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THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, JULY 28TH
AND 29TH:
Well, I “sneaked” home for FOUR WHOLE DAYS. And, yes, it was worth it.
Laundry is done and bills are paid. J
Left this afternoon for Norway. Rodney Crowell will be performing one show at
the Seljord Country Music Festival on Saturday. Then my next event will be in
Sweden with 8 artists from the U.S.
Flight was on Northwest and I never thought I would be saying this, but they are
the best and nicest airline I’ve flown this Summer. I connected through Detroit
and my flight to Amsterdam had an empty seat next to me. Loved that. The
airplanes are that strange configuration where the lavatories are located right
in the middle of the galleys. First time I tried to access one of them, the
food cart was “parked” in front of the doors. It took about 5 minutes for them
to get things cleared away so they could move it. Then next time I went back,
one of the flight attendants had all his suit bags laying in the aisle in front
of the doors “repacking” everything. I finally gave up and just waited until he
finished. When I finally got to the door of the lavatory, the female flight
attendant that had served me dinner and heard me “talk” several times, asked me
if I was from Spain or Portugal! Do I look Spanish? Surely she heard my heavy
Southern accent!
The Lounge at the Amsterdam airport in this “wing” is excellent. Never been in
this one before. I didn’t eat breakfast on the plane because I was still full
from dinner. The lounge actually has Cappacino, cereal and yogurt (among other
things) AND WIRELESS INTERNET CONNECTION. I didn’t sleep at all on the flight
over, so I will be “fried” when I finally get to the hotel in Seljord tonight
around 10 pm. I have about a 4 hour”wait” in the Oslo Airport to meet Rodney’s
group. But, last time I had a 6 hour wait for Dwight, so I know what to do! The
minute I got to baggage claim, I got another migraine headache. Don’t
understand the frequency of these. Usually I only get a couple a year!
Got on the fight to Oslo and even thought my office called yesterday and
re-confirmed that NONE of my seats were bulkhead – it was bulkhead. I think
that the ONLY way I can be assured of NEVER getting a bulkhead seat is to
REQUEST a bulkhead seat. Then I’m sure they won’t give me one. Not only was
it bulkhead, but it was one of those seats where there is NOTHING in front of
you. Great, you think. I can really stretch out my legs. HA! It’s right
where everyone walks on to the plane. And, the toe that is broken is on my
right foot which was “exposed” to all the passengers as the boarded. I had to
lean over as far as I could into the seat to my right AND put my foot in the
seat to keep from being trampled. At one point, the flight attendant decided to
carry a bag on for one of the passengers., It has a strap on it and she caught
my fanny pack with is as she went by and nearly pulled me out of the seat. This
couple sat next to me and the woman has on a huge, full skirt. When she sat
down the skirt covered my lap and she didn’t bother to remove it. The man put
his briefcase and sports coat in front of him and the woman put her purse in
front of her. AND THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT LET THEM LEAVE THEM THERE DURING THE
ENTIRE FLIGHT! Now just last week, I was forced to put everything in the
overhead and even had to take off my fanny pack and put it up there. Go
figure.
By the way, I went to doctor to see if my broken toe is healing while I was
home. I was convinced he was going to yell at me because I still have no
feeling whatsoever in it and can’t bend it. Didn’t think it was healing at
all. But, the x-rays showed that it is healing. I don’t have to wear the
walking shoe cast UNLESS there is pain….just “sturdy” shoes. Can’t jog for 2
more weeks and then only if there is no pain. But was delighted to learn that
I’m healing. The break was not straight across the top of my toe as I thought.
It runs the length of my toe diagonally. At least now I know what part I have
to be extra careful with!
Rodney and his group arrived pretty much on time and we began the 4 hour bus
ride to Seljord. They aren’t nearly as tired as I am since they have been in
the U.K. touring for the past week. The scenery on the drive from Oslo to
Seljord is absolutely breath-taking.
