This weekend was definitely Epic, at times. We'll start my Epic Weekend In Pictures with Thursday night. A few besties and I were able to see Luke Bryan at Bethel Woods! Luke Bryan is one of my favorites to see live. The other time I saw him was back in 2019 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Ma. He was fantastic live then, and absolutely still is. He cranked out 23 songs, all hits. Luke Bryan even did a cover tribute to the late Toby Keith's "Courtesy Of The Red White And Blue." It moved me to tears. When one of your favorites covers one of your late favorites. There have been so many times when I enjoyed seeing Toby Keith live with my family, we looked forward to seeing him at Great Woods up in Mansfield, Ma so many times. An added bonus was definitely that my 3 friends with me were also big Toby fans. Another added bonus was that one of my friends is a Army Vet who served for us in Afghanistan. Seeing him appreciate and be surprised by this song was special too. It really is amazing things like music and sports can really unify us. That being said, while we are unified in music, my friend and I are definitely on opposite sides of the football spectrum for fandom. He's a lifelong diehard Atlanta Falcon fan, I can't possibly imagine why he wouldn't like my New England Patriots...err whoops, nevermind!
The weather for Luke Bryan at Bethel Woods was fantastic, we got lucky. It was like the only lower than 90 degree night all of last week, which was welcome for us! I'm Irish and just trying to prevent my Caboose from melting.
Friday I was able to take a half day off from work and start my journey up to Boston. A couple of times a year, I try to surprise my Dad Padre and sister Zannie at Bog Iron Brewing in Norton where they normally go for Friday afternoon happy hour. I was on the road by Noon and hoping to get a start on all of the Friday rush hours that are possible between here in Franklin, New Jersey and Mansfield, Massachusetts. Without traffic, door to door it should be approximately four hours total. As it turns out, this would not be one of those days.
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Traffic through northwest Jersey and New York wasn't too bad at all, we were off to a decent start. I stopped by Danbury, Connecticut to have quick lunch at Buffalo Wings. Quick, consistent, had me in and out success. Then traffic just started building the deeper and more north I kept going into Connecticut.
Traffic was odd. The weather was hot, but no rain. Traffic heavy pockets of volume kept happening time and time again, and not in the usual spots that I'm used to seeing. By the time I finally made it all the way to the top of 84, 2 miles away from the Mass Pike (90,) I thought there was light at the end of the tunnel. It took me 20 minutes to go those 2 miles. No exaggeration.
By the time I get up to Ma, it usually isn't that bad with traffic knock on wood with my timing. Friday afternoon was not one of those days. Then when I was ready to get off of 495 at the Mansfield/Norton exit, I got caught into Dave Matthews Band concert traffic. That Mansfield venue currently known as Xfinity Center (originally known as Great Woods,) was hosting Dave Matthews Band Friday night. Traffic was expectedly intense. At this point, I'm pretty beat with all of the obstacles. I took the Mansfield exit (even though Great Woods is in Mansfield, it's off the next Norton exit,) and tried to take a detour I took growing up there my whole life. I pulled onto a neighboring Spring Street where whenever growing up going to Great Woods, that was my Mansfield local shortcut to avoid the highway. Even though my parents are a 12 minute drive from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, and a 12 minute drive the other way to Great Woods in Mansfield, during an event it can still take us 3 hours to get home just like everyone else. When people vent to me about how awful the infrastructure is around MetLife, I just point north up to Route 1 and Gillette Stadium. One way in, one way out. I attempted to turn onto Spring Street, and that ended up being a comedy of errors. They had a sign and blocked off the entrance to Spring Street with some sort of makeshift officer. The sign read closed, open to local traffic only. I had a feeling the gentleman would be targeting me pretty quickly with my New Jersey license plates. As I'm stopping with my window rolled down, I swear the gentleman while yelling to me stop almost went into my car Scottie Scheffler style. It was so eerily similar to when the golfer was arrested in May. I explained to him that I wasn't going to the DMB concert, I was going to Norton's Bog Iron to see my family. He wouldn't let me through and made me turn around.
It ended up taking me 5 hours and 20 minutes instead of the normal 4. I got to Bog Iron to surprise Padre and Zannie. I just walked up to the bar and said "they better have beer here!" LOL. They hugged me and cracked up. They also said because I was quiet and vague that they could tell I was trying to surprise them. Ah well.
I was bummed my friends from home were all tied up with previous obligations, hopefully I can see them in August when I can go back to try and see everyone.
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I ended up having a great time seeing my family. I was able to get flowers for Madre, Zannie, Grammy and Aunty Donna. Success. I was able to relax with my family watching a Red Sox win on TV Sunday. I was able to go to Gillette Stadium Monday for a bit and walk a couple laps around Patriot Place before it got too hot.
Fortunately my ride back to Jersey Monday night only took me the normal 4 hours. I was psyched with that! This weekend will hopefully be a little lower key with less driving. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend!