(All Images and Photos via NYCDreamin Archives)So you gotta love Facebook. Last weekend, I was sitting around doing nothing much of interest. The Gorgeous One was off at work so it was just me and the cat and quite frankly I was bored with him. I was messing around on Facebook and I decided to look for a childhood friend who I'd looked for previously without success. Well, I type his name and...BAM! There he is. I can hardly believe it! This guy wasn't just a friend - we were best freinds for a long time - from 3rd through 9th or early 10th grade. We lost touch back in 1985 when he moved to Florida...hadn't spoken since. So of course I shot him a message and a friend request. Just minutes later we were on the phone speaking to each other for the first time in 25 years. Turns out he's back from Florida and is living about 45 minutes from me. We fall into conversation easily like we'd just spoken the previous day or something.
A few minutes into our conversation he tells me of another close friend of ours from back in those days who he has been back in touch with and it turns out our friend made good on his promise to play the guitar. "T" tells me this other friend, "W" has a band called Division Nine that is playing at a place the following weekend (last night) at place called the Bonfire Bar & Grille in Litchfield, MN, about an hour and fifteen minutes west of the Twin Cities and suggests that maybe we should meet up there and say hi to each other in person after a quarter-deacade seperation. I, of course, agree to this idea immediately and the plan is made.
So Saturday arrives and we're ready to head off to the show to see my old friends. It's cold as hell out but no precipitation so the hour and a half drive goes smoothly and The Gorgeous One and I soon find ourselves on the outskirts of Litchfield at the
Bonfire Bar and Grille.
As the flyer at the top of the page states, the bar was hosting their 14th Annual "Toys For Kids" Fundraiser that was sponsored by the South Central Chapter/ABATE Minnesota, so as such, we walked in and the place is filled with bikers - no problem, just an observation. We take a quick look around and find there is a silent auction going on and a rather large dining area around the corner from the main bar and the room is filled with people. The place is definately bigger inside than it looks from the outside. At the far end of the room is a smallish-but-decent sized stage set up and things look pretty close to getting under way. I'm scanning the room for signs of my friend, whom I haven't seen in 25 years, and his wife, whom I've never met...and we're not seeing them. So we decide to have a seat near the bar where it's a bit less crowded and have a bite to eat. A short while later we're enjoying mozarella cheese sticks, a cheeseburger and tator tots (for me) and a shrimp dinner with tator tots for The Gorgeous One. We finish our meal and still no sign of our firend. By this time the band has come on and played a few songs already and as we see them for the first time as we come around the corner from the bar I immediately recognize my other friend, the guitarist in the band. He's the guy in the red t-shirt and shades in the promo photo here...
Division Nine, according their Facebook Page, "is a central Minnesota variety rock band. We are celebrating our 10th year together. Known as SITE in 08-09, we are back as D9, better than ever."
You can also visit the band and view some video on their Myspace page.
You can see the full set of photos from this show by clicking HERE.
So we're kind of standing around, looking around, keeping an eye out for my friend and his wife and suddenly I spot this guy talking to my buddy the guitarist, while he's playing, and sure enough it's the other friend we'd been waiting for. So we walked over to where they were and when he turned around we said hello and introduced his Wife and my Fiance and we all went over and said hello to his sister whom I'd also known so many years ago. We sat down and talked a bit and enjoyed the band as they rocked their way through covers by bands such as Motley Crue, Queensryche, The Darkness, Twisted Sister, Aerosmith, Alice In Chians, Duran Duran, Buckcherry, the Beatles and many, many more.
After a while the band took a break and we were able to say hello to our friend the guitarist. It was the first time I'd seen him in 20 years...the last time we'd seen each other had been at a Kiss concert in Duluth Minesota back in May of 1990. We stepped outside for a few minutes and he downed a beer while I had a quick smoke. A few photos were posed for (we shant bore you with those here) by old friends who were so happy to be reunited after so many years. Then it was time for "W" to get back inside and rejoin the band and begin their next set. Besides...it was really fucking cold out. So we went back inside and continued conversing and enjoying the music, the ladies getting up and dancing for several numbers while "T" and I held back and stayed at the table and talked about 25 years gone by and alot of rock and roll history while "W" and his band provided a great soundtrack for such a reunion of old friends...
Around 11:30pm or so, I headed back outside with "T"'s wife so we could have a smoke. We walked outside and, unfortunately, the weather has taken a nasty turn - its sleeting this really nasty icy sleet. It was covering everyting and the ground was pure ice. This was not a good development and a few minutes later when we are back inside, the singer announces the bad weather from the stage and within a few minutes after that it's quite evident that alot of people are leaving. We decide to stay for a bit and deal with it - it's too late to avioid it anyway - it's already on the ground - so if we leave now or later it makes no real difference. So we stay on for the rest of the second set.
