Well, we just finished our shortest RV trip! Just one night and not even at a campground! A few months back, we bought tickets for a James Taylor & Jackson Browne concert in Syracuse. Our plan had been to ‘boondock’ (dry camp) at a nearby Cracker Barrel (most of their locations allow RVs to park overnight). The day before the concert, however, I was researching the RV parking at the concert venue (Lakeview Amphitheater, on Onondaga Lake) and found that, because the New York State Fair was also happening at the same time, we could park overnight in one of the fairgrounds parking lots, not far from the amphitheater. It would be dry camping, but it indicated we would be able to run our generator…Mark wasn’t sure if we’d be able to at Cracker Barrel because of the noise it makes. Perfect! Just $25 and about a 15-minute walk to the entrance gate for the concert. I reserved a spot, and we decided we’d also plan to get there early and spend a couple hours at the fair.

We arrived at the RV lot just before 2pm on Sunday, and found a shady spot under a highway overpass. We figured there would be traffic noise, but we knew the generator was noisy too, so we decided the shade was important and that took precedence.

The weather was ridiculously hot and humid, so we barely made it 90 minutes at the fair – even with lots of air conditioned buildings to walk through, it just wasn’t a great day to be outdoors doing anything other than sitting in the shade. We did see lots of fun “fair” things…

We made our way back to RoVer to crank the AC and cool off. The generator does a good job of cooling the RV pretty quickly, and between generator power and propane for the refrigerator, we could prepare dinner (although all that “fair food” was tempting…maybe we should have had funnel cakes and deep fried oreos for dinner instead?!?!). We started our walk to the amphitheater around 6:15 for a 7pm concert start…but we REALLY underestimated the line to get in. We spent a full hour in line – it was wrapped all the way around the parking lot, and moved fairly quickly until it bottlenecked to get everyone through security. Ugh. And, again, on a really hot & humid day! Fortunately, the rain that had been in the forecast pushed later into the evening!

We found our seats (under the shell, not on the lawn) and just as we sat down at 7:30pm, Jackson Browne came out to begin his set…our timing was impeccable. Clearly they knew there was a long line so they delayed the show! He played a few songs from his new album, and then broke out the ‘classics’, although he didn’t play several of my favorites which was disappointing. James Taylor joined him for “The Pretender” – so cool to hear them sing together! He played for an hour, then there was an intermission so James Taylor’s band could setup. James then played for two full hours, and he was amazing. We’ve seen him live a couple times before, and he’s still one of the best live performers we’ve ever seen – even at age 73! He rolled through a bunch of his hits (he has a lot to choose from), and told his usual assortment of stories & jokes. Our favorite was when he picked up his electric guitar for “Steamroller” and said it was quite an improvement over the steam and gas-powered guitars they used to use…and they had just done a concert in Pennsylvania where they still have horsedrawn guitars. HaHaHa!  Jackson Browne returned for the first encore – and we were caught a bit off-guard when they sang “Take it Easy” – we did not go to a James Taylor/Jackson Browne concert expecting to hear a song from The Eagles! Turns out Jackson Browne co-wrote that song with Glenn Frey. Who knew?!?

James finished up the encore with “You’ve Got a Friend” and then a duet with his son Henry who is one of his backup singers…and his wife Kim joined them on stage for the encore, as well – such a family guy! Overall, just an incredible concert and the venue is beautiful – we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset during the concert. And it was very obvious that the performers were so glad to be back on stage, in front of live audiences, with their bands – and the audience was happy about it, too! Oh, and at one point during James’ set, a thunderstorm blew through and soaked the thousands of people sitting on the lawn. But it was over just as quickly as it started. Too bad James wasn’t singing “Fire and Rain” when it started!

Around 11pm we started the walk back to RoVer  under the full moon – it was really nice to stay until the very end of the concert and not have to worry about traffic and rushing to get out and beat the crowds.  As we approached RoVer, Mark saw a really good parking spot that wasn’t under the bridge and wouldn’t be quite so noisy (and shade was no longer relevant…)…so we moved RoVer!

RoVer’s generator really is loud, and of course, is located under the bedroom…so it’s especially noisy at night. There was really no option to turn it off since it was so hot and humid, and while we have USB-powered fans that could have run without the generator, they wouldn’t have been enough…we really needed the AC. Unfortunately, the combination of heat and noise meant that Mark didn’t sleep very well – the heat would have been an issue anywhere since it’s usually hard for AC to keep up with temperatures like we had on Sunday, but the noise was an added challenge. I, however, can sleep through anything, so I did okay. Lesson learned. We cannot boondock in the hot summer months – need to be able to plug in and run full AC quietly. In the off months, it should not be an issue (Mark & Connor did this successfully in May, for example).  Overall, taking an RV to a concert is a really good idea and something we will likely do again if the opportunity presents itself!

The week ahead will be busy as we prep RoVer for our 2+ week journey to Florida and back, with seven campgrounds and some touristy plans along the way…and the wedding of a dear friend!