Danimatian - Dan Boujoulian - All Dan, All The Time

Phinal Tour Phishing In Vermont AKA The Northeast Kingdom

The journey to Coventry, The phinal performance by Phish.

Getting to a Phish show is always an adventure, and this time was no exception.

We left Detroit on Wednesday night about 9pm. Our plan was to make it to Pennsylvania, but along the way Mark told me he had never been to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, so I decided we should stay in Cleveland.

Cleveland, Ohio is the armpit of the mid-west. Despite this, it is actually very expensive to stay in Cleveland. $120-$140 if you can believe that!

After checking multiple hotels, somewhere outside Cleveland we decided that AAA is a cult. I made a remark we kept laughing about for days.

Dan - "How much for a double?"
Clerk - "Do you have AAA?"
Dan - "No, we are just regular people."

Finally found a room for about $80 about 14 miles out of the city. We slept about 6 hours.

Ready to attack our day we left that hotel and took off for the Rock Hall of Fame.
We only wanted to spend a couple hours there and get on the road by 2pm. We focused on the punk rock movement, jimi hendrix, hunter s. thompson and the san francisco movement.

My favorite is always the Phish hot dog.

We went for a fish lunch on a barge next to the Hall of Fame. We were on the road by 1pm. An hour AHEAD of schedule for once.

Thursday 8/12 - Upstate New York
After being followed to closely by a truck driver for miles I read his name on the door as he passed me
Dan - "Ronald Timmerman, you will rue the day you tailgated me!!!"

Which as we kept repeating it I changed his name by accident

Dan - "Robert Zimmerman, you will rue the day you tailgated me!!!"
Mark - "Robert Zimmerman is Bob Dylan."
Dan - "Bob Dylan, you will rue the day you tailgated me!!!"

I tackled New York State almost by myself. We stopped for dinner at an Irish pub in Syracuse. By nightfall I was getting tired and Mark drove for a bit. Mark can't see too well at night so I drove once again and we were in Massachusetts before too long.
We settled in at a Quality Inn in Springfield, Mass if I remember correctly where we met the coolest hotel clerk in the continental United States, and his name is Jerry. He's very happy. Most hotel clerks are not smiling or excitable but this guy was witty and sarcastic and we loved him to death. He was almost 50 I would guess, I hope I love life as much as him at his age.

Friday morning we left Springfield and headed north to Vermont.

We stopped for lunch in Northampton, where Mark had his first taste of sushi and I bought a few discs at a pretty cool record store called "turn it up."

Dan - "A New England traffic rotary is like a Michigan Left on acid."

Just before the Vermont border we stopped at a Big Y store.

I've worked on Big Y commercials for about 2 years now,but I have never been inside or even seen a real store. I got to laugh first hand at all the products I help sell on a weekly basis, such as "Helluva Good" brand cheese. Which I hear is a hellava good cheese. I called my Big Y client from Mars Advertising back home and Mary told me that the store I was in was the actual store she went out to during the blackout which is where they shot all the in-store footage used in the commercial. I almost died laughing.

Then I went to my car where some soccer mom took my side view mirror off with a shopping cart. So we went across the street to Home Depot and black duct taped it together.

Once in Vermont I had a new plan. We would avoid Phish traffic by taking alternate routes. This proved very wise as we avoided a 45 mile traffic backup on I-95. Once we caught up with traffic closer to the venue I once again took matters into my own hands and I found a 2nd alternate route which avoided about 3 miles of backed up traffic. Now we were on the last road. Route 5 North between Orleans and Coventry. A 12 mile stretch of small town highway that would lead us into the venue.

We moved about 3 car lengths an hour. At this rate we would be into the venue some time on Sunday.

Saturday 8/14 - Coventry, Vermont

Mark and I took turns driving, which we actually called "steering and parking." As you would move the car and then turn it off until the next time the line moved. I was napping when the announcement was made on the radio that due to rain they couldn't accept any more cars into Coventry. Vermont had gotten more rain in the last 7 days then in the last 105 years. The announcement was so vague it sounded like it was cancelled, so we turned around and drove over a mile away from the venue. Then we decided that since on one said to go away we should turn around once again and wait in line

About an hour later a state trooper drove by with a speaker blazing

Trooper - "At this point in line you will be getting into the Phish concert"
Dan - "I've never loved a cop so much in my life!"