So the band takes their second break of the evening. More schmoozing with "W" and "T" oustide where it is absolutely nasty. We all know we're in for a long drive home. We head back inside and the band plays on. There are actually quite a few people sticking around, determined to have a good time despite Mother Nature. I step out for another smoke around 12:15pm and as I'm looking up the road a bit I can see a bunch of flashing lights...cop cars, ambulances...the road is all lit up. Something bad has happened just up the road from the club and the people outside are talking about it as as I go back inside. I tell the Gorgeous One its about time to leave.
So we say our goodbyes...I walk up to the stage and motioned to "W" that we're taking off - he nods and continues rocking out...doing the thing we all said we'd do and he's still doing it - it was so cool to see him playing rock and roll all these years later but we had to leave. We said goodbye to "T" and his wife and sister and bundled up and headed outside.
I showed The Gorgeous One the lights up the road from the little club...the cops were still up there, blocking the road off to traffic. It was a good thing we had to go the other direction. So I start the car, scrape off the 1/8" glaze of ice on the windows and let the car warm up a bit as I finish a smoke. We pull out of the parking lot, the lights of the car wreck just up the road in my rear-view mirror as we inched out onto the icy roads.
It's about 3 miles to the main highway where we are to turn and go back east and south to the Twin Cities. I inch along, getting up to about maybe 30MPH and when we get to the highway, I begin to slow down and it is evident why this will be a long drive home...we begin to slide immediately. Not badly...I was going slowly. But enough to get my attention. So we make the turn and inch our way back onto the highway and begin our slow journery back home. The roads are an ice covered sheet. It's still coming down a bit - a mix or rain and ice...it covers everything. Luckily, it's now about 1:00am and there are not very many cars on the road. We inch along, maxing out at no more than 35MPH at any given time and frequeently slower than that.
We make it it quite a ways without incident when we come to an uphill turn in the road and there is a large truck stopped in the middle of the road and a few cars have stopped behind him. Seems he can't get up the hill. We wait a bit and he finally moves and the rest of the cars are just sitting there so I decide I can make it and I go and I make it up the hill and around the corner no problem. It's icy but not impossible. So we're on our way. We take it slow and make it to just a few miles from where we are to turn on higway 41 to go south. We come around this corner and there are cops blocking the road. There is one car in front of us and he has stopped and is talking to the cops. He finally moves, the Gorgeous One rolls down her window and the cop comes up and tells us the road is closed...a bus in the middle of the road or something. They're having a hard time clearing the road. He asks where we are going, we reply "Chaska," and he says..."Hmmmm....highway 5 is closed too. So you're gonna have to go around this other way..." and he tells me where to go. We thank the nice officer and roll up the window and begin driving down this twisty, dark, ice covered road that leads through the back bays of Lake Minnestonka, back around Mound and into Wayzata. Absoultely treacherous driving conditions...worst I've ever driven in.
So we inch our way around the lake, at one point following this large truck that is slipping and sliding up this hill almost sidways at one point...and it's taking forever. I know where we're going but it's just so slow going because of the ice. But we finally make it around the lake and get to Highway 101 where the going is a bit better but still slow...seeing several cars in the ditches along the way and we make our way back to Chaska...finally arriving home at 3:30AM.
A drive that should take one hour and fifteen minutes has taken us just about three hours. I'm mentally exhausted as I park the car. We open the car doors and the ground of our parking lot is a glass-smooth ice sheet. It is dangerous just standing on it, let alone walking on it. So we inch our way up the sidwalk and inside, finally, and safely, home at last.
We were
lucky.
Today, the local news is full of stories of how the ice and bad driving conditions has caused an amazing number of accidents in the past 18 hours or so, including, sadly, the one we'd seen just ouside the Bonfire Bar and Grille where we had enjoyed our evening out with our friends.
From
StarTribune.com: (11/21/10)
About 75 of the 438 reported crashes in Minnesota involved injuries, the State Patrol reported at noon Sunday. Of the accidents, 376 were in the metro area, including 165 spinouts off the roads.
Two fatal accidents were reported. The first happened on an icy highway in Meeker County, south of Litchfield, shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday. Kimberly A. Mead, 44, of Willmar, Minn., was killed when she was thrown from a vehicle driven by Ronda L. Malvin, 43, of Raymond, Minn. Their car was southbound on Hwy. 22 when it lost traction and slid sideways into the northbound lane, according to the State Patrol. The car, with five occupants, was hit by another car. Two other passengers in Malvin’s car were hospitalized in critical condition.
(Image via: Centristy.com)
