The Air Supply Concert in Lewiston, Idaho

I wrote this email to some friends back in 2005 at work the Monday after we got back from this trip. This post will introduce you to a few characters that you'll come to know even better the more read this blog. I hope you enjoy.


As is my tradition with a special weekend, here is a brief running diary...

THURSDAY

• 7:00pm - On the road to Pullman in Kalso's car with Paul, Paylor, Cory and Wilson. Paul has taken the time to prepare himself two 32 ounce vodka tonics with ice and lime. After we stopped at the top of the pass for the other guys to get beers, we drank the entire way over, except for Kalso of course as he was driving. Wilson was so loud in the car that Kalso and Cory had to repeatedly plug their ears in the front of the car. He could not be stopped.
  
• 10:00 - We are singing Air Supply at the top of our lungs in the car. Cory is a woman and keeps turning the heat on and I'm sweating like a pig with my window open because I am a man.
• 11:45??? - Arrive at Mikes house in Pullman. Chat with Mike for a while and set up shop. Then head to My Office. Upon entering My Office, it is EMPTY and the bartender says, sorry to say this but it's last call guys...to which Kalso and I look at each other and without missing a beat say, "no problem, 5 pitchers please."
• 2:00am? - Bed - and we didn't even wake Mike or his roommates up. Not sure why we didn't do that?

FRIDAY (the best day ever)

