Back in September 2024 "Weird Al" Yankovic announced his 2025 tour, he wasn't returning to Maine sadly. The closest shows for us were Boston, Mohegan Sun Casino, and Bethel, NY at the site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
This was going to be Wesley's Christmas experience and I didn't want to deal with Boston, I knew the ticket situation would be absurd and it was. I didn't want to take him to the casino so after a short discussion we decided to go to Bethel, NY. Jonny left it up to me to buy the tickets, and when they went on sale I went into it deciding not to buy front row, then once I got logged in and saw them staring at me, I bought us front row. I mean if we were going to go all that way, and this being Wesley's first concert experience, why not make it worth it.
The date of the show is July 13, 2025, buying tickets 10 months out is always a gamble because you never know what else is going to be going. Originally we were going to make the 400 mile drive Bethel on the day of the concert, stay the night and drive back on Monday. Then we decided to stay two nights so we could go to Binghamton, New York the home of Rod Serling and see the sights dedicated to the mind behind the Twilight Zone.
In the Spring of 2025 the trip transformed again after we couldn't find a reasonably priced hotel in driving distance to the venue. Looking at AirBNB's they had some nearby but the price point was a bit high but comparable. Then I asked Kate if she wanted to go and we would make a weekend of it. Leave on Friday and return home on Monday. So the Hollister House in Damascus, Pennsylvania was booked.
On July 10th Jonny messaged that he tested positive for covid and was very sick. SUCKS! Canaan and Addison both had to work all weekend, and with Canaan just starting his job it's not like he can ask for time off. It was decided that Kate would go to the show. She's never seen Al, and even though she's not a huge fan of his music, he puts on an amazing show and I know she will have a great time!
Friday July 11
I had to bring Addison to work for 8am and after dropping her off we headed south on our adventure. First stop was a Tony's Donuts in Portland for a couple delicious donuts. We next stopped in Tewksbury, Mass so Wesley could use the restroom. Our next stop was at the TA on Ruby Road in Willington, CT so we could fuel up the vehicles and get some beverages.
Next we were going to go to Foxon Park in North Haven, CT so I could get some soda, on a normal traffic day it's only a 20 minute detour, when I mapped it because of traffic and work on Interstate 91 it was nearly 50 minutes. So I decided to forgo it and we would just head to Stew Leonard's in Danbury which was right on the way.
The traffic started thickening up as we neared Hartford and it didn't let up all the way to Danbury. Stew's was great as it usually is. You couldn't watch the milk production as they were doing some renovations on the store. We had lunch there, Wesley got his fried chicken legs, Kate also got fried chicken and I got some hot bar stuff.
After lunch we picked up a few things to bring to the AirBNB to have while we are there. Getting back on the road we head into New York on 84 and hit some serious traffic. By the time we got to AirBNB in Damascus, Pennsylvania we had been on the road over 10 hours when it should have only taken us 6.5 hours.
The AirBNB is fantastic! Three bedroom, two baths, kitchen, living room, dining room, game room. Wesley and I even played a few hands of UNO after dinner.
For dinner we got a couple pizza's at Local Pizza, and the pizza tremendous!!! We got a pepperoni and cheese, but got ricotta on half of each, delicious!
Saturday July 12
On Friday Kate found a few places we could check out locally, we had considered driving to Lancaster which is 3 hours away. They have a train ride and Amish country is beautiful. However, after all the driving Friday, we didn't want to do that much driving. Kate found a cool train ride about 25 minutes away in Honesdale, PA.
So we decided to head up to Binghamton and then drive down to the train ride which was at 3pm. The drive up to Binghamton was nice, took about 70 minutes to go to our first stop at Recreation Park for the Rod Serling statue athat was unveiled in August 2024 ahead of his 100th birthday which was December 25, 1924.
Recreation Park is quite large, it has a playground, baseball field, basketball and pickleball courts, a public pool and one of the two carousels in Binghamton. Wesley and Kate headed off to the playground and I headed over to the high school a short distance away to take a picture of the Rod Serling Sign.
Back at the Park Kate and I checked out the gazebo that was the basis for the one seen in the Twilight Zone episode Walking Distance. Recreation Park as a whole seem to be the inspiration for Walking Distance.
The Recreation Park carousel was installed in 1923 and was donated to Binghamton in 1925 and runs during the summer months for free. The Carousel has been painted with scenes from popular Twilight Zone episodes. It's very cool!
I posted a blog with more images of the carousel here: Rod Serling Carousel
We went to the Bundy Museum of History and Art to see the Serling Archives. The Archives are a collection of Rod Serling related artifacts and memorabilia not just The Twilight Zone. They did have an old TV that was playing Walking Distance on repeat, so that was very cool to check out.
After viewing the fantastic collection we looked around for lunch as we wanted to eat cheap for lunch so why not some hot dogs. I asked the guy behind the counter at the Bundy Museum and he mentioned there was a place in Johnson City, couldn't remember the name, but it was right down the road. Kate had done a quick search and found Tony's Texas Hots, the place in Johnson City, and another joint called Pinkies. After looking at photo's we decided on Tony's because it looked like a fantastic old hot dog place, and it was. Turns out Pinkies was closed down, so it wouldn't have even been an option.
The drive from Binghamton to Honesdale was about an hour and 20 minutes and along the way we passed this enormous stone bridge we learned is called the Starruca Viaduct. It really just appeared out of no where somehow as we rounded a corner and we all exclaimed out loud about it.
