ROAD KILL – DAY ONE & TWO – JULY 4TH AND 5TH
Off to the U.K. and Norway with Paul Overstreet for two festivals. No problems checking in and flying to Detroit. Had a GREAT flight attendant. He was hilarious. Nice change!
Landed in Detroit to find our flight to Amsterdam was going to be delayed by an hour. Since we already had a tight connection, I knew we would miss the flight to Birmingham. I went to the gate to try and get us on an earlier flight and learned that we were on different flights out of Amsterdam than what I thought. Looked at our tickets and they were for one flight and looked at our boarding passes and they were for another flight! No one at NW could figure out what was going on. I tried several agents and the World Club. Finally, I called the 1-800 number for NW. Evidently, there was a schedule change last night and no one in Nashville bothered to notify us this morning. We’ve been scrambling to reach the promoter in the UK to tell him we will be arriving at 1 pm instead of 10 am!
Also landed in Detroit to learn that 3 people had been killed in the LA airport and the terminals were shut down. Very comforting. Sure wish I drank!
Our flight was 2 hours late leaving Detroit and we still landed in Amsterdam at 9:30 am. However, since NW had taken us off the 10 am flight, we had a 4 hour layover before flying to Birmingham. It was raining when we landed which was not good for the festival! Hopefully tomorrow and Sunday will be pretty. Our driver did not get the message about our flight arrival time until after he was at the airport. Since it is an hour and a half drive back, he just had to sit and wait. The flight over only took 6 hours so after watching “Panic Room”, there wasn’t much time to sleep. I was doing pretty good when it suddenly felt like a spotlight was shining on me. It wasn’t a full flight and we all had our own “row” of seats. The guy across the aisle from me was totally covered in his blanket – head and all – and he had raised his window shade about 3 inches. The light was shining straight on my face. I got up and sneaked over to his seat and shut the shade. He never budged.
We had a really large, nice bus to take us to Newark. Everyone wanted to stop for lunch along the way so we stopped at a “rest stop”. There were several restaurants in the food court and everyone but me had the Kentucky Fried Chicken. I don’t eat fast food when I’m in the U.S. and I’m certainly not going to have it in a foreign country. Got back on the bus and about 30 minutes out, Paul yells, “Where’s Richard”. We thought we had left him at the rest stop. Actually, he was lying down in a row of the seats sound asleep.
Got checked in at the hotel. It’s a quaint little Inn that I’ve stayed at many times. I’m in the Eduardo Suite this time – but Eduardo isn’t here….
The faucets are the old style where you have individual spigots – one for cold water and one for hot water. Kind of hard to get the proper “mix” going. But, oh the water here. Makes my hair look like the “Breck Girl” commercial. And the toilets – the toilet tissue dispenser is behind the toilet, right above the tank. Very strange. When you turn on the light in the bathroom, the fan automatically comes on and when you turn it off, the fan stays on for several minutes longer – and it is really LOUD.
Even though it was misting rain, I decided to go for a jog. Bad idea. My clothes were totally soaked within 10 minutes of the run. But I stuck with it. The path by the river and the castle is paved but with something that looks like tiny rocks with a clear varnish. It was incredibly slick. I could not get any traction. Each step I took, my foot would fly backwards. I finally decided to get up and run on the streets as I was afraid I would slip and fall into the river and no one would miss me for days.
I’ve been to this little village several times. It’s very quaint and “cute”. Has an old castle right in the middle of the town. There’s a little bistro where we ate last year that is called, “Feelin Peckish?” and they have spotted dick on the menu.
I stopped in what I thought was a grocery store to buy water before returning the hotel from my jog. I walked in and there were about 6 rows of food all just stacked in aisles – no counters. It wasn’t stacked very high and you could see everyone in the store. When I walked in, it seemed like everyone quit talking and just stared at me. Gives new meaning to the word “show stopper”! I guess it was because I was wearing soaking wet running pants and top. I got in this incredibly long line to check out and one of the most gorgeous men I have ever seen turned around and told me to go in front of him since I only had one item. Of course, I had to thank him again after I paid. He said, “Sure, Love”. I could really like this country…
Had a great dinner with everyone at the hotel. Paul ordered salmon and it came with this huge, monster “Prawn” on top with his eyes looking right at you!
It’s almost midnight here, so I’m quitting for the night. Found a gym close to the hotel, so I’ll try that out tomorrow.
