This past weekend I made the 14 hour journey Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival. It was my first multi-day music festival and nothing could have prepared me for what waited in Hart Plaza. I’m still flying high off the adrenaline, my soul drunk off the pulsating beats. Before I gush about the epic DJs, let me start from the beginning, with a small hatch back in Boston.
My fellow passengers were two out of an elite group of people I can spend serious vacation time with – my husband Andy and his sister/my good friend Alison. Like a herd of turtles we were on the road by midnight, convinced we would drive through the night with the glow sticks of Detroit guiding us. We barely made it outside Massachusetts when we had to nap at a rest stop. So much for youthful energy. Unfortunately for Alison and Andy, I don’t drive, so I provided entertainment and flipped radio stations while they took turns at the wheel.
The worst part of the drive was New York – like Connecticut when en route to NYC – hours and hours of boring country side and one very long, very straight highway. We counted vineywards and cows and weird museums, those tourist traps in the middle of nowhere about something mundane like salt or Jell-o. Next we hit Pennsylvania, which should have been the shortest part of the trip, but had the worst traffic and stalled us for another few hours. A detour to the Jelly Belly outlet in Erie PA provided a much needed second wind. We roared through Ohio, determined to make it to our hotel for dinner. Oh the joy when we crossed the border into Michigan. Soon enough we arrived at our lovely Westin, after 18 hours of road tripping.
We had ambitious plans Friday night. We wanted to check out numerous after parties (pre parties?) and warm up for the festival. So we ordered room service, napped on the best beds ever, showered in the best bathrooms ever, and realized our bodies had other plans for the evening. Those plans did not involve moving. Yes, we spent Friday night at our extremely comfortable hotel, hitting the sack early after a few party drinks. We wanted to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the first day of DEMF.
NEXT: Popping our collective DEMF cherry.
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