On Saturday May 13th 2000, 2 others: Mike, and Doug, and myself embarked on another one of our adventures. I was driving, and we set out for a 4 hour road trip to see Weird Al Yankovich in concert at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA. We had 5th row seats!! The weather people had been calling for rain and thunderstorms, but as we left, it was just cloudy. As we traveled farther away from Altoona, the sun came out. We were listening to the smattering of CD's that we brought along, and chatting about this and that.

Everyone in the car was excited about getting to the concert. We're travelling along, and I am passing someone going slow in the fast lane. I glance to the side of the road and see a cop clocking people. I look down at the speedometer, and I was going 85. I tried to slow down, but I couldn't in time, he had already gotten me. BUSTED!! I look in my rear view, and sure enough, he's pulling out onto the road. I slow down for him to catch up, he gets behind me and flashes his lights.

I pull over, tell Mike to get the folder with my registration out of the glove box. I roll down the window and get my license ready. He approaches the car, and tells me "You're going to be receiving a ticket in the mail for going 84, way too fast", and asks for my license and stuff. He takes my stuff back to the car and writes up my ticket. He comes back and has me sign it, gives me my copy, and goes back to his car. I look it over, $150!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was hoping that this wasn't going to be an indication of how the rest of the day was going to go. I rolled up the window and cursed the bastard, was pissed about it for about half an hour, then got over it.

We continued on driving, with me yelling obscenities every time we passed a cop by the side of the road. Mike laughed at me, and Doug was disturbed. lol We planned on stopping to eat before we got there, but we ended up driving the rest of the way there without stopping. We got off the turnpike, and drove into town. We got on the street the Theatre was supposed to be on, and drove. I had Mike check out the map, and we had passed it, but never saw it. We turned around in a gas station parking lot, and headed back the way we came. I had remembered the address of the Theatre and found the street it was on, and turned down it. Low and behold, there it was. It looked like a store front, that's how small it looked. We all said, "THIS is it??"

We drove by it once more, and indeed, it was it. There was practically no parking around, so we found a place behind the theatre, and walked around and headed into the lobby. We asked the people at the ticket window when we could go in, and they said we had to wait about a half an hour. We stood in the lobby and looked around and some of the stuff they had hanging on the walls, and read the list of people that were to be coming later that summer.

The lobby door opens and this guy walks in, followed by about 6 little girls. I thought to myself, that guy looks a lot like Weird Al. IT WAS WEIRD AL. I was standing there, not even 10 feet away from him, and was speechless. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open drooling on myself. lol I nodded his head at us and said hey, the door buzzed open for him, and he went into the theatre.

We all looked at each other and couldn't believe it, we couldn't believe that it was actually him. Then we were ticked because none of us said anything. There were no cameras allowed in the theatre, so we couldn't have even gotten a picture with him. We waited in the lobby about another 15 minutes, still beaming that we had actually seen Weird Al that close. We were finally let into the theatre, and it was beautiful on the inside. We found our seats, and we were even closer than we thought we were going to be.

I was still disappointed that we weren't allowed to have cameras, because I would have been able to get a LOT of really great pictures. Four o'clock comes, and it is time for the show to start. Some guy walks out on stage and asks if we're ready for Weird Al, the audience screams "Yeah!" However, this guy was a comedian and was the opening act. He was pretty funny, and lasted about 20 minutes or so.

Finally, after a "short" intermission, the show begins. He is so amazing in concert. He changes costumes between practically every song. The lighting he has is cool too. It's all programmed with the songs and beats. The effects he had were fantastic too. During the one song, his christmas song, it was "snowing". There were foamy bubbles shooting out of the top of the lighting fixtures, and it really looked like it was snowing in the theatre. In another song, he had bubbles floating all over the place. And in many, he had the smoke machine going.

During the one song, he came out in the audience in the aisle I was sitting in. I was so close to him, I could have grabbed his butt, although I didn't. It was still early in the concert, and I didn't want to get kicked out. lol All in all, it was so worth the money to go, and even getting the $150 speeding ticket. If he ever came around here again, I would definatly go see him.

After the concert, we exited the building and went to the car. We noticed all of these people standing outside of the back of the theatre. I told Mike to take my camera, and to go over there, just in case he was there. Unfortunatly, he never came out so we didn't get to see him again. We got back in the car and headed for home.

The ride home was another adventure in itself. We had planned on stopping and staying at a hotel if I was too tired to drive the 4 hours back. As we started driving, I thought I would be able to make it the whole way home. We drove for about and hour, and it was still light outside. All of the sudden, it starts getting darker. I look up, and the clouds are black as night to where were are driving to. I say to the guys that I think we're going to run into a storm. As we keep driving, it keeps getting darker and darker.

Then, the wind starts to blow like crazy. Leaves and debris are flying all over the place. I think make the comment I felt like I was in the movie Twister. We continue driving, and all of the sudden is starts pouring rain. I don't mean a drop here and there, then gets worse, it's like someone dumped 100 gallons on the car all at once. I had the winshield wipers up as fast as they could go, and I still couldn't see anything. I say to the guys that we should pull over soon because it was raining so bad. Then, the lightning starts, it's streaking all over the sky.

Finally, I see an exit for Lancaster, and decide to pull over. We needed to eat dinner anyway, and there was a restaurant called Zinn's right off the exit. We stop and eat dinner, which was excellent by the way. The storm is slowing down, and we continue driving. We drive for about another hour, and my eyes are getting dry, and I can hardly keep them open. I decide it's time to pull over and call it a night. We stop in Carlisle, another place I have been before.

We stop and go to the Motel 6, and get a room. The room is descent, and we watch TV for a little while, then go to sleep. We wake up around 9 the next morning, and get ready to leave. We are hungry, and we find a place to eat, the Western Sizzlin. We get pancakes, eggs, and stuff and it's yummy, and the service was good. After filling out tummy's with some fuel, we drive home. The weather is beautiful the rest of the way home, the sun is shining, and it's warm. It was a great ending to our long adventure.