Got checked into the hotel and my only request was that I be given a room where
the wireless internet works. Of course, I wasn’t and the hotel if full. So,
here it is at 1 am in the morning and I’m sitting in a private “dining room”
working so that I can get on-line. Such is my glamorous lifestyle. :)
Jude
SATURDAY, JULY 30TH:
Woke up to
beautiful weather. Had breakfast of yogurt and granola and showered to go to
sound check. I’m walking stairs ALL the time in this hotel. Last night when we
checked in, the road manager and I got stuck in the elevator. It stopped
between floors and wouldn’t move. There wasn’t a telephone to call anyone and I
finally found a little button with a “bell” symbol on it. I pressed on it for
several minutes and could hear it ringing. Assumed someone would come rescue us
but the elevator actually started moving. I KNEW I was having a panic attack
but thought the road manager was handling it well….until we stopped and he
said, “I’m never taking the elevator again! I will not risk being stuck in
there”. Guess he was a little more scared than I thought.
Everything was set up and ready for us at sound check. This year, they have
built a new, much larger stage and there are a lot more people attending. They
pitch tents and camp on the grounds of the festival site. There’s a little
village set up outside the main stage area where they sell western wear and
local food delicacies (liquorish – YUCK – and some kind of fried meat). Two
years ago this is the festival where the drunk girl was walking through the
audience wearing one ski and last year as we were leaving, we saw a girl wearing
chaps with no pants underneath! Seems to be a little bit “classier” crowd this
year but tonight’s show will determine that.
The electricity went out in the hotel this afternoon for several hours. I
thought one of our group must have plugged in something without a converter and
blown the circuits. Then I remembered that I’m the only female in this group
and the guys know better!
I asked about the drunk driving law in Norway because these people start
drinking at 10 am – that assuming they have even been to bed and stopped
drinking the night before. He explained that they always have ONE designated
driver AND when they leave the festival, they have to take an alcohol breath
test before they are allowed to drive. Now, I think that is a wonderful idea
that we should instigate in the U.S.
Rodney and his group said this is the best “gig” food they have had on their
entire tour. Of course, their other dates have been in the U.K. where the only
thing I’ve found edible is the Indian food.
We are departing right after the show tonight to drive to the airport by the
Oslo airport. Rodney won’t come off stage until 1 am and it’s a 4 hour drive to
Oslo. They have a flight to the U.K. at 10 am and a show that night.
When we arrived at the venue, I knew it was definitely the largest crowd they
had ever had attend. And, they didn’t seem to be quite as “falling down drunk”
as in year’s past. After Rodney went on stage, I decided to go out front to the
sound board so I could watch the show in a “safe place”. But, I had to get from
the backstage to the front of house – which was no easy feat. The drunks think
nothing of touching you inappropriately – whether accidentally or just because
they are grabbing you to dance with them. I put my fanny pack around my waist
and hung it pretty low, crossed my arms across my chest and only left the
backside “exposed”. Made it all the way across with only a couple of guys
grabbing my arm. I stayed out front and watched several songs and it was an
awesome show. There were about 5,000 people all gathered as close to the stage
as possible and singing along. I decided to make the trek back across the
grounds to the backstage area so I could spend some time talking to the promoter
and a couple of other promoters who had driven up to meet with me about shows
next year. I made it to within 20 feet of the “gated backstage area” when one
of the fans who had been drinking a LOT, fell over on me. He would have taken
me down with him had another guy who was a bit more sober had not caught me. I
didn’t leave the backstage area again after that!
We left the showgrounds at around 1:30 am for the drive to Oslo. I sat up front
because I like to talk to the driver and make sure he doesn’t fall asleep. No
need to worry this time because it was the same driver we had in Vinstra a few
weeks ago and he was excellent. I began to notice that there were LOTS of RATS
all over the highway – live one scurrying across in front of the headlights and
smushed ones that cars had recently hit. It was really gross, especially since
I do NOT like rats. But, the driver said he thought it was rats, too, until he
asked someone after his drive up to get us. He said that they are “lemmings”
(SP??) Sure looked like rats to me. There was no way to avoid running over
them and I could hear them “crunch” under the tires. That certainly kept me
awake.
We arrived at the hotel at 5 am and I laid down on the bed – clothes and all –
and fell asleep.
