|
|
ZZZZZ………."Oh Boy!"
By: Brent "Bud" RutgersCertainly, many people have a variety of stories to tell from Phish's summer tour closer, Lemonwheel. However, my story, although ending in good fortune for all, was definitely the scariest moment I have had in all my years.
For those of you who have never ventured northward into Maine, specifically Interstate 95…at night, let me briefly explain your surroundings. The road itself is for the most part, well, straight. And second, a thick wall of trees lines the road the entire way. Obviously, this allows you to see only the road, without any extracurricular sightseeing. And to make the drive even more fun, the road itself is raised, leaving a huge ditch of sorts off to each side. Now, my friends and I decided to drive through the night so we were able to arrive early Friday morning, allowing us to have two full days before Saturday night's show. The interstate was pretty crowded, filled with many excited Phish fans. There were license plates from states stretching to the West Coast. Many times during the beginning of our trip I wondered how long some of these people had been driving for. Even for a rested person, the monotony of the interstate could put one to sleep fairly quickly.
This leads into the meat of my story. Coming from Hampstead, NH, we had just past Bangor, which is still fairly south, but stills a good clip from the southern point in Maine. The first shift driver was definitely starting to get a bit tired, and planned on turning the controls over to me very soon. The other two passengers and I were sort of laughing it up when the driver points her finger ahead and shouts, "Look!"
I'll have to tell you, the following events still boggle my mind. I promise, they are the complete truth.
As I jerked my head forward, all I saw were two tails lights trailing off the road, down the embankment. We had been slowly catching up to this car in the left lane, and we were doing about seventy to seventy-five miles an hour. Anyway, at the last second before the car plunged into the trees, the freshly awakened driver was able to defy the laws of physics and bolt the automobile back up the embankment. Of course, the previously unmentioned "road reflectors" lining the road…he missed them, both on the way down and up. The car slowly came a stop on the side of the road.
Now, the four of us were enjoying the mini world of the rented Nissan Altima, when everyone was thrust back into the reality of…well…reality. The mood of the car went from "chill" to all out "panic." We immediately pulled-over, each of us leaping out of the car and bolting towards the Taurus 4x4. As we ran to the passenger window, I right away noticed the mud and grass all over this 4-liter monster. Upon looking inside the car, I saw two guys frozen in their seats, not saying a word.
First, we asked them if they were "OK." They were surprisingly calm. I even think the driver had a smile on his face. After several questions, they seemed to be fine, so we decided to leave and pull over at the next rest area to grab our wits. However, we did proceed with one last question. "How long have you been driving?" asked one of my comrades. "Uhh…Pennsylvania" we heard in reply. Go ahead and grab your map, check how far it is to the nearest point in Pennsylvania from Bangor, and don't forget it was the middle of the night. We told them it was probably a good idea to take a break as soon as possible…Duh! Four astonished souls paced back to the car. Upon entering our vehicle, I noticed everyone had a good amount of adrenaline running through them. Still to this day, I feel as though we were way more "freaked-out" then they were. We parked the car at the next rest area and took a short break. However, we could not stop talking about what we had just seen. "What are the odds of coming out of that without a scratch?" "It's almost as if he planned to do it!" "I didn't even see breaklights till he was on his way back up!" "They better have a good time this weekend!". These were some of the comments that standout most distinctly in my mind.
It truly was an unbelievable thing to witness at full speed (that being about sixty miles an hour), an event which will never leave my mind. I guess I can only hope the two of them learned a few lessons about life on that interstate.
On the way to Lemonwheel
By Michael TurnerDay 1 -
"let's stay up all night so we won't miss the plane in the morning…" I don't know who said that late Thursday night, but it was the worst idea yet.
So there we are, my girlfriend christi and our friend t.j. and me, it's 6:30am and we're driving to DFW airport. Tired to say the least. We get to the airport, no problems at all, checked out packs and made our way into the terminal, hopped on the plane and we were in the air towards Boston. I for one, slept on the plane, tired from a night full of raising mental awareness or something, only to be awaken by the flightperson holding a tray of what looked like breakfast foods, but tasted like something else. There was something that resembled an omelet, some year-old fruit, and a bagel ball. "No thanks…" I said, "I'll just have some dr. pepper."
The next time I awoke was when the plane was landing at Logan International Airport in Boston. If you have ever been to this place, I feel sorry for you, if you are planning a trip there, try to think of another airport to fly into.
The airport itself wasn't so bad, it was laid out like a huge overpriced shopping mall, with shops like BrookeStone and The Museum Company, not at all what I expected. Now I say that the airport wasn't so bad, but that's a lie. The airport was horrendous, and the first wind we caught of this was while we were trying to find some lockers to put all of our crap in. The lockers in the airport are not like most mass-transport like lockers, no key, not cheap, and really small. Plus, to add to the fact that it's going to take 5 lockers to fit all our crap, there is only a handful available for use, and the rest are broken. So after walking to every terminal and checking every set of lockers, we finally decided that we were going to have to sit at the airport until the "lemonwheel bus" left that night. Let me share with you how long that was. We arrived at 12pm or so, and the bus to the wheel left at 10pm that night. 10 long hours at an airport that can only hold your attention for one to two hour's tops, great. Well, I didn't want to leave the great Logan International Airport without letting them know how much I cared for their fine establishment, so I sat down, and filled in a comment card with the simple message "NEED MORE LOCKERS" then signed my name and dropped it in the box. I got a reply about a week ago.
After a glorious day wasted in a less-than-efficient airport, with wonderfully rude people everywhere, we made our way to the subway station where we were supposed to meet the bus. This was one part of the trip that I enjoyed. The people who were on the bus with us were cool people who were all going to the same place. When we boarded, someone immediately put in a bootleg with a nice "Story of the Ghost" on it, and I sat back and enjoyed the ride(fell asleep).
Day 2-
I woke up during the bus's one stop during the journey, at a small gas station in Bangor, Maine. I got out, lit up a smoke and stood around waiting for something cool to happen. I went inside the gas station to get a drink and there was homemade Lemonwheel and Bangor shirts hung up on the racks, packs of American Spirits and Ecstasy cigarettes, all surrounded by the normal stuff you find in a small town's gas station. Things like 5 year old crackers, the huge bin of beef jerky, and old people sitting around talking in the middle of the night. It was kinda weird, 3 or 4 a.m. in the morning and there's a lot of old people just hanging out, playing cards and whatnot. After another smoke I boarded the bus and got ready for the final stretch of highway that separated us from Loring Air Force Base, we were about 4 hours away, and I think everyone on the bus was as ready to get there as I was.
I can't stress what a cool idea the bus was, here is a bunch of people who all like the same band and are going to the best concert of the year, all on the same bus. It was really great, you could hear people talking about a great bootleg they have of a show this summer or telling wild stories about shows they went to this summer. All these people who didn't know each other before, were now friends, we were basically forced into it, otherwise you'd go crazy on that bus.
I think next year we'll do the same thing, because it was a trip that I will never forget, and a trip I'd like to take again. The ride up there, the show(oh my god!) and the ride back, made Lemonwheel one if the best trips I have ever taken.
Home | Editors | Features | Columns | Regional | New Groove | Road Trip
Tour Journal | Venue | Levels | Ghosts | Homegrown | Inaudible | CDs