What an incredible time. But I suppose I better start at the very beginning. After a lot of arguing, we decided on taking Dave's Alero on the 12 hour ride. We began the trip a little later then expected, leaving my house at about 7:00 PM. We then proceeded onto I-95 for the first leg of the journey, which took us into Virginia. Somewhere in VA, Staunton I believe, drivers rotated and I took the wheel for the next part of the trip. I began driving a car I never drove before at 2:00 AM on a highway with a 70 mph speed limit. That was pretty strenuous, thankfully almost no traffic was around. We hit a problem about halfway into my portion of the drive, where it began to rain incredibly hard. There was one other time I can remember when I was out in rain that hard, but I wasn't on a highway. It came suddenly and on the first curve in the storm I didn't slow down enough and momentarily lost control of the steering from the flash flooding that was happening on the highway. That was one of the scariest moments on the trip to me. After that it was much more relaxed and slower driving, until Mike took the wheel and delivered us to Manchester, TN.

We arrived at the line to get into the festival campgrounds, which was easily 4 miles long when we arrived, and growing longer. Coincidentally, a Sonic was directly across the street from where we entered the line. I had to take the opportunity to try their food, since I never have before and I don't see the possibility of going to one anytime soon. I ran over and ordered my food quickly, but as soon as the order was placed I got a call from Mike saying that we had just started moving rather quickly and I should be getting back to the car as soon as possible. I then waited for the food to arrive and started running down the line to catch up to the car. After running for about 3 minutes straight, I gave up and walked for another 5 minutes before reaching the moving car about a mile into the line. For all the work, I still think that the food was worth it. It reminded me of Zac's in some forms, but Sonic has larger burgers.

Skipping the rest of the wait and seeing all the beautiful VW buses in line with us, we passed the checkpoint and made it inside the campgrounds. Another 10 minutes of slow driving got us to our camp area, Camp Rusty Griswold. We then set up our tent and shade tarp, which got all of us sweating. We then ate some lunch on the grill we brought down, and headed down to the camp area. Thursday didn't have any bands we really wanted to see, so we got checked out the comedians. The first group we saw was Lewis Black with John Bowman and Finesse Mitchell. Lewis didn't do much of any new material, so I laughed but it could have been better. Finesse Mitchell did a good job though. We left the comedy tent only to get back in line for the next group, which was David Cross, Aziz Ansari, and Nick Kroll. They did much better than the first group, and they all had stuff I was laughing very hard at. We then left Centeroo, got something to eat, and went back to the tent to sleep.

Friday gave us a clue to what we would wake up to every morning at Bonnaroo, which was a pool of our own sweat. The fan didn't help much either, and we all ended up waking early. After a grumpy morning, we headed over to Centeroo and to the Something Else tent for air conditioned fun with jazz music. The two bands we saw, Doug Wamble Quartet and Robert Glasper Trio, did a very good job performing. I am not a big fan of jazz music, but I came out liking the music and seeing myself at home listening to it. After we got ready to face the heat, we went over to the main stage, the What Stage, to see Kings of Leon. I don't know their music but they performed well. After that, Dave and Mike went to see Lily Allen, but I had to go over and check out The Black Keys. Those guys did an amazing job performing, and they had much more enthusiasm and power live than I could have ever expected. We again made an early night by getting food soon after that and heading back to the tent.

Saturday was definitely the zenith of the entire trip. We again awoke to oppressive heat and sweat everywhere. We ate lunch at the camp area and passed time in the shade tent until about 3:00 when we finally headed down to Centeroo to see The Hold Steady. They did a good job, although I don't know much of their music. Next was Spoon at the same stage, which did an excellent set, which I unfortunately had to leave early to catch a good spot for The Flaming Lips at the Which Stage. I saw Franz Ferdinand perform during the wait, and they had a performed a good set as well. Once they left, I along with 50 other people rushed the stage to get as close as possible for The Flaming Lips. I made it to the second row, which was spectacular to me. Next came a 4 hour wait until they performed. The crowd made the most of the time by singing songs from the band ("She Don't Use Jelly" and a few others) as well as singing "Happy Birthday" to Kliph, the touring drummer, and some people in the audience. The Flaming Lips came on and went crazy on stage. It was the best night of my life to date. Here is the setlist:
Soundcheck: War Pigs

Race for the Prize
Tapsmir
Fight Test
Mountainside
Free Radicals
Yoshimi Pt 1
Yoshimi Pt 2
Vein of Stars
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Taps
Superman
Pompeii AM Gotterdammerung
She Don't Use Jelly
Do You Realize??

Encore 1:
The W.A.N.D.
What is the Light?
The Observer
Encore 2:

Moonlight Mile
3000-21 / Sympathy (Outro)

The song "Mountainside has not been played since Ronald Jones left the band in 1996. That was incredible. "Moonlight Mile" made me like The Rolling Stones all over again, too.

Sunday, it was quite a grueling stretch. The Which Stage had Wolfmother to The Decemberists to The White Stripes all in a row. We brought a full stomach and 8 water bottles, which was just enough to survive the 8 hours in the crowd. We made it late to Wolfmother, but they sounded a lot like they do on the album, which is a cool thing to see. The Decemberists I have never heard much from but they had a very well choreographed show, and it kept me entertained. The White Stripes topped off the day though. Their show (it was the first time I saw them live) had a fair share of new and old material, and I loved hearing "I'm Slowly Turning Into You" live. Some crowdsurfers intruded on my fun, but otherwise I enjoyed everything about the set.

We then left early to get a head start on making it home and sleeping in climate-controlled rooms and beds. What a great time. I'm already looking towards what to do for next year. If anyone reading this liked what they have read here (preferably if you know me), ask about next year's trip. I want to plan stuff as soon as I get a group that are dedicated to going.

Here are my pictures from the event. http://picasaweb.google.com/Mike.Krisac/Bonnaroo