We got the tickets the day they went on sale after listening to a busy signal for 4 hours. Waiting for 3 months to see them sometimes seemed like forever, but Friday the 11th finally arrived and Me(Tammy 27),my cousin(Karen 14), my cousin(Christina 25) and my friend(Allison 26)left from New Jersey around 7:00 pm. The drive was a long and tiring ride . My cousins car is a 88 chevy caprice with no heat, yea no heat..lol. It was very, very cold especially when we reached PA. We arrived at the hotel at 11:00 PM and unpacked and thawed out. We left our hotel around 12:30 AM and drove around to various hotels to see if we could see any signs of Backstreet Life. We passed The Atherton( about 2 minutes from our hotel, which was on the same road as the arena) around 1:15 and saw a small crowd of people in the front. We took a side street to get to the back and my cousin thought it was a one lane road so she attempted to make a left into an alley and in the process sideswiped a car who was coming upon us on the left. Well the cop came and thank god he was the coolest police officier we had ever met(I havent met that many :~)) So to get on with this story when he took her information he asked if we were here to see New Kids on The Block and we started laughing and he was like aren't they 12? (talking about bsb at this point) We told him he was funny(sarcastically) so we sat there while he took down all her information. After he came back to hand her the accident report, he walked away to get into his car and pointed to the hotel and said they are staying here. We were like holy crap..and we told him he rocked!!!! So we drove around the hotel a few times and came to the realization that at 3:00 am there was probably nothing we could do at this point, so we drove back to our hotel. We chilled out (or thawed out I should say) and went to bed around 5:00 AM. The next morning we woke up at 9:30. We got dressed and headed directly to thier hotel. We scoped out the scene and eventually me and Karen went into the garage and found a open door, I went back and told Christina and Allison about it but they decided to stay out front. After about 4 hours me and Karen went back out and told them that we were sitting next to Howies door(we have pictures, but no scanner :~( And we were walking around and talking to differant people and the guys were each staying in suites on differant floors. So while me and Karen were drinking soda and eating chips in a heated hotel, Christina and Allison were savoring a half bottle of Coke and catching the Backstreet Flu (literally). They also had to deal with bossy security guards and a frigid wind that blew thru them like they were on The Titantic(I'll never let go Howie, I'll never let go) They were also having delirious visions that me and Karen were in the lounge having drinks with the Backstreet Boys. We eventually came out and we were walking back and forth from the front of the hotel to the back. Well around 4:00 the dancers were coming out and the luggage was being put on the buses which were now up front. Allison and myself were in the back while Christina and Karen were up front. A green Honda Accord Pulled up(in the back) and Kevin was escorted out by his body gaurd. He walked up a small flight of steps and turned around and waved, at this point Allison and I were taking pictures and Allison proceeded to cry(like a child..lol). Karen and Christina heard screaming so they ran(which THEY DO NOT DO) and they were too late :*( They missed Kevin by like 10 seconds! So Christina and Karen went back up front and we stayed around back for a little while, well eventually I went up front(i didnt see Christina or Karen) and Allison stayed in the back, I went back and told Allison to come up front(FATAL ERROR!). So at this point(5:15) all of us were up front(but not together) along with 1000 other fans that seemed to have come from nowhere. Police tape was being put up and Security people were telling us to back up and behave, or people were going to be arrested(12 year olds arrested??). From the looks of it it really appeared they were coming out the front door. Karen and Christina were talking to a girl and her mother and someone came by and whispered they were in the back signing autographs, but no one listened except this girls mother. She went to the back and about 15 minutes later she came back to them very excited, well she had reason to be, she said she touched AJ's hand and Nicks toe(?) and that they had just left and at that point everything seemed really wierd, in a matter of what seemed like 2 seconds the police tape came down and everybody disappeared. So we fought back tears because if they were to come out they would have been frozen to our faces. Looking at the time(we were out there for 8 hours in 20 degrees) we hurried back to our hotel to get ready for the show. We got there during the opening act and bought all our memoribilia and took our seats. The show was pretty much the same as before but for some reason it seemed shorter, but then again, anything less than forever with the Backstreet Boys is not long enough. Towards the end I left before the encore to go see if I could talk to a bus driver or somebody. When the concert was fully over, the other girls came out back to find me and there were alot of other people back there too. We went to the car to be a step ahead of everybody so we could look in what direction the tour bus went. There was speculation that they were staying at a near by hotel(not the same one they were at) So we drove to that one and there was no sign of anything going on, so we went back to the arena and around the same time we pulled up, a tour bus was leaving so we backed up in the middle of the road(don't try this at home) and proceeded to follow the bus until we hit a pitch black highway with no signs of life or turning around. I did not want to turn around, I wanted to follow that bus forever but we thought it was in our best interest to not follow any longer. We went back to the arena and saw another bus leaving but didnt follow (our luck, that was the one they were one). We went back to our hotel(2:00am) and got warm and I gave Allison and Christina my camera in case they found them and Karen fell asleep waiting for Christina and Allison. So around 4:30am Christina and Allison went back out and drove to the Atherton hoping to see something and saw nothing. They drove around to a few more hotels then unwillingly called it quits. they were very depressed at this point because they knew in a few hours we would be packing to come back home. Well Sunday came and it was hell, we left our hotel around 12:45 and went to Mcdonalds and got gas and all that stuff. We did one more drive by of thier hotel and the arena to get pictures, and Karen spilled hot cocoa all over her and me in the backseat(lol)then we headed for the highway to go back to Jersey. We drove 4 hours back to my house in the cold singing Backstreet songs all the way there while looking at our breath in front of us. We arrived at my house around 7:00pm and everyone stayed for about 4 hours then left to go back to Maryland, which was what they believed to be the most heartwrenching part because they hated the fact that they were traveling south and the Backstreet boys were heading north. So while trying to find there way back home in the rain and the thickest fog they have ever seen. They were listening to depressing old heavy metal songs and hoping that our guardian Nick and Kevin pins (pinned to the visor) would get them home safely, and they did. Writing this brought back memorys that I almost did not want to think about. The cold,the fog,the car with no heat,the money spent, but mostly the feeling I had when we were leaving. It is not a feeling I would like to have often. I have almost never felt that depressed in my life as I did when we were coming home. Not knowing the next time we would be that close to them, not having meet them, sometimes I think to myself, was it all a waste of time? Then I remember the same things that makes me sad also makes me happy. We were close to them, we were breathing the same cold air, we were driving on the same roads and hopefully one day as time goes on we will be even closer to them.

I know this was more like a story than a review but I thought I could give some insight on how we felt other than most reviews which are about what the show looked like. To almost quote Backstreet Boys " I don't have a fancy car, to get to you I almost drove a thousand miles(850)". If someone asked me if I would do it all again I would say yes and then some.

Tammy