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TUESDAY, AUGUST 21ST – CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO:
Today I leave for Chihuahua, Mexico with Tracy Byrd. I am healing slowly. The
stitches are out of my lip and the scar is better. My eye is only a little
discolored but there is still a lump where the skull was fractured. Rib is
still sore but better. Bruises on my leg are now Technicolor and the big
strawberry on my shoulder is just a pretty “pink”. Lots of scrapes and bruising
all over and can’t get my teeth fixed until next week. About six months of
dental work ahead of me. Had surgery on my hand on Thursday and the doctor
implanted about a 3 inch permanent rod in it. Was supposed to get the stitches
out yesterday but no go. I am in a removable splint that I will be wearing for
many, many weeks. But I can type slowly with my right hand and one finger on
the left hand.
Only got 3 hours sleep last night just trying to get things in order before
leaving. Up at 5:30 am and at the airport by 8 am. Of course, I had to do the
special security check because of the splint. I think I may just take it off
next time. As I left security, I heard my name being paged. Rushed to the gate
to find that my flight was late and was going to misconnect. But the gate agent
said they had me on an earlier flight leaving in a few minutes. I begged her to
get my bags switched over since I am flying into El Paso to meet Tracy and his
group and then the buyer is picking us up to bus us to Chihuahua. She said that
the good news was it was a direct flight. I knew that wasn’t possible because I
had looked at all the Southwest airlines flight options. Then she said, “Oh it
stops in Birmingham and Dallas but you don’t have to get off the plane.” Now I
hate flying Southwest because there are no reserved seats and lots of crying
children. I always go on the web and print my boarding pass so I can at least
board in the “A” group. When she gave me my new pass, she put me in “C” group.
I was ready for battle when I realized I could play my “handicapped” card and
board first.
J
A
young girl – 12 years old – sat by me. She had the vocabulary of a college
student. She is a dancer and was on her way to visit her grandmother. Her
family had just adopted a boy from Russia. She was home schooled 3 days a
week. Delightful young lady. A college student sat on the other side of her
and slept the entire trip. When he got on, he tried to stuff his huge duffle
bag on top of my backpack. That didn’t happen!
It was freezing on the plane and the excuse was that the air conditioning was
not working in the first 3 rows so it was much stronger behind that. I was in
the 4th row. But I also noticed that a large lady across from me was
dressed for snow skiing and had her vent all the way open and pointed at me.
When we stopped in Birmingham, a small girl in the front row got up and started
trying (and not very well) to sing one line over and over at the top of her
lungs. I know you could hear her all the way in the back of the plane. She
continued this until all the passengers were on board. Please explain to me why
her parents thought this was “cute”. My kids would never have been allowed to
act like that. What has happened to discipline?
Landed in Dallas and I got up to let the college student out. He had slept all
the way to Dallas, too. His foot somehow snagged the strap on my purse and he
was dragging it down the aisle. When he got his bag out of the overhead, he got
my pack down and handed it to me, which was really nice except I wasn’t getting
off. I thanked him and told him I was going on to El Paso. He says “whatever”
and throws it in the seat instead of putting it back in the overhead. Nice
young man.
Landed in El Paso and all my luggage made it! I walked over to the Wyndham
where Tracy’s bus was parked and where our promoter was supposed to meet us. I
called the promoter and he thought he would be there in 10 minutes. I told him
to meet me in the restaurant and we would have a quick lunch. Several of
Tracy’s guys were in there eating lunch and I introduced myself to them. All
really nice guys. Armando, the promoter didn’t show up after an hour so I
called him. He was stuck in a long line trying to cross the border. I ordered
some cheeseburgers to go for him and his staff and he finally arrived a little
after 2 pm.
We left for Chihuahua by 2:30 pm. It was supposed to be a 3 hour drive but
turned into a 6 hour drive! At least it is a nice bus with two toilets. Really
like the promoter and his two female helpers. But when we first checked on how
long it would take, we were told 3 hours. That is 3 hours by car…not in a bus
with a governor that beeps every time the driver exceeds the speed limit. Next
year I will be flying roundtrip to Chihuahua no matter what the artist does.
Not looking forward to the bus ride immediately after the show tomorrow night
back to El Paso and then getting on a plane to Phoenix and going straight to a
meeting.
Everyone was surprised by how beautiful it is down here. Very green and the
architecture is beautiful. I love all the Spanish adobe type houses and little
mission-style churches. It is much cleaner than we anticipated, too.
Finally arrived at the hotel and everyone was starving. It is a Holiday Inn but
much nicer than any I have stayed in. Has the essentials I require – internet,
air conditioning and a coffee maker. We dropped our bags and drove to a
restaurant that is a sponsor of the event. Had an incredible Mexican dinner –
imagine that. Then we went over to the promoter’s nightclub for a press
conference. There were probably 200 people there – all journalists and
sponsors. Some of the PBR folks (professional bull riders association) were
there. This event is hosted by the city of Chihuahua in conjunction with the
PBR event taking place at this time. Press conference was painless as I didn’t
have to speak.
J
Representatives were also there from the City of Chihauhau. Everyone is so
friendly but I did notice that there are three separate deadbolts on my hotel
room door.
Tracy was really enjoying himself but several of us had gotten up really early
and were ready to leave. Armando has some great people working for him so I
convinced one of them to give a few of us a ride back to the hotel.
AOL was incredibly slow, so I couldn’t send my Road Report last night. Got in
bed by 2 am and now up at 7:00 heading to the health club at the hotel to see
what I can do with my cripple hand.
