Getting to the fest

Kimavir

Kimavir

Metal Hippy
Nov 13, 2003
412
0
16
What's the craziest/hardest thing you've ever had to do to get to this festival?

When I got my last job, I actually negotiated having the weekend of PP off as a condition of my employment. Now, after receiving a promotion, they're trying to remove that condition (early September is a very busy time). If my employer can make coming this hard, that got me thinking that some of you guys that live a lot farther away might have an awesome story or two.
 
Nothing crazy, but I negotiated the days off in a job I took once.
When you have already made hotel plans and paid for tickets, there's no way you are not going.
I would just hate to be "sick" those days. :grin:
 
Land in hurricane Ivan...twice. Atlanta shut their airport down, so we had to land in Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in South Carolina. We sat on the tarmac for about an hour because GSA wouldn't give us a gate. Finally we took off a little over an hour later because Hartsfield Airport re-opened. It was fucking horrible let me tell ya. We were supposed to arrive in Atlanta at about 4 p.m. We arrived in our hotel (The Fairfield R.I.P.) a bit after 10 p.m.
 
Driving from Texas to Atlanta through Hurricane Ivan. Then dealing with the aftermath coming back. It was fun sitting in a truck stop parking lot in Tuscaloosa with the wind whipping through at 70+ mph. Then driving through sideways rain. Fun memories... hahahaha The things we do to get to our favorite festival....:grin:
 
When I went to IX, which happened to be my first, that was one of the things I said...to have those days off. In a completely different story, last year I got laid off from a job and sold at least 50-75 percent of my dvds/box sets to get to the fest. Currently, I'm searching for a job so I'm hoping I can make it, which at this point I should no matter if I get hired or not (thanks to savings). However, having said that, if I get a job offer and they don't want me to take days off I can't risk turning down employment, but no matter what I am NOT missing that Saturday lineup.
 
drmetal8 said:
Nothing crazy, but I negotiated the days off in a job I took once.
When you have already made hotel plans and paid for tickets, there's no way you are not going.
I would just hate to be "sick" those days. :grin:
Click to expand...

They said I can go this year since I already paid... but Glenn will note that I've already bid for sponsorship next year. I WILL be going :grin:. I just might have to skip the pre-shows and be "sick" for the weekend.

It's no Ivan, but my first attendance was intense. My friends and I weren't old enough to drive the year of PP3, so friend 1 and I ride with his mom to meet friend 2 in Jackson, MS. He's a typical angst-ridden high school student who doesn't want to talk to his mom, so I spend hours in the front seat listening to how the doctor she's dating is greatest guy and he listens to the best Indian pop music that his family sends from home. Then, friend 2's dad drives us and chaperone's the event. He's a really cool guy, but we don't exactly agree religiously. I'm told I'm looking at time in Hell for my Candlemass shirt... oh, and we spend soooo many hours touring Georgia Tech because there's no way students like us should take a trip like this and miss school without considering our future. Then there's the ride back listening to Indian pop music. 30+ hour round trip that year (the mom believed in back roads, even if it took extra time).

Doesn't seem so horrible years later, but... then... ouch.
 
I got lucky with the whole Ivan thing - I had scheduled a 12:30 flight, but I got my ass out of bed at like 6am and hauled to the airport and got myself on a 9am flight (with Rick P and his gf) - got in right as the rain started. The descent was pretty nerve-wracking, but smooth sailing compared to people who came in later - I hear the turbulence precipitated a lot of barfing. Dave and Mare were on my original flight, and I think he said they were delayed by several hours.

I bought a plane ticket less than 24 hours before showing up last year on Saturday. :P


PP used to be very difficult for me to swing when it was in early September because it was towards the end of the crazy busy time at work, but since moving to NC, the crazy busy time at my new location is a couple weeks earlier, so it's not a problem anymore for me to take the weekend off without a great deal of eyelash-batting.
 
I think we were on the last, if not one of the last planes to land during Ivan before the airport was temporarily closed. It was a little rough on the landing, but far from my worst flight. That was a wild first day that year. Maybe Kez remembers our rallying call that year "Free Porn!" LOL! I drove for the first time last year, 12.5 hours, and actually enjoyed it. Will probably be driving from this point on.

