Friday, August 17
Today I leave for Mexico with Anita Cochran to perform at a rodeo event in Chihuahua. Anita will perform Saturday at a free event put on by the local government after a rodeo. On Sunday she will perform again at the closing show of the cowgirls expo.
We all meet at the Nashville airport, get checked in and shortly after we arrive at the gate, one of the band guys get a text saying the flight has been delayed. I definitely don’t want to relive the Terri Clark disaster with flights from June. 🙁 Luckily we were just waiting the arrival of the inbound aircraft, and will only be about 45 minutes late leaving. Good thing we have 4 hours in Houston. 🙂 Short uneventful flight to Houston, a little lunch and off to our next flight to Chihuahua. It’s a small plane with only about 20 people on board. We all joke that most Americans are smarter than us and know better than to travel to Mexico. 🙂 Mark, one of the band members had already researched the danger of going to Mexico and said that Chihuahua is the 2nd most dangerous place in the world, with somewhere in Somalia being the most dangerous; however St. Louis is the 3rd most dangerous. Go figure. We land in Chihuahua and Armando, our promoter, and Paulina are waiting for us. We go to get in the van and begin loading the luggage when John, the bass player, realizes he did not pick up his luggage. Paulina takes him back in the airport, they were expecting him, and told him he has “lots of wires” in his bag. Quick ride to the hotel, got checked in and we all met for dinner in the hotel restaurant. Skyped back home to my boys and off to bed by 11 pm. Not too bad.
Saturday, August 18
Up a 6:30, just couldn’t sleep in, but sure wish I could have. Showered, had breakfast, and we all left the hotel by 9:45 am for a press conference. It was set up on the stage with several chairs for media and a table for Anita, Armando and Fernando – one of the government officials. Only lasted about 20 minutes which was good because the extra time really came in helpful for sound check. They is not roof and the are predicting rain, actually a thunderstorm. The production company does not seemed too concerned so I will cross my fingers and hope it doesn’t rain. Wrapped up sound check by 1 and went to lunch at El Papalote, same place we ate with Mark Chesnutt a few years back. It was so good, we all stuffed ourselves.
Back the hotel to rest and clean up before show time, and wouldn’t you know at 5o’clock the clouds open up and the storms roll in….thunder and lightening. I messaged Armando to see what’s going to happen since the stage is not covered. He says the storm will move out in about 30 minutes. I sure hope so, and if it does, hopefully it was stay out.
Storms lasted about 30+ minutes and it cleared up – thank goodness. We left for the show and when we got there we found out the rodeo was running behind because of the rain. Fernando came back stage to let us know what was going on. Anita asked him about it being muddy for the rodeo and he explained to us that they use some kind of special dirt mixture that absorbs the water and keeps it from turning too mud. Wow, who would have thought? Sure enough, you would never have know it had rained. Show actually started about 45 minutes late because there were so many ceremonies with the rodeo. Anita did a great show and the crowd loved her! After the show we all went to Armando’s club “Nido del Jabali” (the boars nest) for about 45 minutes. That place was packed, they had a live country band and were playing Anita’s videos on the tv screens. 🙂
Back to the hotel about 1am, crashed for the night.
Sunday, August 19
Was able to sleep in today, but still up before 7. 🙁 It’s hard to sleep in when you are used to getting up at 5:30, but I guess 7 is sleeping in. 🙂 Met the group at breakfast, we don’t leave for sound check until 11. Got to the venue and most everything was set up and ready for the band. This is the same place Danni Leigh played 2 years ago so I am familiar with this place. Tonight’s event is the closing show for the Cowgirls Expo – all of the female riders and barrel racers.
After sound check we all went down town to do a little souvenir shopping and lunch at the same restaurant we went to yesterday. Today Paulina’s family was having a birthday lunch at the restaurant, too, so we got to meet her husband, Raul, and her baby. Oh my goodness, he is too precious. Makes me miss my babies. 🙁 Had another wonderful lunch, then went back to the hotel to rest and freshen up.
Left a little early for the show so we could stop by Armando’s radio station so Anita could do a short interview. Really glad that the show is indoors today since it has rained most of the day. Got to the venue and show was running on schedule – thank goodness, since we have an early morning. Anita did another great show and took photos with fans for about 15 minutes after the show. Back to the hotel, and we all met out by the pool to hang until we got ran off since the pool area closed at 11:30.
Monday, August 20
Up at 3:30 for a 5 am departure to the airport. Got to the airport, but the counter didn’t open until 5:30 so we had to wait a few minutes. Easy check in, but they go through your luggage because they don’t have scanners. Then passport control doesn’t open until 6:30 so we had to wait in line for them to open. Then this lady tells us to go to gate 1 for our flight, our boarding pass plainly says age 2′ so I questioned her. She informs me that there are 2 lines for passport control, which it didn’t see that anyone was aware of. American flights stand to the right, and United flights stand to the left.
Slept most of the flight back to Houston. I have never went through passport control and customs so easily in all of my years of traveling. I think we were the only plane that came in so there was no standing in line. 🙂 We all went to the great Cajun seafood place for lunch during the layover. Flight to Nashville left on time and arrived with no problems. Was another great trip. Really enjoyed working with Anita and her band, and getting to know all of them. Armando and Paulina were great as well. Look forward to next year. 🙂