Something about Dave...finally
So, as the story goes, I typed up a great big blog all about my DMB weekend in Washington and then I went to save the draft and my task bar said "not responding" and thus was lost my post and I haven't had the drive to try again until now. I'll try to pick one notable story from each day and that should give you a flavor for the kind of gong show that ensued throughout the weekend but was still magical all due to DMB.
Friday night: After finding Starbucks to fortify our waking hours, we-Heather, Amelia, and me-stopped in at a gas station in Everett and inquired about a place to camp. We spent 15-20 minutes in the gas station trying to find a place to tent and talking to the attendant, each minute growing far more weirder than the previous-ask me about it sometime, it's worth it. We found this camping spot, rolled in about 10:30 or 11pm and set up our tent. Let me just tell you now that tenting in other countries is not like it is in Canada. If I tripped and fell I would have taken out one of the tents next to us. Just think of 9 tents piled into an average backyard, only part of it was a playground. I was starting to get very excited about DMB and I was saying things I probably should have said a lot quieter for it being 1am-ish and judging the proximity of fellow campers which warranted a woman to open her trailer door (not even a tent) and yell "Quiet!" followed by her slamming the door. I then made a request to my travelling companions that we leave early in the morning as not to meet that woman. They obliged.
Saturday: Pike Place Market and the Experience Music Project in Seattle. I got a few super great finds at Pike Place including a pair of vintage cateye glasses, a Beatles collector mug, and a copy of John Milton's Paradise Lost. And I totally recommend EMP. We then made our way down to the Vantage Riverside Resort where we'd be staying for the next 2 nights. That night we drove to the Gorge and got a little preview of DMB. And that night we also camped on a hill. And that night at about 11pm our formerly quiet-ish campsite turned into a drunken camping version of Electric Circus (that dancing show on channel 29 that's on the weekends). So we attempted to go to bed around 2am. Amelia told Heather and I to "suck it up" as far as sleeping on the hill went...she wasn't sleeping on the hill. I'm all for sucking it up, especially when camping because, hey, I'm camping! But the hill proved to be beyond just sucking it up. In the morning Heather and I compared stories of how every half-hour to an hour we would be woken up and then have to push all our bedding and everything we were sleeping on back up the hill and then crawl back up to bed because we had slid to the bottom of the tent. We moved our tent to a plateau that had opened up Sunday morning.
Sunday: We swam in the Columbia River, I cliff jumped for the first time, we made some rad guacamole. And we got to see DMB!!! We met up with Jordan, Melissa, and Kevin at the concert and after they invited us to come hang out at their campsite until the traffic cleared. Little did we know the havic that was ensuing back at Vantage Riverside Resort. Jordan, Melissa, and Kevin had to go in search of food so we headed out back to our camping spot. As we pulled into the campground a tumble weed rolled across the path of the van. I'm serious. Folks, I could not make this up. Then the van headlights hit the spot where our tent and such was suppose to be. I mused aloud "Where's the tent? And our chairs?". That was met by "Shut up!", "No way!" and "You've got to be kidding me!". When we pulled right up it turned out that our tent had been flattened by the chinook-type winds that were raging and some kind soul had folded up our chairs and placed them on top of our tent to keep the Columbia River from claiming everything we owned. We attempted to upright the tent so we could still sleep there but the tent ended up turning up on an end into a bullet-type shape, aiming right for the Columbia River as the three of us struggled to hold on. The campsite told us they'd give us a refund if we left so we packed up by the warm glow of a head lamp and interior light of the van. We were on the road at 1:50am and drove straight through to home, except for the couple hours of sleep we grabbed at a rest stop.
For the sake of space I won't comment much more about this trip although there's so much more I could say. Hopefully you have some sort of incling about the fact that this trip-in all it's surreal glory-was a certified gong show. But at least I saw Dave.
Friday night: After finding Starbucks to fortify our waking hours, we-Heather, Amelia, and me-stopped in at a gas station in Everett and inquired about a place to camp. We spent 15-20 minutes in the gas station trying to find a place to tent and talking to the attendant, each minute growing far more weirder than the previous-ask me about it sometime, it's worth it. We found this camping spot, rolled in about 10:30 or 11pm and set up our tent. Let me just tell you now that tenting in other countries is not like it is in Canada. If I tripped and fell I would have taken out one of the tents next to us. Just think of 9 tents piled into an average backyard, only part of it was a playground. I was starting to get very excited about DMB and I was saying things I probably should have said a lot quieter for it being 1am-ish and judging the proximity of fellow campers which warranted a woman to open her trailer door (not even a tent) and yell "Quiet!" followed by her slamming the door. I then made a request to my travelling companions that we leave early in the morning as not to meet that woman. They obliged.
Saturday: Pike Place Market and the Experience Music Project in Seattle. I got a few super great finds at Pike Place including a pair of vintage cateye glasses, a Beatles collector mug, and a copy of John Milton's Paradise Lost. And I totally recommend EMP. We then made our way down to the Vantage Riverside Resort where we'd be staying for the next 2 nights. That night we drove to the Gorge and got a little preview of DMB. And that night we also camped on a hill. And that night at about 11pm our formerly quiet-ish campsite turned into a drunken camping version of Electric Circus (that dancing show on channel 29 that's on the weekends). So we attempted to go to bed around 2am. Amelia told Heather and I to "suck it up" as far as sleeping on the hill went...she wasn't sleeping on the hill. I'm all for sucking it up, especially when camping because, hey, I'm camping! But the hill proved to be beyond just sucking it up. In the morning Heather and I compared stories of how every half-hour to an hour we would be woken up and then have to push all our bedding and everything we were sleeping on back up the hill and then crawl back up to bed because we had slid to the bottom of the tent. We moved our tent to a plateau that had opened up Sunday morning.
Sunday: We swam in the Columbia River, I cliff jumped for the first time, we made some rad guacamole. And we got to see DMB!!! We met up with Jordan, Melissa, and Kevin at the concert and after they invited us to come hang out at their campsite until the traffic cleared. Little did we know the havic that was ensuing back at Vantage Riverside Resort. Jordan, Melissa, and Kevin had to go in search of food so we headed out back to our camping spot. As we pulled into the campground a tumble weed rolled across the path of the van. I'm serious. Folks, I could not make this up. Then the van headlights hit the spot where our tent and such was suppose to be. I mused aloud "Where's the tent? And our chairs?". That was met by "Shut up!", "No way!" and "You've got to be kidding me!". When we pulled right up it turned out that our tent had been flattened by the chinook-type winds that were raging and some kind soul had folded up our chairs and placed them on top of our tent to keep the Columbia River from claiming everything we owned. We attempted to upright the tent so we could still sleep there but the tent ended up turning up on an end into a bullet-type shape, aiming right for the Columbia River as the three of us struggled to hold on. The campsite told us they'd give us a refund if we left so we packed up by the warm glow of a head lamp and interior light of the van. We were on the road at 1:50am and drove straight through to home, except for the couple hours of sleep we grabbed at a rest stop.
For the sake of space I won't comment much more about this trip although there's so much more I could say. Hopefully you have some sort of incling about the fact that this trip-in all it's surreal glory-was a certified gong show. But at least I saw Dave.
posted by Lindsey and Mike at 1:08 p.m.
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