The stories of yesteryear are of a legacy of the next chapter.
My mom passed away suddenly this morning. She spent her last day in Myrtle Beach with family. It was her favorite place in the world to visit.
It comes at a shock of her passing. Just this weekend she was excited to be joining me for my grad school graduation next May.
I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was July 12, 1989. I was really early for a concert and found myself playing hacky sack around the back of the Richmond Coliseum. As I was kicking around the little leather bag I soon found out that it was Rachel Bolan, Scott Hill and Dave Sabo playing with us.
They were members of a hot new metal band, Skid Row and they were opening up for Bon Jovi that night. Skid Row had a song that was an anthem for our generation, Youth Gone Wild. It was about teen angst and rebellion. Aren’t they always?
At that concert they would film a video for one of Bon Jovi’s songs, Lay Your Hand on Me and they did the song over and over. In the final cut you can get a brief glimpse of me in the front row against the barrier with a chick in a fish-net jersey–you know the ones if you grew up in the eighties. We were sweaty and gross but having the time of our lives.
That concert was just a few weeks after high school graduation and a trip that I took across country in a car that I thought was mine. That is a story for another post for sure…
In the coming months I would find myself in L.A. to see the band Living Colour call Axl Rose out on stage for being a racist and Rose later stopping the GnR show and having a meltdown mid-set before The Rolling Stones took the stage. It would be the only time I have seen the Stones unless I am able to secure tickets for them in the coming week. I paid $50 for my ticket.
I drove all the way across country three times that summer. Twice in an Oldsmobile Cutlas Supreme that my grandfather gave me after the car mentioned above was returned to the dealership.
By the end of October I was in Florida with all of my possessions in a backpack and living on a sailboat with my friend Darrin. Neither one of us knew the first thing about sailing but somehow made it to Key West to see Billy Squire along the way. At some point I had fallen off the mast of the boat and broke my arm, with no money and no insurance I somehow set it by plowing a parked car, football-style.
By Christmas we were broke and hungry. The Olds had blown up and I sold it for 500 bucks to some guy on the corner. On New Years Eve we were homeless and living under a tree near the beach. My friends father quickly threw us off the boat when we found out we took it on our little trip.
Within days Darrin called his mom and she made him join the Marines on the spot. I called mine and asked for a plane ticket back to Portland, Oregon.
I started college and formed a rock band a few months later. We played at grungy clubs and I worked my way through school working the night shift at 7-11 and drinking, mostly as payment for our gigs, pretty heavily.
Fast forward to April 8, 1994. I was sitting on the beach in Fort Meyers, Florida with my toes in the sand and talking to an old beach bum that made hats for the tourists out of palm fronds. A special report came on the radio that the singer for the band, Nirvana was found dead. Just the night before our little rock band played Lithium and Come as You Are at a scuzzy bar called The Reef further down the beach. Those two songs were in heavy rotation in our set that mostly covered other bands with an original or two.
By the mid-to-the late 1990s my life was spiraling out of control. I was heavily addicted to gambling and spending my days “playing” the stock market. In one day in the autumn of 1999, I made $170,000 and it was gone by the end of the week. That is not a brag. Just the harsh reality of how reckless I had become.
The next decade is a blur of legal troubles, losing everything, my freedom, and almost my life.
I grew up. I met Michele. We married. Raised the kids. Bought a house and started a successful business. We ran sled dogs and became respectable members of our community, or so I thought.
Youth Gone Wild had come and gone but not without a lot of scars.
If we can back up just a bit, I remember playing poker in the back of one of those seedy bars in Portland’s northeast’s side were I would spend most of my time. I heard The Grateful Dead’s Touch of Gray for the first time. The Dead weren’t my favorite but I did get a chance to see them a couple of times. The last time was on the last tour before Jerry died. That will come into play in a sec.
Are you seeing a pattern here?
I am now in my late forties and struggle to make sense of the last (almost) five decades. I have spent my life doing what I wanted and paid the price a time or two. I have done everything I have ever wanted to do. I have travelled. I have seen many concerts. Met many people. Made many friends and had a lot of awesome experiences. About five years ago I returned to school as part of a mid-life crisis, just because.
There is a quote in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile you could miss it.”
I have spent my life trying to prove to myself that life is what you make it and you can’t let anything get in your way.
I was in fact very wrong. Just this past weekend I came to the realization that time passes too fast. How do I know? It was something as stupildy simple as visiting a Walmart of all places and trying on a pair of glasses. All the sudden I could read everything again clearly. If I can digress for just a second. As we age the lenses in our eyes become less flexible. To many of us this will be the first realization that we are getting old…
To some it is inconsequential. Others will blast me and say, “what the hell are you talking about. Everyone needs glasses in their 40s.” That is exactly the point. That simple, shortsighted and trivial, little step of realizing that I need glasses was a punch in the gut to me. It was the realization that we aren’t here forever and soon things will be much different than it was before.
