Hookahville XXX

Over Labor Day weekend, Ryan and I celebrated our Honeymoon Hookah style!!!! We decorated our tent with a bunch of "Just Married" stuff and our friends decorated their tents with luau stuff for our honeymoon. We even won some freebies for our decorations.Kelly Ann even found one of those cardboard cut-outs that you stick your face in for pictures. I only got one picture of it, but Ryan got almost a whole roll of 35mm of people goofing off with it. We saved all the beer cans for the first day or so to string up and hang on the tent. Cousin Aaron was going to pull us around in the cart with some cans hanging off of it, but we got too distracted, and that never happened. Oh well, it was a fun idea.Here's part of the gang hanging out in "Reynoldsburg." That's what we called the area where Nick and Ashley Reynolds were camping behind Ryan, Dave, Kelly Ann, and me. We called our area Chaplis. Ashley's dad came with her. I was happy to see him there. It totally reminds me of something my dad and I would have done together.Caught Ryan and Cousin Aaron in mid high five!!! YES!!!!!Nap time for Matt and Liz. That's one of the best things at Hookahville....taking a nap in the shade. I slept almost one whole day away. It was awesome!!!! You all know how I love my sleep!!!The lineup for Hookahville was great this year. We got to see Arrested Development. It was so cool!!! They split up for awhile after they hit it big in the early nineties, but I'm pretty sure this is the original lineup. I could be wrong, so forgive me if my facts aren't right, but that was my understanding from hearing the band talking about being "back together again." The old guy is even still with them. I always wanted to call him Mr. Wendel because of that song they did by the same name, but I'm not sure if that's his name, or just my imagination. He definitely gives them a spiritual feel when they play.This chick had the most beautiful voice. She was the main singer in their big hit "Tennessee." The crowd went nuts when that song started.
Another act I was happy to see was Indiana's own Derick Howard. He's from Columbus, IN. He does a really cool little loop thing with his music where he plays a little of each instrument, records it, and then plays another instrument over it. He plays every instrument himself. Kind of like Keller Williams, if you're familiar with him at all. in this picture, he is sitting on his drum. it sounds kind of like a big congo or something like that.

The one song that blew me away was a Paul Simon cover, and I cannot remember the name of the song for the life of me. If I remember later.....I'll post it!!! Derick has been opening for Hookah at Lafayette Brewing Company for quite awhile now, so I was really happy for him that he made the lineup this year. He has been hoping for this for a long time. It should be pretty good exposure for him.
I was also thrilled to see Bela Fleck. He was playing with Abagail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet. I had seen him once before, but it was probably close to ten years ago. He plays a pretty mean banjo. Abagail Washburn was pretty impressive herself!!!



I missed a few bands that I wasn't already familiar with, but I could hear everything from the campsite. Everyone sounded great. It was just way too hot to be out in front of the stage all day long. There's no shade out there at all, so jumping, dancing, screaming and singing along with the band can get real hot real quick!!! We never missed a second of Ekoostik Hookah though!!! We never do!!!

We had a pretty bad experience at Spring Hookahville with hassels getting in and out the gates so we could get to our vehicle. Some people, including our group, stood in line for nearly seven hours AND missed the opening bands because of the line, so the guys from Ekoostik Hookah and Steve Trickle, the owner of the venue where Hookahville is held, did what they could to make it up to everyone.

First of all, they gave us a free night. Usually, if you want to go a night early, you have what they call the "Earlybird" option where you can pay an extra twenty bucks to get there earlier than everyone else, find a good campsite, and see a couple small bands. So, they made the "earlybird" free. Second, Ekoostik Hookah played a set that night. Normally they do two nights, this time, we got three for the price of two. That was so awesome that they would do that for their fans.

It was a huge inconvenience, and a real pain in the ass this past spring, but honestly, how many bands do you think would even care enough to ackowledge that there was a problem? Not many. That's why I love these guys. I know I've said it lots of times before, but it's true. We're more like friends than fans.

As some of you may remember, there have been a couple times when people's underwear end up on stage. This time, we set them up with some big ol' Granny Panties!!! All the people who were camping with us signed them, and Ryan and I wrote "Just Married" on the waistband. Our friend Kelly Jo from Michigan sewed a schwa on them ahead of time. Cliff, the bassist even copmlimented my throw. He called it a "three pointer." I only had a split second to actually catch John holding them up. he grabbed them in between songs, so I only got one blurry picture to remeber the moment!!!!! They guys were on fire all weekend long. They pulled out a couple older songs that we hadn't heard much since John Mullins rejoined the band. They also covered some good old songs I never thought I'd hear them play. One of them was "All Apologies" by Nirvana. That was a total surprise!!! Cliff sang that. We are all big fans of anything Cliffy sings!!!Towards the end of the evening, especially at Hookahville, Cliffy usually gets a little playful. He dances around all over the stage, and gets this ornery little way about him. It always gets fun when Cliffy's been drinking!!!
My man Eric got up from the drums just before the end of the show. He always does. It's a huge treat for eveyone when Eric gets up to sing. He did a cover of "Chest Fever" by The Band with horns backing him up. It was SWEET!!!!

Overall, I think this was one of the best Hookahvilles I've been to. We had great company, got to see lots of friends from out of state, had one of the best lineups yet, celebrated our honeymoon with our best friends, ate good food, drank good drinks, had lots of good wishes floating our way because of the wedding....................it really couldn't have been much better.

I'm ready for Spring Hookahville...................only eight months and counting!!!!

Hookahville XXVIII

One more Hookahville down....now only nine months to go before the next one!!!! Yes, I'm already counting!!!!

