Bonnaroo 2006!
07/02/2006 @ 11:17 p.m.

So much for doing a better job keeping up with this...I swear, I don't know where the time goes. All winter I couldn't wait for summer to get here and dammit, it's July already! I had a super busy June...Bonnaroo was the 16th through 18th and then just got back yesterday from the yearly family vacation at the beach, plus some shit has been going down at work.
First things first though...Bonnaroo. Me, Joey, and Dana in the Civic and Mikey and Chris in the Blazer left around 1 Thursday afternoon. After getting lunch, gas, and money it was really 2 before we hit the road good and hard. We went Mikey's weird ass way through Atlanta (to Tennessee) and got caught up in rush hour traffic for like 2 hours, made another stop for dinner and supplies so we didn't get to Manchester until nearly 10, and that's with gaining an hour from the time change. But it worked out quite well, we didn't have to wait in line to get in, we got a good camp spot, the girls beside us slept in their car so we had plenty of room, and we had our shit set up in about an hour. We set the tent Dana bought up on one side with the canopy in between and the other tent we borrowed from Dan and Blair opposite of that. We were along the path and like a 5 min walk from Centeroo. After setting everything up, we (minus Dana) went to Centeroo to check things out and go to a comedy show with Spence from King of Queens. It was pretty good but I was tired and cold. When we got back we pretty much crashed and I woke up in the middle of the night shivering and freezing cold...I had NOT expected that, only to be sweating my ass off all day long. So I ended up sleeping in the car that night. We woke up pretty early the next day because it was already hot at like 8am and bright as hell out. Mikey cooked bacon and hot dogs on the grill so we ate and hung out. We met a friend of Dana's from Indiana who reminded me alot of Ruby from college. So we hung out and drank and that afternoon (Friday) we headed to Centeroo and got some food and saw Ben Folds do a couple songs, and also G. Love and Special Sauce. After that we went back to the camp cause everyone was pretty exhaused and we had to rest up for Tom Petty. Tom Petty was freaking awesome! Stevie Nicks sang a few songs with him, and they sounded good. He played Learning to Fly, Running Down a Dream, Mary Jane's Last Dance, American Girl, and...Don't Come Around Here No More! I was so excited. He played for like 3 hours, it was great. The main stage was huge, I couldn't get over how big it was. We went to bed pretty much as soon as we got back and woke up early again the next morning. Saturday was so hot I thought I was going to burn alive. That was the big day for bands, we saw a few songs by Grace Potter and the Magic Numbers, and we watched Buddy Guy who was great and not at all what I had expected. We also saw some of Rusted Root before heading back to camp to rest awhile. Even at camp we could hear Damian Marley perform mostly Bob Marley songs, which was cool. That evening we saw Beck, who was a big highlight for me, he sang my fav song Minus and a good mix of songs including Loser, Devils Haircut, Whiskey Clone..., Girl, and Where it's At. Then we tried to inch our way up to get ready for Radiohead...let me tell you I had never seen so many people in my life, it was PACKED! They were good, although I didn't know alot of the songs, they did sing Karma Police which was awesome. The next day was much of the same, it was HOT! We ate our magic peanut butter sandwiches and hung out and laughed and laughed. Mikey decided to go ahead and head home cause he had to work at noon on Monday, so we had to shuffle things up a bit and repack so Chris could stay with us. That evening we went to moe. and Phil Lesh and friends. I had never seen Dana so happy, it made me really happy just to be there with her.
All in all it was a great time, everyone got along great and it was just so mellow and fun. Not like other concerts where everybody is wasted (not that people there weren't but...) and some shirtless dudes always get into fist fights and act retarded and push people around. There were lots of bands I wanted to see but just didn't have the time or energy too...it's amazing what poor sleep and the incessant heat will do to you. And there were just so many bands packed in the schedule and sooo many people everywhere. I had been so nervous and worried about it, but it turned out so great. It only rained Sunday night, after we were back at camp so we basically just went to bed. Dana and I managed to bathe and wash our hair so we weren't too stinky, although with so many people leaving on Sunday, keeping the dust off was impossible. I really enjoyed spending the time with Joey and Dana and Chris and Mikey as well. I can't wait to go again next year.
Since this entry ended up being so super long I'll write about the beach and other stuff tomorrow...

"Bottles and cans and just clap your hands..."

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