I have lived fast. I have lived loose. I have slowed down and tried to re-connect with those I have let stray away. Just this past weekend I heard that my high school class is planning our 30-year reunion. 30 f-ing years. I will go.
Time will pass and there is still a lot to do. I am sure, all of you–my rabid readers–have had that realization a time or two that we aren’t young anymore. When was it for you?
In the words of Jerry, (and Robert Hunter)…but I also know that that we must whistle through your teeth and spit ’cause it’s alight.
Our time, oh, well, a touch of gray kinda suits you anyway.
I will get by.
The second and third days of the American Coaster Enthusiasts preservation conference was to be held at Michigan’s Adventure. After a quick photo of the group on the bridge at Indiana Beach, most of must jumped into our cars and headed some 200 miles north to the shores of Lake Michigan.
As I was driving I had thoughts of the old 1980s movie, The Cannonball Run staring Burt Reynolds, Farrah Fawcett, and Dom DeLuise. Here was 80 or so of us trying to get to the next park before the night time ERT. We coaster geeks are a rambunctious bunch!
I arrived at the motel in time to drop my bags and headed to the park. When I first arrived I was awe-struck. Here was this massive coaster with what looked like ten dips! I have never seen anything like it. That was going to be my first coaster in the park. My first ride was the ferris wheel to get a lay of the land. It took forever to get on but the view was worth it.
I headed over to the massive woodie that I saw coming in. It was Shivering Timbers. I waited for about a half hour before it was my turn in line as I waited for the front car. I have been on about 350 coasters in the last three years and my goodness this was one that I will never forget! It literally took my breath away. It was a constant up and down, up and down and it felt like we were flying. I know now what people are talking about when they say this is one of the best woodies in the world.
I still had a couple hours to kill before the ERT so I jumped on another woodie, The Wolverine Wildcat. I would later find out this coaster has an interesting story. It opened in 1988 and really put this park on the map. It was such an important opening that one of the daughters of the family that owned the park back then, was forced to skip her own college graduation because of the coaster’s reveal.
I also rode Zach’s Zoomer which happens to be named after that same daughter’s eldest son. It was a fun little woodie and hardly no wait to get on. I jumped on corkscrew and the big dipper in the kiddie section of the park. Since I had ridden four coasters in less than two hours I decided to skip the ERT and just grab my free ice cream cone on the way out just as it was getting dark.
Sunday morning I arrived early and in time for ERT. I jumped on the Mad Mouse after the requisite group photo in front of Shivering Timbers. It looked like most of the group had made it north in time for the day’s activities. We were alone in the park so I headed over to Thunder Hawk and waited in the shade for it to open at 11. I was the first, and only one on when it opened. It was fun to have a front row seat on a train all of your own.
Our picnic lunch was fun. We had pulled pork, hot dogs and cookies while the daughter that missed her own graduation back in the day–remember her, who is now the vice president, talked about how the park came to be and a few questions from the group.
This was only my second ACE event with my first being last year’s preservation conference in Alabama and Georgia. The only reason why I was able to make this one was because it was held right after our trip in the Northeast. I like the ACE events and it is fun to talk to members who you chat with on social media. I look forward to the next one and hope my wife, Michele can come too.
Lastly, I want to thank ACE for all that they do and of course the host parks. It is awesome that they are keeping these older coasters alive for all of us to enjoy. I can’t wait to see what 2019 brings!
Today’s topic is: Write a strong memory about recess.
It was kindergarten at Highlawn Elementary School in Huntington, West Virginia and a beautiful spring day. School was nearing the end of the year and I have been flirting this little girl friend that sat across the room from me during playtime. Her name was Kelly and she was soooo pretty. She had curly blonde hair and liked to play in the mud!
I knew time was running out and I WANTED Kelly to be my girlfriend.
It was recess, my favorite period besides nap time and snacks in our half-day schedule. I saw Kelly standing by the swing set and walked up to her and mentioned something like, “there’s something you gotta see!”
We walked across the meadow down a little hill to a smalll smattering of trees. Once we where there I leaned in and kissed her. Right on the cheek. At that very moment I saw fireworks in my head just like Bobby Brady did when he kissed Millicent for the first time on that old 70s TV show.
I don’t remember what ever came of Kelly after the kiss, as it came to be known. But I do know that I have shared that story a thousand times with my kids and my son Tyler grew up to be just the kindergartener that his old man did….
I met up with Michele in Seattle on Friday morning for the last leg of our epic rock n roller 16 coaster tour of America. We would have one more weekend together before we head home to the bee business, dog training and our next semester at school at UAA. This leg of the tour will include the ‘Rock” portion of it in a huge way! Early in the spring one of our favorite bands of all time, Gun’s n Roses announced a tour. I jumped online as quick as I possibly could and bought tickets. We got awesome seats in the first section from the floor directly in front of the stage just about 300 feet away.
