I'm sure we all have our share of stories of strange things happening on the way to, during and after a gig. This past Saturday took the cake for non-stop twists and turns. I had been excited to photograph and then watch the current Grateful Dead related spin-off Furthur at a rather unique venue; The Gelston Castle Estate grounds in Mohawk, NY.
Gelston Castle is the ruins of a castle that was replicated from the original family Gelston Castle in Scotland and built on one of the USA's foremost areas for crystals, including diamonds. The history and location appealed to me so I took the gig.
Normally I travel to gigs on my own or with an assistant but since I am a Deadhead of many years, a friend who wanted to go offered to drive the 4 hours and asked if I wanted to come along for the ride. I agreed.
Estimated time of departure was between 7 -8 AM Saturday with the gig scheduled to start at 7:30 PM. 8AM goes by, 9, 10 and 11 AM goes by and no sign of my friend or a phone call. I was getting a little nervous but had enough time cushion to drive to the gig myself if I needed to. Finally I get a call around 11:30AM saying that he overslept and was on his way. Final departure time, 1:15PM.
The drive up the NY Thruway was fairly uneventful until just outside the exit we had to take. I had been in contact with others who were going to the show and they told me that there was a 2 + hour traffic backup getting into the grounds. I suggested to my friend that we stop at the last rest area before exiting the Thruway to use the facilities since we were going to be stuck in traffic. Pulling into that rest area the car stalled and we could not get it started again.
Normally this might be a dilema but my knowing that many Grateful Dead fans were likely at that rest area on the way to the show and knowing that I had a job to do, my friend suggested that I try to find a ride to the show and after he got a tow and got the car fixed he would meet up with me at the concert.
It took me less than 10 minutes to find some fans from VT who offered me a space in their car and I was on my way again. That is until we hit the back of the line of cars trying to get in. At this point of time the wait to get into the grounds was close to 3 hours and climbing. There was no way that I was going to get to the show on time....unless....
...I started walking. It was hot but not unbearable so I thanked my new friends for the ride and started off on a 7.5 mile fast march pace hike up Mohawk Mtn armed with a bottle of water and a 60lb equipment pack. During the hike I contacted a band rep at told them how far back the cars were and that I was on foot and was still hoping to make the beginning of the show but wasn't sure I could. The start time was delayed for an hour and I was in the pit 30 mins before they started.
I wish that was the end of the story but I still had to file my photos the next day and wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish that. I made plans on site to ride back with another friend most of the way home after the show and have yet another friend pick me up from there to get me home. Well that didn't go as well as planned either...lol. My friend had a little too much party that night and it was decided that rather than drive to her home that we should stay put until morning. That didn't go so smoothly either. There was no way that she was driving, even in the morning. So I got a ride to where my first friend had his car towed to, then went to a hotel that had free internet access and got ready to edit and submit. While outside for some air, I came across some guys who where driving home to Long Island and they offered me a ride down the Thruway almost the whole way back to my home.
I got home at around noon on July 4th, did my editing, did my submitting and then went to bed...lol.
All this was done on 45 mins of sleep until after I finished up. I am not going to forget this gig for a long time but I did meet my deadline.
