Summer road trip.
 

I don't know if you guys remember, but last summer I went to North Carolina with some friends for 3 weeks to stay with a friend. We're not taking a bus this time though. We're taking our friend's Blazer, and we're splitting up the driving among the 4 of us.

But, before we head down, we're heading to Ozzfest in Mansfield, Mass. I should be in bed, since we're leaving in about 4 hours, but, I figure I'll just sleep on the way down, since I can't just fall asleep. I gotta be dead tired. And I don't usually go to bed til about 6 AM.

Band set times.
WICKED WISDOM - 9:10-9:30am
GIZMACHI - 9:35-9:55am
SOILWORK - 10:00-10:20am
IT DIES TODAY - 10:25-10:45am
ARCH ENEMY - 10:50-11:10am
TRIVIUM - 11:15-11:35am
THE BLACK DALIA MURDER - 11:40am-12:00pm
A DOZEN FURIES - 12:05-12:35pm
MASTODON - 12:40-1:10pm
THE HAUNTED - 1:15-1:35pm
BURY YOUR DEAD - 1:40-2:00pm
AS I LAY DYING - 2:05-2:35pm
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE - 2:40-3:20pm
ROB ZOMBIE - 3:35-4:35pm

Main Stage:

IN FLAMES - 4:35-4:55pm
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY - 5:05-5:45pm
SHADOWS FALL - 5:55-6:35pm
MUDVAYNE - 6:45-7:35pm
IRON MAIDEN - 8:00-9:10pm
BLACK SABBATH - 9:30-11:00pm

Then from there, we're gassing up, getting some food, and heading off to North Carolina. Should be a fun and interesting drive.

Hopefully one of my friends will bring a digital camera, so I can share the interesting pictures with you. I'll have my video camera, and I'll share anything interesting that I should record.

Edit: And I hope Arch Enemy and In Flames like the Swedish flag my mom made today.



Edit again:
Arch Enemy's single off their CD coming out in a couple weeks. Of course I've got the whole CD already, that I...bought. This is only making me want to see them one thousand times worse.
http://www.onehandedbandit.com/jesse..._-_nemesis.mp3. Oof, so good.

Man there's nothing like death metal at 9:10 in the morning. Tis' truly a good day to die.

Heh, well, the death metal doesn't start til 9:50. Wicked Wisdom is far, FAR from death metal. They're Jada Pinkette Smith's band. And it's rumored that Will Smith will be there with her.

I wonder if he intends on getting jiggy with it.

And I'm off.

Bye bye TTT.

See you in about 9-10 days.

have a good one jess.

So the trip was cut short.

To the PA folks, did you hear about the crash on southbound interstate 81? Involving like 3 18 wheelers, and like 7 cars?

Yea. It was lots of fun.

I'm ok. Full story, and a video when I get home later tonight.

Hmm...well, glad yer ok, fill us in.

81 is up near my school, but i'm about 2 hrs from that now. but yeah that road is known for huge fucking pileups.

So yea. I've never had an experience like that before. Never. This is going to be a lengthy post, so, get ready.

Ozzfest.
Ozzfest was awesome. Arch Enemy and In Flames put on AWESOME sets, and I also got to meet them. Both bands signed my Swedish flag. Then of course Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath put on PHENOMONAL sets. Easily one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

So anyway. After Ozzfest, we get some food, and rest up and everything. And then we set out for North Carolina. I get on the interstate in Mansfield, Mass. And drive all the way to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and get a ways down interstate 81. (By the time I stopped driving at 6:30 AM, I had been awake for over 43 hours). So then my friend Zach and I get into the back seat to sleep, while our friends Miah and Brad take over the driving/navigation.

I'm not even asleep for..30 minutes, when I'm woken up by the sound of tires squealing, as Miah is trying to avoid smashing into a car at the tail-end of a traffic jam. I look out the window, and I can't see anything. The fog was so thick, that he drove right up on this traffic jam, and couldn't see anything until he was like 30-40 feet from it. So yea, he slams on the breaks, and manages to dodge all the cars. Zach and I are in the back, coming to, when a huge RV towing a car comes to a screeching halt to the left of us. And then seconds later, a Ford F-150 has to swerve to the right of us to dodge our Blazer. At that point I tell Miah to pull ahead some so we don't get hit, because there are going to be lots more cars coming.

