ACL Day Two

We found free parking about 4 blocks from the shuttle, and there was a really long line to get on the bus, but it went fast. So far so good. This time it was really about trying to get a front rail for a headliner (Plant and Krauss) so we got to the big stage around 3:30 (to acquire turf for 8:15). Robert Earl Keen was on next, followed by John Fogerty.

We didn't manage a front rail right then. There was a group of Fogerty Superfans in front of us. They were nice folks, all around our age, a married couple from California, a man from S. Carolina and a woman from New Orleans who they described as the biggest John Fogerty fan in the world. They knew each other pretty well, as is typical of superfans. They meet up at various locales in the country and even the world, then stay in touch online, so they are pretty close (I know what it's like!). Amazingly, I had not seen Fogerty before, and it was fun to see him with them in front, as they were having a great time -- and so was he, apparently. This is a guy who really enjoys playing... and from a distance he looks the same as he has always looked.

During the break between Fogerty and Robert Plant / Alison Krauss the crowd surge occurred, but there were no problems other than primarily one obnoxious drunk right behind us -- luckily not a mean one.

Plant and Krauss were unbelievable! I really love the sound of this T-Bone Burnett concoction. He is brilliant. Buddy Miller and Stuart Duncan were in the touring band as well. Stuart Duncan simply amazed me. I've heard him play some bluegrass and other acoustic-styles before but what he was doing with that fiddle was really not like anything I've heard before, I didn't realize that was possible. We were awestruck by the whole event. The Fogerty superfans gradually left except for one holdout, allowing us to finally get some front rail for the show we came to see. The show was kind of over for them anyway, and one of the women rolled her eyes at me over Alison Krauss getting stage time without Plant -- obviously not impressed. Oh well. Different strokes.

The show was over at 9:30, and that's when the ordeal really started. The line for the shuttle busses went for a few blocks, it just took forever to find what we thought was the end of it. The only way you could tell was that the shuttle "line" was forced to walk in the wrong direction, against the flow of a crowd of 65,000 people (including those trying to leave on one of about a thousand bicycles - there was even a motorcycle trying to plow through). We had to do that for the entire distance we'd just walked to find the end, then we had to get through one of those rat-maze barricade sorters which made us walk first a block in one direction, then the other, then back, then back again... until we finally got to a bus. {sigh}

The bus filled right up and we had to ride it standing, holding on tight to the grip-loops - and it was a horrible ride because the part of the trip that was not u-turns and other sharp turns the bus was stop-and-go in very heavy traffic. Not only was ACL letting out, the UT/Arkansas game was that day, which had an attendance of 97,833 -- plus -- it was Saturday night in Austin. When we finally got dropped off, we still had to walk 4 blocks to the car. We were absolutely convinced that we could have walked the distance to the car faster, even though it was a few miles. When you are limping on both feet, it gives you a very silly walk. Feet. Hurt. Bad. We finally got home by 11:45, after pretty much standing and/or walking since 3 in the afternoon. Also, the dust was really starting to kick up on Saturday. Lots of folks looking like bandidos in face bandanas.

I told MrB that I really believed that for me, ACL was over. It won and I was done (he was too, after we finally made it to the car). I had a good time, but it takes a bit of something to endure certain aspects of it, and that something for me was gone. Sunday would have been worse, and it got up to 95°, at least in our backyard. Whew. Sunday morning I got up and put the wristbands on Craigslist, (thanks to ACL for making it easier to slip them on and off this year) and was inundated with calls and emails within minutes of posting.