Coachella plans, or lackthereof

OK, folks! I know it is early still, and it feels like an eternity away from us but as the seasoned 5 time Coachella festival-goer that I am (promise this will be the last time I say that, and I am only doing it in context here to lend validity to our options below) there is no time to waste if we’re planning on going.

Why? There are a few reasons, in this order:

1. Hotels. They are probably all booked now. All except the super-expensive ones that is. As soon as the dates were announced in November people made reservations, I know I did many years before knowing the bands since they are easy to cancel (the hotel reservations).
2. Flights. The only non-stop from SFO (Alaska Airlines, of all!) is already booked on the good times/low fares combinations. Best option is Oakland to Ontario at this point if we’re doing the budget thing. Always my favorite.
3. Tickets. Last on my list since I trust that the organizers have tried to create a short supply scenario which will break down with time. But we shall see. Right now they claim no single day passes are available, but I was able to put Saturday tickets in a shopping cart (and almost checked out, but wanted consensus first on what the plan is!)

So, let’s get to it!!! What are our options? I see a basic division of 2 approaches:

• a) The extreme concert-goer experience.
  This means last minute flight to get there (Friday afternoon or Saturday morning depending on whether you’re in for 3 or 2 days) and flight back god-awful early to a Monday of painful ecstasy at work from the high of the desert and the low of the exhaustion. Hotel rooms for all nights except Sunday, since it doesn’t pay to book a room for 3 or 4 hours of sleep anyway. I can explain more in person.
• b) The retiree preview to Palm Springs life.
  Fly in early and/or leave late installment plan. Enjoy the desert if your into that sort of thing, hike Joshua Tree National Park and blast you-know-what-CD out the stereo of that rental car the day before or after the concert. It’s fun, I did it and I was by myself. I would be so excited to repeat in such great company.

I’ll stick my neck out and make a suggestion:

1. No one-size fits all plan. It will never work for all, so let’s try to accommodate and have fun with the options.
2. At the same time, break up the couple-itis. Try and mix-n-match (not that kind of mix-n-matching, Mr. Touhy!) and attempt to at least rent only 2 cars and stay in the same hotel or nearby if we can.
3. Decide on two things first:
   – what days of the concert you want to see/days in-out of the Palm Springs area.
   – Extra “spa days”/Joshua Tree visit for you or not.

If we agree to the rules of the game, we can get started playing. We need quick decisions to plan it all well, so you tell me if it is too much to ask for an answer to the two questions I outlined by Friday of this week, so that some discussion can happen over the phone (dare I say blog?) over the week:

• Are you coming? People we’ve forgotten that should be added? Singletons welcome … Keith’s a great switch-hitter!
• Which day(s) do you definitely want to see? Which day(s) would you be OK seeing but wouldn’t care to miss? Which day(s) you despise and will wait in the hot sun for us to come back from kite-mile-high?
• Extra days for relax/hiking Joshua Tree for you?
• Optional question: preferred day of arrival to Palm Springs/date of departure.

That’s it, those three questions only. We’ll go from there. Yes, this is on splashblot … 🙂