Kedrick: 10 - Blogaroo 2025

Hey everyone!!! Long time no see. I had a good post planned today detailing by experience and the music I saw at Bonnaroo 2025. For those of you who have not yet heard, the festival was cancelled yesterday (Friday, June 13th) at 7:36 PM central time due to weather, primarily flooding. This post is therefore dedicated to the frontline Bonnaroovians who are either still there or are trying to make their way home, however far that is.

Ready for Roo!

I’ll start with the original plan. My buddy Danny and I bought Friday single day passes and were going to see Foster the People, Goose, Tyler the Creator, Glass Animals, Tipper, and likely other assorted artists. Insanely stacked lineup for one day! Since we’re only about 3 hour drive away from the festival, we planned on driving over Friday afternoon, enjoying the festivities, and then sleeping in my car either in the day parking lot or finding a truck stop to park at. We’d sleep a couple hours and then be on our way back home. The setup was actually pretty cool.

Thanks for the idea Lizzie :)

Now here’s what actually happened. As I mentioned, the drive from Atlanta to Roo is just about 3 hours, so we left around 1:30 Eastern. After two quick stops, one at Walmart to pick up an impulse idea (two disposable cameras), and one at Chick-fil-A for a delicious lunch, we were off to the festival. For some reason, even though I’ve been to the festival twice before, neither Danny or I considered the fact that it’s in the central time zone. Free hour though, nice. Since we’re both males in our late 20s, we obviously just drove straight through without stopping. Throughout the drive to Tennessee, we got a couple text updates from Bonnaroo that the music was delayed and gates would be closed for a few hours. Not a big deal! It would blow over and be open by the time we got there (or shortly afterwards). 

We arrived at the box office at 4:30 central, which is at a local high school. I thought it was a cool setup. I picked up our day parking pass and we drove towards the festival gates. Bonnaroo social media hadn’t provided an update in over an hour, so we were hopeful that the gates had opened up. As we neared the road that leads to the gate, traffic started to build up. As a religious believer in the “zipper” method, I hopped in the lane that was moving with the intent to merge later. We got to the road and were informed by a cop that the gates were closed. Danny thought he was doing a bit at first, like a “haha I hate my job turn around we're closed” type deal, but I suspected he was serious. We got to the road we need to turn onto and BAM, traffic cones! Darn. We kept going and passed the Circle K that serves as the last stop before the festival. Absolute f****** madhouse. Cars were for some reason bumper to bumper in the parking lot, I’m talking maybe 40 cars in there. No getting in or out. Why??? We kept driving a couple hundred yards further and parked on the shoulder of the road as many other people were doing. I did a U-turn as well which gave us a great view of the disastrous situation that was happening. Vibes at this point were still pretty darn high.

I'm on the edge of life, and the view is gorgeous

Bonnaroo provided an update at around 5PM central. Not a good one - they said the gates and centeroo (where the music is) would be closed for another few hours. OK. Not optimal but not terrible. Bonnaroo starts pretty late since it’s extremely hot during the day (as you can imagine), so the sets we really wanted to see didn’t start until 9:30. Pretty good amount of time to work with!! 

At about 5:30, it wasn’t raining so we got out of the car, cracked a couple beers, and walked ahead to a gas station (across from the Circle K, nowhere near as busy) to talk to people and kill time. We were over there for around 45 minutes until it started raining again. We headed back to the car and Danny started FaceTiming some of his friends to fill them in on the situation. This was an excellent way to pass time! 

Patiently waiting

By 6:45, vibes were still reasonably high. It stopped raining and the sun was even peaking through the clouds so we got out of the car again. I went to pee and took the last photo I have before the Big News. 

Good spot to pee

While walking back, I saw the truck in front of us left and was replaced with an SUV full of people that immediately got out. It looked like they were getting ready to go into the festival, so we asked them what was up. They informed us that they had friends in a car that made it pretty close to the gate, so they were going to walk over there. One of the guys (maybe the driver) was a little concerned they might get towed so he gave me his number in case anything started happening, then they all went towards the gate. We would not see them again.