DAY THREE – JULY 6TH – ROAD KILL
Up at 7 am to give Paul his wakeup call then off in search of a “gym”. Front desk assured me that there were 2 gyms close by which are open early 7 days a week. After wandering around lost for 30 minutes, I finally located one of them only to find that the hours posted were from 10 am until 6 pm. Then on a handwritten sign is the message, “We will be open from 5 pm until 9 pm until further notice!” So, I set off in search of the second gym only to find it located in the upper part of a building with no stairway or any type of access. It was closed also. Gave up and went jogging again which is what I will do for the rest of the time I’m here.
Did some serious damage shopping today. Nottingham lace is beautiful and very inexpensive. Had the traditional “fish and chips” for lunch. Wandered around a little flea market that is set up in the town square each year.
Best crowd I’ve ever seen at the Americana Festival. And, they loved Paul Overstreet. Chris Jackson and his wife Bev are the promoters and they are absolutely wonderful people. Chris has been “plagued” with bad luck since I’ve known him. Loses money on the event every year for various reasons – weather, unexpected costs, etc. The first year I was here, his housed burned down while the festival was taking place. Then the next year, one of his grandchildren passed away, and this year, he almost lost his wife. She was being tested for months because the doctors thought she had cancer. However they finally determined that she has Ecoli! She is very lucky to still be with us. The Ecoli is still in her system and she must have surgery next month.
A business associate that I am working with on a new country music festival for Wales in 2003 came to see this event. It was an eye-opening experience for him.
Jenny – Paul’s cute little fiddle player/background vocalist – had tiny little spiders falling out of the roof of the stage on her all during the show. She said several went down her blouse. I would definitely have added some dance moves to my set had that happened to me!
We had beautiful weather today which I’m sure helped bring in the crowds. Hope it holds through tomorrow. Paul is doing the “gospel” show at 10 am tomorrow and he asked for a local choir to back him. I met with the choir director today and learned that it is a choir of 10 year old girls! He explained that they really don’t sing very well. He picked them because they never get selected for anything and he wanted to give them something special. Paul is fine with this and it should be a fun show.
Time to get some sleep.
Jude
DAY FOUR – JULY 7TH – ROAD KILL
Okay, let’s see. I forgot to tell you about the pigeon yesterday. There is a flea market set up in the Market Square on Saturdays. I was walking around “shopping” and 4 firemen with a huge ladder came through the crowd. They propped the ladder up against one of the really old buildings and one man began the climb. There was a pigeon “stuck” on the window ledge. Not sure what happened but he was flapping his wings and unable to fly away. The fireman cut something from around the pigeon and then stuck him in a special bag and brought him down. The entire crowd was standing there, looking up at him, enthralled and we all applauded when he finished. I’m thinking, boy, this was cheap entertainment. I’m also thinking that in Hong Kong, that pigeon would have been lunch. But then I remembered that England has pigeon pie, so I’m not real sure of the fate of the little fellow.
Got up early this morning to get ready for the 10 am show. There was a large black spider in my bathtub. I killed him several times with a shoe and then scalded him with hot water and flushed him down the drain.
When we arrived at the festival site, there were only about 50 people there for the show. Considering that they stayed up until 3 am drinking, I wasn’t sure how many would show up for a Gospel Show. But once the music started, the crowd poured in. The little girl’s choir was so sweet. They were all about 10 years old and seemed to be very shy around Paul. But the minute he left the room, they turned into typical 10 year olds. They went out on stage to sing, and you couldn’t hear them. The vocal mics were placed really high above their heads and they didn’t know how to sing to them. When they came off, I told them to sing as loud as they could when they went back out there and to sing into the mic. One little girl goes, “No Way. I’ll sing loud but I’m not getting near that mic. There’s a spider on it!”. When they came off the stage, one of the little girls said, “This is the best day of my life”.
I went back over to the festival tonight to see BR5-49. They have two new band members and I wanted to check them out. They are still awesome, but it’s just not the same “sound”. Of course, this is the first couple of weeks of shows that they have done together, too.
I think most of Paul’s group is going to take the train into London tomorrow, as they have never been there. Don’t think I’ll go since I’ve been several times and I need to “work” tomorrow. Plus, will have to get up at 2 am for our 3 am departure to the airport. We fly all day – from 6 am until 5 pm just to get to Norway — 5 hour layover in Oslo and a little flight from Oslo to Sandane that makes 3 stops!
