24 hours ago right at this very moment I was waking up in a hotel in King of Prussia, PA, the same place I stayed a month previous. My short vacation was coming to a close, but not after being filled with some great moments.

I departed on Thursday morning for what was supposed to be a three day trip seeing club d elf, and selling their merchandise for them in a jazz club in the Wilkes-Barre area of Pennsylvania on Thursday night, a festival in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania on Friday, and in Philadelphia on Saturday night. Eric, Jeremy and I were pretty energetic on Thursday morning as we got on the highway and made the relatively short journey to Wilkes-Barre, PA. The first problem of the weekend was on the way down. I realized my car was no longer registered, and I had a broken tail light, a few phone calls later, and someone back home forging my signature on a check to take to the RMV, my car was legal again. Thank fucking god.

We checked into a Red Roof Inn, and I of course got my own room and rested for a few hours before heading over to the club. We arrived there pretty early to find the band sitting at a table full of salads while the soundman fiddled around with microphone stands. The club was nice, it was a restaurant basically, with a stage. The food was good, as we sampled a few different plates. Erik the drummer was kind enough to give us his basket of bread. Finally, the band took the stage for a little soundcheck, and then left for a while to go change presumably. When they returned not many people had shown up yet. When they started playing, same thing, not many folks arrived. The people who didn�t show up, well, they missed a great show. The people who did, well good for them. We met a couple of kids who had seen the band a few times in Boston, but lived in the Wilkes-Barre area, they seemed a bit in awe of the personality of the band asking me all sorts of questions like �where did that guy study guitar?�, �is that guy cool?�, etc. It was kind of silly. I sold a few items, and was able to take some great pictures, as it wasn�t crowded, and I could walk away from the merchandise table without worry. By the end of the night, Jeremy said it was like seeing a sound check performance, as there were about 10 people in there watching them. Anyway, the lack of people didn�t take away any of the energy of the performance.

The next morning, we had a little drive ahead of us to the sticks in the middle of nowhere. The news said there would be severe thunderstorms in pretty much the whole state of Pennsylvania. The map was red on the newscast, and flashing, so it was looking pretty dreary for a festival, weather wise anyway. The ride there was amazing, I loved the areas we drove through, at one point we evidently hit the highest point in Pennsylvania. The rain started coming down when we were pretty close to the festival, so we stopped in some town and bought raincoats, and some food. This was my big mistake number one, I bought a bunch of crackers and that kind of thing, and that�s pretty much all I had for a couple of days.

We arrived at the festival to downpours, and checked in. We were on the guest list again, which saved us 60 dollars each or something. Another good thing about this was we were on the list for all 3 of the shows. The place this was being held in was called the Almost Heaven campground, and it was. In the middle of this valley, right next to a creek. Hippies made their tents and vans into living arrangements for the three days around the grounds. We pulled my Toyota under a tree and sat in the car until it rained. It was only about 3 o�clock. The band was scheduled to go on at 1:15AM. We had a little time to kill (although I was very excited to see Lake Trout headline the outside stage at 10 o�clock), and we had no sleeping plan. We were going to just sleep in the car, which would have been�uncomfortable to say the least. I immediately bought some hash, and some pot upon arrival which was convenient, as they came right to the car. We decided to take a walk, and leave Eric in the car who was pretty much passed out, and wanted to guard the �six-thousand dollars worth of taping equipment� (he was recording all the shows). Jeremy and I walked through the RV�s and tents full of dreadlocked boys and girls selling whatever drug was hip this time of year. I enjoy this scene a lot more than I think. People may go on about how annoying hippies are, and whatnot, but basically people are there to see music, and get fucked up. So be it. We found some friends from back home, and hung with them for the remainder of the night for the most part. People started making friends, someone gave me chocolate with mushrooms in it, but I passed it to Eric instead. I did some wandering of my own, and ran into some other people I knew from back home, well from seeing the band in Cambridge every other week. The sun finally came out for a little while, not before a huge rainbow stretched across the whole festival grounds, which caused the hippies to cheer and hug and do whatever it is hippies do when rainbows come out.