Around 7, it started raining again. This was the famed “last band” before it would be dry the remainder of the night. We got back in the car. I started another session of refreshing new posts on r/Bonnaroo. The last official update was at 5, so we were due for an update very soon. Still enough time to get in and see the acts we really care about. Tyler didn’t go on until 11!

By 7:30, it really set in that this cancellation of Friday’s acts was possible if not probable. I’m sure the day parking lot was completely underwater and with the length of this delay, cars were very built up around the area and the line to get into day parking was sure to be an absolute mess. Still a shred of hope though!

7:36 PM central time. Danny gets a twitter post notification from Bonnaroo. He clicks and pauses for a split second before uttering one word:

“Drive.”

I refreshed instagram and read the first 3 words of the post before throwing the car into drive and peeling out of our spot. “Read the whole post to me but we gotta get out of here”, I said. We had to take a left through gridlocked traffic to get onto I-24 the correct way, so I elected to not do that and just hop on the interstate the wrong way and turn around at a different exit. Amazing call. We turned around and drove past the two festival exits. The shoulder of the interstate was lined with people waiting to get in. Some very dystopian stuff.

We got out extremely easily and then were able to really understand and take in the weight of what just happened. They didn’t cancel just Friday, they cancelled the entire remainder of the festival. It was about to be an absolute nightmare for people to get out even if their cars weren’t stuck in mud. Danny immediately called his fiancee and let her know what happened, then we called my beautiful wife Lizzie and let her know as well. Pretty much everybody, us very much included, was in disbelief. The first half of our 3 hour drive home was filled with calling people and telling them what happened, which was a very good way to pass time. We talked to a couple of Danny’s friends and then we talked to a fellow companion, Quentin. The drive went by extremely fast since we had just lived through a historic event and got out basically unscathed.

We arrived back in Atlanta at 11:30 eastern. I dropped Danny off and then got a Taco Bell cravings box. Overall, I had a great time at Bonnaroo. Can't wait to go back.

TB!

Kedrick: 7 - A Weekend in NYC

Hello and welcome to my 7th blog! I’ve had some writer’s block with this one after having the proverbial rug pulled out from beneath me. I originally had dinner plans tonight and was going to blog about that experience, but the plans were postponed by exactly one week due to an unforeseen illness in the group. Drat. My beautiful wife, Lizzie, and I just got back from a trip to Washington D.C. yesterday, but I won’t have my two rolls of film from that trip developed for another week, so we’ll just have to wait on that blog! Luckily for you, my dear reader, I got my roll of Ilford HP5 black and white film back from the New York City trip that Lizzie and I went on a few weeks ago. It was my first time shooting on this film stock and I couldn’t be happier with the results (I shot another roll of it in DC before seeing the results). Today I’m going to go over what we did in Manhattan (and a brief trip to Brooklyn) with the help of some 35mm film and iPhone pictures!

Friday, April 4th

Lizzie and I packed in the morning and departed for the airport around 10am at a very leisurely pace as our flight out wasn’t until 12:30pm. It was a nice morning! Looking at my camera roll from that morning to jog my brain, I now recall that when we were on the way to the airport my phone was lighting up from the “Atlantasy” group chat, the chat for our Atlanta-based fantasy football league but is constantly buzzing with other sports news, jokes, gambling activities, and miscellaneous discussions. A relative of Chad’s girlfriend (believe it was a cousin) ran into a world-famous celebrity that morning and he shared a video of the interaction. Who was the famous pop culture icon? It was a living legend himself, Druski, out for a nice morning bike ride through the streets of a local ATL neighborhood. The video was hilarious, and I shared it with Lizzie, knowing that she’d at least recognize him from his meme format superstardom. I then shared the screenshot with the Mir boys who all found the interaction as funny as I did.

We arrived at the airport and strolled through security in record time, even with my new security ritual of providing my rolls of film for the weekend in a Ziploc bag to TSA agents and patiently waiting for them to hand check it. After we got to the gate, I loaded film into my camera, filled up my water bottle, and boarded shortly thereafter. Even though it was a short flight to LaGuardia, I managed to squeeze in a movie viewing into my flight. I chose an absolutely perfect plane film, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. I really thought it was going to be trash and boy was I wrong. I found myself constantly giggling to the unstoppable onslaught of Jack Black acting like a 16-year-old girl stuck in his body and falling in love with Nick Jonas. Super fun movie.

