What an amazing trip! At first I was bummed when I realized that we were only going to be able to go to one of the Red Rocks shows. Luckily my tickets were for the Night 2 show on 9/10/2005! My friend Jessica and I had tickets for the 13th row!
We drove from Belleville, Illinois (right outside of St Louis, MO) on Friday morning. The trip to Denver took us 12 hours of straight driving. We only stopped for gas and for the Kansas State Trooper that clocked us doing 83mph in a 70mph zone. Luckily she only gave us a warning which I thought was awesome of her to do.
We had reservations at the Golden Gate State Park for the next three nights of camping. We were hoping to be able to buy some tickets for the other nights off of people at the concerts. We did know that we were going to one show, so that is all that mattered. The park was beautiful! It was high up in the mountains outside of Denver, about 19 miles from Golden, Colorado.
It was quiet, clean and very peaceful. Our campsite was in the Reverends Ridge section of the park right across from the showers and bathrooms. We stayed in the F-Loop site 64. We couldn't have asked for a better spot. It was the perfect place to relax for a few days.
After we arrived at the campsite, we set up the tent and some other things and then drove down to one of the local stores to buy some fire wood and charcoal so that we could cook dinner on. When we got back to the camp, we started a fire and figured out what we were going to eat for dinner. Before started any of that, we opened a much needed beer for each of us. They tasted so good after a 12 hour drive. That night was so cold. I was not prepared for the cold nights. I only packed about 2 blankets total. I couldn't sleep at all so I finally went into the car to sleep. That didn't work too well, so I went back to the tent and finally fell asleep when the sun came up. I slept until about 12:30pm.
We went to Golden, CO to tour the Coors Brewery later the day on the 12th. It was a pretty good tour where at the end they give you 3 samples of their different beers. The hospitality room is where the drinks were served and it was pretty nice compared to some of the other Brewery's that I have been to. We finished our three drinks each and walked out of the hospitality room. We still had plenty of time before the concert that night so we tore off the arm bands that we had and removed the "21" stamp that they placed on our hands. We then re-entered the tour and asked to go straight to the hospitality room instead of taking the tour. They gave us a new arm band and stamped our hands again and then off we went to get some more free beer.
So after 6 beers and a couple of hours, we left there and headed straight to Red Rocks. When we arrived, everyone was tailgating in the parking lot so we decided to join them. We had plenty of beer and Jameison Irish Whiskey. It was nice to be able to sit there and drink some cold beer while waiting for the concert to get closer to starting.
After a while, we decided to head into the venue. It took us a while to get up to the concert area. It was a nice little hike and we both had to use the bathroom very bad!! I didn't think I was going to make it. We finally got in and found the much needed restroom. We then made our way toward out seats. We had smuggled in a camera, so we decided to take a couple of pictures of each other with Red Rocks in the background. A nice lady that worked for the band told us that they were not allowed and that we should hide the camera so the Red Rock employees didn't see it. She said they would take it away from us. We were able to get the pictures though and started to walk on the front row in-front of the stage. I heard the noise level rise as we walked dead center of the stage. I looked toward there and saw Dave Matthews walking up to the microphone so that he could introduce the John Butler Trio who was the opening band. I was in total shock. Dave was no more that 30 feet from us! It was amazing. I wish the camera would have been easily accessible but it was hidden in Jess's purse. That was the closest that I had ever been to Dave! It was one of the highlights of the night. 
After we got to our seats, the John Butler Trio played for about an hour or so, I thought they were great! They seem to be a pretty good jam band.
Then about 45 minutes after they ended, DMB started the show with Seek Up! From then on it was one awesome song after another. I have never seen the band play with so much enthusiasm as they did that night. It seemed to me that they did not want to stop playing any of the songs. They played for a very long time! It was awesome to see and feel the energy from Dave and the rest of the band! They played about 18 or 19 songs that I thought was the best set list I have heard live. They capped off the night with 
"Two Step!" I couldn't believe it! They opened with "Seek Up" and ended with "Two Step" with "Crash Into Me" thrown in there! I am so thankful that I got tickets for the night 2 show! I am excited because there is talk of them releasing the entire four days on DVD. I pray that they do. That would be the greatest!!
After the concert we drove back to the camp and decided to go to bed. This time I had about 4 layers of clothes on plus the blankets. I still woke up cold but not as bad as the night before. I woke up around 8 am and started a fire to get the morning chill out of the air. Later on during the day we decided to leave that afternoon to come home instead of the next morning. So, we packed everything up after cooking some bratwurst for lunch and headed on home. It took us about 2 hours longer, but it wasn't a big deal. We left Colorado at 3:30pm CST and arrived in Belleville around 5:30 CST.
I traveled over 1900 miles in three days to see one concert. But it was worth every minute, mile and dollar spent! I will never forget this trip. It was a blast!
Hopefully next year I will be able to do something similar. I would drive or fly anywhere to see them if I could. I could never get tired of that.
Wow! What a wild month for weather. Right now I am watching the news as Hurricane Rita approaches the Texas/Louisiana Coast. It is still about 6 hours away from making landfall, but there is already some damage occuring in many area's. The levee's in New Orleans have been breached again, so parts of the city are flooding again! Luckily all of the people are not there this time except for the reporters that continue to put themselves in harms way. I think it is amazing what Mother Nature can do. A lot of people have evacuated the coast after seeing the devastation that Katrina caused just a month ago. People are definitely taking hurricanes more seriously, which is good.
What an amazing trip! At first I was bummed when I realized that we were only going to be able to go to one of the Red Rocks shows. Luckily my tickets were for the Night 2 show on 9/10/2005! My friend Jessica and I had tickets for the 13th row!
