Date: 2011-07-05
From: Vermont

To: Day 54 - 59
Miles today: 0.0

Where do I begin? I guess I'll just trace my footsteps back to Vermont and start at the beginning. So I woke up in White River junction early on the 5th and got right on the Amtrak. When I woke up in downtown Boston I proceeded to experience some of the worst culture shock I've ever had in my life. Imagine spending 2 months in the woods with a relatively small group of people and then waking up in the middle of one of the densest cities on the eastern seaboard. My friends Alex and Laura met me there at the Amtrak station and showed me around downtown Boston's bar scene for a while. Then we took a ferry across the bay to Laura's summer beach house in Hull, MA. I had an awesome dinner and drifted off to sleep with the sound of the beach filling my ears and thoughts of being back at sea-level filling my mind.    I spent the whole next day lounging on the beach looking out over Massachusetts bay. The day was an awkward mixture of calmness and serenity about being in limbo between the Appalachian Trail and a music festival, and eagerness and anticipation about the much-awaited reunion with my gorgeous girlfriend!   The following morning, I woke up super early, took the ferry by myself back to the city, found my way to a major landmark, and rendezvoused with my buddy Kyle (not BC Kyle) bright and early. I hopped in the car with him and some of his friends and we drove straight to Camp Bisco X!    The weekend was nothing short of amazing. Belle and I hooked up and didn't miss a step raging the festival together. It was a relief to have gotten along with her so well. Even after spending such a long time apart, it's very apparent that we are still passionately in love. We camped with Britt, Justin, Kyle, Ori, and Jeremy. It was so great to see some Florida fam again; I really miss the little network of awesome people that I know back in Florida. The music was fairly good all weekend too. The Biscuits played pretty standard Camp Bisco sets, although set 2 on Sunday brought some of that classic Bisco heat that I so desperately miss. I didn't even care what they sounded like though honestly, it was just good to see the boys again for the first time since last October for Lazerween. I also got to see that first-ever US performance by the Shpongle Live band. I had practically given up on Shpongle by now, but this show changed my mind. The tempo of the music was noticeably slower, but it was so much more earthy and organic-sounding than Simon's DJ stuff that I liked it a lot more. Plus, it was just funny to see Simon Posford actually play an instrument for once. And speaking of instruments, my favorite act of the weekend was definitely Ratatat. Even though I've been listening to those guys since high school, I always though that they were some Daft-Punk-like pair of DJs. I was wrong. The band is comprised of a real drummer and two real guitarists; and they fucking killed it. I would travel to see those guys again, that's how good it was.   Sex, drugs, and Disco Biscuits aside, I also had to do 18 hours of post-fest trash duty to earn my ticket. We stayed on-site until Tuesday so I could spend my entire day Monday picking up after the festival goers. It wasn't so bad though. I met some pretty cool kids and even ground scored a bunch of opium while I was walking to check out after my final shift. The opium was pretty mediocre, but I packed out anyway figuring that it would come in handy back on the AT. All-and-all the festival was much more tame than it was last year, which might have had something to do with the fact that I got my ass kicked by the bikers last year, which might have had something to do with the fact that I still had dreadlocks last year... We got a ride out of the festival with some of Belle's friends from tour and the insanity of life on-the-road continued...