Preamble to the summary...

After six years of lamentation I took the plunge, purchased the $600 ticket for V.I.P. access, found a willing compadre and made the full-out commitment to Bonnaroo. My decision was not without moments of self-doubt and hesitation, even terror. At least once a month after I purchased the pair of tickets in late February, I had what amounted to night screams about what I had done. Didn't help that I encountered looks of incredulity, humour or naked skepticism if I mentioned my plan to most (not all, but most). But as June 10 approached I found that my mood was lighter. When I picked Jean up at the airport and we carefully stowed the hundreds of items that had been assembled in an enormous pile in my basement into the Jeep I can say that my sleeplessness was not caused by apprehension but by giddiness. I had the first night of many four hour sleeps, happily bounding out of bed at 2 a.m. to get on the road and grab a primo campsite. The weekend just flowed from that moment on. I can now safely affirm that I am not too far gone to hang, and that the four days at Bonnaroo , despite the warts and flaws, were the happiest four days I have had in a very long time. In short the good far outweighed the bad and I am poised for a better camp, more music, and an even better Bonnaroo next year. The high is now subsiding and, like any addict I am jonesin' for more! I hope you will suffer me the opportunity to bumble through several posts to try to verbalize what was so vivid 48 hours ago, in an attempt to keep it going... That blue lump in the center of the photo is a couple in sleeping bags waiting for the main gates to open. Here are more from 6:30 a.m.- 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 11 as we approached the double secret V.I.P. entrance during rush hour in Manchester, Tennessee.