Monday, June 30
Up at 4am. I am always afraid I will oversleep so my body wakes up every few hours and I look at the clock so I finally just got up. Finished packing and had all my things down in the lobby about 6am. Almost everyone came down, and only missing one. Vince went up to check on one of the guys and he was still asleep. He came down about 10 minutes later. Said he totally forgot to set his alarm.
Mitch took the guys to the Milan Malpensa airport, and his wife, Francy, took me to Bergamo. I am flying to Munich and will meet up with Darryl for 2 shows at Four Corners. When I got to the airport the flight was delayed 45 minutes. I tried messaging Bill to let him know, but internet on my phone was not connecting. Then, the airlines announced my flight to Munich is canceled. I finally get my phone to connect and was able to message Judy and Bill to let them know what was going on and would let them know what the news plans were. I was supposed to be at the hotel in Untermeitingen around 12:30, way before Darryl, but not now. After Picking up my luggage and waiting in line for almost an hour, I am rerouted to Munich via Malpensa. There are 5 of us on a minibus being driven to Malpensa, about 45 minutes away, to take a direct flight to Munich at 4:20 pm. Guess it was about 1pm when we finally arrived Malpensa and we get to wait another 3 hours for our flight. Exciting day!
Finally arrived Munich about 6pm, and made it to the hotel about 7:30. The guys were all over all the club ready for what I thought was dinner time. No. They were all having a great time, drinking a few beers, visiting with Bill. A few of us went in to the restaurant and ate, then hung out a little longer.
Back in the room about 11pm. Called home to the family and then to bed.
Tuesday, July 1 – Happy Birthday Bill!!! 🙂
Up, cleaned up and went to the club to call Verizon to find out why my phone is not working. Just a few settings had to be changed so now is all right in the world again! Thank goodness! I felt helpless when my flight was canceled, and no way to call anyone to let them know what was going on. Bill mentioned taking Darryl to see a bunker, so I tagged along, too. Wow!! That was amazing, cool and mind boggling at the same time. To think, people had to go in there back in WWI and WWII. We drove down by King Luedwig’s castle, walked around took some pictures.
Back to the hotel, was almost time for sound check. Sound check was over in about 45 minutes, but I guess it should have been since Kenny did most of his part the evening before. 🙂
Had a quick dinner and now it’s almost show time. Can’t wait to see Darryl’s show. I think Mexico was the last thing I did with him about 2009…..Darryl put on a great show. He sang “Happy Birthday” to Bill. 🙂 Darryl sang his biggest hit “Have You Forgotten?” Wow!! I have always loved this song, but to hear Darryl sing it LIVE – it is so powerful!! I could not imagine holding it together at a military show and hear him sing that song! The crowd loved Darryl; Bill and Marianne loved him. He signed autographs for about an hour after the show and took photos with fans, while I helped sell cd’s.
Walked back to the hotel, Face Timed with the family and went to bed about 2:30 AM.
Wednesday, July 2
Up for a morning of sightseeing. We were all supposed to be in the lobby at 10:45 AM to catch a train into Landsburg, but 3 decided not to go and Darryl was running late. Brandon, an American friend of Bill’s went with us, and he drove me, Darryl and Joe over to the train station. It was raining lightly, but Brandon was kind enough to let me borrow his umbrella. I am so glad that he did, too, as it rained 90% of the time we were gone.
We walked around Landsburg. I had already warned Bill that I could not go up the “500 steps” that we went up the last time I was here with Tracy Byrd’s guys. Last week I was vacuuming under my couch cushions and I pulled a muscle in my back. The “pain” has slowly worked it’s way down from my back, to my hip, and now down my leg. The more I walk, the better it feels, but it makes for rough night and start the next morning. 🙁
We had lunch in Landsburg at this really neat restaurant that has been in business for over 800 years. It’s amazing the history this town has.
Back to the hotel about 5 PM. No sound check today, but Kenny did go over earlier while we were gone and “tweaked” a few things. Crowd was not quite a big tonight, but they were definitely more into the show. They loved Darryl so much that he did 2 encores!! Wow!! What a fantastic show!!! Signed more autographs and took pictures with fans, while I helped sell more cd’s.
Back to the room and in bed around 3:30 AM!!
Thursday, July 3
Up too early this morning considering it was so late when I went to bed. Had a quick bite to eat and finished packing. We all left for the airport about 11:45 AM. We all had to check in at the kiosks with Lufthansa, except for Darryl, he was flying business class and was able to go to the counter. The kiosk would not read Tom’s passport and would not accept his confirmation #. I was able to get a lady at the counter to check him in, although she didn’t really seem like she wanted to. After everyone got checked in, printed boarding passes, then we had to go over to another kiosk and check our luggage. First time I have ever had to do this.
We all went through security, had time to grab some lunch and waited for the flight. I think we all slept the entire flight to Oslo.
Landed in Oslo. I have been here many times before, but it has been a while. Gathered up all of the luggage except Darryl’s guitar. I went down to the “oversized luggage” area and there it was. I called the bus company to let them know where were there, had all of our luggage and was on our wait out of the airport. We found our driver, Ase, a very sweet lady who made our ride up to Vinstra as enjoyable as possible. The guys wanted to stop and get some beer for the ride, so she stopped at this store, as they had to buy beer before 8 PM. Joe goes in the store and the cashier cannot figure out how to run his credit card….so no beer for them. I’m not sure why there was a problem, but it was the only time someone could not figure out how to run a credit card.
Just before we arrived Vinstra, we picked up Roalf, who is our contact for the festival. He gave me the laminants and we briefly went over the schedule for the festival, pick up times, etc. Got everyone checked in at the hotel. This is the first time we have stayed at this hotel, and it’s quite nice. It’s an older hotel, but still nice. We do have wifi in our rooms, some areas are better than others, best is in the lobby or common areas. We all dropped our luggage in our rooms and came back to the restaurant for dinner. They had held dinner over just for us. We were all very grateful!! Got in bed about midnight.