going for a bit, and we saw like 3 cop cars go barrelin'
by. Something bad has happened up ahead, but what? The rest of
this part just plain sucked, basically we were at a stand still,
bumper to bumper traffic, and it took us, swear to Buddha, 20
minutes to go one mile. It was ridiculous. By the time we got
enough to see around the bend, we knew there was no hope in
site. Traffic was all stopped for about a mile ahead, that's as
far as I could see, so it could of been more. Then we started
getting pissed, it was 12:30, the concert starts in one hour,
and we don't want to miss anything cool. So Plan B, we jump on
the shoulder and make a run for it up to the exit ahead. Of
course, we were the last ones to think of this, so there was
another long line waiting for us down there too. I grabbed the
map and chartered out a course to the nearest divided highway
that would take us up to Saint Paul, and back onto the
interstate. So after about 1/2 hour of side tracking, we finally
get back on the interstate and around that insane mess that held
us up. I was upset because I KNEW something bad happened, but
didn't get to see any blood or bodies.
"Let's see if my heart explodes"
Oh ya, I forgot to mention just how tired I was
this whole day. I didn't get a lot of sleep, and before I left I
drank my usual 1/2 pot of coffee, and that didn't help. On the
road, I popped one of my No-Doz pills, and a few hours later, I
couldn't feel it's effects. I also had a large Mountain Dew with
my breakfast tornadoes. We stopped at a gas station right before
the last leg, and I bought a Starbucks Double Shot, a large
Nestle Crunch with Caramel, and another large Mountain Dew. I
gluped down the Double Shot in no time, ate the candy bar, and
had 1/2 the Mountain Dew down before Dan finally came out of the
bathroom. "Let's see if my heart explodes", were my words. I was
still tired after all that caffiene, and I was hoping this would
help. Who wants to be tired all day at a concert?
"Concert parking ahead"
When we left the gas station till when we got
the the concert, it was basically bumper to bumper again, but we
didn't mind too much, we were close this time! We decided to
park up close, and parking was $15. That just reminds me, Dan
owes me $5, ya, like I'll ever see that money. Or did he pay me?
I don't know...anyways...A long walk to the concert gates, a
friendly pat down by security and we were in. Security just
wanted to see what was inside my cigarette box, um cigarettes?
Who is dumb enough to decide to sneak something in, and think
putting it in with your cigarettes is a pretty sneaky spot? Dan
says some security chick grabbed his ass when she checked him,
but I didn't believe it. So we were in and cravin' that first
beer. It was now 2:30pm, and we just spent 5 hours in the car to
get there. Sign said $20 for 5 beers. So it's $4 a beer, if you
couldn't add that up. They gave us 4 sheets of 10 tickets. We
went to get beer, and it was only 8 tickets a beer! I asked, "Is
this the cheapest beer place?", some chick said, "Ya, and the
best looking one too". But in fact, it was the ONLY beer place.
Sure there were a few more tents, but that was it. So we had a
choice of either MGD or Lite. I hate both, but thought MGD would
give me more bang for my buck, so I drank those.
"Do I know you from somewhere?"
We hung around for awhile, nothing was going on
the mainstage, so we checked out the 2nd stage. Some band was up
there and they were absolutely horrible. The guy couldn't sing
at all. Hell, I could sing better than that! After a few more
beers and a few more trips to the porta-potties, Dan recognized
some girl he used to be in Army with. She was with a few guys,
so we are hung out together. They were fun too. Now we had some
other people to talk to and do stuff with around the concert. So
we went around checking out places and drinking more and more
beer. It didn't take too long before all my beer tickets were
gone, and I was about the same. We went to the 2nd stage, and
someone named GhostFace Killa was there, some rapper. Everyone
was like eh, we'll see about this. Then some WHITE guy came out
pimped out in nothing but Mets gear and started freestylin'. God
this was horrible. I don't remember all his words, but one line
was, "My guns too big for my holsta's". I turned around to my
group and said, "Are these guys for real?". I thought it was a
gag or something. So me and about 1/2 the audience left that
area pretty quickly. Snoop Dogg was going to come out next, so
we made our way to the main stage.
"Can I sit on your shoulders?"
Me and one of the guys were hanging out in the
crowd, and Dan and the girl and the other guy made it way up to
the front row somewhere, I don't know we lost them. So we were
standing there waiting for Snoop Dogg and there was 2 chicks
behind me, I asked them if they could see anything, of course
not, because they were short and saw just people's backs. I told
the cute one, "You should find a tall guy and ask him to put you
on his shoulders". She replied, "Ya, and you're pretty tall". I
thought no way, I can't do that. I'm drunk as hell, and the
thought of having a girl sit on my shoulders would be a pretty
dangerous situation in my opinion. But I was the dumbass that
brought up the idea, so I decided to be Mister Niceguy. I
squatted down, she climbed on, and as soon as I stood up, I knew
this was a bad idea. Her weight didn't hurt too much, but
standing still and straight up with her on was almost
impossible. I wanted to put her down right away, but didn't want
to look like a wuss. I saw a guy a few rows up with a girl on
his shoulders, and I told myself, after he puts her down, I'll
put this one down. I don't even know her name, but I know she's
drunk, and bouncing up and down on my shoulders. I could hear my
spinal cord just tweak under the pressure. And where the hell
was Snoop Dogg? Still waiting for him. So eventually the guy in
front of me put that girl down, Snoop Dogg still wasn't out, and
I had this girl on my shoulders for about 1/2 hour. I eventually
put her down, she thanked me and that was the last I saw her.
