My Garthy Summer Vacation
Just like you used to do in school every fall, I decided to write this little essay on how I spent my summer vacation.
I had been planning a trip to Nashville for a number of years and this year it finally worked out. My husband Al knew going in that it was going to include a trek to Oklahoma to try and see Garth. I don’t think he was totally thrilled but intrigued to say the least. He is a fan of the music and has gone to see the shows, but he’s never quite gotten the Garth thing.
We did Nashville for a week and had a marvelous time. We saw Marty Stuart at the Ryman, checked out the Opryland Hotel, and the Grand Ole Opry. We saw a “Songwriters in the Round” night at the Bluebird Cafe that included Kim Richey. We visited the Pancake Pantry for breakfast (yummy potato pancakes!), Tootsies Orchid Lounge, most of the bars on Lower Broadway and the Wildhorse Saloon. We tried to check out all the sites we could during the time we had. Then it was off to Oklahoma.
We arrived in Oklahoma late on July 27, did some sightseeing on the 28th since it was Allie’s birthday, and finally visited the gates on the 29th. Sat with a lady named Debbie and her daughter Jennifer. She lives fairly close by and has met him a number of times but her daughter hadn’t.
Trisha stopped on her way back in from Tulsa, explained that she had family up and her and Garth were doing their own thing that week, and she was on her way to water aerobics. We got a couple of pictures with her and I asked her to sign one of her CDs which I scrambled to find. She said she was happy to sign one of her CDs as she was usually signing Garth CDs…ha, ha! We told her to mention to Garth we were there when they hooked up but saw no sign of him that day.
On Wednesday, my husband Al and I were back again in the afternoon, but it was very quiet; we only saw two trucks go in and out. The one fellow said it seemed to be a bit of a family week so again we saw no sign of Garth. We did have a strange visit from a wacky local lady, but that’s a long story I won’t get into now.
We were supposed to head home on Thursday, but my husband agreed to try again (he was being way too sweet about all this). We dropped by in the morning for a bit, left a note on the gate and then set off to do some more sightseeing in the area. When we came back later that afternoon the note was gone. About 5:45 p.m. I proclaimed a loud thud and Al asked me what that was all about. I told him it was the sound of a dream dying.
But the third time’s a charm so they say because, lo and behold, about 6:15 p.m. a big white dually pulls up and out pops Garth just as an SUV was coming out of the gate. He chatted with the people in the SUV for a couple of minutes (obviously friends or relatives) and then walked over to our van. I loved the way he stuck out his hand and said, “Hi, I’m Garth.” Like I didn’t know. We had a short but sweet visit as the girls were in the truck and he told us he was taking them back to Sandy. The conversation is kind of a blur, just chitchat about this and that, nothing too personal and I made a definite effort not to gush!
I had a little gift bag for him that he proceeded to carefully go through. It was a collection of some Canadian items that I called “A Little Taste of Canada”. He signed our red and white Canadian foldout chairs, my first edition CDs and a copy of the picture I had taken with him from Spring Training in 2000. He didn’t remember meeting me there, but I didn’t expect he would. I was only one of the hordes of people he talked to there.
When we mentioned we were from Toronto, he remembered the first place he played there, as well as our national exhibition (CNE) and the Skydome (which was the first place I saw his show). I can’t believe he remembers all these places, as well as Copps Coliseum in Hamilton (a city close to Toronto with a very nice little arena). I remember him saying in another interview that he always thought Copps was a great place to play.
He was wearing a new orange hat, but this one was a brand new OSU hat with no Chinese symbols. I asked about it and he said Trisha had retired the other hat because it was all smelly and sweaty and had bought him a new one…ha, ha! (He probably has a ton of them in a closet somewhere though…LOL.)
We told Garth that we had seen Trisha two days before and he reiterated what Trisha had said about it being kind of a family week and that they were doing their own thing.
After Al took a picture of the two of us, Garth said he would get Taylor to take a picture of the three of us. (I could hear the girls singing in the truck while we were talking.) He trots off to the truck, then comes back and introduces us to August instead (she looks to me like a little Sandy with dark hair) who took a couple of pictures (which came out very good). We felt very honored to be introduced to one of the girls.
I’m a bit squinty in my pictures with Garth, but what the heck! I also got an enormous Garth hug just as we were saying goodbye. I wasn’t expecting it and then all of a sudden I was enveloped by those wonderful arms and just squished. It was very cool!
Suffice to say, he is just as adorable as ever. That little visit made a great vacation even better. And as much as he wouldn’t admit it, I think Al was impressed. Of course, he didn’t mind meeting Trisha at all.
I don’t know what kind of grade I would get on this essay, but in my mind it’s an A+.
Cathy & Al Welch
The Magic is in Believing!!
Toronto, Ontario