When the sun was down, Lake Trout was going to take the stage, I made my way right to the front effortlessly, and got the camera snapping the second they started playing. I took about two discs of pictures on the digital camera I borrowed. I forgot how much I loved taking photographs until this weekend. I got some truly amazing shots if I say so myself, and the music was of course, great. At this point I had been smoking a lot of hash, marijuana, and what tasted like opium at one point, but who knows, I was in a haze regardless, a good haze though. The later it got, the less necessary shorts and a t-shirt seemed, so I went back to the car to get warmer clothes before seeing D�elf in the tent. I ran into them on the way behind the tent having just arrived, it was pretty dark so it was hard to make out faces. As far as I knew, I wouldn�t be selling merchandise at the festival, as they had a general table for it. This was a slight relief, as I would get to chill out and watch the band. It was amazing to see the people packing into �the late night tent� to see the band. It gave me a little sense of pride knowing we were from Boston, and all these folks would get exposed to some Boston music. I ran into Amanda, who also frequents the shows in Boston, and was also talking about how cool it was being up here and having these people see �our band�. Just as they were about to take the stage, Mike informed me the merchandise was here in the back waiting to be sold. I made my way to the back of the dark tent and set up shop. Finally, at 2AM, the band took the stage and proceeded to blow away anyone who was in the tent for the whole set. They were very loud, very tight, and the improvisation was in top form. People were continually smoking me up the whole time, so the haze was getting thicker as the night went on. The band finally put their instruments down at around 6AM, with the sun out. The tent had thinned out a little bit, but I imagine it was so loud in there you could hear it from anywhere at the festival. It was a bit surreal hearing some of the songs we were familiar with being played in the early morning hours of a Saturday as the sun fought with the clouds to come out. The band seemed pretty exhausted after the set, which seems accurate, as they gave what I would consider the best 2 sets I�ve ever seen them play. The line up for this tour was clicking well on stage, it almost seemed like this was the lineup that was always the band.

The three of us finally made our walk back to the car after packing up the merchandise and saying our goodbyes/good mornings. I was a little wired, and Eric even packed another bowl to �smoke for the sake of smoking more pot�. We sat in the car and watched this group of people doing nitrous oxide for what seemed like 45 minutes straight. The small group of people were definitely on another planet, and making a mess, as there were balloons littered all over the ground in front of them.

At 7AM, I decided we couldn�t sleep in the car, we should just drive to Philadelphia, it was 3 hours away, the sun was up, and I had now been up for 23 hours or something. So we did. While they slept for most of the ride, I made my way best I could to Philadelphia without falling asleep at the wheel. And I did. Make it to Philly that is. We looked around outside of the city, not before driving by a car wash taking place in the parking lot of a Hooters restaurant. How funny, a bunch of scantily clad women washing cars. We found a hotel, the same one I stayed in with Dan and Shawn a month earlier, and I immediately crashed for 6 hours or so, while they ventured around King of Prussia.

The club in Philadelphia was pretty tiny, and smack in the middle of what seemed like the same type of area as Landsdowne Street in Boston, lots of bars, and tons of well dressed men, and well dressed women walking around drunk and obnoxious. I didn�t see any of the band aside from Mike, and Erik before the show, and after. They literally got on stage, did their thing for 45 minutes or so, and got off stage. They seemed real tired, after the performance the night before, and the crowd was larger than the first show, but there to see the headlining band. I barely sold anything at this gig, or the festival surprisingly, which sucked, as I know this is how bands make money on tour. The rest of the band left the gig literally right when they finished, and we stuck around for the rest of the night.

Leaving the club in the midst of the bustling nightlife in Philadelphia was a little exciting as supermodel wannabees, and men with pin striped suits walked around us. We made out way to a hole in the wall cheese steak place, and I ordered one finally. I say finally, as in 1996 I came to Philadelphia, and never got one, and subsequent other times as well. I�d have to say, if they did invent the cheese steak there, well great, but the one I had had nothing on any motherfucking cheese steak I�ve had in Boston.

Eric was going to go to the gig the next night in New York City, so we had to take him to the bands hotel as he was going to continue on with them. I felt a little intrusive watching them check out of the hotel, having just woken up and all. We said our final goodbyes to the band, and Jeremy and I headed home�

The vacation was not over just yet though. I had this digital camera, a couple discs left, not much money, but a day off on Monday. I suggested we go into Philadelphia and finally walk around the city and see some sights. We found a parking space and wandered around the city for a few hours, watching some little play on the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a bunch of art statues, a small museum on scientific instruments (where I took a picture of the �no photography� sign), and the liberty bell�well, we saw the top of the liberty bell and a bunch of heads. I got a great picture of the top of the liberty bell, and a bunch of heads. You apparently had to go through a vigorous screening process to see it, presumably to make sure you�re not going to blow up the liberty bell. Jeremy, for some reason thought the bell still hung in the tower. I don�t think it�s hung in the tower in our lifetime as far as I know. We got back to the car in time to find a ticket on my windshield. The city of brotherly love apparently doesn�t let you park at meters on Sunday for free like any other normal city. Fuckers.

Okay I�m tired, this is everything �exciting� that happened. I will now enjoy the last day off of this mini vacation, and see if I can get back into society again.

before & after