Well the time to say goodbye to NYC was upon us, and after one last breakfast – sadly the Spinach Burek pastry was not available this morning – we got in an Uber and went to Hoboken, New Jersey to pick up our rental car. We thought driving out of Manhattan would be a mistake – but then people kept telling us the traffic out of Jersey was equally busy, so we were a little worried, but hey what can you do?

We got dropped off at the car rental place- but we couldn’t figure out how to get in! After a lap around the block we finally worked it out. It wasn’t busy at all at the rental place and before we knew it, we were on our way, navigating the streets of Jersey. There were actually some very beautiful tree lined streets in Hoboken. I mean I don’t know what I was expecting ha ha

And then we were on the Interstate – heading towards our lunch stop – Catskills, NY.

Traffic was relatively heavy but not too bad. But it did take us longer than we thought. We had a brief stop at a random rest stop – where the power was out so we couldn’t buy anything. Not that we wanted to buy anything anyway.

When we made it to Catskill we saw all these cute cat statues along the Main Street. So cute! But first, lunch.

Google advised us of a place called Willa to go for lunch and it didn’t disappoint. Steve had the grilled cheese and I had a BLT.

After lunch – although time was rapidly escaping us – we HAD to go and see some of the decorated cats along the street. We didn’t have time to see them all sadly, there were a lot!

Cats viewed, it was onwards to North Adams!

It was about another hour and a half’s drive. When we got there we had to make a brief stop at the Stop n Shop for some breakfast supplies and a quick trip to Walmart to buy a pillow as our dorm rooms didn’t provide one this time.

So, breakfast items and pillows procured, we went to check in to the Berkshire Towers, our home for the next 3 nights.

After a quick costume change, we had to head down to the festival as we were already missing things.

There was a bit of a queue to get in this year. But it was good to finally be here again!

First act we saw was Courtney Marie Andrew’s, but then I ended up missing most of her set as I had to go to the bathroom and then get some bottles of water and there were huge lines everywhere.

We got some pizza for dinner which was actually quite tasty and then went to watch Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. He was awesome and yes I will admit, one of his songs did make me cry quite a bit.

And then before we knew it it was time for Wilcos Friday night set. Tonight they played a “rarities” set – it was super awesome to hear some songs live that we had never heard before. I even had a good view of- no massive people in my way for a change.

Yeh it was an awesome show! After Wilco finished we finally found our friends Piper and Brett and the rest of the Floridian gang, so we hung out and chatted for a bit and watched Sylvan Esso who were the last act of the night.

This ended Day 1 of Solid Sound.