Jude
DAY FIVE – JULY 8TH – ROAD KILL
Up at 7 am to jog only to find that it was raining too hard to go out. Fortunately, I had my trusty “rubber band” with me and was able to work out in the room. Got part of the group off to London and then the rain had stopped, so I got in one last cool, scenic run. Found a new path by the river that goes over an old stone bridge and a dam. Beautiful!
There are 4 pillows on my bed and they look so nice and fluffy. But if you stack all 4 of them on top of each other and put your head on top, they squish down to about one inch in thickness. Sure could use a good neck massage before we fly tomorrow.
Mike came to breakfast this morning and he is “balding” on top and has a large mark on the top of his head. The day we checked into the hotel, he went into his room which is in the older part of the hotel. He didn’t see a beam that ran the length of the room about one foot inside the doorway along the ceiling. Ran into and knocked him all the way to the floor. Personal injury lawsuit???
I didn’t think we were having any “shower” problems but learned differently at breakfast. Jenny could not figure out how to turn hers on. There is a round knob and it has a lever that comes out from it. You have to pull the lever out and then move it to the left or right for cold or hot. She had to get someone from the hotel to come explain it to her. Mike’s shower (since he’s in the “old” part) is one of the shower handheld wands. He said his water fluctuates from freezing cold to scalding hot. He has about a 15 second window between the two extremes to spray himself off. Quite a visual.
I met a couple of the musicians who are from Texas with an artist named Michael Ballew. Evidently they had hotel rooms with 3 beds in it and Tony Byworth (London PR Firm) shared a room with them. They said Tony snored so loudly, they couldn’t sleep. But the best part was, he let out a really, really loud snore and said “Oh Dear”! They thought he had snored so loud that he woke himself up. Actually, he was still asleep and went right back to snoring!
Al and I had a wonderful time visiting the Cromwell Castle in Tattershire today. It’s also the location where “Tom Thumb” is buried…then we went to a RAF base and had a tour of the bombers from the “Battle of Britain Memorial Flight”. I got some great photos.
When we left the castle, we were covered with little flying black bugs. They were out at the festival site yesterday and someone said they were mayflies. I shook as many off as possible but they were also all in my hair. When we got to the RAF base and started the tour, I began feeling them crawling around inside my shirt and pants. I casually smashed as many of them as possible but some were in places where it wasn’t appropriate to slap in public. It was not fun to stand there and feel them crawling around and not be able to do anything about it. As soon as the tour was over, Al and I both bolted for the restrooms to remove our clothes and shake them out. I still think I can feel them crawling on me. (Yes, Gerl, it’s probably the spider’s relatives back for revenge!!!)
Paul and the group who went to London had a great visit. They covered a lot of “sites” in a very short time.
Well, I have to leave for the airport in about 4 hours, so I’m closing this report. Not very hopeful for internet access at our little hotel in Norway, but hopefully something will work out.
Remember, you can check out my website and see photos from the trip (www.judysealeinternational.com).
Jude
DAY SIX – JULY 9TH – EN ROUTE TO NORWAY
For the past 3 years, I had been trying to find a candle shop where I had purchased an incredible candle in 1999. I finally found it yesterday and the owner went into the attic and found 2 more of the candles. It is called, the “lovers” candle and it is a man and women “intertwined”. They are nude but you can only see the backs of them. I have it in my entrance foyer and everyone comments on it. Only paid 2 pounds for each of them. What a deal!
Never got off email long enough to get any sleep before I had to start giving wake-up calls at 2:00 am this morning. The bus, thankfully, arrived on time but that was the only thing that went right. The driver refused to bring the bus down the street that the hotel is on. I went out and talked to him and told him how to do it and he got angry and said there was no way his bus was coming down that street. I tried to explain to him that it was raining and we had really large, heavy equipment cases to carry. He still refused. So, everyone had to walk all the way out to the main street in the rain, with the equipment cases and suitcases and load them under the bus. When we got on the bus, he said that there was a buzzer going off but not to pay any attention to it because it was just a malfunction and everything was fine. I had planned to sit in the front but the beeping was so loud and consistent that I had to move to the back. You could still hear it in the back. And what was so frightening was the fact that a large red “STOP” sign was flashing on his control panel when the buzzer began going off.
