2008 Nov. 21st - Grand Casino, Hinckley, MN

[norma023]

roll call for this Friday nights show!!

So who all's in?

Oh, anyone up for carpooling (as I may be going solo otherwise) ??

"Brown Chicken / Brown Cow"

[Sometime to Return]

Norma023...

I am in; carpooling probably doesn't work with work and traffic. Don't worry about going solo; you will be amongst friends and probably have more fun anyway.

Concert starts at 8:00 P.M.; probably done by 10 or so, plenty of time to hit the bar after the show/ possibly before...see ya there. If you are grabbing a room; think about hitting Tobie's for breakfast, they have awesome carmel rolls. Can't wait for the show; they haven't payed for a while, hoping the energy is off the charts!!

[norma023]

oh I'm not worrried about going to a show by myself, I've done that-a-plenty.

It's more the driving and the need to stay awake...

[philipgar]

oh I'm not worrried about going to a show by myself, I've done that-a-plenty.

It's more the driving and the need to stay awake...

Bah,
I've made it from Minneapolis back to madison when leaving at 2am after a show multiple times (granted I tell myself every time I've done that that I'm an idiot). If I can do that, I'm sure you can make it the hour and a half back or whatever it is. Hope you have fun at the show.

Phil

[norma023]

LOL, you sound like one of those crazed fans that end up in one of Miss Fit's funny stories!!

[philipgar]

LOL, you sound like one of those crazed fans that end up in one of Miss Fit's funny stories!!

Not I.... I mean, I guess someone people might mistake me for Mr. G in part 2: "Philling in the blanks", but I don't see the resemblance. Besides Dave didn't laugh before playing Uber Computer at the first fineline show.

Phil

[dells]

oh I'm not worrried about going to a show by myself, I've done that-a-plenty.

It's more the driving and the need to stay awake...

You're worried about the drive when you're only an hour or even less from the show??

Sad.

You don't know the meaning of "road trip" until you've lived in the hinterlands for a while, light years away from rock n roll "civilization"

Let me tell you about a couple of concert road trips I pulled off in my heyday, Although I really don't recommend these insane types of roadtrips, this is the type of thing that is sometimes nercessary to pull off when you live in the hinterlands, if you really want to attend a concert somewhere in the neighboring states and can't afford to fly:

Crazy roadtrip #1: My friend Becky and I had just seen Def Leppard in our "backyard" (Bismarck, ND, only 1.5 hrs from home On the Euphoria tour, then a couple nights later they performed live on an MTV award show of some type, and watching it right after seeing a full show kept the vibe going, so we decided to throw caution to the wind and get tickets to the show in Billings, Montana coming up in another few nights. No clue why it wasn't sold out, but we managed to get tickets two days prior.

My friend couldn't get any time off from work, but that was back in the day that I worked at a little print shop, and as long as it didn't screw any deadlines, my boss let me take off time at a moment's notice. That was the only real benefit of working there. If I needed to take a day or 2 off on short notice, it was cool with my boss if I just worked extra hours in the days leading up to my time off, and afterwards, if needed, to get ahead or caught up in my projects so that my missing a day or 2 wouldn't cause missed deadlines. I alsooften voluntiered to work the OT hours as straight pay just so I could get the days off that I needed.

So, not only couldn't my friend get any time off, she had to work the morning shift day of show, getting off at 3 pm, and be back at 7am the day after the show, so guess who had to do ALL the driving so she could do her sleeping during the drive? yep... ME. Billings is about 4.5 hr drive from here (I say "about" because MT didn't have a speed limit at the time, so driving time was entirely dependant on road conditions, and # of deer out and about, and how fast your nerves/skill allowed you to drive )

So I picked her up from work that afternoon and we high-tailed it to Billings, we missed the opening act, but got there in time for the Leps. I think I managed that trip in 3.5 hrs. You know you're flying when you manage to shave an hour off of a normally 4.5 hour trip Then, right after the show was over, I had to get her back home in time to work at 7am, so I got to drive all night getting back home. I couldn't drive as insanely in the dark as I had during the afternoon drive the day before, so I didn't set any land speed records on the way back. I had many "conversations" with deer, including one that insisted that she absolutly MUST finish eating the weed growing in the center of my driving lane before she could move. I definately put the brakes through several tests that night. But I did get us safely back "home" in time for her to shower and get to work on time.

