The perps-Dylan Flipse
Rachel Flipse
"Crazy" Dave Eck
Eric Dougherty
John Campanelli
and
Gabe Latini
Gabe's friend Jenn

Well, here's how it went down. I saw Trey at Bonnaroo, and I immediately wanted to see Phish. Phish was touring for the last time, so I didn't have many chances. I picked my date, and hit eBay. Bit of a fiasco, but I ended up with eight tickets. I found seven takers, including Gabe and Jenn, who would meet us there.

BUT!

I woke up the day of the show, outside Mansfield, horribly, horribly sick. Think about a short night's sleep, ended by six hours of throwing up. But I had these eight tickets, and I was going to lose a lot of money, not to mention my only chance to see Phish. Rachel, Dave, Eric, and John picked me up. I was in rough shape. We made it to the venue without major incident. I was in bad shape, slightly upgraded from earlier, perhaps aided by some spirited Trivial Pursuit.

We met Gabe and Jenn with no problem, and ran into Paul Carlson and Erin Shaw. Good to see people, but I had no strength for these things. Pre-show festivities continued, I tried to sleep in the car.

Time to go in. I wrapped myself in a blanket. We immediately got split up, but I was still with Gabe, Jenn, Rachel, and John. Rachel got a shirt, we got a pretty decent standing spot, and the show started right after we got settled. It was pretty cool, everyone was having a good time. As a special treat for Father's Day, Paige's dad came out, sang, and did a bit of tap-dancing. I didn't have the strength for it, though. I made my way to the back and sat down, wrapped in the blanket. The rest of the show was good, I pretty much just listened to the music, made a few friends, that kind of thing. The others from my group had a GREAT time. They used various underhanded methods to sneak into the reserved seating area and had great spots for the duration.

Everyone was happy after the show, until it was time to hit the road. That was a debacle. I was driving. Really, just parking on the road. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center could've used a few good civil engineers to design their roads, because things were going nowhere. Dave took a long walk, and came back to report the existance of an exit. It'd involve driving around a road barrier, but that would lead to a road that would take us directly out to the city. After over an hour, we made arrived at this illicit turnoff. Most of our progress, in fact, was due to people taking this way out. Many people were reluctant, and slow to try it. But no one came back, and people eventually came around. Just as we got there, a police car showed up and waved us on. But he disappeared fifteen minutes later, I pulled a quick U-turn and we were on the road. I only had about two more hours of driving in me (understandable, given the circumstances, I still hadn't really eaten anything) and Rachel was too tired to do more than a few minutes. We slept, uncomfortably, at a rest area, for about three hours. From there, the trip was uneventful. The next day, I was feeling MUCH better, and I was fine the day after that.

I'm glad I got to see Phish.