I would first like to acknowledge weather.com for their incompetence. I checked Sunday's weather in Naperville every day for five days leading into Naperville ribfest. I saw the same hourly report every time. Plenty of sun early, ten percent chance of rain till about 2 pm, then about a 30 percent chance of an isolated thunderstorm for the entire night, and a brief period of 40 percent between 5 and 7 p.m.
So after seeing Louis Zamperini's video interview at Christ Community Church, I went outside and realized the skies from blue when I walked inside to that bright gray where you can see the sun shining form behind. I began driving south towards Naperville North high school. Halfway through my drive, the steady rain began. I thought ok, it's good if this rain gets out of here now. I arrived as the brief shower stopped, and found out from the volunteers that the park would open at 1 pm, instead of 12. Not the worst news in the world. I drove five minutes to downtown and sat out by the riverwalk. I tried to tan, but the clouds kept getting darker. I got back to Naperville North around 12:30 and by now a crowd of maybe 30 people was standing around in the parking lot. But the ominous sign to me was those bright gray clouds had turned completely black. My mom called and she told me hail the size of lemons was falling in St. Charles. That surprised me because it wasn't even raining where I was. Then I decided to drive over to the the park to see what was going on. During my drive, the rain poured down like buckets. One of those rains where even the fastest windshield wiper speed doesn't look like it's making much of a difference. Mom called again and told me our electricity was out. So finally, I decided to just head home.
I think it was around 12:45 when I left, leaving me about a 30 minute ride, even with several traffic lights out of order.halfway through, when I was driving west on Rt 38 in West Chicago, I could spot little patches of blue sky. The rain ended just before I got home, around 1 p.m. So I picked Mom up and we headed to Outback in Bloomingdale for lunch. Used my $25 card. We went outside and the weather was back to 90 degrees, blue skies. Not a hint of gray anywhere to be seen. I was starting to feel just a little annoyed that I agreed to head out with mom. Then we went into the mall and mom ran a few errands at Carson's and Kohl's. We also spent a half hour browsing through CD's at the Half Price store. But getting home was the worst. Three or four lights on Army Trail were out, which meant a lot of 4-way stops. We finally got in around 4 pm and even though a part of me didn't want to go back, I knew I didn't want to stay home all night. And I had already brought my $20 ticket and I knew I would never be getting a refund.
So I swallowed my pride and headed back to Naperville. After taking the shuttle, which was delayed since they were changing drivers, I got to the park around 5:45. I headed straight to the rib vendors and man, the lines were as long as I can remember and I've been to this festival maybe 5 or 6 times. It took me 20 minutes to get through Howling Coyotes and 30 minutes to get through Hog Wild aka Smokin Joe's. The Coyotes sampler was ok, the meat wasn't as tender as I was hoping. I got a half slab at Hog Wild, which was really good again. I still think this is my new fave even though the awards keep going to places like Porky n Beans, Armadillo's, and Uncle Bub's. I would have like to have grabbed one more sampler from maybe Mojo's or Armadillo's, but it was just too late in the day. I also had a corn muffin, roasted ear of corn, and a lemonade. I headed back towards the main stage and grabbed a strawberry/pina colada smoothie inside a pineapple. All in all, I think I spent $39. I thought about grabbing a plate of sweet potato fries, but even that line was at least 30 people long. Even going to the bathroom, it took 20 minutes to get inside.
The opening music act was Christian Conner and Southern Gothic, the only really memorable thing was the Russian female fiddle player in a thrash/metal type band. It was a little too metal for my liking. After they were off, Navistar and Pepsi presented some very large checks to the Rotary Cub. Then the US military officers came out while two Aurora sisters sang "The Star Spangled Banner". Very moving moment. There is still something very cool about a USA chant, it does not have to be corny at all. ZZ Top started around 8:10. Here's the setlist.
- I Thank You
- Waitin' For the Bus
- Jesus Just Left Chicago
- Pincushion
- Heard It On the X
- Gimme All Your Lovin'
- Vincent Price Blues
- Heaven, Hell, or Houston
- My Head's In Mississippi
- Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers
- Stages
- Sharp Dressed Man
- Legs
- LaGrange
- Sloppy Drunk
- Tush
A few notes: Sharp Dressed Man, Tush, and Legs got absolutely huge responses. Frank Beard drinks Tab soda; I don't if it's cool or quirky. And his bass drums had these huge skulls on them, I liked the attitude. I also like the white furry guitars Billy and Dusty play during Legs. It's amazing how good music can sound with just a guitar, bass, and drums. Even though I was surrounded by mostly sweaty, drunk men, it was just a fun show.
What wasn't as much fun was getting home. I was standing ten feet from the stage so I had to work my way past a thousand people in the dark to the north exit and to the shuttle bus. By the time I got there, the line for Naperville North was already 150 people long. Five school buses came pretty quickly. That was a good sign, I knew I would be on the next one. What I didn't know was the next bus would not arrive for another 15 minutes. I realized why ZZ Top recorded a song called "Waitin' For the Bus". Finally, we got on and I chatted with a woman from Louisiana on the way back, who spent most of her time texting with her son, trying to track down where he was. the odyssey of raising a teenage, maybe one day, I'll get to find out what that's all about. I got to my car around 10:15, pumped up the air conditioner, and got home around 10:45.
By the way, did I mention not a hint of rain or gray sky came all afternoon or all night long? Weather.com, I'm rid of you.
