I went with Ann, Bob, Lindley, Rachel, and Joel down to the fireworks display on Route 14 south of Canton. It was a big field and the fireworks were close enough that i could lie down on my back and watch them explode pretty much directly overhead. Rained a bit, but not much.

My parents arrived at our summer house for the summer, ending my solitude. (On the plus side, free dinners.)

I got up early and Daddy drove me down to the airport in Philly. I was a couple hours early for the flight, so hung around until it boarded, then flew Southwest Airlines to Chicago's Midway airport, got my bag, and hopped on the el. First time i'd ever ridden the orange line from end to end. I switched over to the blue line out to Harlem Ave. and walked the block from the el stop to the Uhaul place and picked up my 17' truck.

All of my stuff in 2 storage containers was waiting for me on Paul & Wendy's front lawn when i got to their house with the truck. I parked and walked over to the Siren office and visited for a while, then headed back to start unloading and loading. Jason, Lee, Rob, and Wendy showed up to help me push my piano up the ramp into the truck. After a few more hours i got everything out of the containers and into the truck. Unfortunately, the one pair of shorts i'd brought with me ended up with some of my other clothes somewhere buried toward the front of the truck, so....

The next morning i got up and hung around Siren until Old Navy opened up at 9:00 and i bought a new pair of shorts. Then i bought a few goodies at Borders (Dave Matthews Band - "The Gorge" and a couple DVDs), stopped at the supermarket, and hit the road. Made it out of Chicago uneventfully and drove until i hit Euclid OH (just past Cleveland) and stopped at my friend Eric Wernet's house. His wife was there feeding the snakes, lizards, iguanas, turtles, and other things down in their basement. Eventually Eric showed up and we all went out to a small dinner party at another ultimate players' house.

Eric gave me a CD of John Coltrane - "A Love Supreme" since he'd just bought the expanded collectors version.

Got up the next morning after Eric had gone off to work and drove to Shunk. I got in at about 3:00 and spent the rest of the afternoon unloading the truck, moving stuff that i'd stored in my cousin Ann's garage to a bigger garage, and moving stuff up to the lake house, including the piano, which rolled right out of the truck and into the house with ease (and a few cousins).

Used the UHaul truck to move the stuff that i'd stored in my cousin's garage over the the garage behind the store so that everything's consolidated in one spot.

Watched "Spiderman" on DVD down at the other house.

Drove the UHaul down to Williamsport and dropped it off, then my dad and i went to the mall to see "Spiderman 2".

My nephew Thomas arrived from Albuquerque for a few weeks.

I bought the first 3 DADA albums ("Puzzle", "American Highway Flower", and "El Subliminoso") with extra bonus tracks from the dadatheband.com website.

226 Miles(click map for larger image in new window)

Got up stupidly early and headed northeast. Just outside Towanda, PA on US-220 i came around a bend and saw a deer standing on the shoulder. "Don't you move" i said to her as i slowed down. She moved. The crunch of the front of the truck wasn't pleasant and i can still visualize the deer sliding down the road away from me, slowly spinning with her legs straight out.

The bumper has been mashed into the left front wheel, so it was scraping and throwing up all kinds of smoke. I got the truck (with the added momentum of the trailer) over to the side and got out and looked at my smoking tire. Then i looked back up the road to see the deer, but she had split. There was no blood on the car (lots of deer hair though), but i wouldn't be surprised if she subsequently died from internal injuries.

So i bent the bumper back out of the way, checked to make sure that the radiator was OK (no leaking), and since everything looked drivable, i decided to continue on my way. But first i spent 20 minutes cleaning the glass from my shattered headlight off of the highway. Fortunately it was early enough that there was minimal traffic.

I made it up to Scotia, NY in time for the first game of the Albany "Ow My Knee" ultimate tournament. Once again, i had emailed the tournament director and he found me a team, this time the last-place-seeded team that was comprised of Albany summer-league players. We lost every game, but it was still fun.

That night i stayed at a campground and hung out with some ultimate players from Canada who were also camping there. We took a run out to Wal-Mart to do some shopping.

84 Miles

We played two more games on Sunday morning and lost them both i think, although the last one was a good close game. Then i hung around for a while and watched some of the other quarter- and semi-final games going on. Then i drove down to Albany and found this bar called "Valentine's". I found a space to park with the camper across the street from the bar, then made some dinner, walked the dogs in a nearby park, and basically killed time until about 9:00 when i went in to the bar to see DADA.