@ Milton - Did one of those long bus rides twice going fishing in Canada.
Our buses had LOTS of beer though! :)
 
J-Dubya 777 said:
I think we were on the last, if not one of the last planes to land during Ivan before the airport was temporarily closed. It was a little rough on the landing, but far from my worst flight. That was a wild first day that year. Maybe Kez remembers our rallying call that year "Free Porn!" LOL! I drove for the first time last year, 12.5 hours, and actually enjoyed it. Will probably be driving from this point on.

@ Milton - Did one of those long bus rides twice going fishing in Canada.
Our buses had LOTS of beer though! :)
Click to expand...
Yes, Jaime and JayDub, Ivan had to be the craziest year getting in there. Thank God that we had an early enough flight that we really didn't run as much trouble getting there. I do remember that the situation quickly deteriorated after we arrived.

Indeed, free porn!! That was a riot! That and surfing an ailing Hayes' body down Peachtree River, I mean, Street. lol! Starting the next day and lasting through the rest of the festival, the weather was perfect!! Crazy!

I missed the following year because of my father's passing 35 hours before I was to get on the plane. That was the last year I purchased plane tickets for PP. I started driving to VII and now its become part of the tradition. Plus, now with being on the crew, I bring my tools without a hassle from TSA and that's a glorious thing. I used to love flying, but its become such a PiTA these days, I drive, if possible.
 
For me, PPV was my first PP. I panicked when Hurricane Ivan was on the way, because for me, PPV was going to be the highlight of my life, not just of the year, having never been to a modern power metal concert.

So since there was no way in hell I was missing this, I got on a Greyhound Monday and arrived Tuesday afternoon. I'd picked a hotel that according to Mapquest was three miles away from the venue, but I didn't take into account that there was no easy way to walk to the venue from that hotel. It was the Days Inn on Northside Drive.

On Thursday night, after an interminable three days of wandering around Atlanta doing about everything possible there was to do to amuse myself, I went to the little get together at the Granada before the pre-show. Soaking wet, because Ivan had decided to blow through. Timo Kotipelto arrived at the hotel shortly afterwards, and asked someone, "Is it always like this here?" Then he went to the front desk to inquire about a reservation, and they were like, "What's your name again?" "Timo." "What?" "Timo". "How do you spell that?"

Then I went to the pre-show, saw Magistral and Halcyon Way, and decided I'd best try to get back. That proved to be, er, difficult. I got on a city bus that was going back to my hotel, but the driver said, "We can't turn down Northside, a tornado knocked down some telephone poles." Great. So I got off the bus, in pitch blackness, to walk a few blocks to my hotel, with downed power lines along my path. I made it back, somehow found my room, and the next morning, with the hotel still having no power, moved to the Super 8 to start my real PP weekend.

Fortunately, after that it was smooth sailing and an awesome time.
 
Rick Pierpont said:
Yes, Jaime and JayDub, Ivan had to be the craziest year getting in there. Thank God that we had an early enough flight that we really didn't run as much trouble getting there. I do remember that the situation quickly deteriorated after we arrived.

Indeed, free porn!! That was a riot! That and surfing an ailing Hayes' body down Peachtree River, I mean, Street. lol! Starting the next day and lasting through the rest of the festival, the weather was perfect!! Crazy!

I missed the following year because of my father's passing 35 hours before I was to get on the plane. That was the last year I purchased plane tickets for PP. I started driving to VII and now its become part of the tradition. Plus, now with being on the crew, I bring my tools without a hassle from TSA and that's a glorious thing. I used to love flying, but its become such a PiTA these days, I drive, if possible.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, that shit was BAAAAD! Remember the trees blown sideways on the way to the Res? And NOBODY in our posse is allowed to threaten the rest of the group with going home early because they are sick. With a minor correction, I believe I said if Jeffro died on us, I would surf his rigor mortised body down Peachtree street. :muahaha:

I remember you calling me when your dad passed away. Just brutal :(

With all the charges for extra bags & carry ons possible, that extra money might as well just be gas for the trip there or home. Making the drive rocks! So far, anyway!


adaher said:
For me, PPV was my first PP. I panicked when Hurricane Ivan was on the way, because for me, PPV was going to be the highlight of my life, not just of the year, having never been to a modern power metal concert.

