We rolled into Eugene around 4:00 in the afternoon on Saturday for night two of Dead & Company. We parked our bus in the Boy Scouts parking lot and were able to camp overnight with other Deadheads, so it was a cool scene. We got into the stadium and as usual, worked our way up to the front. We ended up at sixth row, which was fun for awhile, but then we started getting crowded by drunken bollocks who would come and insert their sweaty mass into our space and dance on my feet. I had to ask a couple of young people to get off my feet, to which they acted indignant like I was an old curmudgeon. After the first set, Kelly and I retreated back a little to the side of the front, away from the obnoxious drunks and we hung out with the dancers and the spinners. Now, this is an interesting place to hang. Everyone is heavily into their own space, and deep space at that!
The show opened with Deal, Me and My Uncle, Here Comes Sunshine, a sweet Black Throated Wind, Cold Rain and Snow, a tender Peggy O, a triumphant Sugaree which was fun for us to hear and then they closed the set with One More Saturday Night. The second set was to be far spacier than I had heard before. They started with a jam into Dark Star>El Paso>St. Stephen>The Eleven>Drums>Space>Morning Dew and finished with Turn on Your Lovelight. Then, to pile on more sugar to an already amazing dessert, they played Brokedown Palace for the encore. As Eric Schwartz says, “I was standing in a puddle of my own tears”, it was so beautiful as Kelly and I stood hugging each other with tears in our eyes. As I previously mentioned, Brokedown Palace holds special significance for us, since I used to sing it to the kids as their lullaby as they were babies.
The first night in Eugene, Kelly stayed at the Inn at 5th, a cool boutique hotel in Eugene where Dead & Company was staying as well. While she was checking in, Bill Walton came into the small lobby to check in too. I stayed the night in the bus with Dylan and Cassidy and walked to the hotel in the morning to have breakfast with Kelly. We ate at Mache, a French restaurant immediately next door to the hotel and ate delicious eggs Benedict. On day two, we all stayed at the Inn at 5thso we could all get a nice shower, sleep in a good bed and enjoy some two-ply. As Bill Walton and his wife were checking out , Kelly saw him and told him to please come check out our bus. He said he’d love to, and after a little while, he and his sweet wife, Lori came over to check out the bus. They hung out for awhile in the bus and were as nice as they could be. Afterwards, we asked if we could get a photo, which he was more than happy to do. He wanted to get one with him sitting in the drivers seat, but he’s so tall he couldn’t begin to fit in it. Then, he asked if he could get a photo of him at the door of the bus being the conductor welcoming us in. What a fun treat that was to meet a man I have admired for many years for his successes on and off the basketball court, his triumph over his back troubles and a positive attitude that will make anybody happy just being around him.
We also met another friend of mine in Eugene that I had not previously met, Chris Toorquoise. He’s from Washington, but has been living in the Eugene area for awhile. He is also a bus guy like me, so we got to check out each other’s buses and hang out for awhile, which was cool. He will likely be the only person that comes into our bus and says, “Oh, you have a glitter shitter too!” Here are a few photos of his bus…
Being that we were in Ken Kesey's hometown, it was only fitting that we stop by and pay tribute to The Storyteller. Ken was, among many things, a great author who wrote Once a Great Nation and One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest. He was also a Merry Prankster and generally known as the "owner" of Further, the first psychedelic bus and the inspiration for our Sugaree.
After Eugene, it was time for us to head to the Coast. Florence is only about an hour west, and we're going to have lunch in Florence and then bop up the coast to northern Oregon, almost back to Washington, to Astoria.
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