"What a long strange trip it's been."

-----The Grateful Dead             

This is the culmination of all my thoughts on my trip in the summer of '99 to Woodstock in Rome, NY.  It was a long Strange trip.  One I would gladly make again.  Friendships I wonder at.  Lots of sights I will never again see in my lifetime.  Lots of sunburn. Lots of pains and aches.  Dehydration beyond compare.  But I went.  I was there.  From the beginning to the very end.  I walked the same road as 250,000 other souls did.  I found musical delight and cosmic pleasure...oh and I got a free Frisbee.  *giggle*  Here's a little bit about my journey and weekend at WOODSTOCK '99!

Well I have to say that of all the things I enjoyed most about Woodstock the trip there wasn't number one...or even two but it was sure FUN.  My cousin Jen and I set out late Wednesday night and arrived early Thursday morning in Rome, NY.  On the way there we picked up another car (Rod was the driver) and we caravanned all the way there.  We passed a lot of Wood stocker's on our way.  They were easy to pick out.  Mostly between the ages of 15 and 30 and driving cars full of camping gear and people.  We had good weather all the way there.  Arriving in Rome was sort of a shocker.  Traffic was backed up for miles because festival organizers were being true to their word not to open the gates until noon on Thursday.  So from 8 AM till around 12:30 PM we sat totally still in traffic on a highway in New York.  We did get out and walk around.  Some kids played football and hacky sack. I used my CB to contact my good buddy Colin who was a ways behind us.  We chatted with all the people around us.

We made friends with a local named Fred who later that weekend saved out lives with Pop tarts.  This is Fred.  Thanks for saving us buddy.  You're the best!  

So we finally get inside the gates...and we follow traffic for HOURS until we get to the parking area.  We parked in front of Yoda on the big wall surrounding the "Compound".  Leaving my car behind we managed to drag our heavy backpacks to the gates and wait in another enormous like.  We were among the first 50 people into Woodstock 99.

Here's some photos of the enormous wall surrounding the Compound.

Once inside we headed for the first treed area we could find.  We wanted someplace soft with moss or grass to put our tent down and a tree tall enough to put our balloons on so we could find our tent again.  

Here's some people that joined us and spent the weekend with us.  This is our tent circle.  For some reason we called it Sesame Street.  We were very friendly to the people trekking through the area.  Welcoming them to Sesame Street.

You'll notice how bad we all come out in this picture.  By the time this photo was taken we had spent 4 days in straight sunlight and had not bathed except for the amount you could from a water bottle.  Needless to say we were pretty much dirty and brown.  So not much shows up.

Here's some pictures of the first day.

This is Jen in our tent.  Boy is it hot out.  You can see our Woodstock Arm bands that security gave us at the gate.  We forgot conveniently to tell them about all the liquor in our backpacks.  Well they wouldn't have seen it anyways had they looked.  We hid it in shampoo and conditioner bottles.

Here's Jen and Colin Working on setting up Colin's tent.  Jen seems to have gotten some mulch in her mouth.  People are filing in and setting up camp.  At this point we were already set up and had been inside for two hours or so.  As you can see everyone seems to be set up and ready.  However little did we know how crowded it was going to get around our little tent!!

Here's Jen and Tammy who joined our tent circle from Houston Texas.  She came to Woodstock with her good friend Chris who is pictured below.

Here's Chris Edge.  He was a lot of fun and full of energy all weekend!  Well ok he was a little tired here. 

Here's some of the other insane people we spent the weekend with.

BEN (Michigan)

MARK & CURT (Indiana and Arizona)

Here's some of the band's we saw.

METALLICA

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

THE CROWD DURING LIMP BIZKIT

I will admit that these photos do not show the best parts of Woodstock 99 and their quality is probably even worse than what it should be.  However,  I do have some good photos to scan and you will find them here soon.

What a great time we had at Woodstock.  Memories we will keep forever.  I hope that everyone can enjoy these photos and get a glimpse of the fun and torture that the weekend was.