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Road Trip! Crusing from Plattsburgh to Burlington for a good time Story and photos by Todd Costello With the cold setting in, weekends can get pretty repetitive. You go to the same few bars and restaurants every night and this weekend, I decided to change the scenery a little bit, and road-tripped with a few friends to Burlington for the night to see a concert performed by G. Love and the Special Sauce. My goal was to have fun without emptying my pockets. As we got ourselves together, the snow started coming down hard, and we had to get moving so we wouldn't get stuck before we left our apartments. We left at noon with our cameras and our $20 tickets to Higher Ground to see G. Love and the Special Sauce. Our first stop was the ferry to get us into Vermont. For about $15 I got my round trip ticket. As the ferry chomped through the ice, the snow started falling harder. Our first sight off the ferry was a huge group of wind-boarders. With the blizzard blazing heavily outside, a sea of airborne parachutes attached to over 100 boarders was all that we could see. For about a half mile or so down the road, they were everywhere.
As we approached South Burlington and got closer to Church Street, the number of pedestrians grew. The whole town was coming out and getting ready for the annual Mardi Gras parade. As we were approaching Higher Ground, we were starving and couldn't help but notice a sign for Hooters down the road. We decided this was the perfect spot to satisfy our appetites. About an hour later, we were stuffed and saw enough cleavage for a few days. After we relaxed a while, we went back over to Church Street. The parade was just wrapping up, and what was left on the street consisted of broken beads and some of the drunkest people I've seen. If it was up to me I would've stayed with these guys all day, but after we took pictures, we kept walking.
With a few hours to burn before the concert, we decided to wander Church Street a little bit and go into a few shops and stores that you can't find in Plattsburgh. Since there were two girls with us, a clothing store was first on the list. We went to Urban Outfitters for a while, which was a great store with a lot of brands like Lacoste and Le Tigre that are hard to find unless you go to outlet stores closer to New York City. The store also offered a large amount of vintage clothes and everything from pillows to posters for decorating a room. After about an hour of reading the unusual books they had for sale with my roommate Eric, and after the girls spent about $100 on unnecessary clothes, we moved on. Toward the end of Church Street we went into Full Tank, a store that sells tobacco pipes and accessories. We spent a little while looking at the interesting glass work and pictures they sold. Keeping my mind set on spending as little as possible, I didn't even reach for my wallet. As it got later and closer to concert time, we had about two hours to burn. The temperature also dropped about 20 degrees as the sun went down. Before we went back to Higher Ground, we stopped at the Burlington Square mall to get some coffee and warm up a little. We met up with a few friends in the Higher Ground parking lot and got last minute munchies before the concert. When one of my friends mentioned a place called Al's Fries that is right across the street, we quickly decided to try it out. By this time it was about 0 degrees outside and it was snowing so hard that you could only see about five feet in front of you. We got out of the car and saw the Al's Fries sign, but between us and the food stood a busy street with snow covered roads. Before I could even think, my friends darted across the road. The first car slammed on its breaks and started fishtailing toward us. The car behind also slammed on its breaks, and slid closer to the rear of the first car. We almost caused a huge accident just to sit down and eat greasy burgers and fries. When 8 o'clock rolled around, we got our tickets and went into Higher Ground, where there were two bars flowing with customers waiting for the opening act to come on stage. The opening act was a country folk singer and wasn't announced on the web site so it was a surprise to everyone. The woman played for about 45 minutes, stringing together poorly covered songs and some original material. She attempted to cover Angel From Montgomery and the Rolling Stones classic, Wild Horses. She pretty much butchered the classics and there was a feeling of relief when she finished her last song and left the stage.When G. Love came on stage, they started and finished strong. Their set lasted about an hour-and-a-half and by the sound of the crowd, everyone in Higher Ground loved their performance. They gave an encore of their three most popular songs and finished the set by throwing his harmonica into the crowd. I was right up by the stage and actually got a hand on the harmonica when he threw it, but dropped it on the floor and then the mob came and swept it up.
As Higher Ground emptied, the snow finally stopped. South Burlington looked like a ghost town, and we started the drive home around 1:30 a.m. By the time we were back on the ferry, I passed out in the passenger seat. I spent about $50 for a day of non-stop activity in snow-covered Burlington. It is a trip I suggest everybody within reasonable distance take. Can you think of any more unique stops that we should add to this road trip? Let us know! |
Upcoming performances at Higher Ground: March 12 : Dilated Peoples with Little Brother March 17 : Ben Lee March 30 : Taproot April 10 : The Starting Line April 11 : Switchfoot
April 13-15 : The Disco Biscuits April 19 : Ghostface Killah April 21 : Badfish - Tribute to Sublime May 5 : Saves The Day Photo courtesy of Higher Ground
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