We landed at approximately 2:43PM in the Eastern time zone and got to see Illinois One, a cool Southwest plane. We left the airport, took a taxi to our hotel (Hyatt Place Chelsea – would recommend), and by 4PM we were checked in, changed, and ready to go attack the town. We walked somewhat aimlessly towards the Flatiron building since I wanted a picture of it and stumbled upon the Eiffel Tower. One of our favorite bits is the Eiffel Tower (also from Vegas) bit from Despicable Me, so we got a picture and sent it to Lizzie’s sister (we did the same bit when we were in Las Vegas last December). 

We then took a stroll through Eataly NYC Flatiron, which we loved even though we didn’t purchase anything, and continued to walk 5th avenue for some light shopping. We didn’t buy anything, but I took a picture of some cool ASICS shoes at 5:14PM so I could go back and maybe buy them later.
Our reservation was approaching, so we stopped shopping and made a beeline for OLIO E PIU in Greenwich Village. Of course, we stopped off one more time because there was a cool looking park with some blossoming trees behind a church. After that, though, we were off to dinner, which was just across the street.

 

 

Lizzie secured this reservation and got us patio seating, which I was very happy about since it was a beautiful spring night. We got a bottle of Barbera wine, which we had discovered we both liked this past February in Sonoma. It is a more full-bodied red wine but still lower on tannins (the ingredient that makes a wine dry) compared to some wines that I tend to prefer (namely Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon) vs Lizzie’s preference for a more sweet and less dry wine (but still not fully on the sweet side of the spectrum). We started with wine and crusty bread, which was fantastic, then got a couple different types of cheeses and some meat to pair with those. As I’m a huge fan of Caesar salad, we shared one of those as well. I do not say this lightly – it was probably the best Caesar salad I have ever had in my life. The dressing was to die for, the croutons ideal, and the lettuce the perfect mix of fresh and crunchy. When it was served to us, I put some on my plate, took a bite, and didn’t even say how much I liked it for a few minutes. I just kept eating it. It is for this reason that I don’t have a picture of it. Gone before I even realized it. True 10/10 Caesar salad.

For my main course, I got the night’s special, a truffle parmesan fettuccine dish. It was also a 10/10 dish. Pasta was cooked to perfection and the truffle wasn’t that grated BS you get on fries at a “fancy” restaurant, they were the straight mushrooms. After all this delicious food, we tried to refuse dessert, but the waitress said it was on her if we left her a good review on Google. Luckily for her, I can both easily be bought and enjoy writing reviews on Google, so we ordered the tiramisu. It was lovely and I happily left a five-star review on Google mentioning our waitress, Gocke.

With our bellies full, we moved on to our next activity for the evening, a rooftop bar. I am notably afraid of heights, but had written this down on the list of things we would do from the beginning. I’m still a sucker for a great skyline view! Our reservation wasn’t until 8:30, so we went back to the hotel for a bit to relax after a big dinner. We took the subway a few blocks towards Times Square and made it to the hotel, where we were greeted by a nice hotel employee who checked our IDs and shared with us that he lived in Savannah for a few years. We made our way up to the rooftop bar and shared a couple drinks with an amazing view! Fun!

 

 

Afterwards, I expressed that I wanted to go take a peek at Times Square since it was very close, and I wanted some pictures of it at night. Lizzie, being the trooper she is, followed along with it even though it’s an objectively terrible place. Turns out it was as truly God awful as I remember it to be, but it was very worth it because I got some amazing film pictures. 

 

We exited that God forsaken street as soon as we could and walked our way back home so we could grab a New York Slice on the way back. I found a place with great reviews on Google, so we went there and grabbed a cheap slice. It was great, but as Lizzie correctly pointed out on the way home, it only had high Google reviews because you could get a free slice from reviewing it and showing them. Oh.

Saturday, April 5th

It was a dreary morning with rain in the forecast, but we still got up early and left the hotel around 8AM to grab coffee and hit up the Union Square greenmarket, which began in 1976. We walked around the market to check out all the local offerings. I got my traditional farmers market breakfast, a savory pastry (believe it was a spinach and feta empanada) and Lizzie got an almond croissant.

