THE SHUNPIKE EXPERIMENT
A 15,000 Mile Trip from New Orleans to Alaska & Back
The Gorge at George
We spent an amazing 4 days in George Washington for The Sasquatch Festival at the Beautiful Gorge. Sasquatch was voted “best outdoor festival” last year, and I understand why.
We met up with some of Steve-o’s buds from high school and college. The Thielman Brothers and wives, Jimmy and Lindsey, and most importantly, Matt and Tirza Shaw, who provided us with complete VIP service.. Including:
Free Tickets and about 8 armbands a day allowing us to go anywhere and do pretty much anything..
A room at Cave B… A quaint hotel available to only about 75 people at the whole festival.
Above: the view from our room.
Below: a breakfast at Cave B lodge with Matt and Tirza, Ty and Tiffany. I ate yogurt with granola and French toast – both very delicious. For steve – an omelette.
VIP also included back stage passes with gourmet meals for dinner, gate access into the fest right next to our hotel room, and a jeep ride from one stage to another. Plus, all the free popchips you could possibly eat.
First night we watched Foo Fighters from our box #227 with comfy cushioned chairs and a blanket for miss grannypants michel who was absolutely freezing in the 40 degree weather. Some crazy northwesterners were in shorts and flip flops.
Foos were amazing.
Steve and I and Dave Groehl in the background.
Lindsey made us all matching t-shirts.
An extra special place the Gorge is for me. No more Yoda talk…
We have tons of memories from our summer youth. It’s an awesome place. Getting to spend some QT with the Thielman boys, their wives Monique and Tiffany, Jimmy and Lindsay means a lot to me.
Especially since Ryan and I had some dramatic come from behind “Corn Hole” wins!
Ryan just got a new Nordic…
…and displayed it’s “butt in the seat” power when we took it out between weather.
We also got a unique view of the amphitheater from below.
Shappy’s up there somewhere:
Michel mentioned this above but we are super lucky to have Matt and Tirza in our lives. They have visited NOLA on several occasions and we love then both.
Oh yeah, and we got the hook up for gorge shows. I am not sure if I can go to gorge and camp ever again (Michel definitely can’t). Being driven to your exotic hotel room beats walking a mile with tens of thousands of sweaty, wasted concert revelers to a dusty tent. Those days were fun though.
For some actual blog material, we saw a couple of new/newer bands that were impressive. I think the “show of the show” was The Head and the Heart. Good Seattle music that was some kind of cross between Mumford and Sons and Arcade Fire. We also were impressed with Yeasayer. I’ve listened to them a bit but their live performance was super fun.
-SG
We’re in the Band Pics:
Shapsatchella
Golden Shower
THE SHUNPIKE EXPERIMENT 
Looks like more great days on the road again! But what’s up with “pouty pregnant momma” in that last pic??? She mus’ be lookin’ for somethin’ to eat!!! Love you both! TC