SUNDAY, JULY 31ST:
Up at 8:30 am
to see the boys off on their flight. Then a very quick workout and shower to go
meet my friend Patricia. She landed right on time. I got a late checkout at
the hotel so we took her bag to my room and had a nice lunch in the hotel
restaurant. It had been raining and really ugly all day, so we didn’t try to
take the shuttle into Oslo. Checked our bags in for our flight to Trondheim and
I was very apprehensive about flying in the horrible weather. We didn’t get to
sit together and she passed out immediately from her long flight over from LA.
I, on the other hand, was praying, crossing myself and issuing Hail Mary’s (and
I’m not even Catholic) because I thought the plane was going to crash. It was
really, really turbulent. But we landed safely and as we were walking through
the terminal, I mentioned how scared I had been on the flight. Her answer was,
“Oh, was it bumpy?” I wanted to choke her!
We took the bus to the hotel but the driver didn’t announce any of the stops in
English. We saw our hotel out the window and ran up to tell him to stop. He
looked at us like we were insane since it was a regular stop on the route. Got
checked in and then we went for a walk around Trondheim – a beautiful little
seaside village. Only problem is, Pat has no better sense of direction than I
do. At one points, we stopped an elderly man and asked for directions. He
was a sweetheart, but definitely was in need of companionship. He must have
talked to us for a half hour. We did a little sightseeing and then found a
beautiful Italian restaurant on the water. Pat wanted some “traditional”
Norwegian food, so I told her to order the ravioli with the salmon in it! The
weather had turned so cool that we couldn’t’ eat outside.
Back in the room by 9:30 pm and she’s going to crash! Lindsey told her to be
sure and get her own room at the hotels because I would keep her up all night
working on the internet. J
Tomorrow we get on the cruise ship and travel through the fjords to Bergen.
Hope we have pretty weather.
Judy
MONDAY, AUGUST 1ST:
Got up to ride
the bike in the “exercise room” (what a joke!) at the hotel. It was a tiny
little room right beside the swimming pool. It didn’t open until 6 am, so I
was dressed and ready at 6. There is a separate elevator that goes down into
the pool area and when I got in and pushed the button, nothing happened.
Thought I was stuck again for a minute, but I pushed the button for the 1st
floor and it opened up. I went to the front desk and they had to have someone
take me out the back stairs, down the fire escape and through the kitchen area.
I told them I was pretty familiar with that area since that’s usually the area
we have to go through with performers.
We left the hotel at 9 am and boarded the cruise ship. It’s a really large ship
with 7 decks BUT it is sort of a glorified “ferry”. Nothing like the cruises
I’ve taken in the Caribbean. Also, other than the little kids on the ship,
we’re the youngest people on board. Pretty scary. The cabin is nice and
spacious for a ship, though. There is a little “shop” but it was closed until 7
pm! We quickly learned that the ONLY thing to do is eat and sit around….not my
kind of day. They advertised that they have an internet café but when I asked
where it was, they said that it won’t be hooked up until we get to Bergen, which
is, of course, where we get off! At least my IPAQ worked for most of the trip
or I would have gone crazy.
We stopped in a little village called “Kristiansund”…not to be confused with
“Kristiansand” which is a large city. We had 30 minutes, so everyone jumped off
the ship, walked down one street, and then ran back on the ship. No time to do
anything except buy a bottle of water. Our next stop was at 8:30 at night in
Molde and ALL the stores were closed. We had an hour there but there was
NOTHING to do since everything was closed.
It is really, really cold outside and even colder on deck. Much too cold to sit
out there. The scenery has been pretty but not spectacular. I am hoping that
once we leave Molde, we will go through the fjords and it will get better.
Otherwise, this was not a great idea. There’s no swimming pool or “games”.
They advertise that “nature is their entertainment”. Hello. Entertain me!
They give us these little ‘day sheets” that tells all the highlights of the
cruise. Each one lists the ports where we will stop – and none of them are for
longer than 30 minutes. Several of them happen throughout the night. Of
course, it doesn’t get dark, so I suppose there are people who will stay up and
do another “run through” those towns, too. But, some of the other BIG
highlights are “passing a Methanol Factory” or passing one of their other cruise
ships. We missed the announcement about the methanol factory and didn’t get
to see that one, darn it.
J
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