Thanks to Jen having to bowl on the first Saturday of every month, we couldn’t leave for our road trip until she was done.
We finally got on the road sometime after 10 PM. We were leaving our Island via a route we had never taken before, and we
actually liked it better. We will be going that way again, well, if Kenny adds any more upstate New York shows to his tour. For
our next KC show, we will be heading South. So, we won’t need that route anytime soon.
Believe it or not we drove constantly for three hours. I had the first leg of the trip. Jen was trying to get some sleep while I
drove, yeah right. If she would have skipped the bowling thing, we both could have had a restful night’s sleep in Rochester.
It’s amazing that we actually drove for three hours without stopping. Normally, as soon as we hit the mainland we need to
make Mother Nature prescribed pitstop.
We were somewhere in Pennsylvania when we finally stopped. That’s right, we live in New York and the show was in New
York, but somehow we were in Pennsylvania. In case you’re keeping track, we were also in the fine state of New Jersey on
our way from Long Island, New York to Rochester, New York. When we stopped, we were just south of the Pennsylvania/New
York border. We drove right through Scranton, PA. We actually thought of looking for the bar we visited after KC’s Scranton
show last June. Jen claims she knows exactly where it is. Plus, we also wanted to see if we could find my friend, Jack the
Sprayer. We have fond memories of meeting him last June.
Early on in the drive we were singing along to some Jimmy buffet. One of the songs was Margaritaville. We were having a good
time. Just then the song came to the line “booze in the blender�. Suddenly Jen turned to me and asked if I remembered to
pack the blender. We both screamed. Earlier Jen had called me from the bowling alley to wake me up from my nap. While I was
on the phone with her, I was using the blender to make myself a protein shake. So, she knew it wasn’t packed at that point.
Well don’t you know it? I left it on the counter at home. So here we were, halfway between home and the venue, we had
booze, we had drink mix, we had ice, but no blender. At that point we knew that our sleep time just got cut a bit shorter. We
now needed to go find a store in Rochester that would be open on Sunday and that carried blenders.
While Jen and I made our way to Rochester, Nikki had a fun night out on the town of Rochester. Jen and I spent sometime
chatting with her while we were making our way to Northwestern New York. When we were just about an hour out of Rochester,
Nikki sounded really tired, so she was going to get some sleep before we arrived. She told me to make sure we woke her up when
we got there. She wanted to have some shello jots with us. As it turns out, she didn’t really mean it. I tried waking her up
three times, after we finally arrived around 4:30 AM. All she did was grunt, moan and try to wave me away. We even tried
enticing her with the shello. She wasn’t nudging one bit. So Jen and I had some Shello, since there’s always room and
then fell fast asleep ourselves.
One of the conversations I with Nikki before she passed out, she told me about the room we were in. The room was at the end
of the hallway, in a cubbyhole, and there wasn’t even a sign for the room number out in the hallway. If she didn’t tell me
about it ahead of time, Jen and I would have been walking around that hallway looking for our room at 4:30 in the morning. When
we got to the end of that hallway, I stepped into the cubbyhole, just like Nikki had said to do. All the while, Jen is yelling â
€œwhere you going? Our room isn’t in there.â€� I keep telling her it is, Nikki said so. So, Jen wouldn’t follow me. So, Iâ
€™m walking into the room, and I think that Jen finally came to her senses and decided to follow me. Then I realize that the door
closed and Jen isn’t inside. I walk back out of the room, out of the cubbyhole, and I’m telling her “really, our room is
right here.�
Eventually Jen and I joined Nikki in dreamland. It must have been just about 5 AM at this point. In the morning, I forget who
moved first, but it wasn’t me! I believe it was Nikki. She had the most sleep. She needed a cigarette. I heard her heading for
the door. I also forget who said good morning first, Nikki or me, but as soon as I said “good morning�, Jen’s comment
was “you’ve been dying to say that, haven’t you?� It was after 9 AM.
We were all hungry and we needed a blender, so we decided to venture out into the big city of Rochester, in our pajamas, old
road trips just don’t want to go away. We needed to find us some golden arches and a wallyworld, or something similar to
Wally. We weren’t too picky about that, as long as the store was open and sold blenders. After some searching we found us
some golden arches, but not after we had ourselves a nice little tour of the city. While at the golden arches we had ourselves a
healthy, protein-filled, low-fat breakfast that I’m sure Daniel (Kenny’s trainer) would most definitely approve of. When
we were done, we decided that the Dunkin Donuts across the way looked appetizing and the perfect thing to compliment the
breakfast we just had. While we were there at Dunkin’ Donuts, we filled up on donuts, tea and coffee. We also decided we
needed some munchkins for the tailgate party.
