Roger Waters: The Wall Live

As always, remember to click on the photos for a larger size to see more detail. Thanks!

Epic. Loved it. Sang my heart out. Spent the first half in my seat with my 8 friends scattered throughout the Wall-crazy crowd, talking to another guy who lost his 6 friends in the crowd. After intermission, two of my friends found their seats next to me, and we roared through the rest of the show. The getting home part is where things went a little crazy. We found ourselves separated but had planned for that or so I thought. There were 9 of us, two cars, two hotel rooms, 4 beds. We gathered at my place on Thursday to have a pre-trip meeting as it was a larger group and we had some border newbies we needed to tune up for the crossing. Apparently some were not listening and others did not share the information with those who did not attend. I even had a power point presentation on my big tv...it was fun and we all enjoyed it, had some laughs. In any event, we agreed we would each get a hotel card so if we were separated, we could just show a cabbie our card and ask to be brought back there.




Well, some folks lost their card. and we separated into several small groups. I was with 4 after the show, but lost two on the way from the dome to the shuttle pick-up spot. So then I was with two, one of whom was pretty out of it, and we waited for about 20 minutes, no word on the shuttle, no cabs, and the roads were parking lots with traffic clogging them. So I suggested we hit the road and try to walk to somewhere traffic was flowing and empty cabs might be as all of the ones near us were full, and we were on a sidewalk with hundreds of other people looking for a cab. My amigas did not agree in the pissing rain, so I headed out and walked about 3 kms in the pissing rain and finally got a cab. I went in the totally opposite direction, and didn't even THINK about looking at my blackberry maps...got on a street with no exits until about 2kms down, and that was only through a pedway that was about 200 steps above the road...pant, pant, pant. I met some folks along the way - some Californians waiting for a ride from the Glass Museum, which I passed, wishing it was open! I finally climbed up the pedway and got a cab about 5 minutes later on a busy street. It was not easy. I had seen about 5 pass me down on the lower Dock road, but no one would stop. They all had their lights on, and no one inside. Jerks. I called a few cab companies, no one had a cab free and the wait was 2 hours...WTF? So that's why I kept on walking. Flagging one down was probably going to be the only way to get one.




I was drenched, and arrived back at the hotel wondering where everyone else and found 5 of them in one of the hotel rooms. 4 had gotten home after waiting an hour for the rest of the crew (dumb idea) in the pissing rain, when our friend M. finally flagged down an empty school bus and paid the driver to take them home...as 30 other people crowded onto the bus behind them. The bus was apparently some kind of shuttle, but couldn't get to any pick-up points in the traffic. So picked them all up and off they went. The 5th one that was home waited for an hour for a cab too, and finally got a ride with someone else who she was chatting up after the show. They got home about 10 minutes before I did. About 5 minutes later two more showed, up, having gotten in with a shady crowd for a ride and having to ask them to let them out again, then finally hailed a cab home. The final gal made it home when one of the security guards at the Dome saw her quite out of it and packed her off in a cab for the hotel, paying the fare. How we managed to all get home within just a few minutes of each other is beyond me! We were just happy everyone made it home safe and sound, albeit SOAKING WET.




After some hotel room partying, gambling in the casino downstairs, we eventually all turned in, 5 and 6 am for some. We hit the road just before 10am, without the second car who wasn't ready when we were, stopping at Burger King along the highway for hangover grease, and made it to the Port Angeles ferry right on time. The other car just made it by about 10 minutes, having taken the highway the wrong way, headed through Seattle and then crossed on the small ferry west to the highway that took us to Port Angeles. Smooth ferry crossing, everyone was tired, but wired, and shopping in the duty free liquor and cigarettes. A 40oz gin for $9.99, and a carton of cigs for $15...criminal what we pay in Canada.




And then we landed in Victoria and got flagged at the border for a code 7 again - DRUGS! Which we didn't have any of as that was well covered in the pre-trip meeting, and included in the power point. I refuse to take anyone across the border who tries to take weed or other drugs with them. I can't have a criminal record to do my job, and they all know this. So we were pretty relaxed about it as none of us had anything on us, knowing the risk. Maggie the search dog had a sniff through my van, but came up empty for anything currently there. She did however, smell an older smell of herbs from days gone by....the border guard was really nice, and gave the gals a break on the duty free liquor they brought as we hadn't been across for 48 hours, which is required to bring it back duty free. He packed up Maggie the dog and we were on our way. Tired, wired, but intoxicated with such inspiration from the fabulous show we all experienced together. Thank you Roger Waters, for bringing us The Wall. I had an amazing time.