fru-tripping across the universe

Anyone care to share memorable Frutripping experiences? Let's get nostalgic and
weepy for things that happened just a few years ago! :)

Carey could have told this story herself, and probably much better. She'd even get the facts straight.

Carey, Shelly, and myself were planning on all of us getting together for the first time at the Allentown show. Then a hitch developed, Carey couldn't get a ride. I came up with the solution. I simply went to Allentown Via Baltimore. For those of you who don't know the geography, that is not the best route, Baltimore is about four hours away from me and Allentown about two.

Despite this apparent flaw it was an excellant plan. I got to see Carey's Concert Choir perform before we left. Carey and played a great round of getting to know you on the ride to Allentown. When we got there Shelly was saving us a place on line and it all worked out great.

There was still one problem though, getting Carey home. This was on a Sunday night and I had to teach the next morning. I was prepared to drive her home and then turn right around and drive back to New York. I wouldn't have gotten any sleep but it was doable. Shelly had a better idea though, she drove Carey home and spent the night there. She had to work in the morning too but it is a much shorter trip to Philly than to New York.

This story is hard to explain to people who aren't Fruheads. They tend to think of it as being insane instead of creative thinking.

Two more shorter frutripping stories. I drove to Frucon 2000 with Lisa. On the way we got a flat tire in Pennsylvania. We stopped right by a sign that said Tobyhanna 1 mile. I had to call AAA to change the tire and the truck came from Murray's Towing. We of course got pics of both the sign and the tow truck. We are very easily amused. On the way to Frucon 2001 I was going with Lisa and Gella. On route 17 I was pulled over for speeding. I was doing 78 in a 55 mph zone. I got worried when the state troupler made me get out of the car, I never had that happen before. I think he might have been wondering what I was doing with those two attractive young women in my car. While he was running the check on my plates we started talking. I told him that we were driving up to Frucon and explained about Fruvous. We talked about the band and the con and he ended up not even giving me a ticket. He then made my day by asking me if I went to school with Gella and Lisa. Well I guess I could have as their teacher :-)

I remember posting a message on fhdc saying, "Coming through Buffalo? Can you help me get to FruCon 2000?" My family thought I was nuts, but Stacey met me ahead of time to see if we'd be able to handle each other for a few hours. We wound up running all over Toronto together looking for scavenger hunt items, including that nifty rhinoceros bike horn we eventually gave to Murray later that year. <Sigh.>
Just thinking about frutripping gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Would have to be going to the Vault in Baltimore, which was a great show because they played "Fell In Love". :)

I went by myself to the show, but I was meeting up with my then girlfriend who lived in Baltimore. She seemed to especially enjoy Psycho Killer.

When I saw Fruvous at Bottom Line later in July of 2000, I told Jian that I saw them last in Baltimore with my girlfriend, but that she was no more. Jian said, "Oh, I'm so sorry." I said, "No, not like that, we broke up."

I guess the closest things I have to Frutripping are my trips to Frucon 2001, and FRFF 2001 & 2002. Frucon 2001 was with Gella and Shelly, and a streetcar almost drove right into ME! Darn Toronto traffic laws. Other than that, the journey there and back was uneventful other than singing along to Buffy the Musical and listening to The Boob Fairy.

Getting to FRFF 2001 was interesting becxause Gella and I got there so late that we couldn't find upstairs Camp Fruvous. Gella was shouting, "MOXY!" and of course I shouted "FRUVOUS!" and Gella said, "Silly, I shout Moxy, THEY shout Fruvous!" Me: "Oh. I'm stupid."

FRFF 2002 will of course go down in history for Melissa and I coming to a screeching halt on the Taconic helping out Shelly with her flat tire. Not to mention getting harassed by a cop saying we could have pulled off to the extreme side of the road (Yes, and I'll get a flat tire as well for driving on the grass because there was no shoulder).

Nevertheless, we got the spare tire on and escorted Shelly to a tireshop in Poughkeepsie that we couldn't find. We went drove through the entire town, we finally found a place by using Clem power. (Don't laugh, it works. I was thinking Clem Power, and BAM! There was a tire shop.)

Being a Thursday afternoon, it was open thank goodness, and also thank goodness for the nice weather. I took Shelly's and Melissa's pic in front of the tire sign (It's in my profile), and we were off the rest of the way.

Ah, adventures.

there was the time i met melinda, of course... i decided to be crazy and actually go up to Toronto for one of these crazy FruCons I'd heard about... but how in the heck was i gonna get to toronto? Anita had the perfect solution. She took me to a DVN concert and introduced me to her friend Melinda who she said would be perfect since she needed a travelling companion and i needed a ride. So yeah... the day before the Con I met melinda at the car rental place, stuck my stuff in the car and hopped in. Melinda popped in a cd and we both started singing along. Then at the same time, we both started harmonizing. Can you say soulmate? 10 hours in a car with a perfect stranger and i never had more fun in my life. Oh yeah, and we spent a night at Maggie Deegan's in Rochester. Sleepover!
Then there was the secret Bryn Mawr May Day show... it was put up on the concert dates page and then taken down because it was a students only show and Bryn Mawr college was getting a lot of phone calls they didn't want to deal with so they asked that the concert not be publicly advertized. so the date came down off the page and everyone thought the show was cancelled. Another show was scheduled for later the same night in Allentown, so everyone thought the show was moved. Hee... I knew something you didn't know! My sister went to Bryn Mawr at the time and she invited me to May Day. There were other people there who knew of and liked Fruvous but I was the only *Fruhead* there. It was kinda cool.
After the May Day concert was over a friend (I forget who, to be honest) picked me up and whisked me off to Allentown. BOO-YEAH! During the show Jian said "So we played a concert earlier today at Bryn Mawr... was anyone there?" I went "WHOOOOOO!!!" ...pause... Jian says "One lonely woman. Thank you."

I never would've made any Frushows if it hadn't been for FHDC...back in the day, I didn't have a car, and most of my friends were kind of homebodies or didn't like Fruvous anyway. I got to my first Frushow, at the 9:30 in 11/99, by begging for a ride in the Frutripping Plans here. Tim Train graciously offered me a ride along with his caravan of Hopkins alums, and we all ate Thai food and saw Princess Mononoke. A week later, he called me with an extra ticket to the Collingswood show. And yes, I did have an 8am class the next morning, but it's like I let that stop me.

Gordon's already mentioned the events of the Allentown show, so I won't bother to rehash that. Altho I will say that the ride up there was probably one of the most fun road trips of my life. Even if I wouldn't sing for him. :)

And of course there was FRFF '00, when I agreed to ride up, camp, and then spend a romantic b&b night with a Chicago boy I'd never met in person. :)

And if you had told me just a few years earlier that I'd spend my senior year of college hopping in and out of the cars of strange men to go up and down the coast to follow a weird little Canadian band, I never would've believed you.

For Frucon '01, I arranged to rent a room with Tanya, whom I had never met before. On getting to the hotel, I asked the desk clerk whether someone named Tanya had checked in yet. She asked what Tanya's last name was...

Now, it's a perfectly reasonable assumption that if you are sharing a hotel room with someone a few nights, you'd know what her last name is. Which is why, when I had absolutely no idea, the lady looked at me kinda funny...

Tanya and I had a blast during the Con, and when we did some Sunday afternoon sight seeing, we nearly ended up at the Toronto Car Show instead of the CN tower. Advice - look at the sign on the ticket booth, and ascertain that the tickets which you have purchased are indeed for that which you intended to buy tickets.