It was up early the next morning and having had about 9 hours sleep up to this point, I was really starting to feel whipped. I've been told I don't look my age but after partying until sun up the last 2 days combined with the Coney Island coaster ride Buck gave me the night before, my body said otherwise and my brain was numb. Heather, John, Virg, and Jess had prepared to catch their flight back to MA so they would not be making this last leg of the journey. Neither Matt or Khristina made it to the last show as they had to get back to MO. Kayla, Sam and Denise were supposed to leave that morning to go back to MN. Denise had to work the next day and Kayla asked if there was anything I could do to talk Denise into staying. I told her that seeing we are the same age, it would be difficult to function at work with only a couple of hours sleep but I'd done it before and so could she. Besides I wanted her and the girls to stay, after all Denise and I have a number of things in common...among other things...we flash! LOL At about the same time, Tracy started calculating how much shorter their trip would be from Green Bay. After a little persuasion, she agreed to stay and the girls were ecstatic.
So off we went and grabbed something to eat on the way! Not long before we arrived at the Chambers Hill Driving Range, the bus pulled out in front of us and seeing that the 'Trace' mobile was all dressed up in white lettering, the idea was to get in front of it so the guys could see it and what was on the girls' car as well. If you haven't been following the story up to this point, you need to stop right now and go to the Watertown, WI section. You also need to check out Lori's very detailed reviews on the BlackHawk website message boards!
We arrived at the grounds and parked right in front of the bar which was very convenient because it was hot as hell. Tracy and Tyler began helping to unload the bus. Dave and Jen had made it there and Lori thought it would look cool if we wore our VIP passes from Friday night. Her pass was nowhere to be found so she grabbed one made for Dave a friend of hers. I am living proof that she is NOT a stalker! We went to the ticket booth to get our wrist bands and Lori inquired as to whether there were any VIP seats left. For a $10. upgrade we were in!! We had to get out of the heat though, so we went inside the bar to cool off and relax. But we knew eventually we would have to bare it and went back out.
Hey who's the cool guy in the Malibu t-shirt? :)
When we started into the VIP section, we asked a security guy if there was anyway we could hang out near the trees a distance away and backstage. He looked at our passes and said you're VIP's you can go anywhere. Yeeehawww...who said they wouldn't mean anything to anybody!!! He also said to show our passes to the security guy at the merchandise booth near the trees. Once inside we grabbed seats in the front row but knew we'd be standing at the stage once the guys came out. Off to the trees, a lovely wheeping willow, we went. Ahhh...the shade was wonderful!! Some of the security guys onstage called out to the security guy at the merch booth about us being there and he yelled back that we had passes. THIS is too cool!!! For most of the day we hung out there in the shade and when Hank4 started to set out the merchandise, he got us beers and whatever else we wanted to drink.
Throughout the day, we would be joined by a number of the guys...Dennis, Kirk and Buck.
Lori and I talked about eating but never did. The girls walked to the vendors a number of times and at one point, Lori asked me to go over to the bar with her so we could go to the ladies room. When we got to the van, Tracy was sitting inside and told us that Henry and Dave had gone into the bar to eat and when they were done, they would record her voice mail greeting on her cell phone. A while later the guys came out and the 3 of us followed them to the bus.
This was as up as Henry could get at this point.
It was apparent to me that the guys were pretty whipped now also because of the lack of chatter. I was going to wait just outside the bus for them to record Lori's message but Dave told me to come onboard. After a few attempts, Tracy captured the greeting on his digital recorder. Lori then said I had something I wanted to do. My brain was so fried that it didn't register at first but then I told them I had some questions to ask them as sort of an interview but considering myself to be able to read body language rather well, I handed Henry the questions and told him in their spare time, they might consider answering them and send the answers to me. Instead, he said why not do it now. So after about 15mins. of recording questions and answers the fans would want to know since there hasn't been anything like this on the net for a long time, Henry asked what I intended to do with it. I told him I'd transcribe them and put them on my site. That was fine but then Lori asked about putting a link to it on their site and for now, the verdict is still out. It's not that there was anything too personal asked or embarassing but we'll see.
I should be thanking Henry for the interview, don't you think?
I thanked them all and I thanked Lori for the nudge. I didn't think the time was right and I wasn't going to ask but I was glad she brought it up and we returned to our willow VIP section and then to our rightful spots in front of the stage.
The sun was directly behind the giant what must have been 10' high (at least) stage and with the highlights glistening through Henry's hair, Lori said it looked like there was a halo around his head. Now that would be a first! LOL From the first site of that stage, I knew I wouldn't be able to get many good shots of Dave for the second time. :( I could have gone to the back of the crowd but after Henry encouraged people outside of the VIP section to come forward (first time I experienced that..."let my children come" as Lori says), I figured I might not make it back to my spot. When you have a situation where you've got stage front people then there's a rather large gap between them and others in the back, the artists must feel like they're playing to two different crowds. Wherein, they draw energy from the people. It may be a disadvantage to some from a view point but as tall as that stage was, that wasn't a problem here. There's something about festivals where in a lot of cases a lot of people are more interested in getting drunk and dancing rather than taking in the music and the artists performing and this was one of those cases. Then there are girls who act like they're practically making love with each other. I'm not a guy but what's that all about...is it suppose to be a turn-on?? Get a room!! I kept moving my bag because these girls were sort of out of control and my other camera was in there and if it got stepped on and broken, I would have been really ticked.
Before I forget, at each of the 4 shows Henry made a point of mentioning the fan club and the dinner/auction in which there was a little over $5000. raised. That was very cool of him to do!!! We had a blast with the auction at the dinner and again at the Brat Stop and I ended up only bringing one of the many items back home with me and that was because it got misplaced and was never put out on the table.
