Rockfest is a 4-day music festival in northern Wisconsin, it has a big concert grounds with an amphitheater and many tents playing music all day. It also has a massive campground attached to it, our campsite was right up front and when we got there we were greeted by my brother and his girlfriend and 3 friends from back home. It was nice to see them all so soon and at such a fun event, I thought the next time I saw anyone from home, it would be through a cage. After setting up camp and having a few beers and joints, we were ready for the first nights offering. We had a great night of fun and wrapped it up by singing along with Lynyrd Skynyrd to some of our favorite jams. The second day was much the same with fun in the sun all day and finishing it off with a brilliant show by ZZ Top. By the third day I was feeling a bit on the wornout side and decided to go looking for a boost. Me and one of my friends from home, Jim, went searching the campground for some additional party favors. We had not travelled very long when we heard the very familiar sound of balloons being filled up by nitrous-oxide or what we liked to call it at Dead shows, hippie crack. We zeroed in on the sound and found 2 guys in a van sucking down on balloons next to a dentist’s tank, we approached and instantly they were paranoid and with good reason as we were in a small redneck town that got a majority of their operating budget for the year from this festival and they had under covers everywhere. I showed them my Grateful Dead tatoo’s and Jim showed his Jimmy Hendrix and we were able to convince them that we were only there to have some fun, and with that they filled 2 big balloons and it was on! We spent a couple of hours there sucking balloons and chatting with our new friends, when I mentioned that I was feeling a bit tired from the 2 previous day, one of them says he has something to remedy that and proceeds to pull out a strip of LSD. There was no hesitation at all when I said yes as acid was one of my favorite drugs, Jim was also on board for a night of tripping. After another balloon, it was time for some music, we payed the guys for the fun and off we went to see some music through a warped perception. It was incredible, great music all night and topped off by a rippin’ show by Boston. When the day’s concerts were over, I was still high as a kite and full of energy. While at the days events we ran into some other friends from back home, Jason and Victor, that were staying near the back of the campground and they said back there you could be as loud as you wanted into the morning light. That sounded like the place for me and I headed to the back to party until my buzz wore off, a decision I would soon come to regret.
As I approached my friends campsite I could see things were hopping, they had a nice fire going, about a dozed people hanging around in various states of intoxication and Victor had his car backed in with jams pouring out of a kick-ass car stereo, it seemed like the place to be. I was handed a beer and a bowl when I arrived and things were going well for about twenty minutes when out of nowhere the music stops. We all turned to see what had happened and out of the driver’s side of the car comes some scraggly looking dude and he says the music is too loud and he turned it off. I was confused as to who this guy was and what right did he have to turn down the music? Turns out he was the father of Jason but it was Victor’s car so Jason came and escorted his dad away and we turned the tunes back up. That lasted about ten minutes when they went dead again, and again it was Jason’s dad and again he escorted him off and we turned the music back up. During this time Jason decided to disappear with a girl he had been chatting with and when his father came back a third time, he was not going to be denied. He turned off the stereo, took the keys out of the ignition and locked the doors of the car. He said “I warned you it was too loud, now you get nothing” and put the keys into his pocket. We looked for Jason to get his drunk father to give back the keys but he was nowhere to be found and his dad was about to go into his tent. It was at that moment that I made the foolish decision to take matters into my own hands The LSD mixed with a day of drinking had caused me to forget about my circumstances and before I knew it I was confronting him. At first all I did was get into his way and demand the keys, he told me to fuck off and tried to get around me so I grabbed him and started trying to get my hand into his pocket to retrieve the keys, he resisted and all of a sudden we were on the ground, I was on top of him and still trying to get my hand into his pocket. It was at that moment that I noticed a light heading up the road our way, just my luck, it was a security cart with 2 security guards inside ( they were not cops but guards hired by the campground ). I immediately pulled him up and tried to pretend that we were just friends wrestling around and hoped he would not see the guards as his back was to them. He pulled away and turned around, when he saw the guards he started screaming “help, he’s trying to kill me” and ran towards the guards continuing to yell for help. I had to act fast, there was no way I was going to be able to explain this with his hysterical ass telling them that I was trying to kill him, I knew they would call the cops instantly. I turned the other way and off I ran, through campsites until I had put about 20 rows behind me, I came up to a campsite with people still out at the fire and went up to see if I could join them. I composed myself the best I could and asked them if I could enjoy a bit of the fire with them? they were happy to let me sit down and one even offered a beer, I said yes, please ( god did I need one, my mind was spinning ) As I was downing the beer and starting some small talk with the folks, 2 cop cars race down each row on either side of the campsite obviously heading for where I had been and much more disturbing, they were there for me! The conversation changes to ‘what was that all about’? and ‘who do you think they are after’? It did not take long for one of them to put 2 and 2 together and he asks “hey, they aren’t here for you are they? I chuckle nervously and say “no, of course not”, but I could tell he was suspicious and he had planted a seed in all of their minds, before it grew, I had to get out of there. I chugged the rest of my beer and said that I was going back to my site and going to bed, I could tell they knew it was fishy but they were not looking to get involved so they just said goodnight and off I went.
I was still quite a way from my campsite and when I had run, I only ran up the rows, not over, so I had to put some horizontal rows between me and the cops and fast. When I peeked down the row, I could still see the 2 cop cars on this side, I dashed across hoping to not be seen and kept running going over 2 and up 1 heading back towards my site. Most of the sites were dark as most people were sleeping by this time. I noticed one of the cop cars slowly creeping through a couple of rows behind me, which meant they were out looking for me, Somehow I found a way to slither my way back to my campsite and prayed that no one at the other place had known where my campsite was. My prayers were answered because the next thing I know, it was noon and the heat of the sun was waking me. Phew! i dodged a bullet there, I would have to be much more careful in the future if I wanted to stay free that was for sure. I would find out later that they had grabbed some poor sap out for a late night toilet break, thinking it was me. They put him in cuffs and took him back to the guy I had accosted, lucky for him that he didn’t look like me and they let him go but what an unlucky time to take a leak. I was not out of the woods yet as there was still one more day of shows and I stubbornly wanted to see them. My brother and his girlfriend were leaving that day, she was not having much fun and camping was not her cup of tea, so I had a chance to leave but I said no, determined to see the final day. I knew it would not be much fun looking over my shoulder, waiting for the tap that would be a cop, so I decided to be proactive about it. I waited up near the gate watching all the people coming in and within about 15 minutes, I see him, the guy from last night. He does not see me which is good and I follow him to where he is going to watch the show. I then head off to the beer garden and get 2 large beers, I head back over to where he is and with my most humble face, offer him a sincere apology saying I was way out of line and I hope he can forgive me and with that offer him one of the beers. He looks me up and down for a few seconds and slowly cracks a smile and says “sure, we all make mistakes”, and with that we tapped glasses and my mind was at ease. The last day’s shows were a fitting end to an amazing week-end, it had its ups and downs but I had seen 4 days worth of killer shows topped off with R.E.O. Speedwagon and most importantly, I was still free
A Continuing Story About Life On The Run