The worst day of driving is actually the day before you hit the road. Last week I left Chicago bound for Ashland, Oregon for the Third Annual Ice Cream Social. I had been dreading the 2200 mile trip west for days. Surprisingly, the four day jaunt wasn’t all that bad. All summer long there have been tons of minor issues with Bessie, but I’ve been very fortunate nothing major has kept her off the road.
Everyday on the road was an adventure. Not far outta Chicago my horn speaker on the front of the truck broke off and was dangling in front of the windshield. Earlier this year I broke that same piece of glass with an errant car stereo and I was happy the speaker didn’t do the same. There were multiple nights of sleeping in the truck and lots of visits to auto parts stores. Bessie has a bad habit of running really hot and no matter what I tried to do, including and impromptu radiator flush somewhere in Wyoming, nothing seemed to cool her down.
I’ve known for months that the Avett Brothers were going to be playing Thursday in Medford, just north of Ashland. I decided it would somehow be a good idea to try to make a mad dash from Salt Lake City to try to catch the show. There was no room for error which meant a 14 hour drive only stopping for gas and snacks (including a microwaved breakfast biscuit sandwich for dinner…yum).
As I rolled into town I called Johnny B’s and the opening band, the everybodyfields, was still playing. Convinced Tessa to tag along and rolled up somewhere around their second song. I’ve seen them play a couple times and both were extremely high energy sets. I read a great article in Paste Magazine that said they varied their shows depending on the crowd. Since there weren’t too many people in attendance, they stuck with a lot of the slower numbers and only broke a few strings as opposed a few dozen, like the NYC show. The whole day I felt horrible but I assumed it was just from pushing so hard to get there. Generally a good night’s sleep cures that, not this time though.
I woke up on Friday feeling like a zombie with a big bump on the side of my neck, which I nicknamed Floyd. The only cure I could think of was tons of rest and water. The Social was only a day away and things weren’t looking good. Lost just about all of Friday and was in bed by nine. Procrastinated as much as possible on Saturday morning then ran around town to pick up cream and clean up Bessie. At just after 3:00 the big moment had arrived. I fired her up and headed toward Garfield Park.
The Ice Cream Social is one of the favorite summer events. I get to return to Ashland, where Ice Cream Man all began, and see tons of familiar smiling faces. Some of my favorite moments of all time are slowly rolling down east main, seeing the park full of people, rounding the corner, then pulling into my own designated parking spot to give away ice cream. Everything was hazy as I arrived and I was singing “doot doot doo dootie doo” out of my megaphone because I still hadn’t been able to get around to fixing Bessie’s speaker.
The Social wouldn’t have been possible without the help from numerous people around town. Most notably the crew from Passport2Ashland and Stratford Inn. Jodi, Josh, and Shield all jumped on the truck to help with the cream slinging and, without their help, the line would’ve been moving at slower than a snails pace. Similar to how Briana actually gave away more ice cream in New York than I did, Jodi probably doubled me up this time around.
It was great to see so many familiar faces. Zaida was out with her birthday entourage, Mara and Henri stopped by with juice for me, Theresa brought her kids, and Thomas and his sister showed up for a few rounds of cream. Karma, a Pacific Crest Trail hiker I befriended in town, was encouraged to eat as much ice cream as he physically could. I was having trouble formulating sentences and couldn’t remember anyone’s order once it got past one treat.
Once it was all done and we had given away over 700 free creams, I said my goodbye’s and as soon as I was back to Stratford Inn, and the freezers were plugged in, I found a picnic bench out back and promptly crash out on the wood slabs. I tried to get up after and hour or so only to make it to a sitting position before falling asleep on my folded arms. Once awake again, I threw my backpack on and started walking to Jay’s to sleep for 12+ hours.
I didn’t feel so great on Sunday until I made it down to Evo’s coffee shop and risked it with a cup of coffee. I had been laying off of anything fun (including ice cream), and generally coffee isn’t recommended when you’re sick. For some reason that cup of coffee was just what I needed to set things straight. All of a sudden my brain was firing on all cylinders and for the rest of the day I was working double time trying to catch up on as much as possible.
It’s Tuesday morning now and I’m leaving Ashland, bound for Long Beach. Might stop by the Echo tonight for Comets on Fire if I’m lucky. Maybe I’ll see ya there. So much goodness is on the way.
Thanks to all the people and companies that made the Ice Cream Social Possible.
Shop n Kart
Second Annual Ice Cream Social
Where it all began, the First Social
