Oh, just remembered, I was supposed to share my experience with the GM people from this show. When I first walked into the
venue, in my attempt to find the VIP tent for the meet and greet with Troy and Eddie, I naturally stopped at the GM booth to fill
out one of those surveys (I could fill that thing out with my eyes closed). Well, after not winning one meet and greet all tour long, I
finally was told I was a winner. I was so excited, and I kept trying to reach either Donna (who had never met Kenny before) or Jen
on their cell phones. Anyone, who was there that day, knows that the cell phone service was very trying. While I was waiting for
my meet and greet with Troy and Eddie, they announced the winners for the KC meet and greet. I couldn’t hear everything. So,
as soon as I was done with the MG meet and greet, I went right over to the GM booth to see if my name was called. I was so upset
to hear that I wasn’t a winner. I went back to the guy that told me I was winner, and he immediately started apologizing. He
had some sad-sack excuse, and he promised me a seat upgrade. He told me to come find him after the Montgomery Gentry set.
Well this lying piece of crap even bailed on the seat upgrade, not that I needed one, but I had some friends that were far from the
stage. You know me, always positive, but this really upset me. Just ask Nae. She got a very upsetting voice mail from me. It was
actually the first call I had completed since we arrived at Marion, and she wasn’t picking up. Yikes.
I tried to keep myself calm by telling myself that MG would soon be on stage, but it wasn’t working. I really could have used
that last ticket that I had sold to bigstarnme so that I could go out to my friends, who I still couldn’t reach via the cell phone.
Shoot, I even tried calling Clark, and I rarely call him. I just needed a dang shoulder to cry on. All right, enough whining about
those lousy GM people.
When Montgomery Gentry did finally take the stage, I was at my seat, but still a little upset about the GM thing. I was trying not
to let it interfere with my good time, but I’m sure it was obvious to anyone who saw me that I was a bit disturbed. Well, to
anyone looking in my general direction anyway (ask Nikki about that). Despite my foul mood at the start of the show, they picked
up my spirits and put on an excellent show. When they first came out, I was just sitting in my seat. Yeah I know, I usually stand
and get mad at anyone who is sitting, but there was no one standing in my way. I could see what I wanted to see just fine, really
just fine. Then I decided to try and blend with the crowd, which meant moving over to where the crowd was. As soon as I did that,
a whole bunch of people came to claim their seat, so I scurried back to my assigned seat. Shortly after that, Nikki finally showed
up. I believe MG was on their fourth song already.
It was great to finally have a friend to share my dang GM story with and also the meet and greet with Troy and Eddie. Eventually,
I let all the anger go, and just enjoyed the rest of the Montgomery Gentry show. They were so good. I really enjoyed the show,
with the exception of Nikki punching my arm while yelling at me to get a picture of Troy that I was already trying to get. With her
punching me, I would lose focus and not get the picture. Good thing for her, I did manage a few good pictures of him, but only after
I yelled at her to stop hitting my arm. I actually got a lot of good pictures of Montgomery Gentry as a whole. It’s great being
able to take pictures in the daylight. They come out so much better.
Kenny’s part of the show was incredible. Naturally he went through just about the same set list as all the other shows I had
attended throughout the year, with a few minor changes. This night, like he had been doing for the past few months, he had his
whole crew come out and sing a chorus of Cheeseburger in Paradise, but he also did something different. He had his trainer, Daniel â
€œburnsâ€� Meng, come out and sit on a stool and sing a very good rendition of my favorite Eagles tune, DESPARADO. He did
an excellent job with it too. Although it was funny how the spot light kept following Kenny all over the stage while Daniel was
singing up there without a light. The crowd really enjoyed this, and so did I. The night before in Charleston, Kenny had crew guy,
Jason, sing a Kinks song, You Really Got Me. (yes I know Van Halen did a cover of this too).
The best was yet to come, though. It’s been so long now, I really don’t remember at what point, but Eddie and Troy came
out during the encore and never left. Eventually their whole band was out on stage too. Bo picked up a guitar right away and was
playing his little heart out. Eventually Nick gave up his guitar so that Frank could play a song. Even Eddie (not Montgomery)
helped Wyatt out on the keyboards. The other guys just came out on stage to hang for a bit. It was the best part of the show.
Except for the one band member who almost fell flat on his face, that would have hurt. Apparently he wasn’t used to Kennyâ
€™s stage set-up anymore, or maybe he spent too much time on the Jim Beam bus.
