March 12th through March 16th. Reggae RiseUp, Saint Petersburg Florida.

I haven’t taken a true vacation in years. Those times I did take off from work for a week here or there were mostly spent at home cleaning, resting, or just existing… barely. But this time? Nay, I guaranteed to myself that I WILL be leaving my home, I WILL see things I’ve yet to see before. I WILL take a moment for myself.

• Mission 1: Acquire a dog sitter
  • This took longer than expected, my dogs aren’t licensed, I never really accepted that I’m a resident Floridian now, kept thinking I’ll move again soon and be out of this state.
  • Pet sitting jawns require your pet to be fully vaccinated and licensed, since I hadn’t taken them to the vet in a few years, they were NOT licensed or vaccinated, and I didn’t have the tangible funds nor time to take care of this.
  • Through a Pcola queer discord group I was able to get hooked up with a person who lived right around the corner from me and they were more than willing to come take care of my puppers while I was away, but this wasn’t finalized until a few weeks before the trip
• Mission 2: Acquire a hotel/Place to stay
  • By the time we got the pet sitter squared away it was only 3 weeks till the festival, and hotel prices had jumped from $80/night to over $800/night
  • This made me panic, fearful I spent all this time and money for a 4 day VIP pass only to have to forfeit it a few weeks before, coupled with the stress of finding a sitter, I felt sick to my stomach
  • Then I remembered, a long time friend of mine Garth, he uses something similar to AirBNB when he travels so I reached out, and he proclaimed “Yeah Airbnb is wack, we use VRBO”
  • VRBO had a few places next to the venue that were still in the $600+ night range, but there was one house, a few miles away, for only $187/night, so plus incidentals (cleaning/etc.. fees) the total was $1,164.74 for 4 nights. Not shabby at all, right next to the Imagine Museum, 1 block over from Central Avenue where a lot of the nightlight in Saint Pete’s takes place. It was perfect.
  • Being a new VRBO user I immediately signed up and verified everything, booked the house and then immediately sent the owner a message about me being well travelled (True, I’m between Pcola and Cali every few months for work) but my first time using a VRBO, gave references and hoped for the best. An hour later my offer was accepted and we were in like Flynn!
• Mission 3: Packing and vehicle maintenance
  • Packing is hard for me, I always want to take more than I need, yet also take less than I need in other aspects.
  • I decided to use the Microsoft TODO task list this time, as I thought of things I needed I’d put them on the list, let my partner also have access and we worked through it together. This worked out great!
  • Within a few days we had everything fully written down and most already packed, I did a general maintenance run on my car (fluids/tires/air/adaptors/chargers) and had my emergency roadside tools packed in a small travel emergency tool bag, we were ready.
• Mission 4: Travelling
  • I-10 to I-75 south was smooth as buttah, so smooth I won’t even say butter, it was 100% buttah.
  • I-75 south to Tampa/Saint Pete’s on the other hand, a wreck every 5 miles, turning a 3.5 hour stretch into nearly 8 hours.
  • We arrived at the house, unloaded the car, took a quick shower to refresh then prepared to go to the festival. Not much else to say about the travel, it is what it is.

Mission 5: Festival Time

The festival opened its doors at 4 PM, Thursday March 12th, 2026. We were there at 6 PM thanks to the insanity of the traffic down I-75 South. Entering the festival was a breeze mostly, except I kept having to walk through the metal detector because apparently something in my pants was setting it off despite not having anything in my pants, I mean unless YOU dear reader want there to be something in my pants if you catch my drift. As long as it’s nothing insane like a penguin or an M1-Abrams tank, I’ll take anything down my pants.

After finally getting through security we headed to the VIP section to collect our swag. A t-Shirt and a lanyard that honestly didn’t mean shit. The lanyard wasn’t needed, we booped in and out with our wrist bands. Honestly what is the purpose of the lanyard? it wasn’t even festival coded, it was plain and black, with a plastic card on it that said VIP, even furry conventions have custom lanyards year over year, come on guys, make it memorable and marketable at least!

After collecting the “Swag” we made our way around to the VIP area in front of the stage for Cypress Hill. Another band finally off my bucket list.

We then wandered around a bit, saw a few other acts, then went back to the main stage to see Slightly Stoopid close out the night.

During Slightly Stoopids set, a random girl came up to me, one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever see, and she took me by the hand, held the handshake longer than it should have been held, and brushed my arm asking me “Are you a pepper?” — I have NO Fucking idea what she meant by this, so I just said “I have no fucking idea what you mean by that, but I am here jiving to the music and this is Alisha my primary partner, pleasure to meet you!” She then hung with us for a few minutes and made her way around to other areas around the stage and then I lost sight of her.

