Summer Slam, Grand Prairie, and Alberta. Two of these three sucked big time. (WALL OF TEXT)

Friday after work, Nicola Irwin and I began our journey towards Grande Prairie, where the Summer Slam music event is being held. Unbeknowst to me, this will be the worst trip of my life.

The drive there would normally take approximately 130 minutes. It took us right about 300 minutes to get there. The reason for this is that the Green Pellet (Nicky's V-hickle) doesn't like the heat very much. Just as we were 30 minutes down the road, the car starts having problems and periodically stalls (and thus we have to lift up the hood, let it cool, and then restart.) This problem got so bad that if the car stops accelerating (or revving) , the engine will stall. This means that obeying stop signs was absolutely impossible. Any kind of left turn was out of the question, and all right turns had to be done with a rolling stop. It also meant problems when we confronted slow-moving vehicles because it usually means that we have to slow down (which would stall the engine.)

In total, I think we had twenty stalling incidences. In my mind, the first few stops were scary and unusual. This shouldn't be happening. The next few were actually kind of fun, in a way, because it was difference. As the drive went on in the blazing heat, it quickly turned into boredom, and then frustration. I want to stress the fact that this was 33+ degrees with no air conditioning.

At approximately 9:30 pm BC-time, we got pulled over by the police for speeding (80 in a 50 zone). I was mortified. Nicky managed to explain the situation in such a way that we were left off the hook. At least that was sometime, right?

By 10:30pm, we had reached Grand Prarie at last. Phoning Ricky Tang for the location of the actual event, we made our way according to the directions. This was fine, except that the directions were totally bogus and wrong. We drove across the town, hitting the city limits at least twice. After making a U-turn, Nicky accidentally drove on an unknown paved road.. It was wide enough for just a car. It turned out that the road was supposed to be for pedestrians only when we found the 'real' road on the side. Thirty minutes later, we were informed by our good friend that the concert had ended. (GP operated on Albertan time, which meant it was midnight already. )At this point, we were tired, hungry, and angry.

The city of Grand Prarie had a terrible City Planner. Located on the vast Albertan wasteland, the city was completely flat and had plenty of room for expansion. Instead of having straight-forward roads which were completely straight, it had roads which bend in unnecessary and confusing directions. They should have just laid it out like a checkered-board. The lack of any identifying features of the city added to the confusion. There were no Oceans or Mountains or Rivers or any reasonably tall building .We couldn't really orientate ourselves and frequently had to back track when we went in the wrong direction. Exasperating this was the fact that almost all major roads has an island blocking the two different direction traffic. This made going into shops very annoyingly time consuming.

After meeting up with the other group, we went to a bar. We got hammered over a duration of about two hours. I still retain my memory of the whole event- Nicky does not.

In the morning, we were greeted by the sounds of a bulldozer and an asphalt roller at the cabin we're staying at. This meant we had less than 6 hours of sleep. I was a bit hungover.

We went to Denny's for breakfast, arriving at 11am local. We were served at noon, and finished at about 12:30. Afterwards, we went to the mall, where I bought Planet Puzzle League, Civ 3, and CNC Generals. I needed them. We got some awesome cowboy hats, then to Earl's for a late lunch//early dinner in preparation for the upcoming final night of Summer Slam. We had too much time, and ended up driving to their downtown east side. We walked by some questionable people who looked like professional ladies of the night outside of an unnamed bar. Interestingly enough, on the opposite corner of that was a toy model shop where kids go to play. Even more interesting was that the model shop was several shops down from an adults video store.

We finally made it to Summer Slam at 7pm local time. The actual thing wasn't bad. The first guy who played was desperately trying to sell his album. He even brought a sharpie so that, you know, he could maybe sign it if you wanted to buy it. Next was a guy who goes by the name of Tom and two other people. They weren't that bad, actually.

Payola was up next, and they were genuinely good. They got a little angry due to the lack of participation from the audience.

The Tragically Hip was up next. I only had one of their albums before this event, and I'm sure that I'll get more now. We went to the pit floor right near the stage. Neat, but painfully loud. There was cheering waving, clapping, and generally-good-time having. Due to the noise level, I retreated away from the pit into a more reasonable sounding zone. I think there were about a thousand people there in total. This time, it ended 11:30 local time.

Nicky and I decided that we wanted out of this town. We didn't want a repeat of the whole drive on Friday so we decided to blast out of the town. During the long drive, we discussed the whole flaw of Alberta, and how no one should want to live in the conservative hellhole which is filled with stupid people. On the road, we went over the remains of an unidentifiable dead animal. Its remain was split into three parts with blood all over. We could only really determine one of the legs on the creature. My theory was that a cow or an elk escaped the Albertan farms only to be hit by a car.

We got home at Tumbler Ridge at 1:37am BC time. I was just glad to be home. When I got to my apartment, I found out that my roommate had locked it using the little sliding-chain lock. You know, the one that doesn't have anything to do with the key. I tried to get the attention of my roommate, but after 5 minutes of fruitless yelling, I stopped. My neighbours didn't need this.

The time right now is 4:21AM, and I'm hiding in the laundry room of my apartment watching the sunrise and writing this whole thing down.

Summary: Went to Grand Prairie over the weekend to a music show. The ride there sucked. The stay there was very tiring and frustrating. The show wasn't bad. The ride home was insightful. Being locked out of my apartment sucked big time.

Summary of Summary: I didn't like my weekend.