We spent Friday hanging out and shopping. Living in Alaska you quickly realize how much you miss the things that everyone else takes for granted with all of the stores and shopping. Michele and I love to window shop and stock up on things that you can’t find up north. We had dinner at The Crab Pot. This place was amazing! They deliver you a huge portion of seafood in well, a pot, as you sit along the water. We dove in and got our hands super greasy but loved every minute of it.
Saturday was the concert at Century Link Field. It is the home to the Seattle Seahawks and a beautiful stadium that is known as one of the loudest in the NFL and if it was half as good for concerts as it is for football we are in for a real treat. We arrived early and parked the car about 20 blocks away so we wouldn’t have to pay the outrageous 100 bucks for parking. We walked along the busy streets. This was a place I spent a lot of time in the early 90s when I was in college and in a band at the height of the grunge movement. You know, the Seattle rockers, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains? Our little band thought we would be the next big thing. Doesn’t every band?
Anyway, back to the concert, Michele and I had a couple beers at some hipster bar just outside the gates, spending way too much on appetizers and drinks. Seriously! We waited in line for the gates to open and were one of the first waves in. We found our seats. As I said, they were awesome. We waited for a while for the opening band to start playing. It was The Pink Slips. This is a band that is fronted by Duff McKagen’s daughter, Grace. Duff, if you don’t know is the father to this young lady and just a happens to be the bassist for Gun’s N Roses. Of course he would let his daughter open for his band in their home town!
The second band of the day to hit the stage is my favorite, Alice in Chains. These hometown rockers were right at home playing on their own turf. This was the second time I have seen them since they added their new frontman, William DuVall that replaced Layne Staley when he passed away in the mid-90s. DuVall has become much more of a true frontman now than when he first arrived on scene with the cd and tour for The Devil Put the Dinosaurs Here. At that time it was guitarist and founding member, Jerry Cantrell singing most of the vocals with DuVall doing back up.
This was a great show opening up for GNR. They opened with Hollow, Them Bones and a grinding rendition of Again. They ended the show with an extended version of Man in the Box with DuVall sounding excellent, Would? and Rooster to follow. We waited almost an hour for the Looney Tunes theme to start and the Not in This Lifetime tour to be really happening!
The Gunner’s brought the house to their feet and played for almost 2.5 hours. It was by far one of the best concerts I have ever seen in my life. Axl sounded great, Slash killed it, Duff and the rest of the gang were awesome. A lot of negativity was brought on about this tour and I can say they did not disappoint. Gone are the days of Axl coming in late and throwing tantrums. I guess that was all in the past. I saw GNR here in Seattle almost 25 years ago when they were touring for their Use your Illusion Tour and at that time it was a great concert with Skid Row opening the show.
They played all of their hits and a lot of their lesser known stuff as well. They opened the show with It’s So Easy and Mr. Brownstone with what seemed like 70,000 people singing along. Some of my favorites of the set were Estranged and Coma. With their huge video board in the background it seemed like it was 1985 again at the height of MTV. Later in the set they played a killer cover of Wish You Were Here with Slash starting off on a double neck guitar. There aren’t many guitarist like Slash and I would argue he is the true definition of a Guitar God. People just don’t play like that anymore on modern rock n roll. They ended the show with a raucous four song encore and closed the show with fan favorite Paradise City with everyone screaming at the top of their lungs.
The setlist for the show is here.
Michele here: some of you rabid readers may not know, Robert took me to my very first concert for my 28th birthday! My first concert was at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado with Godsmack headlining! You see prior to Robert I didn’t get out much. I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to concert going! So, I missed out on GNR’s first go-round in the 80’s/90’s and I definitely missed out on seeing Layne belting it out for AIC. I was so excited about GNR I had goosebumps. They did not disappoint. In fact, I had so much fun, I talked Robert into taking us to see them in Denver in 2017 when we hit the tour again!
What a show! After the concert we had to bop and weave through the rowdy streets to make it back to our car. We made it before the 1am cut off, otherwise we would have to come back in the morning to retrieve it.
The rest of the weekend we managed to see all we could of Seattle. We spend Sunday morning over on Bainbridge Island as we took the ferry across the sound. What a cool place. We drove around, ate a great lunch and shopped at all the cool shops including a way cool toy store. We rode the Big Wheel and saw a not-so-funny comedy show at the Hard Rock Cafe after a mediocre dinner. We walked around City Park and Michele managed to score a close parking spot and managed to squeeze in our rental from Enterprise in a wicked parallel job. We hung out at Pikes Place Market looking at old Playboys and hippie herb shops too.
Sadly the tour comes to an end but we will continue to rock on. In fact we will be back in Seattle in December to see one of the coolest bands around, The Pretty Reckless. Did you know I bought tickets to this show while I was still in Denver on this portion of the coaster tour. So, I guess the rock n roller 16 tour continues on…
We will be back on the road in the summer of 2017 visiting new theme parks and searching out some epic coasters and more concerts. I hope you will follow along.
Tomorrow: Wild Waves and Enchanted Village
Coasters to date on the tour: 92
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