FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3RD – PERFORMANCE IN ARENDAL, NORWAY:
We woke up to find several inches of new snow on the ground. No one even knew it was snowing overnight. While it is beautiful, it definitely impacted our 3 ½ hour drive to Arendal in the van and trailer.
Everything was loaded and ready to depart by 9:30 am and our first “stop” was the ferry crossing. It was a huge ferry and one of the nicest I’ve ever been on. Lots of seats for “passengers”. And very expensive from what our driver shared. He said it cost $100 U.S. for our vehicle to go across (one-way) and much more for the trucks lined up beside us. The crossing was fairly smooth until we approached the dock on the other side. Then we were definitely rocking back and forth!
I worked the entire drive by hooking my mobile phone up as a hot spot. The town looks very familiar although it’s been years since I was here. Looks like the last time I was here was in 2012 with Vince Gill! We are staying at one of the Thon Hotels which is a popular “chain” hotel in Norway. It’s always a nice hotel and has a great restaurant attached (Egon). I got everyone checked in and when I opened the door to my room, the first thing I saw was a staircase! Again, I’m in a room with 3 beds only this time one of them is upstairs! And, again, the room is huge and the bathroom is small. This one is bigger than last nights but still no counter or storage space. All the cosmetics had to go outside the bathroom on the floor. Can’t put them on the bathroom floor because it is heated and everything would melt! I have a funky wall panel that controls the shower. Each time I turned the knob the water came out of a different location. First turn is for the shower wand. Second turn is for the extremely powerful shower head. I knew what the third turn was going to be since I had a similar experience in Kosovo years ago. Same type of shower panel except that one had a remote control and disco lights as well! Anyway….third turn controls 4 jets that blast your body full force if you’re standing in front of them. I was smart enough to stand to the side. Check out the photos on FB.
We only had about a half hour before we needed to go to the venue for sound check. Unfortunately, things did not go any smoother today than they did yesterday. It actually took longer today and everyone was rushing back to the hotel to dress for the show. Like last night, the venue was beautiful and the staff so friendly and helpful. Another sold out performance tonight, too.
Our long time friend, promoter and entertainer Gunnar (G.Thomas) came to the hotel to run through the song he would be singing with the Bellamy Brothers tonight. It’s actually a song the Bellamys cut decades ago called “Livin’ in the West”. Gunnar recorded it with them and released a video for it. It has become very popular in Scandinavia and parts of Europe as well. After running through the song with David, he joined us at the venue so he could run through the song with the band.
Show started on time at 7:00 pm and Gunnar’s guest appearance was very well received. The restaurant next door to the hotel was open until 11:00 pm so several of us went there for dinner. Then it was time to answer the multitude of emails that I had received during the day. So, once again I worked until 2:30 am. Good news is, we don’t depart the hotel until 11:00 am for the drive to Skien. So I can sleep until 7:30 am – a whole 5 hours. WooHoo!