Golem has traversed Alligator Alley twice in the last two months, which is a good thing.

The first occasion was the Langerado festival. A huge outdoor music festival, with tons of acts—everyone from us, to the Beastie Boys, to Vampire Weekend.

The only problem was that this huge outdoor festival happened to be taking place on an Indian reservation in the middle of the Everglades, and there was a twelve-mile two-lane road to get in, resulting in a twelve-mile traffic jam. Traffic was completely stopped, and didn’t seem likely to move anytime soon.

But Golem had to play at 7:30 pm, and it was about 6:45. There was absolutely no way we could wait in that line and make it to our show. Also, cellphones didn’t work out there.

What was there to do but put on the highbeams and hazards, and drive twelve miles on the wrong side of the double yellow line, going the wrong way, dodging water bottles thrown by angry hippies, and sometimes veering onto the swampy roadside to let an oncoming Mack Truck by?

“Hold on,” Tim said, and crossed the double yellow lines, while Annette and I screamed encouragingly. By the time we got there it was raining, and no one working there seemed to know where we were supposed to be playing, but by some miracle we were whisked away to the stage in a kind of golf cart driven by a woman named Scarlet, who took good care of us, and was excellent at maneuvering through quicksand while we clutched our instruments.

I did enjoy the most delicious vegetarian corn-dog of my life.

We had planned to go back and see the other bands, but by the time we made it to the place we were staying – muddy and exhausted – we realized that what we needed was a good old-fashioned day at the beach, with tequila, limes, pretzels, and melted chocolate bars.

We returned to Florida a month later, and played three shows. Tampa (at Skipper’s Smoke Shack: “We Smoke Everything"; Sarasota (at the Sarasota Film Festival), and Miami Beach (in an art-deco outdoor bandshell on North Beach.) Very different shows but what they had in common was that they were all outdoor, being in the glorious state of Florida. So I had the rare and delightful opportunity of watching the moon overhead while performing – three nights in a row. Not to mention trying a bite of fried alligator tail.