A long strange trip it has been indeed. For the Grateful Dead… sure, but for me… definitely. Leading into the Grateful Dead reunion concert in San Jose, California my life was inundated with my baby boy's cancer battle. My buddy, Ben, asked me to help him out by getting into the lottery for him to try to get tickets. Of course, we all won tickets, and then I knew that there was no way that Ben was going to let me off the hook on an event such as this. You see, I am not a "Dead Head" by any definition of the title. While I do enjoy some Grateful Dead tunes, my real influence from the group came via Jerry Garcia's exploits in the bluegrass genre, namely the classic bluegrass album, "Old and In The Way". My Dad was a big bluegrass man. I suppose it says a lot about my upbringing that still to this day a song like, Panama Red, gets me all nostalgic of times gone by with my family. I should mention that I am a bit claustrophobic and the idea of slamming into Levi Stadium with 80,000 Dead Heads indeed made me a bit anxious. However, my buddy Ben is one hell of a salesman, and the idea of missing out on the nation's biggest party when I had two tickets in hand… well, let's just say I am typically not one to turn away from a good party. Especially one in which I can go with some of my best ski buddies from the Wasatch for a once in a lifetime kind of ordeal. My wife felt I was deserving of the outing and obliged. I got my buddy, Wes, to take on the other ticket, and we were off.
