Where can I even begin? Saturday was a very fun, tragic day, and one of the most fun we've had in a while. I'll tell the whole story and I suppose I should start at the begining.
Mom emailed me and told me that Grady's (and formerly Damion) band "
Takka Takka" was
playing in Charlottesville, VA and asked if that was near us. I didn't even really know, but I knew I wanted to go and see Grady. I looked on google maps and saw it was only a meager 109 miles from our house! More on this later... I bought the MP3s for Takka Takka's cd "We feel safer at night" off amazon. It's catchy and I really enjoy it, which means I definitely want to get down to the show. It's time to start planning the trip.
I asked my friends and co-workers if they wanted to go to Charlottesville for a fun day of touristy things and a show. "My cousin's band is playing, it'll be fun!" I said as I pitched my day trip. My friend Rory was the only one that was free and he was all for going. All week I had looked for fun things to do in Charlottesville, VA, since I've never been anywhere near there. We were all getting very excited. There are a few vineyards down in the area that we'd like to visit as well as the famed
Monticello. The wine tastings and tours at Monticello end at 5:00pm...more on this later.
The show started at 9:00 pm with one opening band. We were shooting to be down around 3:00pm so we could catch a tour before they closed at five. Then we would have been left with four hours to walk around any type of downtown or oldtown we could find, shopping, enjoying being outside and just relaxing. That was the plan. Then reality struck, and we were quick to realize that we live in the greater DC area.
Rory left his apartment at 12:00pm sharp. Right on time, which is rare for Rory :p He calls and says he's on the way, just has to catch a train, transfer, then arrive at the train station that's closest to my house out in the suburbs. After a few times back and forth, Rory finally calls at 1:18pm and says he'll meet me at the station in a few minutes, he's not far. 1 hour and 18 minutes! Apparently there's some work being done on the train line that he needs to ride, so there's only one track. As the trains have to take turns using the line, they're about 30 minutes apart. Oh well, we're a little late now, but we should still be on time, as I planned for a few delays in our timeline.
Next comes the highway. 95, the highway, is notorious for traffic. I hate driving on it. I don't like going anywhere near it. Great news, traffic leaving the city is light. We merge onto 95 south and traffic is the lighest I've ever seen it. Hooray! Yeah, right.
About an hour later, we approach Fredricksburg... Google maps: "Estimated travel time 2:26 minutes"... That may have been accurate for little or no traffic, but when you factor in the 20 car pile up outside of Fredricksburg...well, it quickly becomes closer to 4 hours. Rough. Our spirits are still high though! We're feeling great, it's sunny and beautiful which is amazing because both Alexandria and Charlottesville have severe weather alerts for the day...more on this later.
There is a brighter side to the drive down. It was amazingly beautiful. The plantation mansions and land, the rolling hills, the twisting road lined by trees and fences and fields full of cows was quite a sight. I was jealous of Rory and Amanda as they were able to enjoy the sights, as I kept my eyes on the road.
Anyway, we arrived down in the Charlottesville area at about 5:00pm, just as all the tours are ending. Oh well, at least we made it down. We still have some shopping to do, enjoy a nice dinner, and see Grady! We use the GPS system to direct us to the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, the place where Grady's playing. We arrive there at about 5:10pm and the clouds are rolling in. Remember the sever weather alerts? The alert was "high wind" in the Charlottesville area. As we stepped out of car, the air felt warm, but the wind was very chilly, so we bundled up in our coats. Smart thinking. The temperature dropped about 20-30 degrees in the next two hours and the wind was bitter. In fact, the wind had knocked out power for half of the main strip in the "old town" area. That made us nervous. If the tea bazaar had no power, then there'd be no show. Then I wouldn't get to see Grady.
We walked around looking for the tea bazaar, so we knew where to go later, and stopped a few shops along the way. Luckily a nice woman that worked in a "fair trade" store showed me where the tea bazaar was, and gave us some tips on places to eat. We continued to shop and enjoy the bitter cold weather and darkness that enveloped the whole mall area. The south side shops had power, but apparently the street lights were powered by the same line that powered the north side shops. The whole street was completely dark, being lit only by the store fronts on the south side. We went to many antique stores, book stores, and even stopped in a coffee shop for a quick drink and a chance to warm our insides. It was pretty fun. Lots of cool things to look at and we even bought a ton of things. A few books here and there, some antiques, along with our warm drinks! :) Next, while braving our way through the high winds, low temperatures, and dark pathways, we had to find a place for dinner. A great Thai place was suggested to us by the lady at the fair trade shop, but we couldn't remember where that one was, since she suggested about 10 different places. We settled on a little bar that still had power. It was called "Miller's" and is apparently where Dave Matthews got his start. He bartended and started playing music there. I had the fish and chips, and it was pretty good. We had a good time.
After dinner we started back down the strip towards the bazaar in order to get good seats for the show. It was a decent place. There were lots of people but it wasn't super packed. There were couches, arm chairs and a handful of tables with their own chairs. After a very long day I just wanted to sit down, and was disheartened to see that there weren't very many places to sit. Luckily we got a place at the bar and were able to move to a table when a family left. We had some tea, which was very good, and chatted while waiting for the band to start. I didn't see Grady yet, which was too bad. I was hoping we'd have time to chat before the show. I did, however, see a group of four guys sitting at a table very near us who looked like some of the guys of Takka Takka, but no Grady (I saw the picture on the wikipedia page, that's how I knew what they looked like). Finally I asked the guys and it turns out they were Takka Takka! Great! I told them I was Grady's cousin and then they broke the news to me. Grady had the flu pretty badly and was up in NYC still. After four hours in traffic and in the car, missing our touristy destinations, the bitter cold, wind, and power outage, Grady wasn't even in the state! What a tragedy! We were sad that we didn't get to see him, but we were understanding. We had a great adventure and a great time just getting there. Takka Takka still performed but they said it wasnt' the same without Grady. The singer, Gabe, was also under the weather, but he did very well. We really hope Grady is feeling better and is doing well also.
From here, how could things get worse? I don't really feel that they could, unless we got in a car accident on the way home, which didn't seem like an impossibility because of the dark winding road and the constant deer crossing signs. We made it though, safe and sound. We drove up with no traffic, as it was about midnight, and dropped Rory off in the city. Heading back to the suburbs to go home, amanda and I made it back to the house at 1:59am sharp, just in time for it to become 3:00am. After taking showers and getting ready for bed, amanda and I finally went to sleep at about 5:30am, which was later than we've stayed up in years.
While the day was a bust, it was still incredibly fun. We all had a great time. I even turned Rory into a Takka Takka fan! :) It was too bad we didn't see Grady, but hopefully he'll make it to the wedding in May, or maybe he'll be in the DC area on tour again soon. I'm sure we'll be laughing and joking about our trip to Charlottesville for the next few years!
:)
