|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| June 8th to 14th 2004 | ||||||||||||||||
| Beth's Trip to Nashville | ||||||||||||||||
| This trip is more relaxed than the last year, because I had told my parents earlier and gotten my stuff together a little bit better than last year. To me that's a good thing. This year my parents drove us to the airport, we may have been 4 hours early, but we got on the plane. Boy, was I getting excited about going to Nashville. | ||||||||||||||||
| We got into Nashville around 6 pm and took a cab to the hotel, which was $25, and went into the hotel and paid that for the week. Went up to our room; took care of everything like our shuttle pass, explore the hotel some more and went to bed, since we had an early morning fan club party. | ||||||||||||||||
| The second day was a full day, for starters we had Blake Shelton's fan club party, and it was nice seeing everyone again. They had the meet and greet first and this time I had asked Blake for a hug and got my picture take with him. (No more shyness for me), and Jules each got our picture taken with Kaynette also. I think this year Jules and I are more relaxed.� After the party we went back to the hotel and took a nap before we headed out to the Opry Mills Mall for the evening. | ||||||||||||||||
| On the third day, we managed to get up around 8:00 am got dressed and headed down to the continental breakfast, and waited for our shuttle bus. When the shuttle bus finally came, we found out that our driver's name was Susan and will be our driver for this week. She had dropped us off at The Trap for Darryl Worley's fan club party, and it was a lot better since we weren't cramped.� Darryl put on a great show played some songs from his new album, and then afterwards we got to meet him and his wife Beverley, they are such nice people. Afterwards, it was onto the convention center where we met all kinds of artists; Lila McCann, John Arthur Martinez, Daniel Lee Martin, Kyle Jennings, plus many more. Afterwards, we took the shuttle back to the Coliseum to catch our shuttle back to the hotel, but unfortunately we had just missed it and we would have had to wait until the concert lets out, but the supervisor took pity on us and got us a shuttle but it turned out that our shuttle bus driver was coming by, and we hopped on hers and went back to the hotel. Not a whole lot happened after that I went swimming, and went to bed early, but I woke up around midnight and still haven't gone back to bed. This week has gone by so fast, but I am hoping to meet a lot more stars and go to some concerts tomorrow. | ||||||||||||||||
| The fourth day, we had gotten up around 8 again get dressed and gone down to have breakfast and wait for Susan. Finally, the shuttle bus comes and we were on our way to the convention center. After a couple of hours I wanted to get out of there because I needed a break, so I walked to Hard Rock Caf� store and got my t-shirt, and then went back to the convention center to find Jules again. Saw many more artists, Suzanne Edwards, 4Runner, Blake Stamper, and are very last artists that we seen was the Wilkinsons. Jules and I went our separate ways; I went to the Coliseum while Jules went back to the hotel. The evening was a blast, everyone that was performing sounded great. The Performers were: SheDaisy, Tracy Lawrence, John Michael Montgomery, Lonestar, Martina McBride, Brooks and Dunn, and Gretchen Wilson. After the concert I had walked back to where I was suppose to get the shuttle, and from there I saw the fireworks display, before we all headed back to our hotels for the night. So far I am having a blast. That night went to bed feeling happy that I am living out my dream. | ||||||||||||||||
| On the fifth day God created ... Oh wait that's something totally different. The fifth day on the trip Susan, the bus driver picked us up around 9:00 am, at first Jules didn't want to go, but changed her mind for the millionth time and ended up going anyways. We get downtown Nashville and we walked up the main strip to find a place to eat, and what we found was a whole in the wall restaurant called, Robert's Western Home. That had very good breakfast, and they had a couple of bands playing while the customers ate. After breakfast we went to the Ryman Auditorium, where we did our own tour of the place. Once we got inside the auditorium, and sat down as one of the DJ interviewing one of country's finest singers (ok, so it turned out to be one of my favorite all-time idols, Ken Mellons). I was so shocked that I nearly fell over (of course Jules tells it differently), but I went up there to get his autograph and a picture with him, but I made sure that I got my composure before meeting him. Afterwards, we continued on with the rest of the tour in which we ended up on the second floor had our picture taken with the HEE HAW donkey, and then downstairs to get a picture with Minnie Pearl statue. We headed over to the convention center to wait in line for Brad Cotter, and did one last sweep of the floor to make sure we didn't miss anyone. It was at that time we saw Michael Peterson, who had remembered us from last year at his fan club party. Our last stop before closing was to see Katie Cook, and Lance Smith at the Country Music Today magazine booth. There was an added surprise was meeting Ty Herndon, which we got to his autograph and picture also. After meeting everyone, it was time to head out into the rain flagged down a cab and head back to the hotel, for the evening. We didn't do much except to get everything pack, talking with the night managers for awhile and then back to the room had the giggles and went to bed. I had waked up around 2:00 in the morning because I couldn't sleep, so I decided to write my report for yesterday. That is all she wrote for now anyways. | ||||||||||||||||
| On day 6, we had gotten up at 8 am one last time to head down to the convention center. We did a last sweep of the floor to see if we had missed anyone. We saw Lee McCormack, and next to him was Tim Ash. We headed over to the IFCO booth there were more newbies, Joe Houck, and Keith Norris. Then it was over to the CMA booth and I bought a t-shirt. We then took a shuttle to the riverfront and went into Cotton-Eye Joe's for some souvenirs before heading over to Hardrock Caf� for lunch. We then waited by the trolley for our shuttle to take us to the Opry Mills Mall, where we walked around and got a few things. Then we took the shuttle back to the hotel to get ready for our last fanclub party Dierks Bentley that was held at the Tin Roof. It was an awesome party. Dierks put on a terrific concert, there was also a nice surprise we saw the Mosers there (the ones who sold us the fanfair tickets, we met Dierks, and got our pictures taken with him, and we even met Michelle Poe (his bassist and singer) and got her picture with her. We even met Dierks' dog "Jake". After the party we had one of the bartenders call us a cab to take us back to the hotel, we had packed our stuff and went to bed. | ||||||||||||||||
| The very next day, well day 7, I had gotten up around 8 am got dress and went down to have continental breakfast one last time. By the time I got back to the room, Jules was already up and dressed and finishing packing her things. We then went down to the front desk to give Lee (front desk clerk) a little present of George Jones deck of cards. Needless to say he was very happy. We have a home away from home whenever we come back to Nashville. The people there were so nice and they made us feel better about staying there. We had called Rick, the cab driver to come and take us to the airport to go home. I almost had a scare when I had dropped my boarding pass, but it was found and made it to the gate. | ||||||||||||||||
| I know last year I kept on asking myself, "If this was the right decision?" But this year it was the right decision and an added bonus of a dream coming true. Next trip I will be ready, and yes Dreams do come true, when you make them come true. | ||||||||||||||||