New in Nashville, part 4

After Demo's, we all stopped in at the convention center to see who was in the booths signing autographs. Well...they were closing up. Oops! Ok, so then the four of us split up because I wanted to do some more sightseeing. We again made plans to meet at the Chevy Stage in a little bit, this time to take in the LoCash Cowboys concert.

Erich and I stopped by the Ryman Auditorium and headed back down Broadway. I don't know what it was, but I was much hotter today than yesterday. There seemed to be a lot more people milling around and the heat was starting to get to me a bit. Not to the point where I wanted to stop, but I felt it more today. Erich agreed that it seemed hotter as well.

The sidewalk was so crowded you could barely move. I'd wanted to go down a few more blocks and turn up a side street - on our shuttle ride to LP Field the previous evening, I'd seen some shops I wanted to go into. But man...by the time we got up there, we pretty much turned around and came back because it took us so long and I didn't want to miss LoCash.

We went into Hall of Fame park and got some freebies, sat down and people-watched for a little bit. I could hear music coming from the Chevy Stage so we decided to go on over and grab a seat. Wellll, the place was completely packed. Erich and I stood there watching an act called Trailer Choir. OMG...they were awesome. I guess they were discovered by Toby Keith but I'll try not to hold that against them. *ahem* Erich said "This doesn't even sound like country music." No, it sure didn't. The following video isn't from their performance I saw, but they did sing it - and it's another of those 'country rap songs':



"Rockin' country," I said to Erich and again, he nodded and smiled.

After Vinny & company got finished, we searched the dispersing crowd for Deb & Beth. We found Bill again, almost in the same spot he was in for Bo's show the previous day. I saw Deb in about the third row so I made my way up to her and sat down. Erich opted to stay back with Bill. The only bad thing was, our seats were right in the sun. Yes, I got sunburned a bit - with SPF 70 on. Beth had already moved over to stand in a more shaded area, but I stayed with Deb and we rocked out to LoCash! MAN ALIVE!! Now I see what all the fuss was about!



I think my favorite part of the show (which I stood up for the entire time) was the very end when they did their usual tribute to the troops by singing a cover of "You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party" - the troops fight for everyone's right to party, after all. LOL! Deb and I were rockin' out, jumping up and down with the band and crowd, having a ball. GAC's Storme Warren joined them onstage.

After LoCash, Erich and I decided to head back to the hotel with Deb & Beth. We wanted to go to a grocery store near the hotel to look for Bret Michael's Diet Snapple he created on The Apprentice - Trop-A-Rocka! I wanted some and my co-worker had asked me to pick up a pack for him as well. Deb also put in an order when she found out what we were up to. We also had some sugar-free Hawaiian Punch packets to pick up for my girl Randi back home (such things are not found in Canada..LOL). Plus we knew we had a long drive ahead of us in the morning and we needed to take it easy tonight.

I'd seen and done pretty much everything I wanted to do. I was really happy.

We ended up finding the Trop-A-Rocka and the Hawaiian Punch really easily so SCORE! The car thing started at the gas station.

Erich had complained the previous evening about how dim my dash lights were. I told him I'd never noticed it before and we soon forgot about it. Tonight, as we left a gas bar after filling up for our long trip home the next day, he mentioned it again.

"This isn't right," he said. "Something's wrong....alternator...something..." We were very close to the hotel - thank goodness. By the time we neared the driveway, he'd turned off the a/c, the radio, the lights - everything he possibly could. "It's the alternator," he said and sighed. "I know it."

We chugged into the parking lot of the hotel and backed into a space as we were already considering how to make it easy on the tow truck. I called AAA and was told that due to CMA Fest and the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, that our wait for a tow might be longer than usual. That was fine, I insisted. If someone was stranded alongside the highway in this heat then by all means go get them first! At least we were safe and cool in a hotel room. I was very grateful that we decided to go back out and had not been on the highway the next morning when this happened. Nothing could happen till the morning anyway; it was about 10 p.m. on a Sunday night.

It was pretty frustrating to have an unexpected car repair but hey. It's an alternator. No seeing that one coming! We got it fixed nearby the next morning and were able to check out and get on the road by noon.

My husband makes friends wherever he goes. He got to talking with the garage owner and it turns out the man's wife is from Kitchener, Ontario! What an amazing coincidence. Another employee of the garage had lived in Barrie, Ontario for five years. Erich stopped in at an Auto Zone after he got the car fixed to pick up a few things and some random guy in there was from Romania (as is Erich) but had lived in Nashville for years! LOL! A Romanian redneck! Erich and I joke that's what he will become when we move down to Ohio. What a small world.

It sure was an eventful and fun-filled trip. I keep talking about my gratitude for my life now. I can't say it enough; my entire life is so different and so much better it's almost surreal. If you've never merely existed, it is sometimes more difficult to appreciate living.

Go and live your life out loud, people. Don't wait - there are no excuses!

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten