I believe I left off on the Tuesday of ‘fest. Tuesday J and I were going to go see the Midwest Operas stirring rendition of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and then go to see Kenny Wayne Shepard. We made it down to the fest ground in plenty of time and got a good seat for what we thought was going to be a cover band doing Floyd. Instead it was absolutely the worst thing I’ve seen in my life. We weren’t the only ones that thought that this “rock opera” was going to be worth watching because there were tons of hippies waiting to see them as well. Since the hippies had their senses dulled/heightened they couldn’t process how much this rock opera sucked. J and I as well as handful of people were able to determine how awful they were in about two minutes. So we left which really threw a wrench into our plans because now we had 3 hours to kill before KWS. So we decided to walk to get a beer and I ran into my good pal Gregory. He and his woman were down for the night. In the process of getting the beer we learned that you didn’t need a wristband to get into the main stage. J and Greg’s woman both loved Jessica Simpson so we did what any whipped man would do, take them to their free concert and then hold it over their head that we went to the JS concert. We sat there for a couple hours and watched the concert. I think Greg and I were watching different things on stage than the rest of the audience so we were able to block out the music and prepubescent screaming. After that was over we headed on home.

Thursday was our next day and was going to be the last. I biked down to the grounds and got wristbands to see The Bodeans and Steve Miller. We headed down to grounds pretty early and grabbed a bite to eat before the show. We went in and got some pretty good seats for the show. The Bodeans put on a really good show. I’ve seen then a couple times at Lakefest in Sheboygan but I can honestly say I don’t “remember” seeing them there. We then stayed for a handful of the Steve Miller songs. It was getting late so we headed out of the concert. On our way out we got to check out Paul Oakenfold. We watched him for a bit, admired the trance scene and glow sticks, and then started home again. On the way home we ran into another stage and heard Peter Frampton doing “Do You Feel Like We Do.” No true rock n’ roll fan could pass that up so we had to stop and listen to that. Finally we got out of there and made it home.

Friday I went to a house warming party at my buddy Chappy’s new place. It was going to be a “couple beers” night. Then we got playing darts, drinking beers, and talking stupid so I ended up going to Rosie’s with the entire crew. We got to check out some crazy dude with wings on that was completely out of place in the Rosie’s. I guess that are no real good bars in Milwaukee where you can walk around and wear your wings.

Saturday J and I woke up early. We had to drive to Rockford for my college roomie Harv’s wedding. We got to Rockford and the weather was just awful. Lucky for us the wedding was outside. We dropped our stuff off in the hotel and met up with the rest of the clan who was also staying there. We all hung out in the hotel room for a couple hours and had a couple CCs. Once we got ready, gathered the group and got going we realized we were going to be a little late. Lucky for us a humongous thunderstorm delayed the whole wedding. The wedding was supposed to be in a botanical gardens area but instead it was held in a tent. Lucky for us we all got poured on and got to sit through the entire wedding drenched to our nether regions. The wedding was nice but none of us could hear any of it because the rain was hitting so hard on the top of tent. After the wedding was over and we were on our way out, it cleared up, of course. The whole crew headed to Oscar’s Sports bar for a drink before the reception. After that drink we all headed to the reception. It was a nice reception, small, but nice. The meal was also very different than most weddings. The meal was six different types of pasta dishes. They were very good. Not as good as the merlot though. I myself accounted for at least three empty bottles of merlot, one of those glasses being on the front of my shirt. Towards the end we tried to get some shots of Jameson for the ol’ college buddies to salute our fallen soldier. The damn place wouldn’t sell any shots so instead we got a couple tumblers of whiskey and some cups (it wasn’t that easy but for the sake of me typing it it was). So we had a toast to Harv our man, congrats buddy! From there some of us went back to Oscar’s while some of us went to Culvers (a whole story behind that one but I want to keep it PG). We then all eventually made it to Oscar’s. A couple people were only there in person and really don’t remember it, I was not one. We had a good time. Drank some liters of beer and acted dumb in our dress clothes. From there we headed back to the hotel. I know we were up late but I really don’t know what we did there. I remember Adam jumping on the aerobed from a chair. Actually I remember pushing him off the chair onto the aerobed. I know we acted like rockstars until 4:30 in the morning and the hotel room looked like it when we woke up. It was so much fun though. It was great to hang out with the old college roomies again. We woke up Sunday and drove home.

We got home Sunday and it was going to be a nothing day. Sleep, sleep, and more sleep. I had Monday off for the holiday so I was going to recoop from the craziness of ‘fest. So when we got home I was biking to Chipotle to pick up burritos (it was closed for the dumb holiday) when I happened to run into the old Evans Scholars. For those of you who don’t know the scholars I can describe them as this. Golf Caddies who got full rides through college; they live the frat lifestyle when they aren’t in an “actual” frat; they’re all drunks; they travel in large packs; I always run into them, even in different states, and I’m an honorary member. So on my way to get a burrito I ran into them once again a block from my house drinking and partying. My relaxing day went from sleeping to getting drunk again. I went home dropped off my bike and went down by the scholars. I spent the better part of four hours playing lawn darts, drinking beer, doing jello shots, and acting stupid. Most of the scholars were heading down to the last day of ‘fest to see Tim McGraw. I not being a country music fan took the scholars’ fearless leader Boyd and we went down to ‘fest to see Pat McCurdy. So once we got down there there was one little problem. McCurdy plays every day of Summerfest but the last one. So we just sat around and watched the water video show which was actually very cool and amazed the amazing Boyd. Finally it was late and I was too tired so we headed home. J and Boyd met the other scholars for a drink but I went home to lay down and actually rest a bit. The weekend was finally over. Little did I know I had three Brewers games to go to the next three days, but more on that later.