Our night ended here, we headed back to the rental making a really long walk in an unknown town late at night. Normally some might be concerned, and I 100% know we passed by the “Ghetto” area of Saint Pete’s but it didn’t bother me, I was riding high on a night of good music and good vibes. We ordered ubereats from Drunken Wok and had some bomb ass chicken.

Day 2

I woke up sore and tired, but also with a hunger for adventure and sunshine. I ate some instant chowmein and we hopped in the car to hit a store to get some portable batteries AND a few groceries (milk, bread, eggs and cheese) to help make the stay at this rental easier so we’re not eating out every day nor calling up uber eats for every meal. Then came time to head back into the festival. We opted to catch an uber in because I hadn’t yet learned where our Lime scooter parking areas were by us. It was short and informative, the guy was in town just for the event, originally from Illinois, he just travels around to festivals across the nation to make money giving rides an getting tips.

Back at the festival, it was even easier to breeze through security this time, I already had my hands in the air with everything in them and walk through the metal detector, no beeps, moving on.

One of the first things to happen this day as we headed to the vibe stage, was seeing this tall lanky man I had never seen before in my life just stare at me, point, then scream while running up to me. I did not feel threatened, my fight or flight never kicked in, instead I felt “Huh, that’s weird, but he feels just… very… California? Does that make sense? Is California even a feeling one can have?” — the answer my dear reader is yes, California is indeed a feeling you can have. Turns out, this guy was the artist who made my Goleta hat I was wearing, he’s a native of Goleta and Santa Barbara California named Jimmy J! Small world, truly it is, meeting the guy who designed my hat I was wearing at that exact moment, thousands of miles from his home, and hundreds of miles from mine, at a Reggae festival in Saint Petersburg Florida. We then continued on to watch Skip Marley as it started to rain.

Then a magical thing happened, a double rainbow appeared over Tampa Bay. So many people sat in aw and wonderment over this view, it was amazing and I could feel the immense love of the festival goers all just looking and feeling in the moment.

It was then, at this moment I realized what the girl last night was saying and it hit me like a ton of bricks. She was asking if I was a MEMBER of the band Pepper! And looking back at it, easy honest mistake, I do kinda look like their Drummer, and it’s not the first time someone asked me this .When I saw Pepper in Pensacola a year earlier someone asked me the same thing in the parking lot. But then the second thing dawned on me and it nearly broke my soul for a moment. She was flirting with me. FLIRTING WITH ME?!? NO ONE FLIRTS WITH ME!!! It made me both sad and glad at the same time, sad I didn’t notice it before, but glad that someone was actively flirting with me in a public setting that wasn’t my partner. It has been literally over a decade since anyone has looked at me in any way other than a co-worker or an engineer. For someone to hold my hand and brush my arm, actively flirting with me like that blows my mind. I’m not desirable, no one is ever proud to say “Yeah I’d date them” when talking about me. I also have extremely low self esteem and lots of trauma regarding my looks and how people treated me in the past. I am the post child of “Oh we pretended to like them and pretended to set them up on a day just to leave them high and dry and laugh at them!” because it happened tome on more than 1 occassion.

So sitting here, looking at this rainbow, I felt a tinge of sadness from that missed connection, yet hopeful that for the first time in forever someone truly saw me and had interest in me.

As a small aside, I need this as a tattoo now please.

We wandered around some more checking out the sites, grabbing a bite to eat, acquiring some band specific festival swag, the usual.

Then came the headlining act, Iration. After the conversation with Jimmy J earlier in the day I found out they were from Santa Barbara, and he hangs with them regularly, and designed a lot of their early tour posters and other artworks. This cover they did though, speaks to me directly, so ladies, come on up.

Tonight on the way back to the house, we opted to ride lime scooters, I finally got the app to work and found the parking locations closest to the house for us. It was a fun ride, Alisha’s first time, and we got back within 20 minutes. Riding up Central Ave and 1st ave allowed me to realize there’s a lot more to Saint Pete’s than I realized, and I absolutely will need to take another trip to the city just to explore.

Day 3

Feeling gutsy after the Lime ride back home last night, we opted to take another Lime ride down to the festival, seeing the site in the day time and vibrantly full of life made me start to fall in love with it. So many cool things to see, so many nooks and crannies with a kitschy business here, an Avant Garde museum there.

Security? We’re experts at this now and they recognize us, didn’t even check our bags this time.

