SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH 2017 – NAMIBIA TO CAPE TOWN:
Three hours sleep and off to the airport. Found out late last night that our MWR Rep in Honduras passed away. I think he was only in his 50’s….much too young! RIP Steve Barness.
At least I didn’t have to wait 15 minutes for an elevator today! Everyone was on time and we departed for the airport. It’s a small airport but took a long time to get checked in. There was also only one small café in the boarding gate area and everyone was hungry.
We boarded Air Namibia and it was a nice aircraft. But we had severe turbulence for a lot of the flight. It was even more frightening because there were no clouds in the sky. I assume it was heat and wind off the desert. Whatever it was, it was not fun! A family with a small child was sitting behind me. The child couldn’t have been even a year old and was very good. But, I assume the grandmother was partially deaf because she cranked up some kind of device with nursery rhyme songs on it and destroyed everyone’s hope of grabbing 2 hours of sleep.
We landed on time and Immigration was easy but it took a long time to get our luggage. They kept taking our guitar cases to the “weapons” counter to inspect them! Our hosts from BOK Radio were there to meet us. The Bellamys are performing in a stadium at the station’s annual “Food Festival” tonight and it is sold out with 8,000 people.
The drive to the hotel was about 30 minutes. It’s a nice hotel but instead of a “Radisson Blu”, it is a “Radisson Red” and definitely not as good. Radisson Red is supposed to be the “Hipster” version of the Radisson chain. We got checked in and when I opened my bag, everything had been opened and clearly searched through. There was no slip of paper in there saying Customs had inspected it. My perfume was gone and I’m still trying to figure out what else they took! Every zipper on everything was open and all my things were just thrown inside the suitcase. Unreal!
I’m on the second floor and was going to walk downstairs to see if I could get assistance with logging on to the internet. But, all the stairway doors are locked! I asked the front desk what would happen if there was a fire and they really didn’t have an answer. They also were unable to help me log onto WiFi because they said their internet server BLOCKS Google and you can’t log on with Google. At least my cell phone and laptop work here.
Then, I checked and there was no room service menu. I went back to the front desk and they confirmed that it’s not possible to order room service!
This definitely confirms what I suspected all along – we are NOT HIPSTERS.
After checking everyone in for tomorrow’s flight and answering emails, I had about an hour to walk around the area. It is overwhelming. So much to see and do and not enough time. Sure hope we can come back one day with some time off here. There was an International Food Market with every kind of food imaginable that Howard and David would have loved. I honestly wish I hadn’t walked around because it depresses me that we don’t have any time here.
I got a smoothie that had all kinds of fruit and veggies in it and it was great! We didn’t have to depart to the show until 7:30 pm and first thing on the agenda was an interview with the sponsoring radio station. Then there was a quick “Meet and Greet” and then we “waited”. There were several bands on before us and the performances were running almost an hour late.
The wind was blowing really, really hard but the crowd was awesome. A group of girls and one guy had on t-shirts they had printed up that said, “Feelin the Feelin”. It was a really boisterous audience and such a fun evening for everyone – the fans and the Bellamys and band. The “roar” from the 8000 fans when the Bellamys took the stage was deafening! The audience knew the words to every song and sang along.
Dink was trying to figure out every way possible to watch the Alabama Auburn game tonight. He was going to leave with us as soon as the show was over and if the show had started on time, would have been back at the hotel before it started. But, since we started late, he missed the beginning of the game. He is a huge Alabama fan and I had him take off his Bama hat and let me wear it and take a photo of us. He was so happy I wore the hat until I told him that any time I pull for a team, they ALWAYS lose and I was definitely going to pull for ‘Bama. LOL!
We were back at the hotel before very much of the game had played. I’m refusing to watch it and just saying, “Go Bama” every few minutes.
Dink has been fighting a terrible cold since right before we left Nashville. Add to the fact that he can’t sleep at night and he’s running on “air”.
All the guys are doing such a good job on this tour – on and off stage. Always such a pleasure to work with them!
Going to take a shower and get packed as we have a 7:30 am departure tomorrow and it’s already after midnight. Show tomorrow night in Johanessburg.
Jude