Just FYI.. my road report is no where near as entertaining as mom’s! 

Wednesday Aug 21 2019

I am leaving today for Bergen, Norway for a show with Carlene Carter on Saturday. Really looking forward to seeing her again and catching up. The last couple of dates we have done with her, mom has been on.

Got the kids dropped off at school and reassured them it would only be 4 days gone this time. I think they are a little jealous I get to go back to Norway and they don’t 

Carlene and I are flying in a day earlier than her band. She flies out this evening on DL through Amsterdam and I am on SAS through Copenhagen. Lots of firsts on this trip. Never been through Copenhagen or to Bergen! My flight to Dulles was on time which was good since I had a very short connect time. Once I landed and made it over to my gate, it was starting to board for CPH.

 

Thursday, Aug 22 

Landed Copenhagen at 7 am and made my was to the SAS lounge. I have a 4 hour layover here..ugh.

We also have Farewell Angelina playing a festival in Spain on Friday night and the girls were driving from Barcelona to the venue about 4 hours away. They texted to let me know they were driving and I will check in with them when I get to Bergen.

Copenhagen airport is very nice and lots of shops, but I am just to tired to be interested. WHAT??? Yes, I only slept 1 hour on the plane so I just chilled in the lounge till time to go to my gate. Made sure Carlene’s flight landed Amsterdam on time and then boarded my flight to Bergen. Flight landed on time, grabbed my bag and went out to meet our escort and driver. Frode found me as I walked out and we waited about 30 mins until Carlene’s flight landed.

It was great to see her and we chatted all the way to the hotel. We are staying at the Scandic Bergen City which is about a 10 min walk from the wharf and fish market  We decided to meet at 7:00 and go grab some dinner. This let me get settled and take a little nap! It is overcast now and it rained this morning but the temperature is awesome! In the 60’s… a great break from 100’s in Nashville the last couple of weeks.

We strolled a few blocks and found a BBQ place that looked pretty good so we gave it a try. Both of us opted for the Brisket and sweet potato fries. When we were finishing, my friend and promoter we work with a lot over here, Gunnar, came in with his wife. He has brought Carlene over a couple of times so we all talked for awhile then we left them to eat and we went back to the hotel. Starting to get tired again.

Double checked with Farewell that they made it to the hotel in Spain and everything was ok. They said all was good there. Whew. I took a shower and started to get ready for bed. I wanted to stay awake until I could talk to the kids but it doesn’t look like I am going to make it. Fell asleep and woke up around 3:00 to a text from my Dad. Couldn’t sleep so checked emails and worked a few. Carlene’s band had a late flight out of Nashville so I made sure it left on time. Haven’t had any message saying they had any issues leaving.. I know there was a bad storm in Nashville around the time they were suppose to depart so hoping they are on the flights!

Finally fell back asleep…

 

Friday, Aug 23

I woke up for good at 8:00 am and went down to breakfast. I think there is a heavy metal festival in Bergen this weekend and some of the bands / fans are also staying at this hotel. It has been interesting people watching. Really nice breakfast buffet and really packed! Finished eating and went upstairs to get dressed, I want to walk down to the wharf and see the fish market and do some sightseeing. It is a nice 10 min walk down there, was able to walk around and do some sightseeing before it started to sprinkle on me. Walked around “old town” and did some window shopping when David, our promoter for this festival sent me a message that he was headed toward the hotel and wanted to meet for coffee.

We have worked with David a few times and he has become a good friend of moms so it was nice to finally meet him myself. We sat downstairs and had a cup of coffee and went over a few things for the show. About an hour after David left, Carlene’s band landed at Bergen airport. Frode texted me when they were on their way so I could meet them in the lobby. I was able to get all of them checked in before they arrived so all they had to do was grab their keys and go to their room. I know most are going to sleep so we will see how many I see for dinner…

Got a text from Carlene around 6 and we are going to meet downstairs at 8 and go find dinner. Mom recommended an Indian restaurant down by the wharf and the guys were all in. Still a bit rainy but we had a nice walk through the town down to the restaurant. The restaurant staff was very nice and sat us downstairs. I had the butter chicken and some Aloo Nan, we all ordered something different and ended up sharing around the table. Nice dinner topped off with great conversation. Around 10:30 we finished and walked back to the hotel, still raining. Hoping the rain holds out for Carlene’s performance tomorrow night and that it didn’t hurt the attendance for tonight’s show.