We asked him to please turn off the heat in the floor and turn on the air conditioner. Again, he refused. He said that there was no heat in the floor — it was the engine. And he said he had the air conditioner turned to 19 and he would not change it. There was heat pouring out of the vents in the floor. They were so hot, it burned my hand when I reached down to touch them. We drove the entire 1 1/2 hours in sweltering heat. I told him that we had the same type of bus on the drive over from the airport and I knew that he could turn the heat off. Again, he argued with me that I did not know what I was talking about.
I told him to go to Terminal 1 at the airport for our departure gate and instead he went into a Parking Lot! We then spent 10 minutes trying to get him turned around and back on the road to the terminal. Obviously, he had never taken a group to the airport before.
Check-in was relatively quick and painless. All the equipment had to go to a special check-in counter and somehow Paul’s guitar that he was carrying-on got sent there as well. It did not have a checked luggage tag on it and he didn’t realize it was missing until we started to clear security to go to the gate. He and Chan went back down to the oversize equipment checkpoint and were able to retrieve the guitar.
There is a big sign that tells passengers not to go through to the gate area until their flight is called. I couldn’t find any of the others in our group and I was afraid that they had gone through and gotten on the wrong flight. When we were finally allowed to go through, we found them sitting in the gate area waiting for us. Flew from Birmingham to Amsterdam. When we landed in Amsterdam, we had to go from Gate D to Gate C. At one point, we had to pass through a passport control station – something we had not had to do when we came in through Amsterdam. Nash – Paul’s son – was not with us as he and Jenny had stopped at a Sports Store. We were sitting at the gate when Jenny came running up saying Nash didn’t have his passport and they wouldn’t let him through. His passport was in the bag on Paul’s cart, so Paul had to go all the way back down and get him through.
Landed in Oslo and had to pick up all our luggage and equipment to “clear customs”. However, we never showed our passport and we never went through a customs inspection point. It was very strange. You could not re-check anything once outside of Customs but had to go upstairs to the Wideroe counter and check everything again. We are now sitting in the Oslo airport with a 4 hour layover – several members of the group are passed out on benches. We fly a tiny propeller plane from Oslo to Sandane and I think we make 2 stops along the way. It is raining and completely overcast. I hate to fly and this is NOT going to be fun.
We arrived safely in Sandane, Norway. The flight was unbelievably smooth until the very end. Wasn’t sure if we landed or got shot down. We slammed into the runway and then bounced a couple of times. The flight attendant never blinked, so I assume that was a “normal” landing.
I do remember the hotel from my last visit 3 years ago (actually, I remember the towns from my “jogs”). It is an old historic home and is very beautiful, but “quaint”. My bathroom has one of the showers that doesn’t have walls – just a “wand” on the wall, a curtain, and a drain in the floor. Usually they give you a big “Squeegie” to get the water off the floor because it absolutely floods the bathroom every time you shower. No Squeegie this time. Last time we were in Norway, Howard Bellamy threatened to do me bodily harm because I was “squeegieing” so loud he couldn’t sleep! The closest consists of one the “coat trees” with 6 hangers on it. I’ll quit whining because email works and that’s all that matters.
This is a beautiful town surrounded by fjords and glaciers. Everyone wants to sleep late tomorrow and just chill. Paul and a few of the guys are going fishing on the Salmon River tomorrow night. Remember, there are only about 3 hours of darkness here. On Thursday, we’re all going to a glacier and fjord that is nearby.
Only 3 more days before we fly home!
Jude
DAY SEVEN – JULY 10TH – ROAD KILL
Everyone except Mike slept in today. I think he got up at around 6 am and started taking buses, trains, and boats around the area. He doesn’t want to miss anything!
It was a beautiful day – sunny and in the 60’s. I had a good run but it is difficult to find a “safe” place to jog. The roads are for two-way traffic but they are only really wide enough for one-way traffic. The shoulder of the road is usually non-existent. The only “bike path” goes straight up a mountain. So I got in a short run by the lake (which is beautiful) and then trekked up the mountain path. Can’t say that it was a “run”. More like a painful fast walk.
The shower wasn’t too bad. The wand keeps trying to swing around and spray me in the face because the water pressure is so good. Not fun standing on a wet floor to put on makeup but without the squeegie, the only other option is to wait for it to dry enough to put down a towel.
Walked around the little village and took lots of photos of the houses, hotel, lake, and mountains. There is still snow on the tops of the mountains. I went in every shop there is in this village – trying to fill time – even went in a hardware store. That’s desperate. I asked the owner of the hotel if there was another village close by with more shops and he laughed at me. I guess this is the “metropolis” of the area….