WEDNESDAY,
AUGUST 22ND:
Nice machines
in the health club but all they had was 2 treadmills and one elliptical
trainer. Did 30 minutes – half forward and half backward – and feel much
better. Wish they had free weights so I could so one-armed curls, etc. Maybe
in Phoenix.
Breakfast was really nice. Everything imaginable and they offered to cook
whatever you want. I had an egg white veggie omelet and it was great. But they
put refried beans and flour tortilla on the plate, too.
Got a shower and answered emails. Still slow but better than last night.
After we had the incredible dinner last night, when we arrived at the Club one
of girls said, “Okay ready to rumble” and I looked back and everyone was half
asleep. LOL. But they quickly woke up. Tracy stayed and jammed at the club
until 2:30 am this morning. Glad we found alternative transportation back.
The venue is incredible. A huge permanent stage and really nice dressing
rooms. Much better than we have in the U.S. usually. They are expecting a huge
crowd. I’ve heard lots of different figures on attendance at Mark’s event –
from 10,000 to 50,000! They already have the dressing room stocked with
everything Tracy’s rider asked for including lots of bottle water.
Sound check finished early and then they took us to another fabulous Mexican
restaurant. I am so glad we can’t get good Mexican food in Nashville. I would
weigh 400 pounds.
After the incredible meal, we went shopping for western wear at one of the shops
that sponsors this event. Had some really cool western shirts there. Then
rushed back to the hotel to shower and change clothes. Tracy decided he anted
to go to the venue at 6 pm instead of 7:30 pm so he could see some of the
opening acts perform.
There were lots of people backstage at various times to meet Tracy. We met the
Mayor of Chihuahua who I immediately fell in love with. What a nice, caring
intelligent man he is. He has done some brilliant things to bring tourism to
the city and to strengthen “family ties” within his country. He also loves
country music and the Chihuahua event was his idea. He has been corresponding
with the Mayor’s office in Nashville and would like to make Nashville one of
Chihuahua’s sister cities. The event tonight is for families and no alcohol is
served, can you believe it – in Mexico?? I loved it.
We had advised the promoter that we were really in a time crunch to stay on
schedule and depart as soon as the concert was over. We did not get off to a
good start. The opening acts ran very late an Trace took the stage over 30
minutes past his scheduled performance time. But, he blew me away. What an
incredible voice and all of his songs are so well-written. Got to hear several
songs that will be on his new cd.
There were some very strange things going on with the bus Tracy rented to bring
us into Mexico. I got a call the night before we arrived El Paso saying the bus
company would not accept American Express and we had to scramble to get them a
visa credit card number. Then when they were supposed to pick us up on El Paso,
the bus company said that there was a “mix-up” and tried to give us an old bus
with no toilet. That didn’t happen. When we arrived Chihuahua, the bus we
drove down in went away and we were given another bus. Supposedly, that bus was
not allowed to cross the border into the U.S., so the bus company was sending
another bus for our overnight trip.
I started checking on the bus at 11:00 pm but no one seemed to be able to
located it. When 11:30 came and we were ready to go, I told them we were taking
the old bus and the new bus could just come find us. We got about 15 minutes
from the venue and received a call that the bus was AT the venue. We stayed
right where we were – in the far right lane of about 6 lanes of very fast-moving
lanes of traffic! We switched everything over into the new bus and began the
bus ride from hell. The roads might have well been gravel as rough s they
were. The seat reclined about 3 inches and the leg space between the seats was
less than a coach seat on a tiny airplane. At one point, the driver got on a
personal conversation on his cell phone and was talking so loud he could be
heard at the very back of the bus. No worry bout waking anyone up, I suppose
because God’s know we couldn’t sleep under those conditions!
My biggest concern was the “time” we would arrive to cross the border. Penny
had already warned me that the later in the day we arrived, the longer the line
would be. We arrived at the border at 4:45 and SAT in line for 2 hours. At
one point, we had to get off the bus, take all our personal bags, and go through
a security scanner and get back on the bus on the other side of the building. I
was hoping to catch an earlier flight to Phoenix for my meetings but it wasn’t
looking good. We finally arrived back at the Wyndham Hotel where Tracy’s bus
was parked. I said really quick good-byes and RAN across the street to the
airport, arriving at 7:30 and hoping to get on an 8:05 am flight. Believe it or
not, I made it. Landed in Phoenix and immediately had to go to a meeting with
Taser Corporation. Picked up my rental car but it had body damage and they
insisted I take a different one. It was already started when I got in it and I
didn’t realize until I drove away that it was a keyless ignition. I had also
rented a GPS and had no clue how to use it. Made it to my meeting – no thanks
to the GPS which didn’t have the address I needed. After my meeting, went back
to the car and it was about 200 degrees in it. And, I couldn’t figure out how
to start the darn thing. I was sweating and cussing and calling Lindsey and
John to see if they knew how to start it, when it suddenly started! Seems you
have to put your foot on the brake pedal at the same time you push the start
button. I discovered this totally by accident.
With Lindsey’s help, I found the Four Seasons Resort where I am staying. GPS
didn’t have that address either! Beautiful resort but it is being renovated and
nothing is “close” to anything. Lots of golf carts being used as shuttles.
Tomorrow I will go to Luke AFB to see a Colonel and 2 Generals who are my dear
friends that I met many, many years ago at the Wolf Pack in Kunsan, Korea. I am
supposed to tour the base and get to try out the F16 simulator – if that’s
possible with one hand! We shall see. Back home on Saturday.
I hate that the visit to Mexico ended so badly with the bus problem. Otherwise,
it was a fantastic festival – very well-organized, professionally hosted with
great people and a state-of-the-art venue and production package.
Jude
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