long weekend

In the first of four 3 day weekends this month, I took the time to head to Winstead MN. We were in Winstead for the country concert named Winstock.

The bands:
Keith Urban
Sawyer Brown
Tracy Byrd
Montgomery Gentry
The Oak Ridge Boys
Trace Adkins
Phil Vassar
Carolyn Dawn Johnson
Jimmy Wayne
Prairie Rose
White Creek

The first thing was first - I needed to get a cowboy hat and a shirt. I went out Thursday after work and finally found the hat I was looking for, the Kenny Chesney model! So I pay for my hat in south Minneapolis and as I'm walking out the door I notice there are motorcycle driving by like I were at Daytona Bike Week. I ask the store owner what the deal is and he says every first Thursday of the month there is a motorcycle rally one block down from them. So, I head down there and check out some bikes and man were there bikes! In my estimation, probably 500 bikes! Very cool.

So, Friday I took off work and headed over to Chris’s house to meet up. We all loaded up our gear, and then Chris, Brian and I took off on our bikes. The ride was great - only taking a hour to get out there. We arrived at Sarah's (Chris's wife) parents house and put our bikes in the garage for the weekend and headed out for the campsite. We arrived about 4pm, with plenty of time to spare before the first artist hit the stage at 5:30. Our campsite was 20'x30' and as luck would have it, was placed in adjoining rows with the only 2 buses around. One bus had huge speakers and 2 tier dance floor build onto the side of the bus and continuing onto the bus roof, the other was full of some local football players who looked like Lou Ferrigno and were nothing short of drunk all week. Anyways, 8 jello shots and 4 beers later it was 7pm and we decided to head out to catch the first band. From there it gets pretty hazy since we decided to buy an excessive amount of pitchers and drink as fast as we could.

Saturday morning I awoke at 9am after going to bed at 3 and felt like crap. We decided to head out to Sarah’s parents and catch some lunch and nurse ourselves back to health. We spent about 6 hours out there playing with a frisbee and shooting hoops on a 8' dunkable rim and had an absolute great time! We got back to camp and were ready to go out around 7pm. Shortly after arrival the rain started coming. Light at first, then in sheets. After a half hour the storm passed and the concert restarted. The rest of the night was fairly uneventful and very light on booze, which was by far the smart move.

Sunday morning we woke up, broke camp and headed out. After a nice light lunch at Sarah’s parents, we mounted up and rode the bikes home.

In all, one of the most relaxing weekends in recent memory.