So it's been over a week since I got home from the gorge, but I think I've finally recovered. Holy crap it was just one big insane weekend, with lots of beer, weed and very very very little sleep, oh, and some AWESOME concerts with even more awesome people. I'll try and remember everything as best I can, it was so crazy, but here it goes...

Thursday September 5
I had to open at Costco wich means I got there at 7:00 in the morning. Of course my body is just not used to going to bed that early so I got a whole 5 hours of sleep the night before. Worked for 8 hours, went home and packed up all my stuff. Three t-shirts, three pairs of shorts, boxers and socks, a sleeping bag, a pillow, one jacket, and some entertanment for the plane ride, some cd's and a magazine. We're talking only the bare essentials. Oh I brought my deodorant and toothpaste too. =)

So I head over to Adam's house, we go to practice then head back to his house. I had one beer and was so exhausted I passed out around 12:30. I woke up a couple times during the night, but finally woke up around 7:30 when Bev called...

Friday September 6
I had planned to sleep till 8:30, but it was cool, I read some of Adam's Guitar One interview with Tenacious D, always a good time with them boys. Adam woke up around 8:00, I jumped in the shower and we left for the airport around 8:40 or so. I got there and checked in with Southwest. I was amongst the last group of people to board the plane. I met a couple of cool guys at the airport that were headed up to the gorge too. I actually ended up buying a ticket off of them for Saturday's show, cause Heather needed one more. Anyways, I got on the plane, and everyone had filled up the over-head bins, bastards. I had specifically packed extra light because I hate checking bags. Anyways, they made me check my bag, oh well. The plane ride was nice up to washington. I landed about 25 minutes early, but we got stuck on the runway for about 15 minutes. Finally we pulled into the terminal. I was sitting in the very back of the plane, so I was like the last person off the plane, blech. I finally got off the plane and there was Heather and her posse waiting for me at the gate, their flight was early too. =)

I met Chris, Jimmy and Abby, three very cool people that Heather had met on tour back east. We all collected our bags and went over to Avis to get our Dodge Caravan. We made our way to Renton, WA and stopped at Wal-Mart. There we picked up most of the essentials for our trip, a "tent", some chairs, a spatchula, some charcoal, paper plates, paper towels, cups, and 5 dollar camping chairs. We then made our way to Safeway for some meat and BEER. Finally we went to Wallgreens and picked up an 8 dollar BBQ. With all our supplies in hand, we set out for ... THE GORGE!

Driving from Seattle out to the Gorge was awesome, we went from the Coast, through the Evergreen covered mountains, to the barren rock filled mountains of central Washington. Getting off the freeway for the Gorge, we saw a good 20 state troopers. We got a bit excited since there was some greens in the car, and some open containers, but we kept on driving and made it through just fine. We made it to our campsite, right next to the Honey Buckets, which are what the Porta-Potties are called out there. We set up our "tent" which was a $40 see through mosquito-net with a vinyl top. I named it "The Errogenous Tent Zone" or ETZ for short. We kept everything else in the van. I had talked to Gina and Esther and was planning to meet up with them before the show, so I headed over to will call, while everyone else enjoyed a couple more beers.

After making the 15 minute hike from the campsite to the Will Call office, I heard "it's James" and then all of a sudden I was covered in hugs by Bev, Gina and Esther. I totally felt the love in the air. I met Murillo too, who had flown in from Brazil to see the show, totally cool guy! We got all the tickets straitened out and we all made our way into the venue. Security at the door was a joke, the girls only had to open their purses, and the guys just walked through. Seriously, I went up and spread out, ready for a pat-down and instead was told to go through. I could have gone in there with an assault rifle, it was crazy, but oh well. I was supposed to sit all alone that night, but Gina and Esther totally hooked me up and sneaked me down to the 9th row. Security down there was a bunch of dicks and I thought I was going to get kicked out a few times, but managed to stay down there for the whole show. Esther was freaking out since this was her first show, I was glad that Gina and I were there to experience it with her. The show was amazng, I won't run through the setlist but personal favs included Bartender, SMTS-->ASTB-->Too Much, Loving Wings and Gravedigger.

After the show I said goodbye to everyone and headed up to the campsite. The show had totally energized me. I was dragging ass most of the day, but I was pumped after that show! I started drinking heavily while the BBQ got fired up. We made friends with our neighbors and partied with everyone, it was great. Adam, one of the guys next to us, had two HUGE bottles of Jack Daniels. We gave him beer, he gave us Jack. It was beautiful. I made myself a 32 ounce Jack and Coke, which was about 3/4 jack. Needless to say, I was WAYYYY fucked up. Next thing I know, there's a camera crew walking around. "Hi we're with the Dave Matthews Band, taking some film for this weekend, how are you?" I started talking out of my ass left and right. I was with them guys for 10 minutes, they were laughing their asses off. I told them I wanted to have Carter's baby, and started talking shit about When The World Ends and how they needed to play Big Eyed Fish more. It was geat. I invited the guys to our site for some s'mores, so they put the camera down for a bit and chilled. I don't remember much of more of that night except passing out in the tent, but there's more to this story. I'll finish it soon, I have to get dinner started...