Cornerstone Festival 2003

30 June 2003

Once again it is Cornerstone week! This time we are celebrating the 20th year anniversary. My Cstone buddy and I decided that we needed to make a point of trying to leave on Monday rather than Wednesday as we did last year. That meant that I would use my two optional paid days off and have to call in sick for the 3rd day. Friday, of course was the 4th of July and therefore a paid holiday for me. I hate calling in sick. For one thing, I don't get paid if I don't work, but more importantly, it clashes with what little sense of responsibility I have. Hey, but it's Cornerstone! All's fair in love, war and Cstone, right?

So after working my shift on Monday morning, I rode home and finished preparing until Ted came over. We loaded up the truck and headed south. It was about 10:30ish AM when we finally got on the road.

Traffic moved along pretty well for the most part. There was a surprising number of collisions - mostly in the northbound lanes. One of them was absolutely horrific. It involved at least 3 vehicles. One of them was so mangled that I couldnt tell if it was a car or truck. Beyond that, its back half was smashed in to the front seats. As we drove by, at first it looked like it was ripped in two pieces and the back half was missing. Then I realised that it was simply crushed in. Totally flat. I cant imagine anything causing that except a rear end collision by a semi at speed. We wondered if anyone survived. A few miles down it occurred to me that maybe someone had been in the back seat. The thought made me sick. I don't think I have ever had a trip where I had seen so many car collision aftermaths. We even passed a car-hauler semi that had damaged cars on it. One of them was a truck with a body sized hole in the windshield. It was a bit sobering.

All other aspects of the drive down were very pleasant. Occasionally I fought the desire to sleep. The weather was beautiful and the sky was full of puffy cumulus clouds that dotted the sky as far as the eye could see. Occasionally I would pick one out and watch it grow closer until we passed beneath it... Ted and I talked a bit off and on. We played cds and reviewed them. I wondered how Cornerstone compared to other large festivals - it is so much above any other festival I have ever been to. Lifest for instance is a great festival but it doesnt even compare to Cstone. I know of the CreationFests on each coast. Supposedly the biggest Christian music festivals in the country, I would be curious to compare them. Ted mentioned that he knew of people who have been to both and prefer Cstone. I guess it is just an exercise in preferences. One of the reasons I brought it up was my surprise that even though thousands of people attend, so many don't. I certainly am hooked. In fact next year I get another vacation week and am dedicating it to Cornerstone.

Called my brother in the early afternoon and spoke to him for an hour or so.

We arrived in Canton - the gateway to Cornerstone Country - at 6ish PM. I called my mum to let her know that I had cell phone service. I have a new cell phone with Nextel and wasnt sure if I would have coverage out here. (Last year I had US Cellular and did have coverage although I paid about $1 a minute in roaming fees!) We are going to try to get together on Friday since I am so close to them down here.

We stopped at the same gas station as last year. Ah, the memories!

Half an hour later we were in Bushnell. There were several time that I lost coverage but that was mostly due to the rolling hills and valleys that are in the area. We came to the entrance to the festival and I had full service which sparked a joke about the holiness of Cornerstone... As we drove through the grounds, my coverage fluctuated but I was able to connect the whole time until we got to the lake. I was very pleased about that.

There is something about the Cstone ambience. It was 2 days before the official start of the festival and already it had that look. Everything was so familiar even though I had been there only once and that was a year ago. Ah, the happy memories!

Once we arrived at Noah's we got out and stretched out legs. Noah came outside with his youngest son and welcomed us in his laconic way. We discussed the best place to camp and he told us to do whatever we wanted. After deciding the best spot for Ted (I simply strung my hammock up as usual.), we began setting up. Immediately we discovered that when I had tried using my 12 volt car charger for my phone (which didnt work), it had blown the fuse and the rear window wouldnt go down. Fortunately Ted had a spare and the crisis was averted. It was odd and a hint at my cell phone difficulties. Once I was set up, which didnt take long, I tried charging my battery from the AC outlet on the side of the house. The LED on my charger lit up but I couldnt get it to charge the phone. I was at a loss and could only think that perhaps I fried my phone circuitry. So I walked to the top of the hill to connect to the tower and called my mum to let her know that I was incommunicado for most of the week. I was very frustrated by that turn of events. I really looked forward to reaching out to share the Cstone experience with friends and the festival phones are not really usable due to the constant wait period required by all of the people lined up to use them. In an emergency, I could use Ted's phone but he has roaming charges while I do not. So I turned my phone off to save the battery and went back to camp.

We spent most of the evening getting reacquainted with some of the staff people that are friends of Ted's. Mark, especially, spent quite a bit of time talking with us. I decided to peruse the schedule of events to see if there was anything I wanted to see in the next 2 days. There wasnt really anything especially. I did, however, realise that without my phone, I had no way of keeping track of time. Grrr. Fortunately, Ted has a battery powered alarm clock that he is willing to allow me to use this week.

I used the clock at 3am to call in sick at UPS. We had stopped on our way down at a McDonald's and I had gotten a chicken salad. The chicken was lukewarm and I remembered that a friend of mine had mentioned a week ago of being quite sick after eating some McDonald's chicken. I used that as my excuse. I told my supervisor that I was spending too much time in the bathroom after eating the chicken. Although it was meant to deceive, I didnt say anything that was strictly false... Hmmm. Hopefully my taking 3 days off will not have serious repercussions. Anyway, that was Monday.