David and I got up at 5 a.m. all prepared to leave at 6. Andy, David and Justin left at 10 a.m. in 2007, so we wanted to make sure we left in enough time to catch some shows in the evening. How wrong were we?
The drive to Manchester wasn't bad at all except for the rain. We got some bomb @$$ pizza at some gas station just outside of Nashville, picked up a copy of the day's edition of The Tennesseean and got ourselves pumped up for a wonderful weekend festival. And it was wonderful, until we hit that line.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol directed us off I-24 past a town called Pelham. There, we waited for 8-and-a-half hours to backtrack to Manchester and get into the grounds. We moved about a mile an hour, or less at times - partially because every time we stopped people kept getting out of their cars to play frisbee, drink, or socialize. You can't blame them for wanting to get out, but some people should have been paying more attention and it might have saved an hour or so. I have to say, I thought it was funny that the coppers weren't too concerned about people peeing on the side of the road ;) Bonnaroo Radio 101.5 was the soundtrack to it all.
When we finally arrived, we had already missed Alberta Cross, MURS and White Rabbits. So much for those shows. We did get a chance to put up our tent (in the dark at Camp Andrew Clark a 'la "Breakfast Club") before it started raining again, and it went a lot more smoothly than I thought it would, probably because we practiced the night before ;) We didn't use the canopy, because there wasn't enough room. We didn't spend enough time at the campsite anyway I guess.
We packed up our bookbags, which I had already partially packed before we left the house, and headed for Centeroo for my first time EVER.
We were already kind of wet and it wasn't raining too hard, so we didn't worry about USING the umbrellas or ponchos we had packed.
As we approached the misting tent, which hadn't been activated yet, we SAW a line of heavy rain coming at us across the camp grounds. We ducked under the tent for cover along with some Bonnaroo staff. I put on my poncho and David, who had left his bookbag in the tent, got lucky and was given one by the staff members. It was covered in XBox logos, one of the event's sponsors.
As we approached Centeroo, the rain subsided. We arrived at This Tent in time for Passion Pit at 11:15 p.m.
I didn't know anything about Passion Pit but they did put on a good show. It set the tone for the rest of the weekend.
When we headed back to camp, approximately a 20-minute walk down Main Street, it started pouring again. We took refuge inside the tent and tried to get relaxed for a long day on Friday.
I updated Twitter and hoped the tent wouldn't leak on us. It didn't.
I dreamt of getting David, who has a fear of heights, on the ferris wheel before the weekend was out.
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