Farewell Angelina plays tonight in Spain, they do not go on until 11:00 pm. I have a friend that is down at the festival and had him message me when they went on. Sounded like everything was going well so I decided to call it a night around midnight.

 

Saturday Aug 24 – Carlene Carter Show Day!

Again..woke up at 3 am for an hour and then up for good at 8:00. Grabbed some breakfast and then got ready to leave for soundcheck There are 2 vans going to the festival, another band hopped in the bigger van and David rode with them over and the rest of us were going to ride in the smaller van, except one of the back seats would not lift up. They had to call the bigger van to come back so I sent Carlene and her band on to the venue and Karin and I waited on the other to return.

The festival is at a horse track, with the stage set up at one end and the dressing room / green room at the other end. The have drivers to take us back and forth. Got the guys set up on stage and then David had a driver take me and Carlene over to the dressing room to wait until the band was ready for her. The field is full of campers and semi trucks 

The staff here has been absolutely amazing taking care of us and very nice. I met Joakim, the festival promoter and Christopher our stage manager. Joakim said that in-spite of the rain last night, they still had a good turnout, so that is promising.

David and I went over where to hold the radio interview tonight and the meet and greet then he went back to the stage to make sure the guys were ok. I called him about 30 mins later to see if they were ready for Carlene and he said to go ahead and bring her. They played for about 45 mins and then we were ready to come back to the hotel. As we got back to the hotel, Gunnar was leaving to go over to the venue to play his set, will get to see him again later on tonight.

We do not have to leave until 7:30 pm to go back for the show. I am trying to decide if I want to take a nap since I won’t be able to sleep tonight….. I have to take a taxi to the airport at 4:00 am 

I did end up taking a 1 hour nap, wish it could have been more since I know I won’t get much sleep tonight. Went outside and walked into town for a bit and grabbed some water and snacks then back to the room to get ready and pack up what I can.

Met David downstairs a little after 7 and Carlene and the guys came down at 7:30. Arrived at the venue and once settles, Carlene did a short radio interview followed by a small meet and greet. Around 8:30 the band headed over to stage and at 8:35 Carlene and I rode over. The drive to the stage is on the road, through the campground, while our car was waiting on security to lift one of the gates, there was a girl squatting to pee behind her camper. Guess she didn’t realize cars were driving right pass…

Carlene took the stage right at 9 and of course it started raining. It wasn’t to bad and I walked out front to take some pics and video. About 45 mins into her set it started raining a little harder so I went back to the stage and David and the crew moved Carlene and the guys back a little from the edge of the stage so the rain didn’t soak them. The majority of the crowd however stayed right in front singing along. There were more people off to the side of the stage, under a tent. I forgot how energetic Carlene is on stage and her voice is still fantastic. The crowd and the staff were enjoying her performance. I guess because of the rain, Carlene didn’t talk as much and ran through her set faster than expected. I had to let her know she still had 15 mins left. Of course she had enough material to cover that 15 mins 

Once finished, the drivers took us back to the Green room where they had some after show burgers and sandwiches for us. We had to rush to leave as our transport had to pick up another band once it dropped us off at the hotel.

Got to the hotel around 11:30. We all say in the lobby for a few mins eating then said our goodbyes. I am the only one that has to leave at 4am, the others have afternoon flights and can sleep in. Lucky.

So it’s a little after 1 and I have to get up at 3 am

I very much enjoyed getting to come to Bergen. Everyone at the festival was so kind and of course Carlene and the band were great to work with. Hope we all get to do it again soon!