Posted by @tripsforjoeg in the SBIX Essay Contest.

It isn't very often that things fall into place perfectly; that is, unless you happened to be in our group (and I'm assuming several thousand other groups) at Superball IX. So many things went so smoothly for us that it seems as though the whole trip was just a mental projection of my idea of a perfect weekend that started the moment the festival was announced. Our trip timing was immaculate. Our luck was great. Our campsite was green, flat, fun and close to the venue. I couldn't be more completely satisfied with the way everything went.

For us, the trip from Northern Kentucky started right at 2pm. My brother and his friend met me at the house and we readied the car. My wife wiggled some things around at the hospital and was waiting outside when we arrived. If you knew my wife, you'd know that this was a good omen. The GPS told us we'd arrive in 9 hrs 7 mins, and in order to make the 1am will-call close time, we hoped to avoid any delays. We hit some traffic, but it quickly cleared. My car wouldn't start after a fill-up, but we got a jump within a couple minutes.

With all the good luck coming our way, we still didn't know what traffic would like in and around Watkins Glen. When we got off of I-86, the GPS was saying we were about 30 minutes from the festival grounds. The second turn we took, still following the GPS route, took us 4 miles down a dirt road. It was totally eerie to begin with, and then we saw a bear crossing sign. I'm glad I wasn't alone, or I would've thought I'd imagined the whole thing. After turning onto a regular road for a few miles, we turned onto a gravel road. Then, the GPS tells us to turn right. At this point, we haven't seen another car since exiting from I-86. Literally the first sign of life we see is a sign that says "Box Office/ Will Call" on a small building. 11:16 pm. I still can't believe how easy it was.

Meanwhile, the other 3 people we were meeting at walmart in order to in together, had left DC around 6pm. After we left will call, we drove about 5 minutes to the walmart parking lot. We called them and found out they had just arrived and were shopping for supplies! As we left the parking lot, I was leading the way when our friends following us were pulled over almost immediately outside of the parking lot. All the officer asked was to see the registration and if they had anything illegal. I didn't even have to pull over to wait for them. It took so little time that they were still the first car behind me once they pulled back onto the road!

We ended up camping in Hawaii, which was a total dream. The bathrooms were always clean, the walk was short and the coffee and breakfast burritos were the best I'd had at any festival in years. We ended up staking a claim about halfway between the stage and mix tent on the Fishman side with plenty of dancing room and nice people around us every night. The music really spoke for itself. The amount of fun that was obviously being had onstage (and in storage units) was transferred to the audience tenfold. If you looked at a Google Maps image from Watkins Glen from that weekend, and zoom out to a certain point, I'm sure you'd see a giant smiley face. I left with nothing other than the overwhelming feeling of complete satisfaction.

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