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THURSDAY,
JULY 2ND – GERMANY TO NORWAY: Got up at 6 am, showered, had breakfast and loaded the “van”. I knew the minute I saw the vehicle sitting outside that it was not what the contract specified. I told Bill we were supposed to have a vehicle that had a minimum of 2 seats per person. He assured me it did. I went back to my room and picked up my backpack and headed for the van. There were only 18 seats and we needed 22. It meant that everyone was going to be cramped up for almost 2 hours riding to the airport. Then we have flights all day where they will be cramped up again. Not good. It seems that no matter how many emails we send reminding the promoters what our transportation needs are, it rarely works out correctly. I think it would be good for the promoters to just travel with us all day, one day and then they would see why we are not being unrealistic. Fortunately, all of Lonestar are nice guys and didn’t complain. We arrived at the airport right on time and got checked in. I had our travel agent put “PC” in our booking record. The Swiss Travel Agent that has been my friend for years told me about this. She said that if you put “PC” in the record, then they go by “piece count” not weight and we would be allowed to fly our 2 pieces weighing no more than 50 pounds each per person and not be charged excess. The ticket agent did not even MENTION charging us. I really hope this works every time since the Bellamys were paying thousands of dollars every flight. Had about an hour before we boarded our flight so I did some last minute shopping. Had to change my seat assignment because they put me in 1A – window bulkhead – double jeopardy! I hate window and I hate bulkhead. Was able to move to 2B. This man was sitting across the aisle from me and evidently had someone else’s seat. He asked me where 2A was and of course, it was next to me. He moved and then he asked me where 1A was. His wife was in the wrong seat, too. If she had not been in the seat I had just had them move me from, I would have offered to switch seats with her. Now I wish I had. He had this huge carry on bag that he tried to stuff under his seat. It stuck out so far, he couldn’t put his legs down. The flight attendant finally took it away from him. He NEVER stopped talking. The first thing he asked me was if I was a SPRINTER. I said, no, but I do jog. He said, “So it’s okay if I whack you on the rear end if we need to get off the plane because of fire”. I assured him that it was not okay. He talked and talked and talked and spit on me every time he opened his mouth. He kept punching me in my arm because he totally ignored the arm rest and used my side of the seat. I finally pretended to fall asleep. I heard him asking me questions but I just ignored him. He seemed like a nice man. Said he was in the Air Force for a while and that he and his wife are “folk dancers” and live in Lofoten, Norway. I’ve been there with the Bellamy Brothers. He likes country music but only the “old stuff” like Jim Reeves. When we landed, he told me he needed to get out and I told him he had to stay seated until the seatbelt sign was turned off. He did then immediately stepped all over me trying to get his stuff out of the overhead. He finally got everything and I was standing in the aisle with my purse in my seat. He sat down in my seat right on top of my purse. Unbelievable. I sure hope he’s not on our flight to Oslo! We had a couple of hours layover in Copenhagen so Keech and I hit the Starbucks. He likes to find a Starbucks in every country. I’m not crazy about the coffee but needed the caffeine and they didn’t have my favorite – soy green tea latte! Someone said that we had 2 hours before our flight left for Oslo so Keech and I were sitting and talking and drinking. He asked me if I said the plane was boarding at 4:15 pm and I told him it was departing at 4:15. He said, “It’s 4:00 now”. Good grief. We had to run for the flight and they had already boarded most of the passengers when we got there. The other guys were saying, “wonder where Jude and Keech are?”. Of course they weren’t worried because I’m the “world traveler”. LOL. Landed on time but 3 pieces of our equipment did not make the flight. It just happens to be the 3 pieces they made us take to a different counter in Munich and check as “oversized”. They can’t tell where it is with the computer and we have no idea when it will arrive. Good thing tomorrow is a day off so we can have some time to locate it. Paul from the festival met our flight and we began the long drive to Vinstra. We made one stop for dinner at a nice restaurant. Most of the guys ordered hamburgers not realizing they taste nothing like our burgers back home. The drive was beautiful and the guys took lots of photos. At one point the driver pointed out a moose and Lonestar’s road manager started yelling, “Moose on the right. Moose on the right”. Guys were jumping up and running around like crazy trying to get a photo. I swear it was as exciting to them as seeing a unicorn! J Arrived at the hotel and Jonny (my promoter who has been battling cancer for over a year now) was sitting out front. I would not have recognized him. Last year he had lost all his hair and was very thin. This year all his hair is back and he is very swollen as a result of the new medicine he is taking. He has really gone through a hard time personally – not only battling the cancer, but his father committed suicide a few weeks ago. He is such a sweetheart, it just breaks my heart to see him suffering like this. I am praying for a miracle and that he can beat the cancer. The hotel found my little “fan” that I get every year and they put out food for the guys when we arrived at midnight. The rooms aren’t air conditioned and it was about 200 degrees in mine. Have a balcony with a door that opens and cools off the room quickly. Wireless internet is “free” which is wonderful after what we have paid for it in Switzerland and Germany. The hotel put out some more food for everyone. I am not going to be able to go sightseeing with them at the beautiful Fjord tomorrow because Chely Wright and her group will arrive at around 1:30 pm and the fjord trip will take all day. Jude
