Never roller skate in a buffalo herd

I can't say i know what that means exactly, except one should not skate in a buffalo herd for obvious reason. But let me start at the beginning and we'll get to the buffalo herd...

I have just returned from a glorious trip to the upper midwest. Chicago was nice, good to see Mary Beth (MB) again. And we went out and spent to much money again. Those damn Coyote Ugly girls do it everytime. But the real highlite of the weekend... 2 nights of DMB!!! Oh yes, thats right. I've now hit 20 on the number of DMB concerts i've made it to. And while most of you will probably think thts an obscene number of times to see one band... but.. OH NO... I'm always left wanting more!

However, the trip got off to a slow satrt, traffic in the Chicago area delayed our departure waiting on Marianne and friends. Made it to the campsite about 5:30. Yes, we camped. Yes i camped! I camped ina tent. I know my mother seems to think thats something i would never survive, but I did! And we had a lovely place to camp at Bong state rec area in Wisconsin. Yes, thats Bong state. You just can't separate DMB and Bong in southern Wisconsin. Its fairly out there in the middle of nowhere and for those who haven't been to Southern Wisconsin... its all about corn... miles of corn, as far as the eye can see.. corn. Once this ethanol fuel made from corn takes off... Wisconins will be the new midle east.. corn farmers rolling around in Rolls Royces... yes, u heard it here..

But i digress... SO, we set up camp, head off to the show. We make a quick stop at D's Corner, a little bar in the middle of nowhere... (actually the corner of Hwy 11 and Rte J if anyones heading that way). I got the impression that "Dees Corner" (as it will now forever be known) gets a lot of out of town guests, judging from the folks there. But we had our burgers and as we're starting to head for the show... well, Mariannes current boy toy realizes his ticket is back at the camp site... ARGGGG!!!Theres a checklist of things I go though before heading to a conert.. tickets are on the top! SO we ran abck and got them, got into the parking lot dring the 3rd song of Dave's set... (or course we didn't know then it was the third song). We had lawn seats that night and ended up way in the back. The show was good (and in the middle of Jimi Thing Dave imparted the wonderful roller skating advice... ). I will admit I was annoyed with the whole late fiasco and being way back on the lawn and not in the resevred lawn up front.. but it was still a good show... played some new tunes that rocked, some old faves, and they've added Rashawn Ross on trumpet to a lot fo the tunes. And the one thing that could make DMB better is some screaming trumpet work (like i used to play only... better). Well, good good show... The plus side of being late, we scored free VIP parking and were out of the lot in 20 minutes!

Back at our campsite, I found out that MBs tent has some issues. Mainly the zipper didn't zip. One thing theres an abundance of in Wisconsin besides corn is Mosquitos. I swear these things could carry off a small child. We rigged the rain cover to cover the door and got some of the zipper done. We managed. So here we are in the tent with a few of our closest bloodsucking friends, its about 80 degrees in there, and drenched in sweat, unable to get out of the sleeping bag for fear of losing a pint or so of blood. Not the best sleep! But we did get some sleep (and probably a case of the west Nile Virus). The next day, we headed out form some breakfast in downtown Burlington, WI, or as the sign said, America's Chocolate City ( wonder if the people of Hershey PA know that). Its small town America at its best, we had breakfast at Sheila Mae's (or Ida Mae's or Maggie Mae's or somehting Mae's) Town Fryer restaraunt. And let me recommend the country fried steak and eggs. Delicious.

After that was a shopping trip to Kenosha... and by shopping i mean booze run. A small bottle of Jack, SMall bottle of Captain, Rasperry Pucker and Apple Pucker plus associated mixers. And the the check out girl didn't believe it was all for that afternoon. Headed back to camp, we all did a ticket check and headed to the show for some tailgating action. We got there about 3, grilled some hotdogs and made s'mores, got our drink on, met some other fans and just basicly enjoyed the afternoon. Once we headed into the amphitheater, we found our seats, which were the shit. About 20 rows back and on the far right. Where as last night the band looked like ants marching (ha ha ha puns rock), tonight they were right there wher eu could see Dave's eyebrows move.

And we're they on. From start to finish great energy, great crowd, awesome music. Again the trumpet parts work well and the the band kicked ass. One of the best shows I've seen, if not the best defintely in the top 2. I still have a ear to ear grin thinking about it. They played longer than I've ever heard before, pulled out some old tunes. Great improvements to Warehouse and Last Stop. (for those of u who don't speak DMB those r songs). Just a great show.

And it may sound lame or whatever, but when i get back from these show i just feel engergized. Whatever has been weighing on my shoulders seems to lift and I just feel much better about being me Maybe its the music, maybe its the letting go and dancing for 3 hours, maybe its just the idea of being around 40,000 other people who are just there to enjoy being alive. Its a great energy and its uplifting. For those of u who may have marched in drum corps, its a lot like that feeling at the end of the show when the crowd stood and clapped for you.... And no band I've seen has concerts that capture that feeling like DMB, and thats why I've been to 20 shows.

So this one has gotten very longwinded, I apologize. But it had to be done. Theres more to come from the weekend, but even though not everything went as planned, it was a good trip with good memories. Now its back to work for a little bit. Everyone have a safe 4th!