So since there was no way in hell I was missing this, I got on a Greyhound Monday and arrived Tuesday afternoon. I'd picked a hotel that according to Mapquest was three miles away from the venue, but I didn't take into account that there was no easy way to walk to the venue from that hotel. It was the Days Inn on Northside Drive.

On Thursday night, after an interminable three days of wandering around Atlanta doing about everything possible there was to do to amuse myself, I went to the little get together at the Granada before the pre-show. Soaking wet, because Ivan had decided to blow through. Timo Kotipelto arrived at the hotel shortly afterwards, and asked someone, "Is it always like this here?" Then he went to the front desk to inquire about a reservation, and they were like, "What's your name again?" "Timo." "What?" "Timo". "How do you spell that?"

Then I went to the pre-show, saw Magistral and Halcyon Way, and decided I'd best try to get back. That proved to be, er, difficult. I got on a city bus that was going back to my hotel, but the driver said, "We can't turn down Northside, a tornado knocked down some telephone poles." Great. So I got off the bus, in pitch blackness, to walk a few blocks to my hotel, with downed power lines along my path. I made it back, somehow found my room, and the next morning, with the hotel still having no power, moved to the Super 8 to start my real PP weekend.

Fortunately, after that it was smooth sailing and an awesome time.
Click to expand...

Dude! That had to have been a rough go! Live & learn though, I'm sure most of us have! :) I remember changing clothes 3 times during Ivan Day....Like Rick said, the rest of the weekend was perfect! :rock:
 
My very first Progpower was Progpower 3, I was still in high school 11th grade,and I didn't have a car and lived in Albany GA (about 320 miles away from Atl.) no one was going with me and my Grandmother gave me 300 dollars to go to the show,and I got like 100 from my parents,and a Greyhound ticket. A friend of mine from school started going to an art college up in Atl. somewhere so he was going to pick me up from the bus station,and I would stay with him. So he told me "when you get to the bus station go out to the road I will see you,and pick you up." I don't know if you guys know how bad the town is that the greyhound station is,but as soon as I walked out to the side of the road he wasn't there,but three big guys where with a knife to my chest,and I was getting mugged! Luckily I had all my money in my over night bad in my hand,and only food money $16 in my pocket, one guy reached into my pocket other blocked peoples view with body and other had a long knife on my chest,they got the money $16 turned around and just slowly walked off,and as I started heading back to the front doors of the bus station very shocked,my friend pulled up,I got in his truck,and as we pulled by the guys that mugged me,the waived at me and started laughing. So this is the reason I took Criminal Justice in school,why I work at the Probation Office. I can thank going to my first Progpower in 2001 for my career as a Probation Officer.
 
J-Dubya 777 said:
I think we were on the last, if not one of the last planes to land during Ivan before the airport was temporarily closed. It was a little rough on the landing, but far from my worst flight.
Click to expand...

That's right, it was you! I knew there was someone else with us and I couldn't remember who it was. :cool: Yeah, I've had far scarier flights (the January nor'easter of 99 from LGA to PIT - held hands with my seatmate during the landing) but I remember the plane was *silent* all the way down, and it was just kinda slipping back and forth in the wind.

Kez and the Free Porn, bwaha.
 
Kimavir said:
What's the craziest/hardest thing you've ever had to do to get to this festival?
Click to expand...

Rode my bicycle 1000 miles from Chicago for PPIV. (not that I *had* to, I just wanted to, so that takes some of the drama out of it)

Kimavir said:
Then there's the ride back listening to Indian pop music. 30+ hour round trip that year (the mom believed in back roads, even if it took extra time).
Click to expand...

ha...you should have put this in your first post...it sounds way more brutal than a bike ride!

Neil
 
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