Now with our tummies filled and our sweet tooth’s satisfied, we still needed to buy us a blender. There was no way we
were having a tailgate party during the Margaritas and Senoritas Tour without my strawberry margaritas, no way. We drove
around Rochester some more, but couldn’t find a blender store. Nikki remembered some stores in a town east of Rochester,
so we drove that way. We found lots of stores. After spending some time in the small appliance section in Target (pronounced
tarza), I now have a blender just for my road trips. So now with that out of the way, we could all take a nap.
After a really quick nap, Jen and I went out to my car. Not sure for what, but wound up sitting in the sun. Shortly after we had
gotten comfortable, some crazy lady walks out of the hotel yelling at us. I thought she was yelling at us for sitting on the
sidewalk. Turns out it was my friend Amy. She was yelling something about banging on the window. She had just gotten into
town and was looking out the window of her room and saw Jen and I sitting there. It was at this point that we started the days
drinking. Nothing better than a nice ice cold beer, preferably a Heineken, some good friends and sunshine.
Now it was time to get ready for the party and the show. It’s always fun with the three of us getting ready at the same
time. I still laugh at how we trashed that hotel room in Jacksonville so badly in the span of 30 minutes. Our first stop once we
were ready, was to take some sightseeing pictures. While Jen and I were still making our way to the hotel in the wee hours of the
morning, Jen and I had gotten very excited as we went over a bridge that had a sign that said Erie Canal. We thought it was the
coolest thing at the moment. When we told Nikki out about our excitement she called us a couple of cityslickers. Since we were
sold thrilled to cross over the canal, Nikki thought that we would enjoy seeing the Erie Canal Locks. So that was our sightseeing
pitstop before we headed to the venue parking lot.
So, we finally pull into the venue parking lot with our margaritas in hand. What? Did you think that we waited until we got to
the parking lot to start enjoying those margaritas? Oh no. We were enjoying them at the locks. This was another enjoyable
tailgate party. There were lots of people there that we knew from the fan club. There was plenty to drink and lots of food too.
There was one girl there, by the name of Sheryl; it was her 16th birthday. Her mom decided to surprise her with 2nd row center
seats for the show. She was absolutely thrilled. I couldn’t think of a better birthday present. Maybe someone should let
Stevie know, drop him a hint or two.
Well since I got stuck with an extra ticket, I decided to put it to good use. I figured that I could use a bathroom visit. So, I used
the ticket to get me inside the venue so that I could use the ladies room, and while I was there, I thought why not sign up for the
GM Card meet and greet. It’s getting to be quite a sad situation with me not winning any meet and greets yet this year.
Shoot, I’ve seen him eight times so far, and no meet and greet. Part of the problem I think is that we spend so much time
outside partying that we get in too late after the winners have been picked. So I gave it my best shot. When I was done, I wanted
to go back outside to the party. I had a hard time getting out. I asked someone in security if I could go out that way, while
pointing to the door. He told me no. I had to ask, “what do you mean no? I want to leave, why can’t I leave.� Finally
he had said if I left I couldn’t come back in. I told him I didn’t want to. The look on his face was priceless. Another
Kodak moment lost.
After we were done partying outside, we headed into the venue. It was kind of weird for us; the show was even started yet.
Deana wasn’t on stage yet. Not that we watched her part of the show anyway. We were busy talking with friends, getting
beer, finding the smoking room, checking out the line for the merchandise booth, which was very long and stayed that way for the
whole show. I had two items that I wanted to buy, but refused to wait on the line. I ordered them by mail when I got home
instead.
Finally made it to the seats before Keith got on stage. It was so weird being to the first show without Montgomery Gentry. I
still remember the first show I went to this year on January 17 in Alabama, by the time we finally got inside the venue (not
because of tailgating, because we finally got into town after leaving New York at 2 am) they were halfway through their set
already. It’s still a moment I remember vividly, because as soon as I heard them singing HELL YEAH, I called Jen right away
so that she could listen. We both love that song. For Rochester, we were sitting in the sixth row, thanks to the fan club pre-sale,
without having to pay e-bay or broker prices. We had two seats together right by the aisle and then a single seat down a few.
Well, all three of us stood in the two seats. After Keith was done, I went and sat in my seat for a few seconds, but stood right by
Jen and Nikki once Kenny was getting ready to come out on stage.