Afterwards, we took the train up to Central Park. We saw a bunch of the classic Central Park sights and I took a bunch of great pictures during our ~2 mile walk from the south end all the way to the big reservoir near the north side before it started to rain. Once the rain hit, we found the nearest subway station and rode back home, where we decided it was time for lunch. We hit up Eataly again and enjoyed a delicious spicy pepperoni sandwich.

 

It was once again time to shop until we dropped. There were a few places on the stretch that I wanted to check out, like Zara where I thought about buying some cruise wear for our upcoming trip with Gustavo and the gang. Big swing and a miss there. I liked the shirt, but it wasn’t comfortable enough. Enter to stage right, ol’ reliable. H&M. It’s very rare that I step foot inside an H&M ready to spend some money and don’t come away with at least one item. In this case, it would be two items from the clearance rack. This shirt was super comfortable, and the second shirt was only $7. I got exactly what I was looking for and my total was $24.98.

The day was going by fast, and it was almost time for our main event – the Final Four game between Lizzie’s Auburn Tigers and my Florida Gators. We were to leave nothing to chance and therefore wanted to find a place to settle in by 5PM for the 6:09PM tipoff. The original place I found was primarily a soccer bar that I’d heard of from my favorite FPL podcast (the hosts live in Brooklyn so this Manhattan on the next street over from our hotel had been used as a meetup spot). We walked in and much to our dismay they were showing the conclusion of La Liga match between Barcelona and Real Betis. Even if it would clear up, it was far too busy to be able to establish our foothold at the bar without a little bit of work. As we decided whether we wanted to stay or not, I quickly looked at Google Maps and found another place around the corner called Storehouse. We walked there and found a couple prime spots. They were showing some NHL action, so I double-checked with our server to make sure they were going to show the Final Four game. “Definitely.”, he said. “OK awesome.”, I replied.

We shared some loaded nachos, and I downed probably too many $6 happy hour beers before and during the game, which was a great time for both of us even though the result would inevitably favor just one of us. The Florida Gators of course won, I made Lizzie a little annoyed by being a drunk bastard, but we reconciled over some delicious Taco Bell from the nearby Taco Bell Cantina before retiring to our hotel only to fall asleep during the Duke/Houston game before its insane finish.

Sunday, April 6th

We had a great time over the past few days, but when we woke up, we were ready to go home later that afternoon. There was only one thing left to do, something that Lizzie had found out about the night before. The New York Transit Museum. Lizzie booked us tickets for 10:30AM, so we were once again up and at ‘em around 8AM. We got bagels and coffee at a nearby joint and realized that we should’ve split one rather than getting our own. 

Afterwards, we made our way to Brooklyn to visit the museum, which is in a now-abandoned subway station. It was insanely cool and a highlight of our trip. I would for sure recommend it to anyone visiting NYC with any interest in the subway system (public transit is one of Lizzie’s ASIs). They have a history of the subway system, which was built between roughly 1900 and 1905, and a very cool area with around 15 different styles and variations of subway trains that were used from all the way back then until the current day, showing the evolution of the train cars. Wicked.

We left the museum and took the subway to a nearby mall next to the arena where the Nets play which has a UNIQLO, somewhere I wanted to go shopping since I enjoyed so much the last time I went to NYC. They didn’t have any t-shirts I really loved but I did get some new white shorts and some boxers! We had just enough time afterwards for lunch before our flight, so we took the Subway back to Manhattan and went to a place Lizzie found. It was called Revelie and we shared a patty melt that was soooooo damn good. Very cool diner in general! They had The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly playing on a small TV above the bar which is a fast way to win me over.

Afterwards, we learned our flight was delayed due to some very bad weather in the south. We took the subway one last time back to 5th Ave where we did even more shopping. I bought those shoes that I took a picture of on Friday and we went to Old Navy where Lizzie bought some work clothes. 

 

We then finally made our way back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, go back to LaGuardia, and took one of the bumpiest flights of my life. We touched down back in ATL at 9:25PM.

