The Oktoberfest Diaries 2009 Part 1: There's A Growth On The Toilet

I'm finally back in Fargo having survived Oktoberfest one more time. It was, as usual, a good time. Here's what you missed:

There's a rythym to the weekend. We usually roll into LaCrosse about 3:30 and head straight to the fest grounds to get a beer and check out the lay of the land. They do the beer ticket thing, which probably still fools the college kids but not an old man young, vibrant gentleman like myself. Eight tickets for $20 comes out to $2.50 each. A can of Leinie's is one ticket. A cup of good beer is two tickets. Cheap beer it is! After five of those we headed over to check in at the hotel. I called Donna like a good boyfriend and let her know my progress.

Here comes trouble.

Getting rooms can be tough come Oktoberfest time. We usually go for economy over luxury. Enter the LaCrosse Super 8. It's always an adventure because the rooms aren't all equipped the same. This year, Mitch and Dustin's room had a refrigerator. Tim's and my room didn't. Ours did have this though:

This would not come off.

After sending off a sample from the toilet seat to the Mayo clinic for testing, we headed back to the festgrounds to have the first of what would be many meals in the form of a cylinder(dogs and brats, mostly). And more beer, of course.

The first band was playing in the pavilion. They were pretty good, though they played Whole Lotta Love as a dirge, kind of like if Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin got into a car accident and everybody except Ozzy lost both their arms so he had to play all the instruments. They also caused people to do this:



However, my scorn for this band is tempered in hindsight. For there was soon to be an abomination inflicted upon us that goes beyond words. They called themselves The Remainders, and they are evil.