Here is my account of Kathy and my excellent adventure to the Chicago area to see Black 47 at a huge Festival sponsored by Guinness Beer. Despite a few speed bumps along the way we ended up having a great time.

The event happened at the brand new motor speedway that is opening in August and we stayed at a seedy hotel in Niles where the band was staying. We got to the hotel at about 3 on Saturday and were waiting for the band to show up so we could ride with them to the event. At about 3:45 the phone rang and it was Fred saying that they got there too late and had to go straight from the airport to the event so time for plan B. Since there was no plan B we had to make one up on the fly. We decided that we would meet him outside the production gate to get our passes. Luckily I had printed some directions off the internet from the hotel to the event, but the directions took us all the way down Cicero Ave for 10 miles. If you have never driven that street don't, what a scary hood. Here we were on a nasty crowded street in a terrible neighborhood in Kathy's brand new car trying to get to a gate that we had no idea where it was before Fred had to leave for his gig. We were a bit stressed. Of course as we got closer to the event the traffic was moving slower and slower, and one hour and about 13 miles later we were stuck creeping down a side street just hoping that we were going toward the production gate. When we got to Laramie st, which was blocked off, I asked the cop where the production gate was and he said, "its down this blocked off street but you can't go down it without a production gate pass. Well I put on my most honest looking face and explained our situation. He looked at me for what seemed like an eternity and then said ok go ahead. What a relief. We got to the gate 10 minutes before Fred would have had to bail. The stress was finally over and the good times were about to begin.

By the time we got backstage we had about a half an hour before the band went on so we were able to unwind and drink a few beers. The event was huge with a small, medium, and big stage. Black 47 was on the medium stage. The gig was great with a good size crowd watching and dancing. After they were done we mostly stayed backstage partying with the band. We did catch some of the Elvis Costello and Van Morrison shows which were great. We only saw a few minutes of the Hootie show as we were walking by the stage to exit out the production gate. One of the more memorable moments was the drive back to the hotel.

The drive back to the hotel was fun because we took my brother Fred, Hammy the drummer, and Geoff the sax player with us. Our shoes were covered in mud because the event grounds were very muddy from rain earlier in the week. We joked the whole way home about the hood we were driving through, especially BJ's party store and Uncle Remus's fried chicken. Kathy's new interior in her new car got covered in mud but nothing a vacuum and carpet shampoo can't get out.

Lucky for us the rain held off until after we got back to the hotel. Sunday we headed straight home since it was raining. I had not given Kathy much information about what the weekend was going to be so she had this impression that we were going to a little Irish festival in downtown Chicago, maybe on the water, and we would be staying in some nice hotel downtown. Despite Kathy's wrong impression of what and where the event was, nearly missing Fred to get in, the terrible neighborhood I drove her new car through twice, the not so nice hotel we stayed in in the not so nice town of Niles, and getting her new cars interior covered in mud, Kathy was a real trooper and took it all in stride.

We really had a great time and as I was leaving Kathy's to go home she even said, "thanks for an interesting weekend".

Sorry no pictures from this trip, but from now on we promise to take pictures on our exellent adventures.