Boston 2006, The Concert: October 21 – 23rd.
A much anticipated trip, however the drive down south turned out to be quite an adventure – there was a classic mix of good news/bad news!
The good news: We finally got to go to Vermont – a stop on the way to a concert in Boston. (We planned to stay the morning in Burlington VT for some shopping before heading down). I also got to shoot my childhood hero Big Man for the first time – on the return trip.
The bad news – The weather did not cooperate, not the slightest photo-op in Vermont. We left Montreal late Friday night and the combination of heavy rain and traffic was horrible – it took hours to get across the Champlain Bridge and to Philipsburg. Driving through Vermont is usually very pleasant, but not on this day – the weather conditions were certainly unexpected for this time of year.
The nightmare began as soon as we crossed over into the States. Just after clearing immigration it started to snow hard – it came down fast and furious – a freak snowstorm which we later found out was limited to a small mountain area immediately south of the border.
Interstate 89 is unlit, so it was pitch black except for the road which was pure white – even the road signs were covered in wet white stuff – all you could see through the windshield (assuming you could see at all) was this heavy falling snow – hypnotically captured in our headlights, (almost a stroboscopic effect) … distracting and dangerous.
We slowed the Accord down to a crawl, barely managed to see the unplowed exit and slowly made our way to some small town – St.Alban’s or Swanton (does it really matter which one?) – we were just happy to get off the road.
We ate a burger that didn’t really taste like meat at the Golden Arches – I guess they had run out of meat and substituted something else (roadkill ?) and then we tried to find a hotel – everything was booked solid – interstate commuters from all over the place were stranded, just as we were – NO VACANCY!
Continue reading