Thursday, June 22
It was nice to be home for a little over a week. Flying out today to Interlaken Switzerland for the annual Country and Trucker Festival. Its been almost 10 years since I was here last. I think.
I am meeting up with part of Asleep at the Wheel in Dulles and then onto Zurich from there. Part of the group came over early and 2 members are from Spain and Italy.
I landed Dulles on time and checked the other flights. Rays flight landed a little after mine but Joey, the FOH and TM is flying out of DFW and they were delayed bc of storms. He is suppose to land at 4pm, which is what time we start boarding. He texted when he landed and I asked the attendant at the counter if she thought he would make and if not, what were the later flight options. He didn’t have to far to run thankfully and made it on the plane before the doors closed.
Friday, June 23, 2023
Uneventful flight over and got a little bit of sleep. Landed on time and all our gear made it with us! Once we had everyone I called our bus driver to let him know we are ready. They have to park about 10 mins away and then drive over to pick us up. We have a very nice bus for the 3 hour drive to Interlaken. Ray and I chatted for most of the ride, it has been nice to catch up with him as well.
Got to the hotel and as I was checking on our rooms the guys pulled the luggage and music equipment off the bus, that is when the fiddle player realized he didn’t put his suitcase on! He put his fiddle but forgot to grab his bag and left it on the curb! Joey called lost and found and had to file a claim. I told him the best bet was to take a train back to the airport and get it and train back. He agreed and I walked him to the train station to get his ticket.
Our rooms aren’t ready yet so Joey and I grabbed some lunch across the street. I had pizza. Such a beautiful day today!
At 3 our rooms were ready and I was able to get everyone in. Grabbed a quick 1 hour nap and when I woke up the fiddle player had texted he found his bag and was coming back on the train with the horn player that landed at 5pm. Whew.
Went downstairs and met up with Sam and his wife. He is Rays son and Manager. He and his wife have been here a few days and took the train over from Montreux. Have them their meal tickets and lamenents for the festival tomorrow.
Ray, Sam and I have to leave at 7:30 tonight for a radio interview. Met them downstairs with our driver at 7:30. I forgot the radio station was only a 2 minute drive. We told our driver we would walk back!
Sue is the one doing the radio interview, we have been associated with her for years and she is always so nice to work with. Today is also her birthday! Interview was quick and painless and we were done by 8 and walked back to the hotel. I waited up in the lobby for Matthew and Lyon to arrive from the train station so I could make sure they received their meal coupons and laminents.
Looking forward to getting some sleep tonight!
Saturday, June 24
Slept most of the night but wide awake at 7:30. Checked on kids and they were just getting into Pigeon Forge.
We leave at 11:45 for soundcheck so I had sometime to go walk around the city this morning. Interlaken is well known for paragliding. They take off from the cliff high above and land in the park near our hotel.
Musicians, crew and I left for the hotel at 11:45 with Ray coming over at 1:30. However, production was still getting set up and will delay our soundcheck a little bit. Pushed Rays arrival till 2:15 which worked out well as they were ready for him as soon as he got there. They sound checked for about an hour then I sent the 1st group back to hotel while Ray did a quick Social media interview with Katja for the festival. We were back at the hotel around 3:30.
Went down to dinner around 6 and then upstairs for a quick nap and pack what little clothes I brought. Back over to the festival at 9:30 with Ray. He has a VIP meet and greet at 10:15. I walked out to 5h3 front around 10:10 and ran o to so many of our friends that live here. Most were part of the meet and greet. I took them backstage where Ray was so nice and took pictures with everyone. My friend Brandom that I met years ago was also here helping out with one of the other acts on the festival.
Right before Ray took the stage, Marcel and Heidi from Gstaad come back to say hello to Ray. I will see them in Sept for Country Night Gstaad.
Asleep took the stage at 11 and did a lively 90 min set. I enjoyed watching him and the band play. All the guys are so nice.
