Day 2: Indio, CA

Food? Who needs food???

Maybe this time I’ll plan a little better. See, Bryan and I just kind of winged it last year, and while we definitely made do, we quickly realized that we were short of several basic necessities. Like food.

That’s my open trunk in the picture above, and even though it’s a horribly-lit photo and you really can’t see what is inside my trunk, I’ll just tell you: One case of water, one trash bag, and one empty tent bag. That’s it. We brought entirely too little food – A case of Power Bars and a box of crackers was about it – and just assumed that there would be food there to purchase. There definitely was food to purchase, but we also came to the realization that we were incredibly cheap and didn’t want to shell out $9 per meal for over three days.

Thank god for the shuttle into town, where there is a Ralph’s. And an Italian restaurant. With air conditioning. Thank god.

Oh yeah, I forgot – Indio in April is kind of like a sauna – it’s over 90 degrees every day of the festival, and you had better be prepared for it. Like bathing-in-sunscreen-prepared. Like bringing-gallons-of-water-prepared. Like go-into-a-mist-tent-or-air-conditioned-space-whenever-possible-prepared.

That’s also the beauty of camping on the grounds: There are a ton of amenities on site, like showers, general stores, shuttles into town, stuff that you can definitely take advantage of. You can also go in and out of the festival as many times as you like to retreat to your campsite. Because nothing beats the 12:00-4:00 crappy opening band routine like taking the shuttle into Indio and having a calzone for lunch at the Italian place, right?

Continue…

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