A word from Rolly:
After the Phil show in Toronto (July 9), I ventured out with Yo to Darien Lake (July 10). This trip was to be Hemphry's (the VW's new name) first border crossing. I drove the van up to maybe 5 km from the border, and Yo decided he would be the one crossing all the time, and therefore would feel more comfortable doing it with me as a passenger.

We pulled up to the border and the woman in the first booth had no idea what to think of us. Sitting in Hemphry clad in tie die we surrendered our licences to her, and she in turn waved over one of the US Customs Officers. He began walking over and with a smirk on his face told us we would have to go through the x-ray. Yo responded with "We're late for a concert, and I was just wondering if we could go ahead of that transport..". Needless to say, the Officer was not amused.

Waiting in line behind the transport, other clad in blue Customs men came out of the wood work. All thinking they just became part of history, ready for the big bust, thinking that these two yahoos in a green hemp emblazened VW were a modern day Cheech and Chong. Wrong. We were driving Hemphry to the Phil Lesh show to begin our promotions of Pure Hemp. They swarmed the van, with seven of them in poor little Hemphry's belly, they began their search. Pulling off door panels and searching the boxes, they found only what we told them, a lot of cigarette papers. Yelling out comments to us like "where's the weed", Yo again explained we were late. They didn't really care, and continued on. Finally, they realized we were exactly who we told them. And on our way we went.

The Phil show was phenomenal, and Shakedown St was excellent. The goods were being sold full force out in the lot until the security and police asked people to wrap it up. Things seemed pretty calm, people began moving, and we headed for Hemphry. We took the journey back to Canada that night. I dropped Yo off in St. Catherines, and continued to Toronto. And gladly escorted myself to bed for the evening.

Rolly