It was so sad when it did finally end, but for a while there it didn’t seem like it would end. They just kept playing really cool
songs like GIMME THREE STEPS, SWEET HOME ALABAMA, and even a Steve Miller song. The guys were obviously having
a good time up there, everyone: Kenny, Eddie, Troy and both bands. It was definitely a great way to end the tour; it was my last
show. It was just sad that we weren’t all together. We were so far apart. Nikki and I were on the right side of the stage, where
we like the sights. Lisa, Jen, and Donna were on the left side, since that’s the other tickets we had. I sat where I wanted to, and
the heck with everyone else. I was so proud that I made it through the show without crying. Yes I was sad at times, but I never
cried during the show.
After the show, oh boy, what a post-tailgate party we had. The show ended around 10 PM, but we kept going and going and
going. There was a shortage of water inside the venue. Yeah can you believe they ran out of water: outdoor venue, the show started
at 7 PM, no shade to be found anywhere, and it was about 95 degrees. I guess they wanted everyone to drink stale tap beer. Yikes,
not me. We were so thirsty by the end of the show. All we wanted was water. Even the warm water that was locked up inside my
car would be better than stale tap beer.
After satisfying our immediate thirst, we hit the alcohol in the cooler, or maybe that was just me. We were listening to some music
that Toni burned onto a CD (I’m thinking I need a copy of that CD Toni). I was just having a great time. It was lots of fun. I
really had a good time hanging out with those Carolina girls and the New York ones too. Eventually the Carolina girls had to leave.
We decided to move the car over to where the buses and trucks were all leaving from. We needed to wave goodbye since this was
our last show.
We somehow lost Nikki after the concert ended, and we had a feeling that we might make it easier for her to find us if we were right
outside the gate. Eventually, there she was. She came running over to us, but something was different. The normally calm, cool,
collected Nikki was quite excited and dying to tell us something. After two years, she finally got to meet Troy Gentry. OMG, you
would have thought she just met Kenny Chesney, but Nikki doesn’t get excited over Kenny. Now, Troy, that she got excited
over. It was a definite Kodak moment. Something for Jen and I to savor the next time we get to do something really cool, like say
memories of Jacksonville maybe.
Well it was just about 2 AM. We needed to get back to our hotel in Myrtle Beach so that we could get some sleep before we
headed back to New York in the morning. We were all kind of sad that the tour was over, as far as our attendance was concerned.
Somewhere along the hour-long drive between Marion and Myrtle Beach, we decided that we would go to Kentucky to see the final
MARGARITAS AND SENORITAS show. Hey you only live once, and that was our motto. We needed to eat something. We
stopped at some breakfast buffet place right by our hotel, and from there we made our plans to drive to Kentucky. Since this wasnâ
€™t planned, we didn’t have a map or a clue how to get there.
We needed to get packed, we needed to make sure Donna made it to the airport for her flight back to Alabama, we needed
directions, and most of all we needed sleep. Well, the first three things got taken care of, but the four of us that were going to
Kentucky never got any sleep. Thanks to Kelly and a very nice man at the hotel where we were staying in Myrtle Beach, getting
directions was quite easy. Kelly did a mapquest and e-mailed it to the guy working the desk. It’s great to have friends,
especially some on the West Coast who are still awake at 3 am Eastern time when you make these rash decisions. Kelly we couldnâ
€™t have gotten there without you, but why didn’t you ask me if I knew how to get home from there? After the Kentucky
show, I called another friend on the West Coast, Sylvia, to get directions home, but this time I had to write them down line for line.
Thanks for getting us home Sylvia. While Kelly was e-mailing those directions, I asked the extremely helpful man at the desk if he
could possibly place two wake-up calls to my room, fifteen minutes apart from each other. So, with a map in my hands, wake-up
calls ordered, I just needed to pack up my stuff and get my a** in the car.
It was sometime after 3 am by the time we finally left Myrtle Beach to head towards Kentucky. We decided to drive in teams.
Lisa and Nikki were one team. Jen and me were the other team. Lisa drove first and Nikki stayed awake with her while Jen and I
tried to sleep in the backseat. After about three hours it was my turn. Unfortunately we were still in South Carolina, but we were
almost in North Carolina. Would you believe they saved the best part of the driving for me? That’s right, I got to drive through
the mountains, figures. But hey, I’m not so scared anymore. Although Jen was on my team and was supposed to be awake
with me, I told her to go to sleep since her head kept bobbing. Lisa woke up at one point when we were going through this really
nice mountain range. It was so pretty and since the sun was now up you could see everything. I got to drive through a bit of South
Carolina, a piece of North Carolina and a whole bunch of Tennessee. Shoot, after the Knoxville show I didn’t think I would see
Tennessee again until June of 2004. I can’t remember if I drove into Kentucky, but Nikki was up next to drive. She drove
through Kentucky, and I remember on that one highway, I-75 I believe, there were lots of horses and stables on both sides of the
highway. Nikki and Lisa were very excited. Eventually we let Jen drive too.