Kedrick: 5 - The Life of Pierre

I have sad news to share with my companions. My fish, Pierre, passed away last week. He was just about 10 years old. Pierre led a long life full of adventures, challenges, and friends. Pierre lived in two states and endured a number of moves and tank changes that we will only discover after taking this journey through his life. In this blog, I will share his life story with the help of all the pictures I could find.

To Pierre.

Summer 2015 to Summer 2016 - Oxford Manor - Gainesville, FL

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any photos of our first apartment since it appears Snapchat only started saving pictures in July 2016, but I will share the story of Pierre's beginnings. Pierre first came into my life in early summer 2015. I moved into my first apartment with my good friends Trey and Cooper. We would be entering our Junior year of college that fall and decided to live together after living in the fraternity house the year prior. Trey and his family had always been big aquarium hobbyists and had a saltwater tank in their house in Tallahassee. Trey's dad thought it would be fun for us to decorate our new apartment with its anchoring piece - a 50-gallon fish tank. It was the very same fish tank that he had in college! Trey and I were excited about this and went to the pet store to set up our tank. Once it was properly cycled and ready for life, we went back to the pet store and chose our first inhabitants. Among them was none other than Pierre. 

This seems as good a time as any to explain his name. Most fish we adopted were given names of people in our fraternity that the fish vaguely resembled or simply reminded us of. Pierre was different. Trey and I, like most college students in the mid-2010s, were crazy for FIFA. We played in the fraternity house all the time and that didn't stop until many years later. One of our favorite teams to play as was Borussia Dortmund and they had a legendary speedster named Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. As soon as we saw Pierre and his black and yellow coat that matched Dortmund's jerseys, the name was chosen. It fit him perfectly.

August 2016 to December 2018 - The Cabin - Gainesville, FL

After a good year at Oxford Manor, Trey and I moved to a house near midtown (we turned 21 this summer so proximity to the local watering holes was a must). This house was famously named The Cabin. Pierre and his tankmates of course made the journey with us. He lived through a tremendous amount of adversity in the cabin but thrived as well. Tankmates came and went, most notably Chance the blue lobster who was a crowd favorite and the friendliest crustacean you'll ever meet. Pierre faced the toughest challenge of his life in March 2017. In early 2017, Trey and I added a fish to the tank as was common. His name was Wiz. I can sum it up by just saying that he was not friendly with Pierre. We soon noticed that he picked at Pierre ruthlessly. We monitored the situation and hoped that they could become amicable, but ultimately decided that only one of the fish could remain. Our allegiance was of course to Pierre. Removing Wiz from the tank didn't fix Pierre's problem as quickly as we hoped. He began to grow a sort of bacterial growth on his mouth that we feared may lead to his demise. Of course we now know that he made a full recovery and the only memory of Wiz was some scarring on Pierre's fin.

August 28, 2016

Pierre's next challenge happened sooner than expected during the summer of 2017. Trey had graduated with his typical 4-year degree that May, leaving the tank to me, and I was headed to an internship in Atlanta before my 5th and final year in Gainesville. I wanted to stay in the Cabin with Lucas set to join me in the fall, so we sublet the Cabin to one of our fraternity brothers. He promised he would take good care of the tank while I was gone. I returned in early August to a state of disarray. The Cabin was in god-awful shape and the tank was even worse off. Our beloved Chance the Lobster passed that summer along with many tankmates. Pierre, being the survivor he is, made it through unscathed. After my dad and I fixed the atrocities that had happened to the Cabin, I fixed up the tank and restored it to its former glory. Pierre then entered a period of prosperity with Lucas and me.

September 22, 2017

December 2018 to October 2020 - The Pointe at Lindbergh - Atlanta, GA

While I had moved to Atlanta in September for my job, Lucas remained in Gainesville and the tank with him. Moving to a new city and a new state for the first time was a challenge that didn't need to be made harder by hauling up a 50-gallon tank full of fish with me. A few months later, though, I was ready to begin the process. As I only drove an Acura sedan, my kind mother offered to drive up to Gainesville and make the trip with me. I was famously less prepared than I should have been when she arrived to help me, so Lucas, Jana, and I got the tank and all the supplies ready for the trip. I was concerned for the survival of Pierre and his tankmates on this 5-hour-long journey, but I had done a lot of research and was confident that I was giving them the best shot possible. We made it to Atlanta and the tank was set up with no casualties in the process!

