...when my college buddy and I were living/working on Cape Cod during the Summer of '88 and the Summer Tour dates were announced. Oxford Pointe, ME was on the bill for July 4th weekend! Holy cr@p! I headed straight down to the Hyannis Melody Tent (Ticketmaster outlet or equivalent for those days) the day the tickets went on sale and bought four tickets because I knew there were would eventually be more to join the two of us... there are always are, right? In those days I drove a '72 VW van... simply "The Bus" to me and my buds. Well, I remember two distinct things about that trip to Oxford Pointe. First, the Mass./Maine border must have been backed up for two hours. I don't know if it was more or less or I am exaggerating... but I recall the line of cars going into Maine was incredible. We saw our share of stickers on the road so we knew it was, at least in part, due to the Boys. And second, when we finally got past the border and into open road and into little Oxford Pointe, I had this crazy notion of what it must have been like twenty years earlier to drive or walk into Bethel, NY. It really felt like that. There was a convenience store, gas station and about two motels and oh yea, the Oxford Plains Speedway. And that was about it. The locals were amazingly welcoming and friendly. It was nothing like Silver Stadium in Ro-cha-cha the summer before! Scary sh_t, there. Anyway, we had quite a traffic flow issue getting into town considering the size. We were stocked up with beer, hotdogs and other party "favors" which some may have been ingested during the trip. The local land owners and farmers were opening their fields for camping. We found the greatest hayfield or something like that. We parked in the bus in the very back corner, got out the hackysacks, frisbees... it was awesome. The field was filled and this was miles from the actual Speedway and main lots. So, we didn't have tickets to the first night, but walked down to the scene to scope things out. It was amazing that were so few tickets available for a show that big. We did not find anyone selling and we were NOT gate crashers so we walked back to to camp. We made a HUGE campfire, cooked hotdogs, drank lots of beer, told stories... and then... the Boys started to play! There we were laying in a farmer's hayfield, by a campfire, and the soundtrack for our night under the Maine stars was... the Grateful Dead. Heard plain as day... or night... two three miles up the road was the Grateful Dead. It was so quiet out there... it was our own personal show. While getting into the show the following night was great unto itself... I will still remember the previous night more fondly (and we didn't even get in!)
What's your best road trip/tour memory?
What's your best road trip/tour memory?
