Today reminded me of an old joke: Mr. Jones comes out of surgery and is taken back to his room. When he wakes up the Doctor is there and says, "Mr. Jones, I have some good news and some bad news." Mr. Jones says, "What is the bad news?" The Doctor says, "We had to amputate both of your legs!" "What is the good news?" The Doctor says, "The guy in the next bed wants to buy your shoes!"
We pulled into Nashville today for the CMA Music Festival about 3:00pm. We had to get to our hotel and then get downtown to pick up our tickets at Will Call. The Bad news was that as we drove by to the hotel downtown looked like grid lock. However, the desk clerk at the Hotel said that Grey Line offered a shuttle service during the festival and downtown and the location to catch the bus was just about four miles from the Hotel. He checked the schedule and said that the last downtown shuttle was leaving at 4:30. It was 4:20! Bad
We made it at 4:30! Good I let Carol out to pay while I parked the truck.
On the way downtown the people setting close to us on the bus we veterans of Music Fest. They were telling rain stories: "Remember last year when the concert was delayed 2 hours because of rain?" No dear that was two years ago." Last year it was delayed only an hour, Wynonna was late taking the stage." I'm thinking, "Crap, we left the rain gear in the truck! Rain is in the forecast!" Bummer. But good news is we are wearing sun glasses. There is not a cloud in the sky. Great.
Things go easy getting our tickets. Good. We walk down to the River and find a good place to eat. One Hour wait. Bad They say we can wait in the bar. We find a table and the waitress says do you want to order. Goood. No wait.
We leave and go out to the next shuttle line and leave for the stadium. The bus leaves us right at the gate. Cool! WE wait in another line to enter the stadium and when we give our tickets to be scanned. They beep. The lady says that we must go to the ticket office. There's a glitch! Bad. WE go stand in another line. No problem. Good WE go to our seats. WE are on the club level and take the escalator up and walk thru and plush, air-conditioned lobby and find our seats (near the aisle and near the concession, nice restrooms, TVs, etc. Great!
The weather is great. We are in the shade. Its 84F. They have the National Anthem and the Air Force does a fly over against a blue sky. Great.
The show starts and Brooks and Dunn come out and do almost an hour set. The sun is going down and off to the north you can see clouds building and lightning. Bad. But it is North and moving east and makes a neat back drop behind the stage. Reba joins B&D for "Cowgirls don't Cry" and then after a short break she takes the stage and does about 3 songs. The lightning is stronger but still North and over us are wispy white fluffy clouds. OK
Then after her third song, an announcer comes out and says that there is lightning in the area and stadium policy is that everyone (all 40,000) must take shelter under the stadium until the lightning clears! Bad
Good news though is that we walk 20 feet into and air-conditioned lounge and we take two plush chairs by a big screen TV. Bad news is another few thousand people come in and suddenly the air-conditioner is not keeping up! Bad It is 9:20pm.
Good news is while we are waiting we can watch the NBA finals. Bad news is some ladies change the channel to CSI! But the game is on about 20 feet away. I go out and check the weather. It is now 10:00pm. No rain! good.
It is now 10:30pm: No Rain. Lightning has stopped! Good. The concert is still not starting.
At 11:00pm the rain starts. In Buckets We realize that the concert may not go on. No Brad. No Rascal Flats, etc. Bad Now it is raining too hard too leave! But the NBA game just went into overtime! good. Then the satellite goes off! bad.
It is now 11:30. We decide to head for the buses (as does everyone else!) It is pouring rain and no rain gear. WE run from canopy to canopy. We are soaked but finally get on the Grey Line bus. It heads downtown. WE ARE ON THE WRONG BUS.
WE get back to the hotel at 1:00am. I post this at 2.
By the way tickets go on sale for next year's concert Saturday morning at 9 am! Yeah right!
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