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SATURDAY, JUNE 28TH – DAY TEN:
Up at 5:00 am, quick shower and off to the
Stockholm Airport. No problems with check-in and Swiss Air didn’t charge us
$2,000 in excess fees. That was a nice surprise.
Flight left on time, no turbulence, landed on time, all our luggage and
equipment made it and the bus to Interlaken was waiting for us. Driver did have
to take a longer route due to construction so the band had to check in quickly
and go straight to the venue for sound check. Carlene Carter and her husband
Joe are already here and said things are going fine. Bellamys and Carlene went
over to the venue for a quick press conference from 5-6 pm. Back to the hotel
for a very quick dinner, and now I have to go back over for the Bellamys
performance. Carlene performs after them, so it will be a really late night
again. Hopefully I’m going to find my firefighters once I arrive at the venue
tonight!
This is the 15th Anniversary of this festival and it was completely
sold out. It’s called a “Country and Trucker Festival” because there are a
couple of thousand trucks that pull in and circle the festival grounds. The
drivers and their families “live” in the trucks for the weekend. The trucks are
usually Mercedes and are very well equipped.
I met up with my NY Firemen. What a wonderful group of people. I’ve been so
worried about them no need too---they have been having an absolute blast. I
introduced them to the Bellamys and Carlene Carter and got photos and
autographed cds for everyone. Tomorrow I get to spend all day with them going
up to Jungfrau and I’m really looking forward to that – although I’ll only get 3
hours sleep again tonight. It’s already 2:30 am. The guys are all so funny --
not to mention young and cute. :)
Bellamys and Carlene did awesome shows. Got encore after encore and then signed
autographs. They were the perfect artists to have for the 15th
Anniversary.
So, I am signing off for now. I’m sure I’ll think of things I left out but am
so tired, I’ll just put them in my next report.
Jude
SUNDAY, JUNE 29TH – DAY 11:
Up early to get ready for the long train
trip to Jungfrau. Weather is beautiful again but I have to wear long sleeves
because it will be so cold up on the Alp. Have the attacking shower head in
this hotel. Has only happened to me once this trip, so guess I’ve been
lucky. There is so much water pressure that when you flip the switch to
change the flow of water from the tub to the shower head, the wand first flips
upside down spraying the ceiling and then flies out of the clip and chases you
around the tub. Needless to say, everything in the bathroom including all the
clean towels got sprayed before I could get the thing under control. But,
tomorrow, I’ll be ready for it! J
Met Gary and Mike in the lobby and we walked down
to the train station. Arrived in plenty of time to catch the train only when
I looked at the train tickets, they were for the wrong place! I knew I
couldn’t miss this trip, so I purchased three tickets at a cost of over
$500!!! Then I called the lady with the festival who gave me the tickets and
told her what had happened. She rushed to the train station, gave me the
correct tickets, and got my credit card refunded for the ones I’d purchased.
Had a little trouble locating the firefighters but finally hooked up with them
and the journey up the mountain began. They were pretty tired and sleepy from
the night before, but the scenery was so spectacular that it held everyone’s
attention. They are an amazing, FUNNY group of guys so the trip up was
delightful. Plus I got to catch up on the gossip with my friends John and Jan
Vigiano and get all the “dirt” on what the boys had been up to all week in
Switzerland. Sounds like they had a wonderful time even without me mothering
them.
We went to the usual places once we arrived at the top of Jungfrau – the ice
caves (which is a tunnel in the center of the glacier that you walk through),
the observation deck, and then out onto the glacier itself. It goes uphill
and is covered with snow, so that was fun trying to negotiate in tennis
shoes. Got some great photos up there because this is the best weather and
the clearest I’ve ever seen it in my ten plus years of visiting there. Check
out my website later this week to see photos from the trip. Might make you
decide to visit some of these places!
The trip back down was as much fun as the trip up. Sad to say goodbye to them
so quickly but know I’ll be visiting them in NYC later this year. They have
to leave for the Geneva airport at 3 am tomorrow morning, so “supposedly” it
will be an early night for them.
Got back to our hotel and had dinner with the Bellamys. Have been in my room
working for several hours now. Going to bed soon because I have to get up at
3 am for a 5 am departure to the Zurich airport. Will be getting the Bellamys
off to the U.S. and then I’ll fly to Belgium to meet up with the Lt. Dan Band,
my USO friends, my German bus driver, and Colonel Sughre and his family. Will
be in Belgium until Wednesday when I’ll return to Zurich for one night, then
fly back to Norway to meet up with Cowboy Crush for that festival. As I
type this, a huge thunderstorm is rolling through the area. Thunder and
lightning straight to the ground. Glad it waited until tonight! When I got
back from Jungfrau today, the maid had closed all my windows and turned my fan
off! Not sure my room will cool off before we leave tomorrow.
Jude

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