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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH, 2022 – NASHVILLE TO ZURICH TO GSTAAD, SWITZERLAND:
Flying “solo” to the Gstaad Country Nights Festival in Switzerland today. I have Marty Stuart performing and he has been in Europe for a couple of weeks now performing in other countries. Carly Pearce, Rhonda Vincent, and Bastian Baker will also perform on Friday and Saturday nights. No issues at the airport this morning except getting my Wi-Fi to connect in the Lounge. It kept holding on to the old password from July. Finally turned off the computer and started over and it worked. While I was waiting in the gate area, there was a man talking into his phone and he was literally yelling, “I can’t hear you. I’m at the airport.” He had the person he was talking to on speaker phone and trust me, the entire waiting area could hear everything she was saying to him. Obviously, he was almost deaf. He continued with a lengthy conversation to which we all were privy. Lots of turbulence on the little jet from Nashville to JFK and for the first time in years, had to take a bus from the terminal where I landed to the terminal where I will depart. As I was riding over, I got a message from Delta saying one of my bags had been loaded onto my flight. There’s no way because the plane doesn’t depart until 8:30 pm tonight and I landed at 3:00 pm. The Delta agent was unable to explain what happened. I just hope the bag travels and lands with me tonight! There was a long line to get into the Delta Lounge and about 15 minutes later when I finally walked in, the Lounge was only half full. No idea what that was about! Got my laptop set up and all “situated” and the man sitting next to me started yelling into his phone. Yep…same guy from the Nashville airport. His conversation lasted about 30 minutes and then thankfully, he left! I spent the 5 hour layover working in the Lounge then walked to the gate about 10 minutes before boarding time. We were immediately notified that the plane was being cleaned and should be ready for boarding soon. But, when people would walk up to the gate to inquire about the delay, the gate agent was directing them back to the Lounge. That’s never a good sign that the plane will be departing any time soon. As I assume, an hour and 15 minutes later, they finished cleaning the plane. I think they should have let the passengers vote on whether it was more important to have a “clean” airplane or depart on time so they wouldn’t miss their connections. After we finally boarded, since this is JFK and we lost our “slot” in the take-off line, we sat on the runway for another 40 minutes. The best news was that one of the videos playing was “Maverick” and I had not had time to go see it at the theatre yet. It was awesome except that they had to shut all the video monitors down about 30 minutes into the flight and it took another 30 minutes for them to re-start. Flight was 8 hours and no turbulence. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH – ARRIVAL IN GSTAAD: We landed about 30 minutes later than scheduled. I was checking Rhonda Vincent’s flight the entire trip and it showed that they landed before we did. They were supposed to pick up their bags on the belt next to us and it was deserted by the time I arrived at baggage claim. I sent her a text but did not hear back so I assumed they had already exited into the arrivals area. My bags came out quickly and the driver was waiting with a sign when I walked out. He didn’t speak or understand a lot of English but I did realize that Rhonda and her group were not with him. I was able to locate Beth (with Harry Stinson, Marty’s drummer) very quickly. She had spent the night at the Radisson connected to the airport. Had been communicating before we left Nashville and already felt like we had known each other for years. We all started a search for Rhonda and her group but could not find anyone. About 30 minutes later, I got a text from Rhonda. They had been sitting in baggage claim waiting for us. The trip to Gstaad was about 3 hours long. Scenery is beautiful but the last hour is very small, two lane winding roads. Thankfully I was sitting in front of the Sprinter Van and only got slightly nauseous. We dropped Rhonda and her group off at their beautiful hotel downtown and Elsi and Heidi (our super sweet hosts!) were waiting there to greet everyone. We then drove up (and I do mean UP!) to the Alpina where Beth and I are staying with Marty’s group. The Alpina is a 5 Star Resort that you have heard me mention many times. Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I received a text from Gina at the Opry while we were driving from the airport to Gstaad saying their flight departing Nashville had left late and they missed their connection in London by just a few minutes. They landed at around 12:30 pm and could not get a flight to Zurich until 7:30 that night, landing at 10:30. That means it would be around 2 am before they would arrive at the hotel. Heidi was discussing having them stay at a hotel at the airport and driving them into Gstaad today. We had drinks with Elsi and Heidi and two really sweet couples from Carly Pearce’s group who arrived earlier in the day. They had been sightseeing all over Switzerland for the past few days. Carly and the rest of the group were supposed to arrive at the Geneva airport later tonight. Dinner was, of course, amazing and we had so much fun telling “road” stories. While we were having drinks, I got a phone call from one of the Florida Military bases that I am taking the Gary Sinise Foundation Comedy Tour to the first week of October. They had to cancel our performance there which threw me into a panic. However, I called my stepson who works at a base in the Florida panhandle and in less than an hour – with terrible cell and Wi-Fi service and trying to have dinner with the group – I had another base locked in. Crisis averted thankfully. Getting in bed at 2:30 am.
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. I was able to go into the small but not crowded Air France lounge and work for about an hour. When I checked in for the flight in Geneva, the lady at the check-in counter tried to get me to pay to upgrade to the one remaining First class seat on the 8 hour flight to JFK. She said there are only 4 seats which are actually “suites” and you get a massage and special meal. She checked the price and when she said it would be a additional $2,300, I told her my business class seat was just fine.