Well, this was it. The time had come and gone. A lot happened in a very short time, but I hated to see it end.
Steve and Jens had a 4 PM flight back to Germany, but they wanted to do a little shopping in Atlanta before they left, and Vic was going to drive them back. Being in the same cottage, I woke up around the time they were packing everything away. I got to say thank you for the privilege of hearing Star Sounds Orchestra perform with the others and by themselves, as well as spending time together on this, our first Ricochet Gathering. Jens was such a pleasure to be around; he is filled with enthusiasm, he�s exuberant, easy to talk to and a talented musician. And it was interesting to hear Steve reminisce about the early days of Tangerine Dream; he�s a very tall man, also a fine musician and so many who have seen my pictures love the t-shirts he wore! Both of them seemed to really enjoy their time there and perhaps they�ll attend a future Ricochet Gathering in a different location.
Since not much happened in Cottage #1, clean up did not take very long for Dave Brewer, Peter, Dell and myself. The majority of what we had to do was pack up our things and sweep the floor. There were a few food items left over so we brought them over to #2 to be parceled out and to help with the clean up there. This being the cottage where much of the cooking took place, the kitchen and dining area took some time to get it close to the way it was when we got there. Cottage #3 played host to a lot of cooking, and this was where the musicians had set up and we had gathered to listen to the music, so the floor needed a lot of attention. Cottage #4 had mostly been taken care of by Deb and Roger Johnson, Tom George and Marion and Dave Horrod. I ran around trying to help where I could and hopefully returned that one extra chair from #3 we found and put it in the right place. Sorry to the park rangers if I screwed that up. :o)
Dell took a picture of me and was kind enough to scan it and send me a copy. I was so busy getting some good shots that I forgot to ask anyone to use my own camera get a picture of me, especially with the musicians. What a dunce!
After the majority of the cleaning was done, John and Peter were leaving. Again, I felt it was a great honor to meet them, let alone hear them play in person. AirSculpture is, in my opinion, one of the best electronic music bands ever. I must take this opportunity to thank both John and Peter for graciously signing all of my CD sleeves and the terrific music contained on the CD�s, for putting up with all of my praise and for all of the information I got from them. I hope that video of the Planetary Ambience planning session came out well, Pete � I have no future career as a videographer, I know, but hopefully it�s watchable. And I hope John really isn�t that upset about the compilation CDR I had made. Perhaps I will see them both again at the Mojave Ricochet Gathering in 2003. Now if only they can convince Adrian to make the trip.... However, if all goes well, AirSculpture will play at The Gathering in Philadelphia next year. Let�s start a petition and send it to Chuck Van Zyl to make sure it happens! - What do you think? Oops, hope I didn�t let that one out of the bag.
I was able to get a ride to Atlanta, thankfully, in Dave Brewer�s rental car with Steve Whiteley and Morgan Marks. Dave, Morgan and I all had flights leaving around the same time; Steve had made reservations for a flight the following day, and was hoping to switch it for that evening. It was fitting that we would end up in the same car on the way to the airport. We left a little past 11 AM and made the long journey north to Atlanta. I was a little tired from the lack of sleep and also coming to the realization that it was all over. I do remember that we got behind some very slow people on the road, but Dave was up to the challenge and eventually left them far behind.
We occupied the time with talking of the events of the last five days and listened to Planetary Ambience from Sunday night�s concert. Had spent a little time looking for some half way decent place to eat lunch, stopping several times to look at menus before finally deciding to eat at an IHOP in Acoma?. The food took some time, but the waitress had a lot of tables to cover and was �in the weeds.� I didn�t want anything too big or heavy so I just had a BLT and an iced tea. After more than hour, we got back on the road. I think I may have taken a short nap at some point. Dave stopped for gas maybe a couple of hours out of Atlanta and there was a mini-mart for snacks and drinks. I refrained from getting anything, though.
Finally, we got to Atlanta, dropped off the car at the Enterprise lot, and got on the shuttle to the terminal. Dave, Steve and I were all taking Delta flights; Morgan was travelling on another airline. Steve was able to get on a flight leaving that evening and check-in went rather smoothly. After the long car ride, I had to search out a rest room. We had a couple of hours to kill, so we were going to hang together for a little while in the big lobby. I had my carry-ons hanging from me and I felt a little tired as I walked over where Dave and Morgan were sitting (Steve was looking for a phone to inform his ride of the change of plans) and I distinctly remember Dave saying, "Now there's a man who can't wait to get home." Not entirely true - just tired from the lack of sleep and the long car ride, but I ws looking forward to the greeting my wife was going to give me when I arrived back home.
At some point that day, I remember all three of them asking me if I had a good time and made sure that I felt welcome. Let me assure everyone that I would do it all again and I will... next year in the Mojave Desert!
Steve's flight was the first and Dave's was not long after; Morgan and I sat in the lobby for a little while longer - surrounded by a class of Army recruits - and then went to the security gates. I was saying good-bye to Morgan when all of a sudden, there were airport personnel running everywhere, yelling in code. Apparently, they were just having a drill, but I didn't know what the hell was happening. After I retrieved my belongings, I lost track of Morgan and walked to the gate. I was only there for a few minutes before they announced boarding. The flight was full and I was near the back of the plane, so I got to get on the plane quickly. The last leg of the journey was here.
So ends my account of the events for the 2002 Ricochet Gathering at Okefenokee Swamp. I hope you enjoyed reading it.