What Happens When You Get Locked Out of Winter Jam

Last night was one of those unforgettable nights that will forever be categorized with the memory I have of the time we went deep sea fishing off the New Jersey coast and didn't catch a thing. It's true that what happened yesterday didn't involve fish and I didn't throw up (though at one point I felt like it), but the highlight of the trip was once again ice cream and the drive itself.

Like usual we (Andrew Pf and I) started off with a rather innocuous plan: let's go to Winter Jam 2013 in State College. Kind of as a last hurrah before he goes back to college and I head to Italy. By about 4PM we found ourselves (Andrew, me, and Dave) driving down 15, blaring Steven Curtis Chapman hits, totally psyched to be going to a concert that you pay just $10 to see 10 different artists, one of whom was TobyMac.

After enjoying a spectacular sunset, we entered State College at dark and exceedingly hungry. Since we all agreed Wegmans is just about the best place in the world, we plugged that into multiple iPhones, intending to meet a couple more friends there for dinner. However, being 3 teenagers, we hadn't exactly counted on traffic. We obliviously missed the exit that would have taken us around the Winter Jam traffic jam, and even though our next option was only a 1/4 mile away, it took us 30 minutes to get to that point. It wouldn't have been that bad seeing as we didn't mind getting to the concert a few minutes late, and we could just talk away the time until then; but I was driving since we had decided to take Harry (voted most reliable, with the best tire tread and miles per) so for me the 30 mins was spent in first gear, hopping on and off the clutch every 10-25 secs. Of course the moment I thought we were going to sit still for a while and I put it in neutral was always the moment we got to move a whole 3 feet so I eventually gave it up and just let my left calf muscle get a good workout.

We made it to Wegmans about 6:30, in time to meet up with a couple more people. We ate semi-leisurely, so we weren't back in the car until five minutes after the concert started. It was only a ten minute drive from there to the Bryce Jordan Center; however, the route we took drove us right past the Berkey Creamery. Home to the best ice cream in the world, if you ask me. On a whim, we stopped. After all, the only thing we were missing was a few of the lesser known bands, right? So we parked and, seeing as it was kind of cold, sprinted to the door. Later, having consumed a ginormous amount of ice cream, we sprinted back.

Now, we thought, we are ready for Winter Jam.

By now--8PM--the roads were clear and we easily found a parking space. Still, it was cold, so we made another mad dash to the door.

The doors didn't open though. And someone wearing an orange vest told us it was sold out. Had sold out while we were still in Wegmans. No more room. All 15,000 seats and floor space full.

We stood there for a second, letting the realization sink in, that we just possibly drove 2 hours to eat at Wegmans and have some ice cream (albeit good ice cream). I think we started laughing; really what else can you do?

The person in the orange vest informed us there was another "consolation-prize-concert" going on around back. We jogged over there and joined a small group of shivering people attempting to get into a song being performed by Jamie Grace. She's cute.

Another guy came out then, who I didn't recognize, and we were able to jump around some to his music. But within 20 mins we were freezing to death, no matter how much we kept up with the beat. So we sprinted back to the car and piled in (literally--the backseat of Harry is a joke whose main purpose is to provided the owner with an illusion of space) to warm up and figure out what to do next. For some reason, we decided to hit up the library. So we drove down there, parked, sprinted, and ended up in the quiestest place on campus instead of the loudest place, like we had intended.

We laughed some more at our ridiculous situation.

In the end, we spent an hour at the beautiful Paterno library and, after using the bathrooms, reading newspapers, and calculating how much money the artists at Winter Jam were making (probably not very much, we concluded), someone brought up gun control. I think it was Andrew. After debating that for a while, we decided to start heading home before the concert let out and traffic got jammed again.

Thus ensued another mad dash through the cold (at which point the sub, coffee, and ice cream decided my stomach was not the happiest place for them to live, but they stayed content where they were. Yay for no seasickness).

Thanks in part to the way everything has to come back to God, gun control eventually turned into theology and the drive back to Wellsboro went by quickly and sweetly (and safely :P).

We all said goodbye in Andrew's driveway, still shivering, and I drove home, arriving a lot earlier than I thought I would, having spent an evening doing nothing that we had planned. The $10 admission fee is still in the pocket of my skinny jeans, and I didn't see TobyMac. But in it's own epic, unexpected way, it turned into the best, unbelievably classic and descriptive of my life, night ever.

I'm still laughing.