December 2, 2018 - Loaded up!

December 2, 2018 - Easy

October 20, 2019

October 2020 to January 2023 - Skyhouse Midtown - Atlanta, GA

We lived in our first Atlanta apartment for a while, so the next move didn't happen until October 2020, coinciding with my first job change. This move was also infamous because we lived on the third floor of an open-air apartment building, so of course it had no elevator. My big brain thought it would be fine to transfer the tank with about 20% of the water so I could ensure that enough water with beneficial bacteria would make it through the move. I guess I had never heard of Home Depot buckets at this time. My good buddy Chris and I hauled the 50-gallon tank with way too much water in it down 3 flights of stairs. Luckily our new apartment was a high-rise in the city so it had an elevator, but that one-way trip was enough for us to rethink our entire lives. Pierre did just fine during this move in the U-Haul that I rented!

October 20, 2020 (what are the odds)

May 24, 2022

October 13, 2022

January 2023 to April 2023 - Skyhouse Midtown - Atlanta, GA

We lived in Skyhouse for a long time, but our time was coming up. After the last moving experience, and with a few of Pierre's larger tankmates passing away in the last few years, I decided that the 50-gallon tank's journey would come to an end. I had also gotten progressively lazier with cleaning it since it was such a production to do so. It made sense to downsize to a nice 10-gallon tank. I purchased one and set it up in my room. I also did all the aquarium hobbyist water stuff to make sure that my decision wouldn't lead to Pierre's demise, even putting a smaller fish in the new tank first to make sure the water was habitable. It was! So Pierre moved in shortly thereafter.

January 14, 2023 - New tank pre Pierre

January 22, 2023

I think he really enjoyed this new tank. It was much much cleaner and he got a lot of exposure to Tom and Chile which he seemed to enjoy. Tom would lay next to the tank for hours just staring at Pierre and the other fish.

February 19, 2023

March 24, 2023

April 2023 to May 2024 - Tens on West - Atlanta, GA

This move was thankfully very straightforward. Elevator to elevator and with a 10-gallon tank! No U-Hauls or mom cars were required. Just an Acura, my beautiful now-wife, and a dream. We were even able to transport with about 50% of the water in the tank so we didn't have to remove any fish from their tank!

March 25, 2023 - Moving Day!

March 25, 2023

I think this was a sort of golden age for Pierre. I know it was for Tom and Chile. They loved interacting with each other and everyone got a ton of natural sunlight in this corner apartment.

March 30, 2023

April 3, 2023

July 21, 2023

In fact, the tank got so much natural light that I had to deal with an algae bloom by installing a UV light, something that I had never done before. Luckily, it did the trick!!

January 15, 2024 - Algae bloom

January 15, 2024

January 25, 2024

February 9, 2024 - Good as new!

February 10, 2024

May 10, 2024

May 2024 to April 2025 - Olde Ivy - Atlanta, GA

After a great year at Tens on West, it was time for Pierre to move one last time. We once again moved across town, this time with Pierre in a trusty Home Depot bucket. Everything went off without a hitch and Pierre enjoyed his new home! He even got to live with a third cat, Maxx, who was very curious about this new inhabitant. When I first moved in, Maxx would just sit by the tank and look up at Pierre.

May 25, 2024

May 25, 2024

May 25, 2024

June 13, 2024

In early March 2025, I came downstairs to leave for work and noticed that our beloved Pierre was floating sideways at the top of the tank. I was completely devastated and had a very emotional drive to work that morning. Throughout that day, I frantically googled what could be wrong and even posted on Reddit about it. I tried a few different things - fasting him, trying to hand feed him skinned peas, trying an antibacterial treatment, but nothing worked.

January 31, 2025 - Last photo of a healthy Pierre
Taken on my 35mm film camera the day I got it

Pierre passed away on Thursday, April 3, 2025. Lizzie and I held a memorial service that evening. Maxx and Tom even watched through the window to pay their respects to their friend. Pierre is buried on our patio in his final resting place, a planter with caladium bulbs that he will fertilize and provide life to, just as he provided to joy and happiness to everyone who met him.

April 3, 2025

April 3, 2025 - Rest in peace, my friend.