Wesley was very excited to do something in New York and Pennsylvania, he wants to do something in every state and he wants to be able to remember it so nothing from when he was "real little".
It rained on and off as we drove to the train and it really poured while we waited inside the train station. The train The Stourbridge Line is a short line train that runs 25 miles from Honesdale to Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania and the round trip ride takes about 90 minutes.
It sprinkled for the majority of the ride, and it was a fun ride! Wesley absolutely loved it and spent a good chunk of the time talking to the conductor.
After we returned to the station Wesley got us a tour of the dining cars from the conductor and a man that had done the construction work on the car. They even gave Wesley a magnet of engine 54, which was acquired from the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad in Maine.
We got back to the AirBNB about 6pm. The majority of our driving today was on mountain side and back roads with numerous hills and "S" turns. This whole are is like that, and there is no cell or radio reception where we are at.
A few miles away in Callicoon, New York is the Callicoon Theater and they were screening the new Superman movie, so I decided to take in the flick. I love going to small local theaters. This one opened in 1948 and is a single screen with a Quonset hut design room that is so unique, I have never seen one like it before.
No advance tickets, doors open half an hour before the picture begins and seats are first come first serve one seating, the theatre was packed but we did not fill up the 350 seats. If you read their website, they describe there concessions a such:
\How could I not buy popcorn and a cherry coke. The popcorn was AMAZING and exceeded expectations, the cherry coke was solid as well. A chocolate egg cream is a concoction made with milk, seltzer water, and chocolate syrup.
Movie was great, I was very happy with it. It didn't blow me away, but I really enjoyed it.
Sunday July 13
Sunday was a lazy day at the AirBNB. Kate and I went to the Callicoon Farmer's Market, it was very nice and they have all kinds of fresh local vegetables. We then went to Peck's Market and decided to have lunch at Ollie Grey's.
We both got a burger and a shared a side of fries, dang good food. There was some deer in the woods across the street. They didn't seem bothered by the traffic. We've seen a lot of deer in the area mostly in the roadway, they are smaller than our deer back home.
We headed out to the concert about 5pm, it was a half hour drive to the venue and parking was free so that as nice. We walked over to the Woodstock monument, in the distance they have a peace sign pressed into the grass. On the drive over Friday as we passed the entrance to Bethel Woods the Grateful Dead was playing on the radio.
We walked back to the entrance and got there as gates opened at 630, it didn't take long to get inside. I gotta give a ton of praise to the staff of Bethel Woods, they had numerous team members at the gates to get the crowd through security quickly, the concession stand lines moved quickly and when leaving they had traffic control guiding vehicles and not just a free for all. Other venues should take note, quite frankly.
At the merchandise stand we got Wesley his first tour t-shirt, he picked it out, we also got Jonny one. I picked out what I think is a venue specific shirt of Al burning his accordion ala Jimi Hendrix and his guitar, and it does have the tour name on the bottom.
We grabbed Wesley some concessions and found our way to our seats. We had an awesome view and with the stairs right in front of us we knew we would be getting a close up view of Al.
Puddles hit the stage right at 8pm and his set was about 35 minutes. He was fantastic, funny, great voice, fun videos, great audience participation. I would go see his solo stage show in the future, really fantastic! During one part of his show he threw a bunch of his guitar picks on the other side of the stage, one of the security guards gave one to Wesley.
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There was only a short 10 minute break between acts as Al's set kicked off at 845pm. It was a fantastic show! He opened with Tacky, then Mission Statement, and rolled into his Polkamania!
His did his hits like Amish Paradise, White & Nerdy, Smells Like Nirvana, and Fat. I was surprised to see his did his Michael Jackson parodies as in 2019 he said he wouldn't be doing them and hadn't since his 2016 tour until this tour.
He did a couple deep cuts in his melody of songs with My Bologna, which I hadn't heard since 2013 and Like A Surgeon, which I hadn't heard since 2019. He did his standard encore of The Saga Begins and Yoda. After the show we were waiting for the crowd to clear, and one of the team members gave Wesley a copy of the set list, VERY COOL!!
The show finished about 11:10pm and once we got to the car we were quickly back on the main road, and back at the AirBNB by midnight. It was a VERY successful and awesome first concert experience for Wesley. He was singing on with his favorite songs and I was impressed with what he knew.
Monday July 14
I we got up and cleaned up the AirBNB and was on the road by 8am. We were taking a different route home going adding over half an hour to the drive so we could have breakfast at the Phoenicia Diner. I've followed them on Instagram for years and Kate and I ate there in 2023 and loved it.
Breakfast did not disappoint. Wesley and I both got the 3500 which is 1 pancake, 1 french toast, 1 egg, sausage, and bacon. Kate got the farmers skillet and we got a couple of the pecan oatmeal cookies, they didn't have any last time we were there. We ate those cookies on the drive home and they were AMAZING.
After breakfast we hit the road for home. We stopped at a Stewarts Shops in New York prior to getting on Interstate 87. For the ride home we took 87 to Interstate 90 into Massachusetts all the way to I-290, to I-495, to I-95 to I-295 to home.
We got home just after 5pm, had very minute traffic issues, nothing like the drive down. Total mileage on the trip was 1,079.8 miles.
It was a very fun extended weekend!
Until Next Time!!
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