Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge - Part 1: Preparation

Trafton B.

September 3, 2010 - 2:00 PM

This is part one of a two part record what is sure to be a magical weekend of relaxing during the day, jamming in the evening and camping at night.

The long awaited weekend with Dave Matthews at the Columbia River Gorge begins in about five hours when we set up camp, and I feel like I need to share a bit of wisdom with regards to planning for the weekend because pre-Dave is just as important as Dave itself. Thankfully, Cam is a five-year veteran of Dave at the Gorge so he had more than enough experience to groom us for weekend.

The first step in packing the car, or in our case the Suburban, is having enough tents and sleeping bags. Steven and his brother, Geoff, met us this morning at Cam's house in Vancouver -Washington not British Columbia - and made sure to bring his family's six-person tent. Add that to Cam's four-person and two-person tents and I think we'll have plenty of room for all eight of us there. If anyone's doing the math our there, that's eight guys in three tents made for twelve people. And don't forget about the two hammocks and canopy tent cover we tossed in last minute. We're camping, but we're definitely not roughing it.

The second essential is food and beverages. I think I counted four or five variously sized coolers between the two cars in our caravan, and wee just stopped at Fred Meyers to pick up all sorts of chips, miscellaneous beverages and endless sandwich makings. We don't have too much breakfast foods because we don't plan on being awake before noon. We were lucky enough to find some brownie mix at our place on Wednesday night, so Cam and I decided to make a batch for the heck of it. Then Steven and Geoff showed up with a separate batch their mom made, so we're rolling in baked goodies. Yahoo!

Aside from food and shelter there are random necessities that only an experienced concert camper would understand. We'll probably pick up some jugs of water on the ride up. Bring shorts for the day and pants for the night because the weather is starting to change from the hot days and cool nights of autumn. Grab a pair of shades and don't forget a rain jacket because we're still in the Pacific Northwest after all. As far as footwear goes, I'm not the best person for advice. I only wear sandals, so I brought a pair of Rainbows and a pair of Birkenstocks.

Okay, that's all I the guidance I can provide for now. We just hopped onto Highway 97, the third and final highway of the road trip, and I want to look at the massive windmill farm along the river. I'll let you all know how it goes at the beginning of next week. In the meantime...........

Countdown until Ducks Season Opener: Less than 24 hours!!!!!!