Puzzle
Crumble
Surround
Playboy In Outerspace
Feet To The Sun
The Next Train Out Of My Mind
A Trip With My Dad (ending with The Beatles' Rain - one verse and one chorus, then the final couple measures of ATWMD)
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (ending with Gimme Shelter)
Ask The Dust

----Mike Break----
Riff about Josh, the merch guy
Rockin' In The Free World
Morning Sickness

----- Back to DADA ----
Any Day The Wind Blows
Mary Sunshine Rain
Dim
Guitar Girl
Baby Really Loves Me
Feel Me Don't You (with a little G rap at the end)
Posters (full version)
Dizz Knee Land

---- Encore ----
Good Gracious Good Night
Spirit of 2009
Dog
Dorina

Phil started GGGN and the crowd quieted down to where you could hear conversations, and Phil could, so he sang a couple bars, then stopped singing, but continued to play the riff while staring down at some people talking. They noticed, shut up, and the audience clapped, then, in what is the first time i've EVER heard it, the audience clapped along for the ENTIRE song (normally that sorta thing just peters out). Joie commented that that was the rowdiest version of GGGN ever. And yes, this was the best Sunday-night crowd EVER.

Things i noticed about this show. 1. The venue was a small, low ceilinged, LOUD room, but there was plenty of air circulation so not at all smoky. The stage was up a couple of feet, so there was a great view of all the guitar-work without having to look around people's heads (not that there were that many heads to look around), and Phil's drums were up another foot from that, so great view and good lighting as well. I'm so bummed that my camera is in Edison, NJ being repaired, else i woulda taken a ton 'o pics. Someone had a video camera though.

2. Joie hardly said a word the whole show. Mike however was gabbing on about all kinds of stuff and really seemed to be diggin' it. He played some slide guitar with a HARP beer bottle and a number of times just knelt down on the stage and let Joie go nuts on the bass.

3. Um, there is no number three. It was a great show, and i'm glad i stuck around Albany to see it. Good enthusiastic Sunday-night crowd, and after it was over, i let the dogs out of the truck and they were roaming in among the fans who were waiting there to talk to the band members next to the tour bus. I chatted for a while with Lance, the webmaster for dadatheband.com and briefly said hi to Joie Calio, the bass player. Then i hit the road.

About 3 blocks from the bar, i was pulled over by an Albany policeman. He asked me where i'd been and where i was going, then asked if i was having any trouble seeing the road. No, i say... Think it would help if you had your headlights on? Oops. So he let me go and i drove to a rest stop on I-88, stopped, hopped in the camper and slept.

174 Miles

Back up to the lake.

Drove down to Williamsport and dropped off my computer which got fried by a power glitch out here in the woods. On the plus side, i got my camera back today, all clean and working well. Took some pics of myself. I caught Seera in mid-yawn.

Nice shot of the lake, taken from the kayak.

Daddy and i drove down to the Philadelphia airport (after stopping in Williamsport to pick up my "fixed" computer) to pick up my nephew Charlie (Thomas's brother) and his friend Evan. Picked them up, then turned around and drove back. Long day of driving. When i got home i discovered that in fact my computer was NOT fixed. Grrrr.....

Charlie, Thomas, Evan, and i drove over to Buttermilk Falls. It had rained a ton the previous few days, so there was a LOT of water pouring over the falls. And since the ground was so wet, it was pretty treacherous climbing down the gorge.

After Buttermilk Falls, we went over to Lincoln Falls, which was also pretty impressive with so much water pouring over it.

When we got back to the lake, Mommy (Grandma to them) made the boys bail out the various boats which were full of rainwater.

I met with a State Farm insurance adjuster who gave me an estimate for fixing my truck ($2,750). Both he and the Isuzu dealer in Williamsport (where i'd taken the truck earlier to get a $3,700 estimate!) said that i'd need to have the front driver-side quarter-panel removed, straightened, repainted, and restriped. I told him i wasn't gonna do that since all it needed was to have the little piece under the headlight bent back into place, but he said that he had to include it on the estimate. No wonder insurance rates are so high.

My sister Caroline and her third son Daniel (Thomas and Charlie's brother) arrive for a week's stay.