FRIDAY, JULY 3RD
– VINSTRA, NORWAY: I got up at 8 and went down to have some coffee and see the group off. Everyone else in my group was complaining about the two guys who partied outside our windows all night. I don’t care if the party all week as long as they are sober for the show and give an outstanding performance AND as long as their actions don’t inconvenience anyone else. In this instance, it not only inconvenienced us but my promoter who is very ill and needed to rest. He said he never went to sleep because of them. He has to go to Lillehammer today to have chemo and I hate that he got no rest last night. Chely Wright’s group landed on time and should be at the hotel by 2 pm. Hopefully they will have the 3 pieces of missing equipment for Lonestar with them on the bus. Haven’t heard anything on it yet. I am going downtown with one of Jonny’s friends so I can try to purchase this worldwide wireless internet card. Jonny has one. It cost him 1 KR and he pays 300 KR per month for the service. That’s about $50 U.S. and he has internet service all over the world!!! I paid $30 per day in Switzerland and had to purchase a month for 29 Euros in Germany. It will definitely be a good deal for me. Also going to look for some more “fans” since it is so hot in the rooms. Mine is tiny and not very effective. Left for the 45 minute drive into Vinstra only to find that they were sold out of the wireless card and every store in town was sold out of fans! Not surprising since it is so hot and no one has air conditioning. Drove back to the hotel and waited for Chely’s group but they didn’t arrive until almost 4 pm. I had the room keys ready and they all rested for an hour or so before dinner. Keep in mind that the sun sort of sets around 1 am but is back up a few minutes later. That make sleep pretty challenging in itself. The view out my window right now at midnight is a small house with a grass covered room with a beautiful white llama beside it. In the background are tree covered mountains and it is “dusk”. Beautiful. Paul checked on the missing equipment while he was at the airport. They had 2 of the 3 pieces. They had no idea where the 3rd piece was and the lady working there printed out a form and gave him for a piece they had but did not have a claim on. He didn’t call me but brought it back with him when he delivered Chely. It was definitely our missing bass guitar! He tried all afternoon to call baggage claim but never got through. It’s that way with every airport I’ve ever had to deal with. He finally reached them tonight and supposedly they are going to have it delivered to the hotel before 2 am….two hours from now. Chely’s group brought my new travel printer and my shoes plus several other items I had forgotten with them. I spent quite a while installing the new printer and then when it came time to register it, something happened and I couldn’t get off the “log in” page. I ended up having to call Canon and try to get them to walk me through it because every time I tried to log in to Internet Explorer, it took me back to that page. Finally got it figured out and installed and have used it non-stop since. It’s just the upgraded model of the one I had and I loved it. The boys who went to the fjord today didn’t get back until 9 pm tonight. They had a blast. Really sorry I didn’t get to go with them, too. L Am hoping to go to bed soon and maybe get more than a couple of hours of sleep. Busy day tomorrow with sound checks for Lonestar and Chely and performances tomorrow night. We won’t be back at the hotel until around 2 am with Lonestar and they want to depart to Oslo by 10 am on Sunday.
Jude SATURDAY – JULY 4TH – “RUNNING WITH THE BULLS” IN NORWAY: I actually got some sleep last night. Except for it being really HOT all night, it was at least bearable with no noise from outside. Yesterday I went to the basement where the swimming pool is located and found a little room with some pretty much broken down gym equipment and a ping pong table. There were windows and it was a “sauna” in there. No free weights but I took the plates off the bar bells and used them as hand weights. At least got my arms “worked”. Did a few abs and legs as well. The swimming pool is inside and no ventilation there either. Maybe the water is cool? So, today I was determined to run. There are a lot of hills and the road that I have to jog is the only one coming up to the hotel. It’s narrow and doesn’t have any shoulders but there is never much traffic at that time of the morning. Things were going well except for the sheep on the sides of the roadways. They would jump up and stare at me as I jogged by. They didn’t appear to be aggressive, just curious. Then I jogged past a farmhouse and a man was moving his cows from their pen to something across the road. I assumed it was another pasture so I increased my speed and got past him before the cows were out of the pen. Jogged for about 2 ½ and right before I made my turn, a fly started buzzing me. Talking about aggressive! I could not get it to leave me along. It followed me for more than a mile, I’m sure. When I got back to the place where I had seen the cows crossing, I looked up and they were standing in the middle of the road. Now cows don’t bother me but bulls are another story. There were 3 bulls with varying lengths of horns. The biggest one with the longest horns had drool spilling out of his mouth. I did not take that as a good sign. Problem is, I was “trapped”. Only one way to get back to the hotel and that was past them. Both sides of the road were fenced. The fence was low enough for me to jump over but had barbed wire on the top. Given the bull’s horns or the barbed wire, I would have opted for jumping the fence! The cows and bulls started coming towards me so I backtracked until I found a gate that I could open and slip inside. A truck came from the direction of the hotel and I tried to flag him down and get him to take me back up the road past the bulls. But he either didn’t understand my frantic hand signals or thought I was a crazy person. His drive through the cows made them come closer to me. They got even with me and a van and a car came down the