Crazy road trip #2 was very similar in situation regarding her work schedule demanding an all-night drive back immidiately following the show, except this time it was to see Guns n Roses in Rapid City, SD, another city 4.5 - 5 hrs from our hometown. 2-lane roads through rough, very desolate country (think of the wide open spaces of Dances With Wolves, but more broken land[badlands terrain], rather than even grassland) requires respectable driving speeds if you value your life, so 4.5 is the "fast" time, and 5 hrs is the "not speeding at all" time. The only "traffic" we have around here to worry about is the kind with 4 LEGS, rather than 4 wheels, so usually wide open roads allow you to set your own pace, with terrain, road conditions, lighting and wildlife determining how safe any given speed is. This particular trip wasn't as time crunched as the Def Leppard in Billings trip had been, but I must have been more sleep-deprived in the couple of weeks before, because the drive back was a lot harder that time for me. I had a lot more trouble with sleepiness during the pitch dark hours, and drove a lot slower, so by the time it got light, it was apparent that Becky might be late for work, so when the daylight and cranked up tunes revived me, I put in a few spells of driving 120 mph in the safer areas of the trip home, to get her back in time. We're both still alive & in 1 piece, and she never got fired for not showing up for work. And both of those shows were totally worth the crazy roadtrips they required, but as years passed, and my long-term sleep deprivation got worse, we didn't dare attempt those kinds of trips any more, but they were fun adventures I'm sure glad I did while I could.

Those were the craziest roadtrips we did, but we've done a LOT of longer, less time-crunched roadtrips to Denver, Minneapolis, Winnipeg, even all the way up to Edmonton once for U2 (we went to 4 U2 shows on their PopMart tour, every city we could drive to, we went to.) and I did a solo road trip to Duluth for a Soul Asylum show once, praying my car wouldn't fall appart because I couldn't afford to fix it if it had.

Since Minneapolis and Denver are both so much further roadtrips, we always made sure trips to those cities allowed time for getting a room and driving back the next day after a decent night's sleep. Our craziness does have a few limits

Sadly, my sleep de[rivation was so bad at the time of the Rock For Karl show that I couldn't drive myself safely to Minneapolis (Becky couldn't get time off, so I was trying to solo it, and that's a long-assed drive to solo, even without sleep deprivation issues to deal with) After almost falling asleep at the wheel before even getting to Bismarck, I decided that I couldn't risk continuing to drive, and decided to try to use my travel agent privilage to get standby space for free from Bismarck to Minneapolis. Unfurtunately, that privialage was only good on the regional service's Masaba Aviation flights, which were smaller planes than the Northwest Airlines flights, and I wasn't able to get on any of the Masaba flights , so I didn't get to the Rock For Karl show. I had bought the ticket already, so I still managed to provide my financial support for him, even though I couldn't get to the showto provide moral support.

Up until this point, the Rock For Karl show is the only show I tried, but failed, to get to.

Now that I can no longer do my own driving, The upcoming Dec 19th First Avenue show will be the first show post-stroke that I've even tried to get to. I've done all I can, but I'm starting to prepare myself for the letdown of failing to get to another Soul Asylum show. My brother has been using up a lot of his sick time lately, so I'm thinking that by the time Dec 19th rolls around, I won't have the driver I'm depending on, because he wont have any time off left to use. Becky would take me if she could, but it would be immpossible for her to get the time off approved, even if she'd asked for it 2 months ago. I wish I could afford to fly myself and my son there, but that's out of the question.

So.... suck it up Todd, you can do an hour's drive! If necessary, just pinch yourself occassionally to stay awake, and keep the tunes cranked.

dells

[Sometime to Return]

dells
So.... suck it up Todd, you can do an hour's drive

Todd;
you better listen to the lady.

[norma023]

lol, I guess so - the lady hath spoken!


Although I wasn't complaining about the length of that (80+ mile) drive, heck I used to travel around the Midwest in the 80's for Dead shows (I'm not going to mention how many times I've traveled to Chicago and/or Alpine Valley back in those days.....)!! It was more the "now that I've aged more", I have a harder time trying to stay awake! Well that and the cost savings factor on some gas....

[dells]

It was more the "now that I've aged more", I have a harder time trying to stay awake! Well that and the cost savings factor on some gas....

I do definately comiserate with you about aging putting a damper on our ability to pull off outrageous roadtrips. Those 2 insane trips I told of (and they were truly insane, I don't recommend that kind of dangerous, too fast sleep deprived driving)they took place somewhere betweenthe ages of 20-25, and I did prepare for them by getting lots of extra hours of sleep for as many nights prior as was possible. As Becky and I got into our mid 30s, it became obvious that long roadtrips were becoming harder to do in 1 long haul, so it was a good thing that we were finally able to afford a night's sleep at a hotel the night of the show, and in many cases, we started our travel odesseys a day earlier than strictly necessary, so we could break up the trip to the show and spend a night somewhere in the midpointof the trip. Thus we began our now traditional night's stay in Fargo the night before a show in the cities, and then a somewhat leasurely stroll into town on the day of the show, check into our MSP hotel, shower and arrive at the show ready to rock.

All kidding aside, even a relatively short hour's drive is still dangerous if you're tired, especially in the high traffic area in and around the twin cities, so BE CAREFUL!! One trick I used to use was to always have a travel alarm clock in the car so that if I started getting a little scared of "long blinks", I could pull off somewhere, set the alarm for 15-30 min later, and recline the seat back for a short "power nap" to recharge a bit so I could safely continue on. Also, don't forget that pinching yourself really can help you keep alert too.

Take care Todd, drive carefully and enjoy the show!!!

dells