Now that I've lost everyone born after 1985 with subject titles like that
, let me try to get their attention back with lyrics from a recent hit song...Tracy Lawrence's "Find Out Who Your Friends Are:"
You find out who your friends are
Somebody's gonna drop everything
Run out and crank up their car
Hit the gas get there fast
Never stop to think what's in it for me
Or it's way too far
They just show on up with their big old heart
You find out who your friends are
On Wednesday, Perry ("teckie"/carrieluver/pfletch6-wootwootgal) sure did prove her WV Crew friendship as my car broke down 30 miles outside of the Youngstown concert & she found me to give me a lift to the concert. Thanks Teckie!
A few weeks before that, Perry became the first one of the crew to get on board with Saturday's Huntington show. None of our crew had bought tickets during the pre-sale for this show, since 1) we all had tickets for shows that were days before this one, combined with 2) well, it really was "way too far." Had it been the only nearby tour stop on the schedule, I'm sure we would've all been on board from the very start. But since it wasn't, this one was going to be bypassed by the crew.
That is, until Perry set the wheels in motion. She then spent the remaining time before the show getting the rest of us on board & suggesting we could have a WV Crew reunion in the state where it all began.
Eventually, Renee ('The Captain'/carrie1fan) and Jen ('Ticket&Video-Master'/jed1014) got on board. After returning home from CMA Fest, Lynn ('Joey'/lynnh62) got on board, too.
Which left yours truly, Junior, as the lone remaining hold out.
I was kind of torn what to do on this day, only because I'm a member of the #1-nationally ranked music trivia team in our game that takes place every Saturday night (shameless plug below):
(
PLAYBACK Place Points)
You hate to let your team down, but, on the other hand, it's unrealistic to commit to all 52 games in a single year. And missing a game for a Carrie concert is always worth it
.
Another option was the Kenny Chesney tour was in town. I mostly wanted to go just to see Keith Urban again. I'm sure there are some Keith fans that Carrie won over, and they'll go see her if she's in town again. Keith has won over this Carrie fan, and if he's nearby, sure, I'll go see him again.
Juggling which option to choose... after my car had broken down & been repaired, after I had been sunburned worse than an overcooked turkey on Thanksgiving Day, after I had reached the point where I was beyond completely exhausted, after receiving a flood of text messages from everyone in the WV Crew to go the concert for the official reunion....
The concert won out! (As I've said many times, our crew is very persuasive
)
Part 1: Walk On Water (the pre-show)
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Saturday morning at 9:30am rolled around, and it was time to make the 350-mile journey!
The first stop was just a tad south of Pittsburgh, where I caught up with Joey to catch a ride with her for the final 240 miles of the trip.
The very first song that played on my radio on the way there was...BHC
. Yep, this was a good sign!
While approaching Pittsburgh, every local country radio station had already started their Kenny Chesney pre-show. One station was even going commerical free until the concert! They were playing Kenny songs every other song or maybe every 3rd song. One station was even interviewing all the opening acts that were playing at the Kenny show. The only thing I kept thinking was, "How cool would it be if someday Carrie gets attention like THIS?" Sure, Carrie already gets loads of attention (which we're all very happy about!), but to have the entire day devoted to your show...that's mind-blowing impressive! During the Kenny show, one station played LN right before a Kenny song. So all was good.
About a half hour before I caught up with Joey, the sky just opened up and buckets on top of buckets of rain came pouring out EVERYWHERE! The local Pittsburgh weather people said the rain would stop by 1pm or 2pm and all would be good for the show. I never heard if that forecast held up or not...but hopefully for their sake it did (since the Kenny show is an outdoors stadium concert).
Lynn & I were hoping that forecast also applied to WV, too. After catching up with her, we quickly discovered it didn't. About what felt like every 5 minutes, the weather toggled between rainy stretches & dry stretches. It made for a nuisance of a drive (I'm one that prefers a little consistency...either all rain or all dry, preferrably the latter), but it still wasn't too bad -- except for the stretch where a huge downpour caused us to hydroplane for a few seconds (water skiing in an automobile can be fun!). Luckily, Joey regained control pretty quickly & we're able to laugh about it now.
Before long, we drove past the Charleston Civic Center, giving homage to the place where our WV Crew formed on December 9, 2006. Right around that point, the rain finally let up for good (at least until after the show). It was almost like mother nature understood from that point on that this was a special reunion show!
After another 1/2 hour (even the sun came out during that stretch), we reached Applebees to begin our reunion. Captain & Jen & Ed ("The Chauffer") had arrived about an hour earlier...and we thought they were already at the restaurant. But the wait staff told us they weren't -- so we grabbed a table for 7 while they showed up a few minutes later.
At our initial meeting spot in 2006 (Bennigans), we had a real friendly waitress & everyone got along extremely well. It was a fun time and before we knew it, it was time to wander on over to the concert.
The same thing happened this time around as we got a real friendly waiter (Jason), who immediately asked Joey & I if we were going to the concert. We told him we were. He said he was a huge country music fan (his parents have been country fans his whole life so he was raised on country) and he really wanted to go to the concert...but he had to work. After bringing back our drinks, he noticed my blue fan club shirt - which gave him a "Duh!" moment that we would be indeed going to the concert. But it was funny.
After the black fan club shirts arrived, the original WV Crew reunion was on! Since Teckie was our first pledge & first inductee into our crew, it was only fitting that she arrived a little bit later lol. But we had plenty of time to spare and Jason said we could take all the time we needed...so we waited to order until Teckie & her friend Rachel arrived. After they did, we were all still in sleepwalk/conserve energy mode, but we talked about Carrie & movies & stuff and had a good time. Before we knew it, it was time to head over to the concert....
While Captain guided Joey & me over to the concert (despite the simplest directions in the world, impossible to mess up...Joey somehow got momentarily lost anyways - I really must be rubbing off on her lol). But after a couple minutes detour, we were there. Along the way, we saw a very nice corridor/plaza of shops (picture what it looks like next to Baltimore's M&T stadium, only this was smaller). And finally we hit the arena.
As Captain & Joey mentioned in their reviews, the highlight right before the concert (as we were standing in line to get in) was we met maybe a 9-year old girl (give or take a year or two either way) in line with her mom. About a half hour before that or so, she had met Carrie & got her picture taken with her! She explained to us that Carrie was still in her PJs when she got the picture. The girl was still holding the picture and still shaking in uncontrollable happiness from that moment! We were all very touched by that story. See, it's moments like that that make any 4-hour or 6-hour or 8-hour trip to a show all worth it! The girl told us that it was her 2nd Carrie concert & first ever time meeting Carrie. That story brought smiles to our faces as we headed in the concert doors. Way to go, Carrie!
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