Too bad though, she was pretty cute. But boy, I think I'll
remember her when I wake up and feel the pain the next morning.
"Murder was the case that they gave me"
Snoop Dogg finally came out and put on one hell
of a show. He sung a lot of his old stuff, and it was awesome.
Everyone was singing along to some of his classics like "Nothing
But a G Thang", "Murder was the Case that they gave me", and
"Sippin' on Gin and Juice". After it was over, I told that one
kid to stay still, and I was going to walk around and look for
everyone else and meet back with him. Well, when I came back he
was gone, and I was now lost. Screw it, get more beer, it will
figure itself out. And it did, I found Dan again, but that was
the last time we hung out with those guys, couldn't find them
again after that.
"Ya'll want a single say f*** that!"
Korn was up next and I couldn't wait. Dan and I
believe that Korn stole the show. They did an awesome job. Did
some of their old songs from Follow the Leader, and a few newer
songs. They also sung the "Ya'll want a single" song, and
everyone went nuts over that. They ended up their routine with
covers to Metallica and Pink Floyd. They had the words to the
Pink Floyd song on the wall so we could sing along. We all did,
but didn't need the words. I think it was there for the young
kids who probably don't know Pink Floyd. They ended on a great
note and put on one hell of a show.
"I'm breaking the habit tonight"
After an hour of waiting, Linkin Park finally
came out. And at first their vocals sucked, but he finally got
it under control. What I didn't like about Linkin Park's show
was that since they have so much going on in their music, like
guitars, keyboards, sound effects, they can't do all that at the
concert. So about half of their music was prerecorded, and it
just left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. The other half was
live from the guitar's, but the 'background' parts of the songs
were prerecorded. So they went on for awhile, and it was
alright. At this time, Dan and I were sitting on the hill
because we were getting tired and cold. It was chilly out, you
could see your breathe by then. We ended up going down with the
crowd towards the end of their show. When Linkin Park first said
goodbye, we knew it wasn't the end. The ended up playing about 3
or 4 encores, it kept going and going. They did a great job
playing a cover of "Wish" by Nine Inch Nails, that totally
rocked. And their last song, they had Jonathan Davis from Korn
come out and do some of the vocals with him. It was pretty cool,
Jonathan sounded great. So Linkin Park was finally over, and it
was time to find the car.
"I don't know where we parked"
There must of been a zillion people leaving the
gates and heading out to the parking lot. We finally got out to
the parking lot and must of spent 15 minutes looking around in
the dark for our car. Dan said that he thought we parked up the
hill higher, I said he was crazy and we kept looking. So I
finally decided to try Dan's idea, and he was right, we had been
looking in the wrong spot. So we got to our car and warmed it
up. Everyone, and I mean everyone there was trying to leave at
the same time. Cars were in every direction bumper to bumper, it
was chaos. Dan said he wanted to wait it out and take a nap
before we go. So we munched on our leftover chips because we
were starving, and then I needed something to drink, but we had
no drinks. I ended up taking a few drinks out of that milk jug
full of water that I brought for the car, boy did that suck. So
we fall asleep and wait for the parking lot to clear out.
"Enter the fog"
I wake up a couple hours later and Dan is
driving on the interstate. The fog is absolutely horrible, and I
swear we could only see like 20 feet in front of us. It was
pitch black out and with that fog, seeing the signs on the road
were impossible, so I didn't even know if we were going in the
right direction or not. I could just see a deer come out or
something and we would of never seen it in time, that didn't
happen, but I could just see it happening. So I tell Dan that we
should probably pull over somewhere and rest for the night, it
was just too dangerous to drive. So finally after a few more
hours, Dan finds a rest area and parks and we sleep for the
night.
"6am Rise and Shine"
I wake up first and my body is completely sore
all over. I make it to the bathroom and wash my face to wake up,
and my eyes are completely bloodshot, so much so it was kind of
scary. Dan does the same thing. We are now fighting off
headaches and hangovers. So we finish the drive home. It was
still foggy out, but this time we could now see about 50 feet in
front of us. But the roads were bare, and it was pretty safe. We
did hit a bird on the way home, and we got a kick out of that.
It wasn't until we got half way into Iowa that the fog finally
let off. We got to Dan's house, cleaned all our food wrappers
out of his car, and I left in my car to go home. I had trouble
driving, I was still tired and I bet I looked like a drunk
person driving. But I got home, started typing this, said screw
it, and slept for about 4 hours and I just woke up and am now
finishing it.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, you missed out if you didn't
get to go. hehehe. It was a great time and I would like to see
more concerts up there. The drive was a real pain, but it was
managable. If you are still reading this, I hope you enjoyed my
story, because I wrote this for you. ;)
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