Tuesday, August 11, 2009

On the Road, Part Two

Everyone was in great spirits when we woke up Friday morning....







After leaving the hotel we stopped at the tomb of LeRoi Moore, the saxophonist for Dave Matthews Band. He passed away last August and, while, as a fan, I mourned his death (though I never actually met the man and I do harbor hopeful feelings about the life after this one), I felt so incredibly sad for his parents. There's a line in one of Dave's songs: "You should never have to bury your own baby." I thought about LeRoi's mother and my heart ached for her.

The tomb itself is unmarked, but somehow through DMB's fans, people in the know know this is the spot. Matthew and a buddy came earlier in the year to hear the band play and they came to visit. He said besides flowers, people left sunglasses. LeRoi had terrible stage fright and always played with sunglasses on or his eyes closed.

Today was just a quiet, peaceful day in the cemetery.



We still had plenty of time in the day before we needed to head out for our next destination, so we went to breakfast and then to explore the shops of Charlottesville's Main Street.

Dory at her first ever IHOP:





Random shots of the University of Virginia campus, taken from the car. We didn't stop to look around, as there was a graduation going on and the grounds were thick with people. Matthew and I are both put off by great long lines and huge crowds, which doesn't make us the best tourists in the world (more on that subject later).







Our next destination was Chesapeake, VA, a spot right outside of Virginia Beach. Why Chesapeake, you ask? Because that's where the aforementioned best band in the history of the world happened to be playing.

That's right, Dory has officially been to her first Dave Matthews Band concert.



I was a wee bit unsure about this (in a complete state of panic by the time we got there, might be another way to say it). I wore her in the Beco backpack, so she was high off the ground and snuggled up close to me. That helped. I also like to think I gave off a certain "I will rip off your head if you breathe wrong on my baby. Enjoy the show!" attitude. We planned it out ahead of time, buying tickets for the lawn, taking a blanket and planning to camp out on the back of the lawn, far away from the people. We didn't plan on the show basically being sold out and amok with fans.

We ended up finding a little perch, on the opposite side of the hill that formed the lawn, where the three of us could sit on our own, away from everyone, and listen. We couldn't see the band, but as Matthew pointed out, we've seen them plenty. Once we staked out a spot, away from the crowd, it was incredibly peaceful and we had a ball. Dory, for her part, fell asleep four songs in and slept the entire time. I don't think the band should take that personally.




And that was our night in Virginia Beach.

The next day it was- on to Washington D.C.! And that will leave this blog to be continued...

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