After the Mansfield DMB shows I had one day off in between and then it was straight to SPAC. I spent that day packing up my stuff and then the next day we drove to Saratoga. This time it just so happened that my new friend Kevin, from Mansfield, was staying at the same campground as us. No one ever believes me, but in person I am shy. Up to this point, I had always just gone to concerts with my friends. So stepping out of my comfort zone and meeting fellow fans was refreshing. The Saratoga shows were fun, but came and went with nothing out of the ordinary happening. I have been to SPAC multiple times, so besides the awesome shows and the camping, nothing notable happened.
After Saratoga, my next stop was Chicago and Alpine Valley. This is where the "everything happens for a reason" phrase comes back into play. I met a girl in the spring that is from Chicago but goes to school in Boston. I told her my favorite band was DMB and she told me she goes to see them at Alpine Valley every year. After we hung out a few more times she told me i should come out in the Summer and visit her and go to Alpine Valley with her. Now if I had still been with my ex-girlfriend, this would've never happened. Alpine Valley had always been one of the places I dreamed of going, but she held me back from doing certain things. So I talked to my friend Dan and he said as long as we get to check out Chicago a few days then he would join me. So both of us took our first trip to Chicago and we did a lot of sight seeing in the few days we were their. We went to Wrigley Field, Navy Pier, The Bean, Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, John Hancock Observatory Building and Willis (Sears) Tower. After an awesome time in the City, my friend and her sister picked us up and we headed to Alpine Valley. At this time, this was the farthest west I had ever been so the car ride for me was pretty cool. We pulled over and took a picture at the "Welcome to Wisconsin" sign, which sounds corny, but it was so cool. Besides my drive to the Gorge, which will described later, this was the coolest drive I've ever had. There wasn't any rolling mountains or huge bodies of water, but it was just the anticipation of arriving at one of my dream venues. Finally arriving at Alpine Valley was an awesome feeling. Seeing that sign and knowing that you are literally in the middle of no where but surrounded by thousands of fans was surreal. The tailgating scene over there was nothing like I had seen before. On the east coast, I am used to tailgating on pavement and with cops everywhere. This was in the middle of a field with thousands of people going nuts, it was awesome. After the tailgating fun was over, it was time for the show. Now this walk isn't HALF as cool as the Gorge walk, but it was pretty exciting. At this point, ever have I ever been to a venue where you have to walk up a hill to get to your seats. Getting to the top of the hill and seeing the stage was pretty damn cool. Alpine Valley is such a beautiful place to see a show. The band came on and didn't disappoint. They played an awesome set and one of their longest ever. Definitely an experience I will never forget.
After I got back from Alpine Valley, my new friend Kevin contacted me and asked me how it was. During our conversation he reminded me that he was going to the DMB West Palm Beach shows. He told me that he already has a room with two beds and a rental car and i should join him last minute. So I hopped on my computer and found a cheap flight and two weeks later I was at the airport and he was picking me up. During this time, Boyd Tinsley's movie "Faces in the Mirror," was starting to get a lot of attention. They were in the process of getting the word out about the movie via twitter and by having some pop up events. While waiting at the airport and killing some time, I saw that Boyd was having a contest for West Palm Beach. The contest was to post the best picture of your face in the mirror. So basically, Boyd finally made it cool to take a picture of yourself in the mirror. As I was sitting there at the airport I thought there was no one I could take a cool picture of myself in an airport mirror. I thought about it for awhile and then I remembered I had something cool saved on my phone. A couple weeks back, my friends and I had gone to the beach. We stopped at the grocery store to get ice for our beer and this young girl stopped us and asked if we would take a picture for her website. She worked for a company called "Pirate Booty Potato Chips" so she gave us these eye patches and had us take a picture. After the beach, my friend and I were a little sauced up and decided to put the pirate patches on and give people "the hook" as they drove by. As we were hysterically laughing, I took a picture of both of us in the car mirror with the patches on. That picture I happened to have saved on my phone, so I tweeted that picture for the contest. After that I kind of just forgot about it and carried on with my day. Kevin and I got some beers and hung out in the hotel for awhile before we headed down to tailgate. We got down to the parking lot and met up with my new friend Jordan, who had my tickets, and we continued to party. About three beers and two shots later, my phone started to vibrate. It was a tweet from the Faces Film account saying I had won the contest and got to go backstage after the show to meet Boyd. I literally could not talk for fifteen minutes. I just showed Kevin and Jordan my phone and stood there for fifteen minutes without words. It was the coolest and scariest feeling at the same time. I was obviously pumped to meet Boyd but at the same time I was wicked nervous. We went into the show but I don't even remember it because I was still in shock I was about to meet Boyd. After the show, we went down and met up with Boyd's main man, Steve. He took the ten of us contest winners into a small room backstage. There was just enough chairs for all of us, plus Boyd, and a TV. All of us in the room had never met each other and were all in the same position. We were all nervous and just kind of sat there and laughed in awe. Finally Boyd came walking in and shook all of our hands and sat down and begun telling us about the movie. He described the thought behind the movie and then showed us the trailer and one scene from the movie. After, he signed stuff for us and we all took some pictures. Probably the coolest part was when Boyd talked to my new friend Jen's mom on the phone. It was her mom's birthday, Jen left her party just to go see Boyd. While he was on the phone with her, we all started singing happy birthday to her, it was awesome. After he hung up, he said that was so cool. Then Ryan Orr chimed in, "Now that's a Narnia birthday right there." That was a wicked cool moment, and I do have it on video if anyone would like to see. After this happened it was time for them to leave. Right before Boyd left I blurted out, "Will you do me one more favor, will you sign my calf so I can get it tattooed?" Boyd looked at me and said, "Are you serious...that's fuckin cool!" Then Ryan starts slapping my hand over and over again. That moment is something I will always remember for sure. I left the venue with the biggest smile of my face. I woke up the next day and I told Kevin to drive me to the closest tattoo parlor right then. He tried to tell me to think about it for awhile, but I had already had my mind made up. We went to the closest parlor and I walked right in and got my first tattoo. I immediately tweeted to Boyd and Ryan about the tattoo after, obviously. As you can see from the pics below, Boyd loved it and said it was the first tattoo of his signature. I went to the second show that night on a natural high. I also got to meet my good friend, Ian Miller, that day. He was the first one that got to see the tattoo. So without even having to say it, that was one of the coolest experiences of my life and something I will never forget. Without reaching out to Kevin and having him come hang out with me in Mansfield, I would've never went to West Palm Beach. I would've never met my now good friends Ian, Ryan, Steve and Boyd. Like I said, things might happen in weird ways, but everything happens for a reason!
