College Flashback

This weekend we took just a short trip, but nevertheless slept in “beds” other than our own. The Dave Matthews Band was playing at the Gorge for their annual weekend concert extravaganza, and we camped with Ian’s friends somewhere along the Columbia River and attended the show. Here are a few impressions:

1. Two outdoor concert events in two weekends and two states and two genres is pretty good.

2. It rocks to lie on one’s back on a blanket at the Gorge amphitheater, a small speck in a sea of fans (about 20,000), and watch stars shoot through the Ursas Major and Minor, while listening to some f***ing good live music. DMB kind of defies categorization, and they’re all really good musicians. It made me want to listen to music a lot more (which I’m failing to do as I write this . . . )

3. Mind over matter is important when camping at a hugely popular and free and beautifully-situated-right-by-the-Columbia River-campsite (and comfy 3-inch folding foam pads help the mind immeasurably), particularly when the giant, doped-up group just through the cottonwoods is having a jam session. Hey, I thought to myself, I used to think it was cool to hear African drum beats at Lewis and Clark at 2:00 am . . . and it was even cooler in actual Africa—kind of the heart-beat of the world—so maybe I can think it’s cool here too. And it was.

4. Bacon (really, it jumped on my plate from at least three sources), scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns are so good when cooked over an open fire—by someone else. And so is a rice milk mocha (okay, camp stove for that).

5. It also rocks to go ten steps from a solar lens of a tent into crystal-clear 50-degree water, even before 8:00am.

6. I loved spending the weekend with a group of seven people who, when faced with a road-construction delay on the direct route home, chose instead to drive a 100-mile detour through Quincy, Wenatchee, and almost-Leavenworth, stopping in Roslyn to eat at the Brick (yes, the same Brick from Northern Exposure). I also love that two of the seven had already been to the Brick two times before in five days, and that two more had been with them the day before for time two. No matter which way you cut it, the Brick is at least a 90-mile round trip from the campground. Silly Northern Exposure obsessers. But the Brick really is awesome, and I recommend it to everyone.

7. Skinny-dipping as the sun sank, gilding the eastern trees and setting the overhead cloud wisps aglow at Mom and Marsh’s (when we stopped to pick up the gimpy Spackle) was the perfect dessert.