• 8:30am - We all awake. Shower. Wilson is in full on panic mode because he is terrified that we are not going to get a camping spot at Hellsgate State Park even thought it's Friday morning and it's not a holiday weekend or anything.
• 10:00am - We leave Pullman and it takes all 4 of us to over-rule Wilson so we can stop for breakfast in Moscow, Idaho at The Breakfast Club. Wilson has already started drinking in the car by the way. And we are a spectacle while eating breakfast talking to everyone in the restaurant, our waitress LOVED us and considered coming to Air Supply with us but reconsidered...presumably when we tried to order Wilson a "Pink Chardonnay" with his breakfast.
• 11:30am - We arrive at Hellsgate State Park in Lewiston. As we pull in and drive around we notice a few things. 1.) it's awesome, right on the river, tons of grass all mowed nice and lots of space. 2.) they have these cool little cabins that we want to stay in and 3.) there is NO ONE there. The place is virtually empty meaning we have our choice of literally 150 camping spots. We are all glad Wilson was in a hurry to get here.
• 11:35am - We roll up to the visitors center and walk in and they have Lewis and Clark on the wall and stuff everywhere so I walk up to the ladies at the desk and ask them where the heck Sacajawea is. They we equally appalled that there was no mention of Sacajawea. We did end up getting a cabin though...
• 11:45am - We arrive at our cabin - Ponderosa. It is right on the river and has a little deck with a porch swing on it and 5 beds inside with a little table and electricity and a fire pit outside. It is glorious. We are totally pumped. Wilson is drinking warm Coors Light alone.
• 12:00am - BEER RUN with Kalso, Paylor and Paul. Before leaving I mention how important I am in this regard. I may not be good for much but one thing I ALWAYS bring to the table is that, when purchasing beer, I let everything happen and let everyone select beer and what not and then I step in and pose the question, "now listen fellas, is this really enough beer? Honestly, I don't think this is enough." And what happened...we had 3 cases of Key Light in the cart when I posed the question. after thinking it through both Kalso and Paylor were appalled that we only had 3 cases so we grabbed the 4th case.
  Very good decision.
• 12:45am - Back at the campsite. Before we left on the trip I had to bargain with Wilson to get him to let me bring my horseshoes with us in spite of our car being jam packed. I won and the horseshoes came along....GREAT decision. We set up those horseshoes on the grass right by our cabin right next to the river in the 80 degree clear blue sky and sunshine and proceeded to drink 3+ cases of beer and play horseshoes for 5+ hours. No joke, these five hours were among the best of my life. Simply glorious....by the way, Wilson is BOMBED by this point. He's shotgunning beers left and right. At one point he threatened to tackle Kalso and Kalso pulled off one of the greatest moves in the history of history. Wilson was approaching Kalso at a slow pace and you could just see in his eye that he couldn't be stopped. Meanwhile he's repeatedly telling Kalso that he wants to tackle him. At first he starts off by asking nicely, "Kalso, let me tackle you." And Kalso gives him a few no's but you can just tell that Wilson won't be denied. Then out of nowhere, Kalso says, "Hey Wilson, look over there!" and Wilson whirls around looking to where Kalso is pointing and at that very moment Kalso sprints five steps and form tackles him to the ground like Mike Singletary. It was one of the most stunning turn of events I've ever witnessed. And yes, I realize that I just compared Kalso to Mike Singletary. You're welcome Kalso.
• 3:22pm - Wilson is odd man out for this particular game of Horseshoes and is standing on the side guzzling beer because he's Wilson when all of a sudden Paylor, who is 30 yards away, says, "Wilson, what is that huge tumor on your back?" Wilson finds said tumor looking bump in the middle of his back and begins to freak out because he has a tumor.
• 4:22pm - Wilson is still freaking out about his new found tumor and is quite annoying at this point. Even for Wilson's very high standards. (Note: upon returning home Wilson did go to the doctor and he really did have a fairly large tumor right in the middle of his back. He had to have surgery to get it removed and everything. Some may have found this to be a serious matter...us, not so much. It was and still is a decent source of humor.)
• 5:45pm - Our cab shows up and we are waiting for him with 2 beers each. The cab driver (if you can call him or it that) is named Paul and he's driving the first car ever made. I was 50/50 at that point if it would actually get us into town. Paul was about 102 years old with no teeth and without 3 of the 5 senses. Quick highlight of this 5 minute ride: about half way into town Wilson, who is sitting front bitch, asks, "Hey Paul, is it cool that we have beers in the cab?" And as Paylor and I are literally mid-guzzle he says, "Yeah as long as they aren't open." Laughter ensued.
• 6:00pm - We pick up our tickets at will call BOMBED and you can tell that every official looking person on the Lewis & Clark State College campus is suspicious of us. Maybe because we were BOMBED and singing Air Supply?...whatever. If they can't take a joke, fuck em.
• 6:02pm - After getting our tickets we ask the ladies behind us where we can get a drink that's close. They are very nice and in their mid 40's...and they are with their 80 year old parents. We follow their advice and then try to get them to come to the bar with us. No luck. We are on our way to the bar.
• 6:04pm - We've walked probably 200 yards and a truck pulls up to us - it's the ladies we just got directions from. "We decided to go to the bar - hop in!" so we all pile in the back of her sweet truck and bomb on down to "Bricks." We walk in and there are maybe two people in the bar tops. We drink and proceed to get acquainted with our new friends. They LOVE us and still can't understand why five heterosexual guys drove from Seattle to go to an Air Supply concert in Lewiston, Idaho. Neither can we. We also made friends with the bartender, who was our age and who also happened to be the owner...
• 7:00pm - The Air Supply Concert. To put it mildly, we had 5 security guards monitoring us for 100% of the show. I felt like a convict who was out on freeway trash pick-up duty. Just an awesome feeling. People were moving away from us because we were singing so loudly and cheering. Just a marvelous time.
• 8:30pm - THE Highlight of the concert, without question...after a great song, I can't remember which one. There was thunderous applause and then The Singer was waiting because they were moving on to a slow song and it got totally silent. You could have heard a pin drop. Anyway, as you may or may not know, I am the king of the line crossers. I didn't know this but apparently even I, Paul, can be embarrassed because during this brief moment of total silence Cory shouts out at the top of his lungs, "WE WANNA PARTY WITH YOU!!!!" I am squirming in my seat right now just thinking about it. I still can't even think of anything more awkward to say than this at a moment of silence at a concert. It was pure genius. AND people clapped and laughed. AND it didn't get us kicked out. I will have that moment, precisely as it happened, in my mind for the rest of my life. Additionally, we were singing so loudly during a sweet finish to the concert that we may have actually been louder than the band. We're not sure.
• 9:00pm - We get about two feet out the door of the concert and...we run into our friends again - Lori and Crissy and their parents! Turns out they are going to dinner but may meet up with us later - but they offer us a ride back to Bricks anyway. Heck yeah!
• 9:15pm - We get back into Bricks and are ushered passed the long line and past the presumably anti terrorist pat down guys all without paying cover because we know the owner. We are awesome. Now even more fun begins. First of all, Wilson is officially WILSON'D (our new term for being drunker than BOMBED). The place is still pretty empty because it's still early but the music is already going. Wilson proceeds to go out on the dance floor - where there are currently zero people - and dance. FOR LIKE 15 MINUTES! And I'm not talking goofing around like ha ha I'm the only guy on the dance floor. I'm talking Wilson was out there dancing and having a great time by himself. He was flailing all over the place and going nuts. Oh yeah, and he was barefoot. And please remember this - he was out there for like 15 minutes! ALONE! Later in the night people did start dancing and what not and every time it would die down Wilson would go back out there and dance alone. Then when people came out on the dance floor again, he would get visibly angry and storm off the floor. Lori and Crissy showed up again and drank with us for a long time. Somebody got their nose broken in a fight, which was cool. There were actually a lot of talented girls at this particular establishment which was nice too. We tried to put it all together the next morning and we believe we had about 12 pitchers at this bar. Then Lori and Crissy drove us home. By the way, Lori owns a gun store. On the night we spent about $40 and lost two cell phones and Paylor (we did find him the next morning though.)

SATURDAY

• 10:30am - Wake up - ouch! We are HUNG OVER.
• 11:00am - We go into town to look for Kalso's cell phone and I buy sidewalk chalk in downtown Lewiston.
• 12:00am - We get back to camp and I draw a huge penis on the sidewalk with balls and pubes and the whole deal. The guys found this to be quite funny but nowhere near as funny as I found it to be.
• 1:00 - We pack up the car and head toward Roslyn. WA.
• 2:00 - Drive.
• 3:00 - Drive.
• 4:00 - Drive.
• 5:00 - Drive - and after a brief stop for gas Wilson and Paul share a Boone's in the car. Blue Hawaii. Boone's is NOT good, even in the car.
• 6:00 - get to Roslyn, go to The Brick, drink a lot.
• 12:30pm - We walk over to the park by The Brick and sleep in the gazebo. If you find this to be ghetto, that's because it is.

SUNDAY

• 6:30am - Drive home.
• 8:30am through the rest of the day - Ouch.