we left Great woods later than most people, we were staying in a cabin in halifax, mass, about 25 minutes away from Great woods. so, we knew it would be a while with the traffic. well, while we sat in the lot waiting to leave, a kind lookin kid was walking around lookin kinda in the dumps. i asked what was happenin, and he told me he got left there by his friends. after a little chit chatting we agreed to give him a ride to his town about 15 minutes north of the venue. so we get to know ben, as were his name, and we dropped him off and sent him on his way, even though we had been goin in the opposite direction of the cabin. no big deal, we had nothin but time.

well, we dropped him off and started to head down the road, when Johnny Lawdog pulls out behind us. being a bunch of sketchy sketchersons, we pulled into a gas station, hoping he would pass. he didn't, and we decided he wasn't after us anyway, like they ever are huh? so we notice these 4 girls just chillin in and next to their car like they had nowhere to go, but we didn't pay much attention to them at first, just some girls who were at the show, ya know?

well, we got talkin to them, tried to help them in anyway we could before we headed down the road - we had some spaghetti that needed to be eaten when we got back - but then they found out about how long it would be til they could get the car back and fixed. long story short - we invited them back to our cabin off of a beautiful lake and had them as our house guests for 3 days.

the next three days were incredible. these girls were fun lovin, easy goin, maxin and relaxin chickadees. we all got to know each other really well, and indeed we were like a family on vacation. except that i don't normally stay up until 8:30 in the morning drinkin and bein' an idiot with my family around. anyways, we did just that. every night we were up until the sun was around, hangin out with some great new friends, and even an old one from back here in merland (he lived in mass at the time and he came to see us when we were up there).

so to make this long story short again, i'll end it like this. despite not knowing any of us, despite being 10 hours away from their homes, and despite the fact that *our* scene is becoming more and more unfriendly at every show, we showed these girls that nice people ARE out there, and that all you gotta do is jibboo...

i'm sure i've left some stuff out but we got the memories

thanks cat, you made my day:)

- Ryan

Editor's Note: It's always interesting to hear different people's account of the same story.  Here's part one of a not-so friendly incident, in which both angry parties voiced their opinions.