I was walking along the road and heard this “roar” like water rushing. Followed the sound and then right off the side of the road along a little trail was this incredible little waterfall.
Had a pizza for lunch and Norway must not be famous for their pizzas – although every café seems to sell them. I kept asking for one with no meat – just cheese and mushrooms but he insisted that it must have “pizza meat” on it. It came with what looked like canned spigot sauce with meat, cheese, and one little mushroom per slice. They gave me ketchup to use on it…which I didn’t use. Strange. Then I had this ice cream that is called “Soft Ice”. It’s vanilla and looks like our soft-serve ice cream but ohmygod! It has the consistency of whipped cream and when your tongue touches it, it disappears like cotton candy. It was so good and I’m sure it had at least 5,429,137 calories or more. Since it stays light until around 1 am, I’m going to another “jog” tonight to work off my guilt.
Paul and some of the guys are salmon fishing on the river right now. I have a reporter that I will be taking out there at 10 pm to take photos of him and do a short interview. Sure hope he caught something.
Tomorrow we go to the glacier. That should be lots of fun. Be sure to check out photos on the website.
DAY NINE – JULY 11TH – ROAD KILL
Woke up at 5 am with my throat and eyes itching like crazy and sneezing my head off. Whatever I am allergic to in Nashville is definitely alive and well in the U.K. and Norway.
Today we all (except Paul) went to see Europe’s largest glacier. Paul opted to go horseback riding in the mountains. The ride up to the glacier was spectacular – traveling through beautiful fjords with hundreds of waterfalls coming down from the majestic mountains. We all took rolls and rolls of film (well, I had diskettes!). Only had to stop once for a herd (I think it’s a herd) of goats to cross the road.
It started raining once we arrived at the glacier, so we went inside to have some lunch and wait for the rain to pass. Everyone was ordering sausages and pomme frittes but I ordered the reindeer soup. I’ve had reindeer steak before and loved it. I was really enjoying it until someone started whistling “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”….
We did get to go out on the glacier and take some fabulous shots. The glacier itself is “blue” and the water coming off it is “green”. Just the vegetation in the fjords is breath-taking.
Norway is a VERY expensive place to live. Everything costs about 3 times what we pay in the U.S. and they are also heavily taxed. There are only 1700 people living in the village of Breim where we will hold the festival. 500 of those people are working on the event. All the money goes back to the community for sports programs, etc. This is the 3rd largest country music festival in Norway and the only one that is not owned by an individual and is “not for profit”. They expect 9,000 people to attend over the next 2 days. I have Marty Stuart coming in to headline the Saturday event but I’ll be flying back to the U.S. before he arrives!
We had a nice dinner together as a group tonight – salmon, again, of course! They put salmon in everything – scrambled eggs, salads, soup, — you name it. It is a part of every meal. I love it, but I think I’ve had enough for this trip. Paul’s son entertained us with a horrible cd that Tom had with him. It was a demo of a marching band playing totally out of tune; then a lady singing a song she wrote about “don’t talk bad about my God; don’t call my God names; his first name is God and his last name isn’t damn”!!!! Then there was a really horrible rendition of a guy singing – can’t even remember what it was now.
Jude
DAY NINE – SHOW DAY, FINALLY – JULY 12TH
Cloudy and rainy when I got us to run, but has since cleared up and is beautiful weather again. Found a great place to run but the first 12 minutes are straight uphill. But, oh how easy it is on the way back down. And the scenery – waterfalls, mountain streams. Almost makes up for the pain of the run.
The floor in the bathroom is HEATED. It’s wonderful. It gets really chilly here at night and as I said, the shower floor and bathroom floor are one and the same. What a great idea.
No problems at sound check today. Ever since we arrived, the meals at the restaurant have been wonderful BUT….every night they would only allow us to choose from 2 items. We had a choice of fried trout (which was actually grilled salmon!) or roast pork. Each came with boiled potatoes. So tonight I got a menu and had my Norwegian partner Gunnar translate it and let me order for everyone. He was “off” just a little on several of the items. There was a pate that he said was some kind of “wild” animal so I assumed it was “wild game”. Nope. Reindeer pate. Then he said there was a really ugly fish with long whiskers and a blue shell. We thought it might be a catfish but they don’t have catfish in Norway. No one was brave enough to even try it.
