TUESDAY, AUGUST 5TH:
Today I leave to meet the Bellamy’s in Norway for 2 dates. Judy has been with them for the last several days, and this will be my first time on the road with them. Luckily all of my flights were uneventful. I had several hours in Detroit – checked email and had dinner. I watched a movie and tried to get a little bit of sleep, but I couldn’t get comfortable to save my life. I may have slept an hour or so.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6TH:
Landed in Amsterdam right on time, went straight to the gate for the flight to Oslo. Landed in Oslo and it was raining. L Went to go find the gate and ran into David & Susan. We went and had a quick bite before our flight to Haugesund. Just as we got to our gate Wally was there saying they had changed it. Walked down to that gate, after we got there, the lady at the ticket counter said it was changed to another gate. We walked almost all the way back down the terminal when they announced the flight was at the gate we just left. Guess we were getting our exercise for the day. Landed in Haugesund and met Gunnar. Our 1 hour trip to the hotel, took almost 2 hours; but we did stop for about 15 minutes and got some drinks and snacks.
Got everyone checked in at the hotel. Quickly found out the internet was not working in some of the rooms. Randy starts rewiring & rebooting the router to try and get a signal. We check the internet in almost every vacant room trying to find a connection for David & Howard. Got one for David and had to end up asking Tucker to switch with Howard b/c Tucker didn’t have a computer with him, he was using the internet in the lobby.
All had a really great dinner, checked email and to bed about 12:30 AM. I am SO tired…..
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7TH:
Up for breakfast and check email. Don’t leave for load in until 1 PM – nice! It has been drizzling rain, hopefully the weather will be better at the venue, it’s a 30 minute drive. Nope, raining at the venue too. Checked out the merch area, dressing rooms and a place for the guys to sign autographs after the show. This will be a nice change from the normal festivals in Norway. Usually they are outside with huge partying drinking crowds. This event is a “fair” with a carnival and families, no drinking allowed. There are only 3,000 people in this town, Etne, and 35-40,0000 people attend this 4 day event. People come from all over Norway. It’s a free event and the proceeds from the booths, etc., go back to the community. This is the 28th year for this event.
Left the band / crew at the venue. Didn’t make sense for them to drive 30 minutes back to the hotel for an hour and them come back. The buyer took them over to have dinner at the fair. I went back to the hotel to have a quick dinner and ride back with David, Susan, Howard and Jennifer. They have a quick interview to do just before the show at the harbor on a boat. Just as we arrive at the interview, it stops raining….thank goodness. It has sprinkled all day, this was perfect timing. Did the short interview, went to the venue and did the show. I sat with during the show. This was the first chance that we have had to really chat and get to know one another. I have known them all for 10 years, but it was nice to spend time with them all out on the road. Susan is a true sweetheart. I helped her sell merch and it was so busy we sold almost everything she had. Won’t be but a few cd’s left for the show on Saturday. We had about 2000 attend the show. The guys signed autographs for about 30 minutes and headed back to the hotel, the band left about 15 minutes later.
Checked email, grabbed a sandwich and off to bed.
Penny