After 25 hours in Phish phan traffic, the band started to play and we were still over 3 miles away from the concert. We missed the first set, but got into the campground before set break because they basically stopped searching cars and just let us go in with no trouble.

I was looking for the primo spot when a spot found me, my car got stuck in the mud and I said "looks like we're stayin here." We found very dry land nearby and set up our camp instead of going to the concert right away. That was a great decision as nightfall was approaching and we found the driest land for over 60 feet. We had a great setup. I have no more pics until I get the ones from Katie's digital camera, so just take my word for it, we were happening. Our setup kicks ass, canopy, picnic table and a tent so big it has what Mark calls a "foyer" (pronounced "fo-yay")

We caught most of set two, we were still walking to the venue when it started, but I had a blast, the night was getting cold and wet. When we met up with the girls by the moose (a sweet landmark on the "back 40" part of the concert field)

We layed down some blanket and danced until our feet got frostbitten and watched in awe as some of our favorite Phish tunes were played for the very last time.

We hung out at the campsite after the set and then woke up to the sun heating up the tent. Mark fixed us a fine breakfast and we were off to the concert field by 2pm to get a good up close spot. We were a good 400 feet away , but a festival with 70,000 people at it, we were at a spot about as close as the back side of a main floor area of a regular concert venue. Not perfect but sounded great and had a good view of the TV screens. We could see Phish in person on our tip-toes but you can't spend a whole concert on your tip-toes.

I found Chris Taylor near the now beloved Moose and I brought back some pizza for the crew guarding the blanket. It was getting darker and wetter and things were getting messy up front. The phans were getting meaner as everyone vies for the best possible view, it was just madness. And being so muddy I had abandoned my shoes and sandels so I had to watch out for glass and bottle caps, etc.

They tore it up 2nd set. An amazing performance fitting for the end.

It started to rain again and I went to buy some shirts to warm myself up. I didn't get to watch DWD or Velvet Sea but I heard them. Page couldn't sing he was crying too much and Trey tried to help him out but he started to cry too much too. So they "blew off some steam" and busted out an amazing Split Open and Melt. There was no vocal jam at the end which is my favorite part but they were so emotional it was hard to harmonize so thats probably why they skipped that part and went right into Story of the Ghost to close out that set.

The 3rd set was very personal, they had some friends to shout out to, people that have made it all happen for years and years. As that set started winding down I realized that I only had a few more live Phish performances to experience. One more Wilson. One more Slave to the Traffic Light and they left the stage.

A single song encore which was written in the hills nearby 20 years ago they closed with The Curtain With. A great song but I wish they had done it as a second encore. It almost seemed a letdown to have just a single song and they are done forever.

We went back to camp and made Quesadillas for the girls and ourselves. I passed out quickly and set the alarm to wake up at 7am to break down camp and we were on our way home, or so we thought.

We sat in parked traffic for 8 hours before I took matters into my own hands and went off-roading in the Focus. I got my car dirty.

We only got stuck once but before long we were in moving traffic and on our way out of Coventry down M5 and onto South I91. We met up with the girls on I91 and got some dinner at The Freight House in Madison I believe it was called.

We took the scenic route to New York instead of going south to Massachusetts. It was getting dark so the scenic part wasn't really all that cool because we couldn't see it but I know it must have looked cool because we were up and down and spinning in circles around mountains I can imagine what they looked at only by the looming silhouettes in the starscape around us.

We slept outside of Utica, NY in a very shitty hotel that was way too expensive.

I stopped at a Ford dealer for an oil change and to see if they could fix my side view mirror. They changed the oil but didn't have the parts for the mirror. They didn't put the duct tape back on so once on the road it flew off from the wind.

Here's Mark doing his MacGyver duct tape fix at 70mph.

We blazed thru New York and Pennsylvania and got into shitty Ohio. Ohio is a boring drive but by 8pm or so were in Toledo having our final dinner with the girls before parting ways as they were going to Chicago.

We got to Detroit just past 9pm and I passed out so hard I was late for work in the morning.

The adventure is over but the memories will last forever as I didn't even party, I can remember every detail. Pharewell Phish, thanks for the miles and the memories. I wouldn't be who I am without the music in my soul.

"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Give a man Phish and he grooves for a lifetime." ¶ 17:16

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