Waterlogged at Waterloo!

This weekend, we took Sugaree down to Carson Creek Ranch in Austin for the first Waterloo Festival, which featured three nights of String Cheese Incident, Oteil & Friends, Everyone Orchestra, Joe Russo's Almost Dead (JRAD), Leftover Salmon, Railroad Earth, Deadeye, The Motet and others.  We stayed in Sugaree in the camping area, which was really sweet, as we could come and go from the show as we pleased and make stops back at the bus for food when we wanted to.  The festival was a small, but fervent crowd..excited for some great jam music.  It was one of the more poorly organized festivals we have attended, but hopefully they will work out the kinks by next year and it will continue.

It was fun getting to spend time with our friends, Marty and Jim, Patrick, Michael, John and Kari, Rachel and Eric, CJ and Sarah, Audra, Mike and Zach, Chris, Drew, Scott, Mason, Neely, Dan, Pug Dog and Julianne, and made some new friends from Houston, Austin, Canada, New Braunfels, Alice, TX and Baltimore.

Late Saturday night, the rains started and continued to gain strength throughout the night.  By Sunday morning, there was 3-5 inches of rain on the saturated, muddy grounds and it was a mess.  Lucky for us, we had rain gear and Kelly had cute galoshes that she bought two years ago after we got rained out at Jazz Fest in N'awlin's and she hadn't yet worn them.  I had just bought a pair of waterproof boots, so I was good to go as well.  It was great being able to slosh around and dance with abandon in the muddy slerm without getting all wet and gross.  I felt sorry for those who wore flip flops that stuck in the mud at each step.

The highlight for us was JRAD (or Joe Russo's Almost Dead).  They play Dead music with all kinds of fun twists, turns and surprises.  It was good to see Oteil and his band play, though we all agreed that it was highly likely they had not ever rehearsed and mostly played covers.  Jeff Chimenti played keys, so it was cool to see two of our Dead & Company brethren again.  The Everyone Orchestra was a lot of fun too, and they played on the stage down by the river.  There were about 9 or 10 of them, just getting down and they were a blast to see.

During the day Sunday and into the night, we saw RV's getting towed out of the mud and I wondered how Sugaree would fare getting out of there on Monday morning.  As we pulled out this morning, we got stuck and backed up and tried again, but got stuck again.  We gathered all the mojo we could, and on our third try, she pulled through, wheels slippin' and slidin' and mud flying, and she cruised on up the hill and out of the venue!  We look forward to seeing the new and improved Waterloo Festival next year!