It rained off and on all day and then started turning really cold. You could see the singers breath on stage it was so cold. Paul was back in the dressing room which was quite a long way from the stage. I had just checked and his son was still tuning his guitars for him. All of a sudden we heard the announcer calling his name and the band kicked off. Paul had to sprint to the stage.
Of course, this was out last night, so we had to pull some practical jokes. At least I was better prepared than I was in Interlaken. I bought some “alien” masks (black hoods with white glow-in-the-dark faces) at the flea market in Newark. We knew that when Paul sang “Diggin Up Bones”, he would talk for quite a while about how he came up with the idea to write that song. While he was talking, all the musicians slipped into the masks. Paul was talking away and the audience was laughing. He thought they were laughing at his comments, so he really got on a roll then. When he finally turned around and saw the musicians, his face was priceless. I didn’t think he was going to be able to get through the song.
We also found a sticker of two Moose (meese – mooses???) mating and stuck it on the front of his guitar.
He had a great show and the audience loved him. There was a huge crowd and the promoter was extremely happy. Wish I could stay over for Marty Stuart’s show tomorrow night.
It was very strange not to have any “darkness”. At about 12:30 am, it looked like dusk. Then by 1:30 am, it was like dawn. We got back to the hotel at about 2:30 am….just in time to take a shower, pack, and head to the airport. No sleep tonight but we can sleep on the plane.
It has been a wonderful trip. I get to stay home for 3 whole days before I fly back to Switzerland with Lee Roy Parnell.
Jude
DAY TEN – TRAVELING HOME – JULY 13TH
Left for the airport at 6:00 am because we were told that the ticket counter opened at 5:30 am and we should be there for 6:30 am for a 7:40 am flight. Our bus driver looked EXACTLY like Mr. Bean. Everything me smiled we all cracked up because his facial expression was exactly the same. Got to the airport and it was closed! On Saturdays, they don’t open until 7 am. So we sat for 30 minutes on the bus – waiting.
Tiny little airport and the guy who checked us in checked all the luggage and equipment on one ticket. All 14 pieces. He said that he checked it all the way to Nashville and we would not have to pick it up again until we cleared customs in Detroit.
Small plane again to Bergen this time with one-stop along the way. Again, the person who checked us in said that we could stay on the plane when it stopped. Not! They made us all get off for about 20 minutes and then re-board. Arrived in Bergen and I was apprehensive that our luggage was actually checked through so I decided to wait at baggage claim and make sure it didn’t come in. First bag to come in was one of ours! I found the baggage agent and asked him why it came in and none of the others came in. We looked and there was no tag on the bag. Since I had all 14 claim checks, there was no way to know what the missing number was. They just had to re-check the bag on a different tag number.
It was a full flight from Bergen to Amsterdam and not real big plane. We got on and got situated and at the very last minute several people boarded. Two women came on with a big suitcase that they were going to try and fit in the overhead. Of course, they were sitting by me. They started looking around for space and decided that we didn’t “use good judgement when we put our things in the overhead”. They started rearranging everything and one of our guys asked them to please not touch his things as there were breakable items inside. They got in a real “huff” when he showed them a totally empty bin where they could put their suitcase. Sat down beside me and said we should have checked our items if we didn’t want anyone touching them. It was all I could do to not tell them they should have checked their carryon bag that was the size of a mini-van!
A little Asian girl came flying down the aisle and climbed right over the top of Paul to get to the middle seat. No warning. I looked over and there she was sitting in his lap. She didn’t speak a word of English. When they brought a sandwich, she kept trying to give hers to Paul. He had to show her how to open it. Then the flight attendant asked if she wanted something to drink and she spit the food that was in her mouth out in her hand to answer. The flight attendant told Paul that her entire family was on the plane and that was the “custom” in their country.
Landed in Amsterdam and only had one hour to make our connection. I was worried that the equipment and luggage would not make the flight. It was a fabulous flight back in business class – almost empty and Paul and I had our own “row”. The coach passengers were not so lucky as it was completely packed.
We landed in Detroit and 6 pieces of our luggage and band gear was missing. Both my bags made it, thank goodness. Since the pieces were all checked on one ticket, had no idea which claim check went with whose bag. Plus we still had the “extra” claim check from the lost tag for Jenny’s bag. When we got to Nashville, we gave Northwest all the information and are hoping for the best.
Two days and I go back to Switzerland. Hope this is my last trip out of the country until September.
Jude