Rushing to the Vibe stage to catch Kash’ed Out, a band we’ve seen before, like many of those performing at this festival, but every time the experience gets better.

After their set we caught Pasafire, it was my first time seeing them, and I really dig them a lot now. IRONICALLY, the same girl who was flirting with me during Slightly Stoopid was right in front of me. Suddenly panic sets in. WHAT DO I DO?! DO I SAY HELLO? DO I TELL HER I FINALLY UNDERSTAND SHE WAS ASKING IF I WAS PEPPER’S DRUMMER? DO I FLIRT BACK!? PANICCCCCCCC!!!!!!!

I do nothing.

I accept my fate of never continuing that encounter with her, the friendship or more that could’ve developed. If it was meant to happen she would’ve turned around and acknowledged me, for I was too afraid to acknowledge her. One who has never been desired by others, never held in reverence by others, does not engage, cannot engage. Instead I live in shame and sadness.

In the middle of Pasafires set, the audio cut out, so we were just the crowd singing and keeping them going, they seemed to enjoy it.. the first time, the second time in their same set was very much a “WTF YO!?” moment

LOOK! A HAMMOCK SKYSCRAPER! — It was much more impressive in person, easily 7 hammocks high, about 20 feet off the ground.

Our next act was The Expendables. Another band I’ve never seen perform before today, but they blew my mind and I dig them now too.

Then, came time for one of the main acts I was there to see myself, De La Sol! I have been wanting to catch these guys for over 30 years and now I finally had my chance and I was in heaven!

That night, we headed back to the house with our now trusted Lime scooters, ate some mac’n’cheese and rested for the next day.

DAY 4

Oh boy, this day, was a literal shit show by the end of the night. But it was fun until that moment hit.

We started out at the Vibe stage with a group I never heard of before, G Love and the Special Sauce. And now they’re another new to me band that I now love.

Then on to the main stage for yet another band I’ve never heard of, Little Stranger – and they fucking rocked, another group I will 100% go see again if I get a chance.

And now, for 1 of the 2 co-headliners for Sunday, 311. I’ve seen 311 many times before, including at Louisville’s Louder Than Life festival, however tonight, rain and thunder cut their set short after their third song.

And then, thunderstruck. Literally. 311 ran off stage saying they’re taking a break. Then for the next 2 hours, the festival organizers tried to get everyone out of the festival so they could “Asses the situation and restart the show” I was stuck, literally, no way out from where we were at, crowds too thick. People refusing to move.

I’ve worked events big and small in my time, and this was a complete failure on their part. When it was determined there had to be an immediate evacuation, and EVERYONE had to leave, you organize security to walk, ARM IN ARM and push the patrons gently out of the venue. You don’t keep announcing it over the PA for 2 hours expecting people who are drunk and high to blindly follow and abide by those rules. It was a disaster, unfortunately not beautifully so. This was just after 7 PM.

The headlining act was Sublime. I waited almost 2 hours, the show did not restart. I gave up. We went home. 10 minutes after getting home and taking my shoes off and preparing for bed because I had a 7 hour drive back home the next day, we got a text. STEEL PURSE ON THE VIBE STAGE AND SUBLIME ON THE MAIN STAGE GATES OPEN NOW!. FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK! I AM DONE, I AM TIRED, I AM IN BED ALREADY, I AM MISSING SUBLIME AFTER NEARLY 40 YEARS, I AM MISSING SUBLIME and so it was, I missed seeing sublime due to some thunder and lightning by 2 hours,

Their set was short, barely 45 minutes, they started just before 9 and ended just before 10. Even if I stayed I would’ve been disappointed.

The next morning we woke up early, finished cleaning the house and getting the last few things back in the truck and headed back home to Pcola. Passing Gainseville FL and the home of the Steve Spurrier cafe. Passing exit 404 with the Citrus Center and live baby gators. Hanging a left from I-75 North onto I-10 West. And then straight on until morning. Passing the Apalachicola river (or being way down yonder on the Chattahoochee if you’re feeling frisky enough *wink* ). We make it back to Pcola, love on the dogs and cats, unload our luggage and travel food, and take a much needed rest in our own bed.

Overall? I give this a 7/10 ONLY because I missed sublime. If I didn’t miss them, then easily a 69/10, would do it again and again.

And to the girl who thought I was the drummer from Pepper, thank you for flirting with me, I haven’t felt that giddy in probably 30 years. I wish my past traumas hadn’t kept me from speaking up and instead had made me so afraid to say something to you the next day I saw you, but you truly did make my week even if I regretted not reaching back out.