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Entry 9 - My Exodus to Charlottesville VOTE I’m sitting at my desk, clicking around on the computer when I see the big news on Minarets.net… "DAVE MATTHEWS BAND TO RETURN TO CHARLOTTESVILLE FOR 2001 SUMMER TOUR OPENER!". "I gotta hit that show", I shouted. "Who’s playing and where?", my brother Rob asked. "The homeland of DMB… Charlottesville, Virginia" "Dude, I’ll Back You Up if you want to make the trip" So we made our plans, and weeks later, we were off… headed for The Commonwealth of Virginia… we knew it was 3 Days Down the highway… but we were ready! Despite the brotherly bonding and the adventures that lay ahead... In a way, this whole trip was about Dave Matthews... his music and what it would mean to see him play in his adopted hometown of Charlottesville. We decided to dedicate the whole trip to him. As we fired up my old clunker car... my brother threw in a sweet mix tape that his old girlfriend made him. "This is The Song That Jane Likes.", he said referring to the aforementioned old girlfriend. They broke up Recently… and until he caught her cheating on him he was sure that she was The Best of What’s Around. We were leaving a few days before Mother’s Day (which after sunset becomes Mother’s Night), so we reminded ourselves to send her a postcard from the road. Rob scribbled a little note on the card… "Mom… Of all the places in this One Sweet World… we’re driving to Virginia. Love, the Boys". As we crossed the nation’s heartland… we were doing anything to try to stay awake and alert. We even got into singing songs, but when we ran out of current stuff, for some reason Rob broke out a rendition of Jingle Bells. "A Christmas Song?", I asked. "I’m out of other stuff to sing", he answered. "I’m just a little tired and I’m actually sick of hearing you sing… What Would You Say to stopping for the night?" I pulled over at the next exit and we got out to check into a motel. Let me tell you, this place was a dive! Outside, we saw two guys that were so drunk they were hysterical to watch as they fell all over themselves. The guy at the desk told us they were regulars… both named William. Rob and I decided to steer clear of the Tripping Billies. For some reason, one of them decided to loudly Cry, "Freedom!", as if he’d just watched the end of the movie ‘Braveheart’ or something. The guy at the desk assured us this was a Typical Situation and that if we thought they were bad… we should definitely steer clear of the guys two like-named sisters… the Dancing Nancies in the bar next door. Deciding against going the bar, we went to our room pleased to see they had Satellite TV. I fell asleep watching a rerun of that old Jimmy Stewart… or was it Jimmy Cagney… I don’t know… some Jimi Thing movie of the week. We woke up to a sharp sound coming from outside. It was an old whistle at the Warehouse next door, but it sounded funny. More like one of those dudes calling from the Minarets or something. Must have been the lunch whistle, because we slept in awfully late. We went to check out, and remarked how cheap the place was for one night… "Well, you Pay For What You Get," said the afternoon clerk… almost apologizing for the state of affairs in his place. "Some nights, this place is more like that monkey farm down the highway." We had seen the sign for the 'Blue Water Baboon Farm' the night before and kind of wondered what a monkey farm was doing out here in mid-America. Heading back to our car, we got our last indication of what kind of motel this was. Some lady who had just checked in on an hourly rate was saying "Lover, Lay Down" inside one of the rooms. We did ourselves the favor of not looking to see what was going on. So like Ants Marching toward their hill, we set back out toward the big tour-opening show at UVA. My brother was at the wheel when we left and I dozed off again. I didn’t wake up until much later, when we were pulled over in the sharp glare of a State Trooper’s Spotlight. I guess the guy saw our beat-up car and figured we might be partying a bit too hard on the way down the highway. Rob got out and did the whole Two Step for the cop, proving that he was clearly fine to drive. He probably would have let us go if Rob hadn’t had So Much to Say about why we were pulled over. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him this mad. He accused the police officer of picking on us because of the way the car looked and that he hadn’t done anything wrong. He was so mad I thought he might hit the guy. If that happened, I was sure we’d get to Lie in Our Graves that night. Anyway, I couldn’t Help Myself… I had to get him out of trouble. I wanted to Seek Up a way to get out of a ticket at all so I told the cop that we were only doing a little Drive In, Drive Out stint in his state. I guess it was just Destiny, but the guy spotted my DMB decal in the window. "You’re not going to Charlottesville, are you?" he asked. We told him we were, and he totally changed his tune. He started telling us how big a DMB fan he was. "I saw them back on Halloween in 1992… I’ve been a huge fan since the early days. Can’t remember where that show was, though. Man, do they rule!" He finally admitted he had pulled us over for no Rhyme and Reason, and that we were free to go… so we set back out on the road. I kind of noticed that Rob was acting funny. I was worried that the stress of being pulled over might kind of spoil the trip for him. Anyway, soon after I remembered we had to call one of our relatives, as it was her birthday. I was glad I recalled this… before we left I knew I only had to Remember Two Things… write mom and call Granny. I told Rob to stop at the next exit that he saw a phone. We must have gone ten or eleven exits before we finally saw any sign of civilization. I’m serious… Exit #32, Exit #33, Exit #34… on we went without seeing anything. We finally found a pay phone at a closed gas station and made the call. Our Grandma hasn’t been doing too well lately, but we knew we had to call to say Happy Birthday. I think she knew who we were, but the conversation ended as she muttered something about Heathcliff’s Haiku Warriors. Figuring it was best not to ask her to explain what she might be talking about… we checked the map to find where we were… noted that we were at Exit #36, made sure to Say Goodbye to Grandma and got back on the road. The miles went by, and it started getting later into our second night… I started talking about how I was going to feel like the Proudest Monkey once I was able to Get in Line at Scott Stadium to get into the show the next night. My brother, who clearly had been at the wheel way too long said, "Yeah, man… it’ll be like Rapunzel