By Dan Fish
At 6:35 on March 28th, Dan, Jenny and myself sat and watched in frustration as our train left the depot. The frustrating part was that our 4th party, Keith, the one who was late, was the one that assured us that he was the best man to hold on to our tickets and then it didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Well, there was no time to waste; after discussing the options with the conductor, the only option that would keep us on track the rest of the trip was to drive to Chicago, so drive we did. We all packed into my Scirrocco and drove 6 1/2 hours to Chicago.
Once we got into Chicago we had about 2 hours to spare before our train left so we looked at the city a bit and then sat in Union Station and waited out the rest of the time. That night on the train we partied it up in the Observation Car which had an all-glass roof.
The next morning we awoke in Washington, D.C. for a 6 hour lay-over. We thought we would use the time in D.C. to our advantage, so we saw the town. We went to the Capitol, saw the Washington Monument, and went through the Smithsonian — all before we had to leave. After we got everything settled on the train Jenny, Dan, and I thought we would head up to the lounge and talk with some people while Keith got some sleep. We met a man named Sandy who was doing the same thing we were and headed the same way so we spent the night talking with him.
We arrived in Atlanta about mid-afternoon the next day. This day was mostly set aside for getting settled in our hotel and learning the area. In a relaxing way it was the most un-fun day of the trip. Although to make it not a total eventless day something had to happen and it did. Late that night Keith got mugged. He got $40 stolen and got beat up, but nothing real serious happened to him.
On March 31st, we decided to see this new shopping center in Atlanta called the Underground and then head to this town outside of Atlanta called Little 5 Points for this festival that was going on there. The Underground was nice and had a lot of really cool shops. On our way there we even got to hear this outdoor gospel group. We didn’t waste much time at the Underground so we could spend most of the day and night at the Festival. The Festival consisted of a lot of people partying, shopping and/or selling anything and listening to good live music, like the Indigo Girls and a Grateful Dead cover tune band called The Grapes. Later, after the last band played, Dan and I got to sit in with a group of 6 bongo players and played till our hands hurt while people crowded around and watched. Later that night we went to a lame party in Atlanta and then went to The Omni where The Grateful Dead played and watched all the people start coming in.
Finally, what we actually went to Atlanta for, the day of the first show. The hotel we were staying at didn’t have any open rooms, nor did any hotel and our last day was the day before, so we scrambled for an idea. We ended up renting about a 20 foot long Ryder moving truck for the rest of the trip, so we would have a place to sleep other than the street. The Ryder was great because we had lots of room plus we had transportation. This is how we spent the first part of our day, just looking for a place to stay but the rest of our day was like it was the next two days of shows with the exception of a little change here and there. The main objective was to find a ticket for the shows because the stadium only holds about 18,000 people and there were at least 25,000 people who wanted to get in every night, so tickets were hard to find. Once you had your ticket, if you were lucky enough to get one, then you could relax and enjoy the rest of the day before the concert started.
I forgot to mention that the night before the first show we found a couple of our friends from Minnetonka, Erin and Paul, so they stayed with us in the Ryder the rest of the trip. The days also consisted of walking around and meeting people, watching or playing in huge 20-60 people bongo jams, buying all sorts of Dead related stuff or selling Dead related stuff, and like I said earlier, just enjoying the day.
Compared to Minnesota, the weather in Atlanta was heavenly. I was just happy to hear and see any live Dead but out of the 3 shows, my favorite had to be the last show. I got a chance to see all the shows and although they played a bunch of songs every show that I wanted to hear, the last show was the best and the scariest. The songs played that I remember best of the first two shows were “Candyman,” “Athea”, an excellent “Stella Blue,” and a fantastic “Ship of Fools” during the first night. The second night had just as good a first set as the third. The second night they played “Red Rooster,” the band’s song “The Weight,” “The Other One,” and probably one of the best songs I’ve heard played live, “Can’t Stand the Rain.” The only way to explain the third night is to go through and write down the set lists, so here goes:
(open) “Shakedown Street”, “Hell in a Bucket, “Sugaree,” “We Can Run,” “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” “Row Jimmy,” “Picasso Moon,” “Tennessee Jed.” That’s the first set. Here’s the second set: “Scarlet Begonias,” “Crazy Fingers,” “Playing in the Band,” “Drumz,” “Space,” “I Will Take You Home,” “Feelin Bad,” “Throwing Stones,” “Not Fade Away,” and then as an encore “Bid You Good Night.”
All the nights after the shows were big parties and real crazy, but the night after the third show was the best because that night the Dead played a good show and they played the last show of the tour so everybody was generous with what they had because they were going home after a long tour. We stayed up all night with everybody around us and enjoyed a campfire.
The next day we slept till late and then got what we needed done to make our train that night. We had to do some laundry and clean and take back the Ryder. As fate would have it our clock in our Ryder was slow so the time that we allowed to get from the Ryder station to the train depot, we didn’t have anymore, so we missed our train by 15 minutes. We next train wasn’t going to come for 10 days so we quickly ran to the Greyhound station and caught a bus back. Although more expensive, the bus ride back to Chicago was much faster. We got back to Chicago a day earlier.
The day back in Chicago wasn’t a fun one because we found out we had to pay a lot more than we not only had, but also expected to pay, so we had to wire Keith’s dad and we didn’t get the money until 6 hours after we arrived in Chicago, but finally we were headed home.
We drove all night and made it home about 7:00 in the morning.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I got to see 3 fabulous Grateful Dead shows, ride on a train, meet a lot of nice and interesting people, see Atlanta, Washington, D.C., national capitol, the Smithsonian, the
Washington Monument, and last but not least, stay in a Ryder moving truck. What more could you ask for?