This was definitely quite the Epic summer Weekend In Pictures, for sure. A fun concert, another embarrassing first pitch, and lobster from a truck! We'll start with Thursday night.
Thursday night was an action packed night for sure. I was able to see Sam Hunt with Brett Young at Bethel Woods. They were a fantastic show, and for many reasons this is a night that I'll never forget. Tons of behind the scenes stuff I was dealing with by the second I got to the parking lot where we would be tailgating. I learned that due to rainstorms, my Classic Rock station 103.7 NNJ was intermittently going off the air. That means I need to call our regional engineer team and let them know ASAP. I let them know, even if it took 15-20 minutes on the phone to get through to someone. I also had to hop on my phone and do one of my two fantasy football league drafts, this is one with my buddies from Bridgewater State. We always have fun together. It does make me feel better now that several in our league are also remote during these drafts, 8-9 years ago whenever I was the only one remote here in Jersey or at Bethel Woods lol I always felt so bad. Not feeling left out, just that it was creating more work for my friends back home. Now with the advancement of apps, these drafts are more doable remote. Unfortunately internet started getting spotty on me pretty quickly. I was able to draft probably half of my team before it became necessary to go into auto draft mode. My cell service quickly dismantled so much that I couldn't even send texts or phone calls to my friends. You may know, Bethel Woods is at the original location of Woodstock, which can be great and beautiful. The negative? I'm in the middle of nowhere! They make Vernon, New Jersey look like a metropolis!
While all of this was going on, you could see the sky get darker and darker every minute. We started eating our sandwiches and enjoying a cold beer. Bestie Artie went to the porta potty section. Unfortunately his timing couldn't have been worse. The skies totally opened up and started pouring, he came back to the car drenched. Totally drenched. There were me with besties Artie, Margie, and Jennifer all just sitting inside the car eating our sandwiches while it was downpour raining. First time I can ever remember tailgating inside a car!
Fortunately we were covered in Section 10, so once we were at our seats we were in good shape. We had a great time. I highly recommend seeing either Brett Young or Sam Hunt whenever you can. They are both terrific singers and put on a fun show. We were happy all night. It was fun seeing my friends happy too! The one big negative other than rain for Thursday night's show? The encore was a little different for us. Normally an artist will let the stage go dark for a few minutes, then come back out and play a few more songs, right? This darkness only lasted 30 seconds. Sam Hunt came out and closed with "Body Like A Back Road," and then wrapped up his terrific show. The problem? We were trying to beat traffic and leave right at the start of the encore. This situation resulted in all approximately 20,000 people leaving at the same exact time. We were stuck in that parking lot for quite some time. It gave me many flashbacks to my back home leaving Gillette Stadium after Patriots games or concerts. People couldn't believe that on non game days, my parents house is a 12 minute drive from Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, Mass but on game days? Still takes us 3 hours to get home! I got home Friday morning at 1:45am. I like to be in bed by 9ish on a school night!
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Friday night I had fun at Skylands Stadium watching the Sussex County Miners take on Quebec. I had such a great time seeing many friends who work with Skylands Stadium and the Miners. The weather was great for baseball. While it was apparently raining in Vernon, Wantage, it wasn't raining on me at Skylands Stadium. I wish it was, because then I could at least blame rain for my awful first pitch. My release point was too late / low, I bounced it right over home plate again. I'm like the Yankees Chuck Knoblauch with the yips! I'm moving onto next year!
Saturday I made a quick visit to Rockaway Mall to get a quick chair massage. It definitely made a huge positive difference in that 30 minutes. Then I ventured over to Nielsen Kia in Newton on 206 to see Steve Andrews doing his 102.3 WSUS show and my friend Bill Snouffer. I also definitely wolfed down two hot dogs, yes sinning and putting ketchup on one of them. I knew people would give me flack. You want to be a lightning rod for debate? Post putting ketchup on a hot dog on our social media. Reactions either way might surprise / amuse you.
Saturday afternoon I met up with work bestie Shawn and Stacey at the Crystal Springs Vista 180 Pool for a little while. It was slam packed for sure. There was also a lovely wedding happening at the same time. I love living here during wedding season so much.
Saturday night I was able to meet up with besties Jasen and Brendan. We hung out at Minerals Moonshine Tiki Bar. Eventually, Brendan asked if I was around on Sunday. I said yes, I actually didn't have any plans with anyone (and was totally quite content with that.) He told me that they were going to Cousins Maine Lobster Food Truck in West Milford. I had been fascinated with this for several years.
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Whenever that food truck was near me, I always had something else going on. For years so many of my friends have sworn by this food truck saying that it's beyond amazing and how much they love it. Growing up in New England, I'm admittedly a seafood snob / elitist. I joke that they just simply don't know any better because they're here in Jersey, where Jersey is more known for diners and bagels than seafood. Especially with a Lobstawh roll!
We went to West Milford and were in line for over 40 minutes. I'm very impressed with their operation. It isn't easy to operate a food truck to begin with, nevermind lobster on top of that. I got a Lobster roll, their Connecticut roll which was lobster meat with warm lemon butter. It was good, especially considering it came from a truck. I was pleased that they didn't do what many selling lobster rolls do, filling it with mayo and celery for filler. This was just simply the lobster meat in the warm butter, though it was a little dry. You can give it a 7-8 out of 10, whereas New England tends to be 9/10 out of 10.
Besties Jasen, Brendan and Carrie then agreed we should do a nightcap at Brown Barn Farm Orange County Distillery. They were slam packed and it was gorgeous out. Even though it rained a bit, we didn't care it gave us a nice breeze through our window inside the barn.
Here we go. Time to start planning (AND CLEANING.) My parents are visiting me this coming Labor Day Weekend! #WhatCanPossiblyGoWrong?