just Let You Down from the castle". Noting the odd reference, I figured he might be able to use a little sleep. I told him he’d better pull over between Exit #40 and Exit #41 to let me drive. He kind of swore at me… or at least I think he did. He took Portuguese at college last year and liked to use it when he was mad so no one knew what he was saying. "Pantala Naga Pampa", he barked, "…you’re a Pig if you think your slow driving is going to Hold Me Up from getting to Charlottesville as fast as possible". We kind of argued and he finally pulled over. Thinking that I could just take the keys to make sure the Deed is Done, I reached to the ignition to grab them. Not only did he shove me out the door of the car, he turned around like he was going to Crash Into Me. I kind of shouted to him that this was way Too Much of an argument over such a Little Thing. So he let me back in the car. I guess he kind of felt bad. "Don’t Drink the Water," he urged, "I spit in it while you were sleeping". He gets kind of Crazy sometimes… so I just let it all slide. He’s like that. I was also mad he had brought so much junk along… a bunch of Toy Soldiers, a big Spoon, junk like that. But again, after he got as mad as he did when I asked to drive, you can see why I didn’t bring it up. Crossing over the Virginia State Line in the early light of morning, we decided to find something to eat. ‘The Dreaming Tree’ seemed like an odd name for a roadside diner… but we figured if they gave the name of the place that much thought… the food must be pretty good. We knew we didn’t want to Stay too long, so we just had them Crush our order in a to-go bag. After the all-night drive, I was once again pretty tired… I could have just curled up in one of the booths, cashed out and been Under the Table and Dreaming. But I snapped out of it in a hurry as we were pulling out of the parking lot and Rob almost found a way to Crash into this huge boulder in the grass. After the close call with The Stone, we agreed this would be The Last Stop before Charlottesville. We were glad to get the food from the diner… the whole trip to that point, we’d been stuffing Cheeseburgers and fries from the ‘Golden Arches’ down our throats. It made me feel like calling myself Machead. Searching for a few more items of conversation to get us through the last few hours… we got to talking about work. I liked my job, but Rob hated his. "Some days I wonder if I wouldn’t be happier Digging a Ditch.", he muttered. "Come on, dude… you make a ton of money as a Bartender", I offered. "Yeah, but we’re always cleaning up messes and all kinds of Busted Stuff. It gets old after a while." As I was almost ready to snap from all his mood swings and such, I was relieved as I could tell we were getting close to our destination. The rural exits started sounding more and more like a city as town names gave way to actual city streets on the exit signs… Park Avenue, River Road, Grey Street… we knew we were close. We went over the Sweet Up and Down of the mountainous highway into town, and stopped to ask directions to Scott Stadium. As I spoke to the man in the gas station… I saw my brother, still out for trouble, carving his initials into the side of a phone booth. His big RML was right there with a few others… ACE, CPT, and JTR were three others I saw. Moments later, a guy bolted in the door of the gas station. The dude working there looked like a Big Eyed Fish, thinking it was a holdup or something. But fortunately, the guy was just frantically looking for another person that worked there. The guy behind the counter relaxed and said, "Sorry, pal, Grace is Gone for the day… she’s going to the concert tonight." We told him that we were going to the show too and he replied, "Well, Captain… you have fun out there." I left, spotting a Weekly World News article on the counter talking about some kind of Monkey Man. I wanted to buy it, but I couldn’t find my wallet. My brother grabbed a candy bar on the way out… he was singing that stupid "Give me a break… give me a break… break me off a piece… " you know that Kit Kat Jam. We got back to the car and I saw there was a big spot of something on the windshield. I thought a Raven might have dropped something on there, but Rob said, "No man… that’s chewing gum… I Did It on the way in." I kind of glared at him… clearly tired of his shenanigans through the trip, "You’re a big pain, man… that’s What You Are." I kind of forgave him a few minutes later as he found my wallet in The Space Between the two front seats. We pulled onto the street, made a few turns, and there it was… Scott Stadium… decked out and ready for the Show of the Year! People were everywhere! I was glad to see it, too… Before These Crowded Streets, I kind of thought we had made a wrong turn. His excitement growing with the second, my brother sat upright and declared, "Man, When the World Ends… I want to be enjoying a live DMB show… that would be So Right!" I couldn’t help but Dream of Our Father(s) who urged me not to take Rob with me on my long road trip. I wished I had taken his advice. Oh well, the worst was over… we were here. Everyday for the last month I’d been hoping I’d get to see one of the Summer shows… and here we were at the opener! If I Had it All, I’d probably just travel with the band all summer long. Then again, I’d really miss my family… you know… Mother, Father, and two other brothers. I saw all the people gathering to get into the show and was amazed at the diversity of the crowd. Lots of hippie-types mixed in with the preppies, proving once again how diverse the DMB fan base is. My eye caught this one girl who was just gorgeous! I made a note to be sure and Sleep to Dream Her sometime in the very near future! Honestly, she could have been an Angel. With nothing to lose, I figured I might as well go start a conversation with her. Rob told me I was a Fool to Think she’d have anything to do with me. Well, believe it or not, I somehow managed to pull off a Stream of great lines… and it was like a Long Black Veil had been lifted from me. Not only had I made it through this awful trip with my brother… and not only was I about to see Dave Matthews… I had met the girl of my dreams. That’s probably the best of all the True Reflections from our trip. As we made our way to our seats, the girl told me she could find a way to get us all up front. True to her word, she knew every security guard All Along the Watchtower… and we ended up in the front row. So here I am… a thousand miles from home, with the girl of my dreams, about to see the first show of the Dave Matthews Band Summer Tour. What could be a better story? THE END VOTE |
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