So then he pulls ahead. And I look behind us to see if anything else is coming. And, of course, there was. A huge semi truck, hauling a mid-size trailor is about 30 feet behind us, and he's traveling at a nice rate of speed. If I had to guess, I'd say at least 50 MPH. But before he hits us, he smashes into the car being towed by the RV, and then rips through the back of the RV, just about ripping off the whole rear end of it. And then, just after I grab onto the driver's seat to brace myself, the semi smashes into our vehicle, completely totalling it. The force from the semi sends our vehicle somewhat air-borne, into the F-150, smashing that all to shit. And then we finally come to rest, and we check eachother out and what not, make sure we're all ok.

Then as we're getting out, we can hear cars behind us driving into the traffic jam. Car after car, we hear just smash into another vehicle. We couldn't see that far down the road, because of the super thick fog, but we could hear countless collisions. Then eventually 2 18-wheelers got tangled up together. And then things finally started to calm down.

I guess what started it all, was an 18 wheeler flipped over about 1+ mile up the road from where we crashed. And that's what triggered the traffic jam. I'm amazed that there were no city officials or anything trying to warn the drivers of the traffic jam. There were no cops on site anywhere. Even in the 1+ mile traffic jam caused by the accident, there were no cops or anything.

But yea. I'm definitely lucky to be alive.

Eventually we made it back to Ravine, PA. Completely fucked. No ride home, cops weren't helping us at all. The worker at a local restaurant was getting tired of us using the business phone, as we were desperately trying to figure out what the hell we were going to do. I knew there were some TTT members from the PA/VA area. And if I had internet access, I was seriously going to try getting ahold of you guys to see if there was any way you could help my friends and I.

We ended up waiting around this shitty gas station til about 3:30 or so, and our friend's mom made a reservation at an Econo Lodge in Pine Grove, and we stayed there for the night, and she came down at 3:30 AM, slept there, and then we left the next afternoon.

But yea, I think that's it. It was quite the fucking experience. When I looked out the back window of the Blazer we were in, and saw the grill and headlights of the semi truck coming for us, I was 110% convinced that we were all going to die. I don't know how we lived.

That's my story. Pics/video to come of the aftermath.

Wow dude...that's fucking crazy, glad ya'll made it out ok. Sucks you couldn't get a hold of any of us, I'm sure someone would've helped, PA is a hike and a half for me, but, I probably could've made it, lol.

It would have been downright awesome if somebody from here could have helped us out. I would have understood completely if nobody could have, but still, internet friends helping out in such a time of need, really would have been awesome.

If one of you guys were ever within a few states of me, and absolutely fucked, and needed some help, I'd definitely do everything I could to help out.

my girlfriend goes to school in scranton and my school is like 40 mins from that, so yeah i would have been like right where you are. i'm betting i know exactly where you were.

I guess it's called the 'twin bridges' where the first 18 wheeler flipped over. And then we were about a mile behind that when we got hit.

so apparently i'm going to ozzfest in jersey next week due to my friend unexpectedly getting (free) tickets.

aside from the main stage, its pretty slim pickings for my liking. but seeing Sabbath and Maiden validates the 2 hr drive. and in flames, BLS, shadows fall and rob zombie should be good too.

This year's Ozzfest is fucking awesome. It really sucks that Arch Enemy and In Flames (even though they're on the main stage) only have 20 minutes. Arch Enemy was (as always) fucking awesome live. Their energy is so fucking awesome. Not to mention their trademark Arch Enemy guitar solos, and really, really hot singer (whom I hugged).

And Iron Maiden's set. Fucking amazing.

The chick from Lacuna Coil is hotter than the chick from Arch Enemy.

i'm gonna have to side with raub on this one.

Just wait til you see her live.

She's flawless.

of course, there's always this:

just got back from the show. we got there in time for Killswitch Engage and saw the rest. it had to be the hottest day on record in Jersey. Jesus titty-fucking Christ, it was unbearable.

However, Maiden and Sabbath were so good! I got to hear "Hallowed Be Thy Name" live and "Dirty Women", two songs from each respective band that I wasn't expecting to hear at all. BLS and Shadows Fall were also pretty sweet.

Great night all in all, except for some drunk ass hick hitting my friends car the minute we got there :/

I hate Jersey.