I worked from home today. I was running rate to meet Adrienne for a late lunch out at the outlet mall, and while drying off after my rushed shower, I checked my work voice mail just in case. Good thing. She needed to cancel. We rescheduled for next week.
We got to Van’s at about 4:40, and only Brook was there. Adam had run back to his parents’ house in Cary, and Van had run to the grocery store. Van returned shortly, and I had a couple of rum and cokes. Dark rum. Not my favorite, but it’s been forever since I’ve had a rum and coke and it was not bad.
I got a little concerned that there wouldn’t be enough food, so ran over to the Hardee’s to get a bucket of chicken. They don’t sell chicken any more. I ran into the Food Lion and got a small container of Hot Wings. When I got back, everyone was in their cars and ready to go. I hopped into Van’s SUV.
We tailgated at Altell Pavilion, which wasn’t too bad. There were only two trucks with rebel flags waving over them. Eric (a.k.a. “Barbie” as in Ken and Barbie, as he’s a pretty boy and his partner’s name is Ken) was a little loud for my taste, which only got worse as the evening progressed.
We had a pretty good food spread and plenty of beer while tailgating, most of it provided by Van and Adam. Those guys are really generous in that respect. I stuffed a $20 bill down Van’s shirt at one point, as I wanted to make a contribution, and he didn’t want to take it.
Steve and David were running way behind, and at 7:05, I finally said that I was going to go find a seat, since the show started at 7:30, and we only had lawn seats. We ended up with a spot in line with one of the wide beams holding up the pavilion.
Martina and Alan were both great, Alan greater, but I don’t think lawn seats are really worth it there. The artists are too far away, and you basically watch them on the big screens. At least, for me, not owning a TV, evening seeing them on that was somewhat of a treat. I’m glad we got the covered pavilion seats for Tim McGraw in June.
Some of the group we were with got pretty drunk, but at $8.00 a cup for beer, which I don’t even care for, I didn’t drink at all.
Leaving the concert was absolutely horrible. We sat in the parking lot for ONE POINT FIVE HOURS, waiting to exit. Redamndiculous. The concert ended between 10 and 10:30 and we got home after midnight. We had all planned to go out, but by then it was too late.