They did 3 encores and came off the stage around 12:30 am. It didn’t take the guys long to pack up and I sent most of them back on the 1st run. The driver came back around 1:30 andi was back at the hotel by 2. Will get about 2 hours of sleep before catching the train to the airport….
June 25 and 26, 2023
One brutal travel day home..
I am not sure if I ever fully went to sleep. I was so worried about not hearing my alarm and missing my train. I had to be up at 5:30 am in time to get ready and walk down to the train station. I booked a 7:00 am direct train to Zurich airport for my what was supposed to be an 11:55 am flight to Dulles. Unfortunately when I woke up I had messages from United saying my flight was delayed until 1:30 pm and I will probably miss my connection in Dulles.
Thought I could sleep on the 2 hour train ride but about 30 mins in at the Bern stop a family with 3 young boys got on and the boys were not happy about being up so early and having to leave Switzerland and let everyone know. Ah well.
Checked in for my flight and of course the ticket agent could not help me with my connection, she gave me a piece of paper with a QR code to scan to talk to a United rep. Don’t do it. No one ever comes on and the hold time for United is over 3 hours. We are delayed because the incoming aircraft was delayed out of Chicago the night before. Went to my gate area, which is D gate. Most international flights leave out of E gates so I did think this a bit strange. We finally started the boarding process around 12:45 pm and they said once the plane takes off and they have a more accurate arrival time into Dulles they will give us our options on rebooking.
So our plane is on the tarmac at E gates, which means once we scan our boarding pass, we load up onto a tram and it takes us over to the plane. Took off around 1:15 pm. Watched a movie, ate some lunch and kept monitoring my flights. About an hour before landing I received another United update that my flight to Knoxville had been delayed by 30 mins, so I now have an hour to make my connection. I didn’t check any bags so I should be ok.
Landed, zoomed through security (thank you global entry) and customs and went to my gate. I was there maybe 15 mins when they came on the loudspeaker and said DC had been put under a ground stop due to an FAA malfunction and all flights were delayed till 7pm. I am flying to Knoxville because the kids are with their Dad at Dollywood this weekend and I thought I could fly in there, stay Sunday night and get a rental car, pick the kids up Monday morning and drive home. Good plan, right?
At 7:00 they said all flights had been cancelled and again due to “weather”. It is a beautiful day here and looking at the radar map, there is no “weather” between here and Knoxville. They use this as an excuse to not have to provide you with hotel accommodations. I went to the United ticket counter in the main terminal all she could put me on was a 1pm out of Dulles to Nashville.. which means driving to Knoxville and back once I land! The 8 am flights to Knoxville or Nashville are all sold out and I can only do standby.
Looked at renting a car and just start driving but there is some sort of soccer tournament here and all the cars are sold out! Went ahead and booked a hotel room at the Hilton near the airport and took the shuttle over. Once in my room I pulled up every airline and flight between the DC area and Knoxville / Nashville area. All the morning flights are sold out. Decided to get some sleep and go over the airport at 6am in the morning and try my luck with the early flights.
Woke up at 5 am .. again, took the shuttle over to the airport and a line is forming at the Premier desk for United. There is 1 lady handling the rebookings. I have about 5 people in front of me and for 45 mins we did not move. I kept looking online at the 8:45 am flight to Knoxville and low and behold a seat opened up! I booked it, got out of line and ran to the gate. Thankfully it left on time and I landed in Knoxville at 10:30 am, grabbed my rental car, Joel met me with the kids at the airport and we were headed home!
I have to say other than the snafu with United coming home that it was a great trip. Ray and Asleep at the Wheel are just so sweet and so easy. They loved being apart of the festival. They all had a day off in Interlaken Sunday and do not fly home until Monday. I hope their travel goes better than mine did. Alexandra and Andrea took great care of us. I hope to be back soon.
To my friends at home that were ready to step up and help me get my kids back from Knoxville if I didn’t make the flight. A very big “thank you” I seriously have some the best girlfriends in the world who always have my back.
Home now and even though I will be doing laundry for days between me and the kids being gone, I am super happy to be home.. and a little tired.