We had such a great time this weekend. Ryan and I both worked late Thursday night and got up to leave for Ohio at 3:30 AM Friday morning. I felt kinda bad for Ryan.......he drove all the way while I slept. I couldn't help it. My eyelids felt like they had boulders hanging on them.

We stopped first at Aaron's house to meet up with him and Julie so they could follow us there. I remember nothing of the ride to Ohio....only that we stopped once for Mcdonald's and a pee break.

It was about 8:30 AM Friday when we pulled into the parking lot. We made really good time. I think that's the earliest we've ever made it to Hookahville. Too bad the gates didn't open until 9:00 and we had to wiat a half an hour. We weren't real happy about that, because, it specifically said doors would open at 8:00 AM. But, hey, it was a nice day, so we all just hung out in line while we waited.

We found a good spot to camp, pretty close to where we were last spring, so that made it easy to find after the sea of tents kept growing. Aaron, Julie, Ryan and I all had our tents up within an hour or so, and were ready to just sit and hang out with eachother. Julie brought a big shade tent, so we hung out in there waiting on the rest of our Indiana crew to arrive.

Shortly after noon, we got a call from one of the guys saying Dave, Kelly, Pete, Rhonda, Matt, Liz, and her friend Jacquie were finally here. Ryan met them by the gate, and showed them to the spots we had tried to save for them. It was starting to get crowded, so I was glad they got there when they did. The spots around us were disppearing quick!!!

The first person we wanted to see and hear play was David Gans. He used to travel as a roadie with The Grateful Dead. He covered a few Dead tunes and did a lot of originals. I really enjoyed his set. Here's a few pictures of Daivd:

After David Gans, we had a couple hours before Dark Star Orchestra took the stage. So, we all headed back to the camp site for awhile. We played a lot of corn hole. Ryan's dad made him a corn hole game for his birthday.....we all love it!!!I love this chick. She sings the parts of Donna from the Grateful Dead, andin my opinion, she sounds much better than Donna ever did.........I think this guy is gonna look just like Jerry when he gets older. His voice in hauntingly similar to Jerry's. When you're not looking right at the stage, it gives you the feeling of hearing Jerry live again. Absolutely amazing!!!

When Dark Star played, it was still pretty hot outside, so we watched part of the show up by the stage, and part of it from the big hill where there's a little more shade. I actually fell asleep in the shade up there for awhile. That nap was much needed...believe me!!

Dark Star played for a few hours, and then it was time for some HOOKAH!!!!!!

The guys took the stage, and we all went crazy!!! It is always so exciting to see them come out to start a show. Here's a few pictures of the Friday night show:

OK, so there's the famous people from Friday night....now here's the rest of us!!!!
This is Aaron and my friend Julie.

Here's Matt poking his head around like he always does......with Ryan and Aaron..............Me and Kelly Jo.....this was before her haircut.......just keep reading :-)My sweet baby, all red faced...and me all drunk faced :-)

This picture was taken Saturday afternoon from the hill where I took my nap. Look at that beautiful sky!!!! We couldn't have asked for better weather!!!This is Andrew and Kelly Anne playing some corn hole. Ryan and I made a rule that if you win, you have to write your team name on the board. There was some funny stuff written on there by the end of the weekend!!!Liz and Matt working on an afternoon snack for all of us......check out all the burgers....YUMMO!!!!Ryan, Pete and Rhonda. We met Pete and Rhonda through Kelly Anne a couple weeks ago at the Jester Music Festival. They're great people, and tons of fun!!!!!Kelly Anne and me......awwwww aren't we sweet?!?!?

Ryan and Aaron haning out playing some corn hole!!!Dave eating one of those delicious burgers you saw Matt and Liz working on :-)Oh yes....we brought our tails!!!! The kitties were prowling the ville this year, that's for sure!!!!This is a few other friends from Indianapolis. We met them through Ekoostik Hookah.....love 'em all!!!! Dani, Julie, and Jenni.All I can say about this is....I was not being held respsonsible for my actions at this point in the night :-)

OK, you saw what my hair looked like Saturday night.....now take a peek at Ryan's. He did a much better job!!!!! But then again, I didn't exactly DO my hair that way, it just ended up that way after I let people keep sticking glow sticks in my hair :-)Check out those guns..........he he heSTP baby......START THE PARTY!!!!!!!!!Oh yes.....you should all be familiar with my guilty pleasure, Eric, by now. You normally would see him behind the drums, but it's Hookahville tradition for him to sing the encore song the last night of Hookahville.Of course, I was front and center for Eric's song. He always does a cover....usually something unexpected from Ekoostik Hookah....and I can definitely say that for this year's encore. It was "Stay With Me" by Rod Stewart........weird. But, Eric made that song his own!!!!

This was the final picture of my sweet hair do before I let the glow sticks drop........and this is what we did with them:Oh....poor Andrew.....good thing he had some undies on, Huh?Rule Number ONE: NEVER, NEVER be the first person to pass out at Hookahville!!!!!!Whoa, Dude.....................

OK, one last chapter to the Hookahville blog.......remember that picture of me and Kelly Jo earlier???? Well, she organized a few people to get together and let the band members cut their hari for Locks of Love. This is Dave Katz from Ekoostik Hookah getting ready to chop her beautiful hair off..............................

Oh, How sweet!!!!!!!And there she is twelve hours later, and she still can't stop touching it!!!!

I think it's awesome that they did that. There weren't very many participants, but a few of us talked about getting it going for Spring Hookahville too. Maybe if the word gets out a little more, we'll actually have a few takers this spring.

Until then....I'm gonna hang onto my hair and enjoy the ride!!!!!