7/16/2007

A Very Harry Roadtrip

So, I really should get to bed soon, but I wanted to dash off a quick update RE the roadtrip while I'm online. It's been great so far. I've made it across Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, seen some glorious scenery, including Old Faithful, Beartooth Highway, Little Bighorn Battlefield, Deadwood, Needles Scenic Highway, and Mount Rushmore, as well as lots of glorious places along the way without fancy names or distinctive fame. Lots more fun stuff still to come, as well. I'll probably give a much fuller overview later. For now, just wanted to comment on the strong theme of Harry Potter running throughout the experience thus far.

So, it started off with a Harry and the Potters (that's an Indie Wizard Rock band from MA, for the uninitiated--check out their myspace page) concert at the Seattle Public Library, followed by a viewing of the movie version of Order of the Phoenix, both of which were excellent. The former was apparently their biggest show thus far, and lots of fun with many enthusiatic fans dancing around to "Hagrid Is Fun To Hug" and singing along to "Human Hosepipe." The latter was of course hopelessly abridged, but almost everything they did decide to include, especially the characters of Luna Lovegood and Dolores Umbridge, were spot-on, IMHO.

All that excitement occurred Friday night, back in Seattle. The next morning, clad proudly in the "Save Ginny!" t-shirt I had purchased the previous evening at the concert, I departed for my great adventure. And of course what was I listening to on the journey but the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, on tape? Naturally. And THEN, I get in to this random motel in Bozeman, Montana, which wasn't even in the AAA book, and I ended up getting the number from the people at another place that was booked up. And I've checked in and I'm bringing my stuff up to my room from the car, when somebody hanging out the front door of a big van parked nearby in the lot calls out, "Hey, is that a Save Ginny Weasley shirt?" "Yes," I reply. "We're travelling with them!" he informs me excitedly. "This is their van! We've got their drummer with us. They're playing a wedding tonight, and we're meeting up in two days in Minnesota." "Wow!" I said. "I was at your show last night, in Seattle!" "Oh, then we sold you that t-shirt, didn't we?" And sure enough, he and the girl sitting in the navigator's seat had been the two behind the t-shirt table the previous evening, some 700 miles away. As it turned out, they had been assigned the room right next to mine. Some crazy coincidence, eh? Or, as the Harrys would probably have it, just a part of that magical connection forged by the conjunction of the amazing powers of love and rock.

And to top all this off, of course, the seventh (and final!) HP book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be released at midnight on July 20th, which is in less than four days, for those of you who are counting, which should be all of you. So I've got a list of places with midnight book release parties in all the cities I might possibly be in on that particular evening. The hard part will be deciding whether to devour it instantly starting the moment I procure it, or to ration its pages so as to savor them and forestall the dreaded moment when the reading experience is done and there are no more Harry Potter books to come... 'Twill be a sad day. Luckily, I already have connections at my final destination in New Jersey making arrangements for post-book 7 supprt groups.

That's all for now! Bedtime! More later...

3 Comments:

Blogger Allie said...

THAT IS CRAZY that you ran into them 700 miles awaY! But, I am always a sucker for coincidences! This was a great post. I've been checking to see when you were going to update, again. But I shouldn't be the one to talk!

Love you, Miss you, See you in a week!!!!!!
Allieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

P.S.- Enjoy the book!!!! That's awesome that you have a list of the places that you might be when it comes out, and places you could get it at midnight. I think you should savor it... just my opinion.

2:07 PM  
Blogger Allie said...

P.P.S.- I like reading your blog at work, cuz it looks like I might be doing something important. No one knows. Maybe they do? Is this a template?

2:08 PM  
Blogger Jason said...

I love Harry and the Potters! My wife and I took our daughter to see them when they played at the library here in Dallas. It was my little one's first concert, which I think is impressive since she was barely two at the time. She loved them too. In fact, we have one of their posters framed and hanging in our den. Like Allie, I also enjoy reading your posts, so keep them coming. Keep having fun our your trip and good luck when you get to your final destination.

Jason

4:54 PM  

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