I bought my ticket months ago, and the concert day really snuck up on me. I was almost going to not go, and work on an arduino project instead, but I was like, “If I skip it I will regret it” so I packed a backpack full of water bottles and started driving.

I stopped in Moses Lake which is about an two hour drive from Spokane. I like Moses Lake. Jay’s Teriyaki in Moses Lake is amazing, although I didn’t stop there because 1) it isn’t near the freeway, 2) It was saturday and I didn’t even know if Jay’s would be open. 3) It’s not fast food and I was in a hurry

It was like 3pm I think. Concert was at 8. I gassed up, got lunch at taco bell and drove more. I was worrying that my car might spontaneously explode because it’s got all sorts of problems. It has problems when at low RPMs because of something with the distributor, and I hadn’t checked the oil in awhile. I hate gas fueled cars. I kept wishing I was driving a Tesla model S. I kept thinking of the supercharger station in Ritzville which is between Spokane and Moses lake. With a Tesla I could go to and from Seattle no problem.

Anyway, no car problems were had so far, and from the long straightaway through grant county, I could see a commercial jet in the sky. I was thinking to myself how that jet is probably past Seattle already. A jet ride takes literally a half hour from Spokane to Seattle, and I was getting pretty jealous. From the angle the plane was flying, I guessed it was headed to Hawaii or Japan.

I could see wind turbines on the west side of the Columbia river. Lots and lots of them. I always enjoy seeing them up there, they make me happy that they are a clean way of generating energy. The turbines made me think about the nuclear plant north of there, the one that has caused lots of health problems for neighbors, Hanford Site. I’ve read about Hanford site and it’s mostly not good. They dumped radioactive waste into the river… Maybe the wind turbines are how we are trying to reconcile our mistakes made at Hanford. Why am I saying we? I had nothing to do with it.

I thought about a way using bitcoin-esque blockchain technology to create a system where the people of America directly made decisions, rather than needing politicians to represent us and make the decisions. Representatives have been proven to not work. Just look at approval rates of the president. He’s not representing us, he’s representing himself or his sponsors. Anyway, If we had some app where there was a way to validate that there was only one vote per person, our collective individuality would make or break the country, rather than some stooge with a title making or breaking the country whether or not we wanted them to.

Down to the columbia river I went. I saw the horse statues on the tops of the cliffs. I haven’t been up there for years, and I thought to myself that it would be cool to go up there on the way back. Spectacular view in that canyon. Love it.

Up the hill and near all the wind turbines. So big. So cool.

More driving in boring place. It’s funny how I thought the long east/west stretch of grant county used to be boring. Now that I’ve driven just about the entire Grant county, (see my video about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-uNAJ7Hc-w) it isn’t boring anymore. I have so much to remember about the distant places I can see from the freeway. Anyway, this place on the west of the columbia is super boring because I know nothing about it. It’s more farm land and a big metal barn turned farmer’s market that is always open when I pass through. I saw a solar farm, lots of solar panels mounted at an angle on poles. Not a real big one but the first one I’ve seen in person.

More driving, and everything started to get really green. It’s the wet part of Washington where the trees are HUGE and plentiful. There’s just trees everywhere, not much else to see. OH YEAH. Snoqualamie pass. That pass is a wonder. How did they build it? It’s so huge.

Seattle driving, hate it! As I was pulling into Seattle, I was thinking I would find a Wal-Mart to park at, then I’d get a cab or an Uber and take that to the venue. I was planning on that because I have had some really bad experiences driving in downtown Seattle and I told myself I wouldn’t drive downtown anymore.

This time I felt different though. I was tired but not so tired that driving was a problem. I was just feeling ‘meh’ and I didn’t give a crap about the other drivers or making it on time, it was like I was just crusin’ for fun. I wasn’t worrying about a thing, which was so nice for a change. I did make it on time. About 8:30 I got there.

I never found a Walmart, and I was feeling good regardless, so I just drove all the way to the venue. I had my phone with me and used an app called Waze, which Google has bought (probably because it’s so good) and it got me there right away. I found some parking, $14 it was for the evening. Didn’t really mind because I’M GOING TO SEE POMPLAMOOSE IN PERSON!

I found the venue, Neumos it’s called. Walked in, gave them my ticket, got a stamp on my hand and looked around. Small place I thought. It had a balcony which had a bar. It had a bar on the bottom too which served redbull, gatorade, water, some kind of bottled tea(?) and chips and candy. I visited the restroom and I accidentally washed off some of the stamp. Luckily it was still somewhat legible. The guard and I laughed and he let me back in.

I went to the bar on the bottom. I hadn’t eaten anything for several hours (lunch @ tacobell @ moses lake) so I ordered water and M&M’s and the bartender looked like she held in a laugh. NO TIP FOR YOU I thought, as I put a line on the “tip” line on the credit card receipt.

Then the great waiting began. It was 8:30 already and nobody was on stage. I expected someone to be up there to open by then, but nope. 9pm and someone went on stage, a Josh guy I think. He played guitar and I just wanted him to get off the stage. He was really talented but his music just wasn’t a style I like. He played a song tha told a story about a soldier who came home injured and disfigured. It gave the feeling, “war is dumb” and I agreed with the message. I had a thought that described his music. “I hate it but I feel it”. I’M SORRY, it’s just not for me!

He got off stage and I think an hour went by with nothing but the music the sound guys were playing. SO BORED. I suppose I could have tried to talk to people, hmm. I mean they all were there because of Pomplamoose so I could start with that. ehhh I’m a sad one when it comes to socializing.

Then there was GET PUMPED music and Pomplamoose came on stage. OMG. What I said in my vlog about the experience sums it up:

“Holy crapoly. This was amazing. I can’t believe this just happened. Pomplamoose Season 2, September 13, 2014. Amazing. Wow. Amazing! Jack’s energy, and hooooly crap. HOLY CRAP! I’m starstruck to see Jack and Nataly in person. Carlos back there drumming away, Hoooooly crap. Holy crap. I’m sad I didn’t get any video of this, and it wouldn’t have looked good anyway, and it might not have happened if I had my camera out, so I’m glad I didn’t get video. Someone else I’m SURE got video, there’s no way someone didn’t get video probably the professional videographer got video, but HOLY CRAP. Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap.

What happened? Jack did this pit experiment where he had the crowd separate, where he had this big open area on the floor, then what happened, Chris? Haha! Jack was DANCIN’ like crazy! He walks up to me and I’m like, “yeah pick me pick me!” so he taps me on the shoulder and I jump in there and start dancin’! I do the shuffle in the middle of the group! Awww man! Ahhhhhh that was so cool. So cool. So cool. So cool!! Their energy. Pomplamoose’s energy… OH MY GOSH. That’s all I can say, I.. I can’t really describe it very well other than saying, OH MY GOSH. That was amazing. Amazing! One of the best days of my life. Haha. I saw Pomplamoose perform in person, and it was really good.”

The drive home is like a blur. It was dark. There was driving. I missed Issaquah fast food because I took a dumb road that bypassed Issaquah with dumb 15mph speedbumps. I got mc’ds in north bend. I didn’t have my phone to navigate me because it’s battery died. I had M&M’s left over and I ate some. I stopped at the rest stop outside Wenatchee and took a nap. More driving and then I was home. It felt fast driving home, but the drive getting there took forever!

Great job awesome show.