Pearl Jam in San Fran

A couple of weekends ago, Paige and I went to San Francisco for some wedding shopping. We primarily went to look for vases and candle holders as table pieces for the wedding. We also went down to San Jose (my first time there) to purchase our wedding bands. Mine weights about 5 pounds. Literally.

Anyway, we also did some shopping, looking for wedding ties and shirts for the groomsmen, along with belts and shoes. No luck. We had parked downtown in a parking garage next to a Ferrari. I took a picture on my picture phone of the Ferrari next to Paige's car and sent it to my pa. My pa thought I had bought a new automobile for myself.

Well, as we were leaving the parking garage, we hit the curb next to the pay booth. Hard. Real hard. As in hard enough to put a machete swipe into the side of the tire. Nary 20 yards outside of the parking garage do we realize I have killed the tire. So, we park the car up on the side of the road, in downtown San Francisco, mind you. Scratch that, think one block away from Union Square. Yeah, pretty busy. I then start prepping the car replace the flat with the spare. Turns out the spare is also flat. Paige's car is a 1992 Mercury Tracer, so it is understandable that the entire wheel well of the spare is completely rusted over, resulting in the tire rupturing. But it had a little air in it, so we figure, what the hell, lets put it on and see if it can get us away from Union Square. Oh yeah, we also had a Pearl Jam concert to get to.

So, I replace the flat. It really did not take long. The hardest part was getting the jack to... jack. It kept slipping, and I kept thinking the car was going to crash down on my legs while I was replacing the tire. But, I ended up replacing the tire and getting back on the road in about 25 minutes. Not too bad considering I have only replaced a tire once before.

So we get to the Pearl Jam concert, and head straight to the bathroom. I have grease and dirt all over me, but I clean up pretty well, and head to the seats. Awesome concert. Pearl Jam comes out happy to be in San Francisco (they played at the Bill Graham Civic Center. I guess they hadn't played within the city of San Fran in over 9 years, always playing at the Shoreline instead) and full of energy. They played about half of their new album, but also blistered throught some oldies. Their performance on "Go" was amazing.

Here is the set list. Their ending was fantastic. "Indifference", "Keep on Rockin in the Free World" and "Yellow Ledbetter" were amazing. Mike McCready surprised everyone when he busted into Ledbetter, for half the band was already off the stage. He then closed with a Jimi Hendrix inspired "Star Spangled Banner" solo. It was fantabulous.

Then the ride home. By the time we got out of the concert, we begun to realize our little spare time that couldn't was not goingto get us 1.5 hours north on HWY 101. So, we took it to a gas station and pumped it full of as much air as possible for 20 minutes. We then contacted Paige's parents and prepared them for the inevitable: they were probably going to have to come get us. We then started north on 101, and headed across the Golden Gate Bridge. All was fine until about half way when the tire died. Just died. The whole weight of the car shifted onto the flat spare, and metal on metal noise started to grind. People behind us on the bridge started honking and flashing their brights. Luckily, we got completely across, and parked at the Vista point. By then, I was caput. I locked the doors, threw the driver seat in recline, and took a nap, as did Paige.

Thankfully, Brad and Gail saved the day. They picked us up in about an hour, and we left Paige's car for the night. The next morning, Paige and Brad went back and got the car with a new tire.

The end.