Stevie's blog: "Adventures and events"

  Dakota Rock Fest was the 24th and 25th this month.  I wanted to go so bad, but me nor any of my friends that also wanted to go could afford it.  One drunk night last week, my buddy threw out the idea that we could sneak it.  I was game.  I like adventures.  Friday I went and met up with my buddies at their house for our excellent journey.

  It started off by not being in the turning lane at a red light on Cliff Ave. when we needed to turn left.  Fuck it, nobody was coming, so he gunned it.  Parked the truck at D's and walked the backway to the bike trail.  Sweet.  It was a lovely day, warm with a nice breeze.  I had my hair in low pig tail braids.  Perfect.  We are marching along the trail, listening to the music and cheering like we are right up there with the rest of the crowd.  The passerby's were giving us interesting looks, but it was fabulous.  We were living in the moment, not having a care in the world.  The three of us.  Great friends.  Already had made a few phone calls to friends telling them in advance that if they get a strange phone call in the middle of the night, to answer it.  It could be us needing to be bailed out of jail.

  We come to our first crossing point off the path.  We had to get to the other side of the river.  We were surrounded by a creek.  If we went forward, we had to cross it.  If we went to the left, we had to cross it.  We went left.  J-Word goes first, tries to jump across.  Ends up jumping right in.  Guess it was a little wider than expected.  He comes back over to help Cherie across.  She hops on his back (see picture in album).  He tries to carry her over, ends up dropping her ass right in the river.  Me not wanting to make the same mistake they did, I sat down and took off my socks and shoes, rolled my jeans up past my knees and waded across the slimy creek.  My toes were black.  I was praying some unidentified creature wouldn't try to eat my toes.  Mission successful.

  We worked our way through the tall grass and weeds over to the train tracks.  Cool.  The bridge didn't look that high, I thought I would be fine.  We start to cross.  I'm trying to watch my footing, as not to step through a crack and fall to my death.  Then out of nowhere the ground disappears and I feel like I'm going to fall.  I get down on my hands and knees and proceed to crawl through the tar and dirt across the train bridge.  There were no railings to hold on to.  Just some slabs of wood that the tracks rested upon.  And huge gaps between the wood.  Enough to freak me out.  J-Word and Cherie come back, Cherie on my right, J-Word on my left, and hold my hands.  I'm squeezing them tight.  Shaking and sweating.  I was really hungover and I don't have the greatest balance in the world, okay!  I swear it took me 15 minutes to get across that thing.  I took it one at a time, trying not to lose focus and fall in.  Finally make it across, I made sure I was far from the edge before I let go of their hands.  Victory was mine.  I'm never doing that shit again.  Ever!  We go under the bridge and have a joint, relax a little.  Then security starts coming our way.  Crap!  We duck like a bunch of guilty teenagers.  Security goes over the hill, comes towards us and stops.  They were on 4-wheelers.  They stop at a part of the river that had some tall brush.  They stayed there for 5-10 minutes then start coming closer to us.  We're doomed.  We were sure they'd run us over.  At the last second, they went back up on the trail and left.  Close call.

  We decided to go with the flow and just head straight down the trail.  We're singing, dancing, trying to dodge security.  "Scccuuurrrty!"  We get close enough we can see the stage and hear the music and see the vendors and everything else.  We pop over the other side of the hill, trying to hide.  It was still daylight and we weren't ready to get chased off yet.  After finding some interesting things in the grass and being passed numerous times by 4-wheelers, we started relaxing and coming to the conclusion they didn't care all that much.  We do a half circle around the area, come to a rest in a sand spot among the bushes.  Sat down, picked a load of sage.  Cherie got sand down her crack.  I ended up laying on my tummy watching the big screen they had up by the stage.  At this point, we were way on the other end of the grounds.  We waited til dark, about got killed by bats.  Damn bats.  Started walking back around to the trail.  Parked our asses on the hill where we could see both screens and the stage.  "scccuuurty" didn't seem to mind we were there, still you never can be sure. 
  "I dare you to run all the way down and touch the huge pole" I say to Jimmy.  Which was across the field, across the road, at the edge of the parking lot.  He gets up, starts walking like a retard, then starts running towards it.  "I amm ruuuunniing" he says.  Cherie and I cracked up the whole time.  He gets under the light, touches the pole and runs back like a scared little girl.  Awesome.  Sccurrrty didn't do a thing.  They were guarding the entrance to our left, down the trail a little.  Watching us.  Not making a move.  Convinced they were calling in back-up, we behaved a little.  I was starting to get pumped,  Head East was playing.  Awesome.  "I can't believe you like this music, it's older than me!" J-Word says to me.  I grin.  I look at Cherie "I dare you to touch the pole with me".  She gets up and we strut and shake our asses over to the giant light pole, hug it, grab eachothers ass, act like we are making out (putting a show on for security ya know) and walk back.  They didn't budge.  Nothing!  They all ride away.  We make a break for it.  Oh no, they're coming back!  We run back across our field, up the hill and sit our asses down.  Waiting for them to chase after us.  Nothing.  They just parked back at their post.  Head East gets done, they're getting ready for April Wine.  We contemplate what we are going to do.  I proudly announce that I at least want to try to make it in.  I don't care if we get in trouble, at least we had fun!

  Security takes off again.  We make a mad dash without thinking twice, for the parking lot.  We made it to the lot!!!  Might as well go all the way.  We get right behind the stage.  We high five eachother.  Try to decide our next move.  There's a few cops, there's one security man.  As we were going to mingle with the crowd and walk in, this chick gives us three wrist bands.  Sweet!  We walk between the trailers and we are in.  Work our way up to the stage, get in the front row right in front of the left speakers.  Mission successful.  Meanwhile, I got hit on by three guys.  I feel a few taps on my shoulder, turn around.  "Hey, my friend thinks you're cute and wants to know if you'll dance with him".  I say "no thank you" before I even turn around to look.  I was basking in my glory with my friends.  He approached me a few more times, couldn't hear a damn thing he was saying.  One of those times he informed me his other friend likes me, the cute one.  I made the effort to turn around, smile at him and turn back towards the stage.  I try to explain to the dude that I was enjoying the show.  It's all about the music, man!  I was flattered though.  Wasn't even there for five minutes when those events happened.

  After the show, we get to talking and thinking we could've made it in long before without wrist bands.  Nobody checked us.  Nobody cared.  "Yeah but we wouldn't of had the adventure we did and THAT alone was worth the whole trip" I say.  I got beer spilled on me, I got hit on, I was right in front of the speakers, saw a few friends, a lady fell into us with her man following.  I threatened a bullfrog.  All in all, it's a night to remember.

  We walk back the long way on the trail, not having to cross that damn train bridge again.  Thank you.