road. The van driver just stared at me standing behind the fence but the car stopped. Since the bulls were in front of the car, I walked out and talked to the couple in the car. They assured me that the cows and bulls were “friendly” and would not try to “eat me”. J At least I was able to get behind the car and continue my run back to the hotel.Had a quick breakfast of yogurt, showered and got ready for our 12:15 pm departure for sound check. I had made arrangements for the van to pick up 3 sound techs from Lonestar and 1 sound tech from Chely at 11 am. I looked out the window and what appeared to be the entire Lonestar group was leaving in the van. I started calling rooms and found Dean still at the hotel. We went to the lobby at 12:15 for our scheduled pick up and no van. I had to call the promoter to make sure the van was coming back for us. He showed up at about 12:30 pm and said he was supposed to pick up 3 people. Turns out Kevin was still at the hotel as well. Then we had to stop and pick up the sound techs for the stage because their car broke down yesterday and they were supposed to ride up at 11 am with our techs. Saw several of my friends at the festival. There is a tent backstage with free food and drink but all I saw were burgers and hot dogs. I asked the cute little girl working there if she had anything healthy. She made me a salad! And there was fruit – great watermelon, plum, grapes, bananas, etc – on the tables. So once was able to have a really healthy lunch, thank goodness. Things were running a little behind but nothing to be too concerned about. Then a transformer blew in the area and all power was lost at the entire festival. It took over an hour to get it back up and running. Lonestar finished their sound check in record time and I’m hoping Chely can do the same. She uses different musicians on these gigs and all these guys have not performed an entire show with her so they need time to “rehearse”.
Took about an hour
to get the sound back up today. Then things moved along really well. We
finished at about 6:30 which was an hour and a half later than expected. Drove
back to hotel and had a really quick dinner. Freshened up and left for the
venue. When we went out to get in the van to drive over, the cutest little
girl was out front. She is from Bulgaria and her parents were performing at
the hotel. She sings too and we talked her into singing for us. What a doll.
Lonestar rocked
the place and had a huge crowd. They did two encores and left them begging
for more. We drove back and arrived at the hotel by 3 am and it is getting daylight again. It didn’t get dark until 1:30 am. The boys started telling “Lonestar” stories from their early days and had me laughing so hard I was crying. We are leaving the hotel at 10 am tomorrow to drive to Oslo and spend the night at the Radisson Airport Hotel. Might go into Oslo for a few hours if we get back early enough. Great festival and terrific first tour of Europe for me with Lonestar. They will be invited back. Jude
SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2009 – VINSTRA TO OLSO: Boy, was that a SHORT night. Got up at 7 am, showered, had breakfast, made wake-up calls and went out to meet the bus. Bus departure time was changed from 12 noon to 10 am because we want to go into Oslo and see the sights this afternoon. Bus did not show up. I called the bus company and they still had the departure time as noon. Said they could have a bus there in 40 minutes. One hour later, bus showed up. Hopefully we will get to the hotel in time to still make it into Oslo. Seems like I plan this every trip and it never works out. Had lots of positive comments about the entertainers last night after the concert and again this morning. The promoter and audience were happy and the artists had a blast. Like I mentioned, Chely has performed in Norway many times and has quite a good fan base. Lonestar has a fan base after this tour! It started raining before we ever reached Oslo. That’s what happened last time I had a group overnighting at this hotel. They wanted to go into town but changed their minds because shops were closed and the weather was bad. We arrived at about 2:30 pm but the bus driver took us to the airport terminal instead of the hotel. We got him turned around and headed back to the hotel. Just as I walked in the door, I had a massive migraine. Don’t understand why this happens every time I come to Europe! I have been looking forward to using their great workout facility all week only to learn that it is closed because the air conditioning is broken! The hotel had all our rooms ready but people started dropping out of the trip into Olso pretty quickly. Eric and I were determined to go. We took the Express Train into the city and it only took 20 minutes. Then we took a short taxi ride to the harbor where we were “guessing” the fjord cruise would depart. People were very friendly and helped us find the right location. Booked our ticket and were able to board about 40 minutes after we arrived. It was still raining but not as cold as when we arrived. The rain stopped once we left the dock and it was a beautiful 2 hour cruise on a small boat. We had a great tour guide who pointed out all the points of interest. Really glad to we took this trip. Once we were back at the port, we had the name of a famous sushi restaurant where we wanted to eat. Had no problem taking a tram to that location only to find it closed! We walked around a little looking for everything else but nothing was open on a Sunday night. We decided to take the tram up to the famous park with all the “sculptures”. That alone was worth the trip into Olso. I took tons of photos that will be on the website next week. Took the tram back to the train station and then the express train back to the airport. I’m supposed to stay at the airport hotel until Friday morning and was NOT looking forward to eating airport and hotel food for a week. There’s absolutely NOTHING around this area. Eric and I went into the restaurant and had dinner and it was as bad as ever. That was the determining factor. I’m going to store one bag and take the train into Olso and stay at the Radisson downtown – where’s there sightseeing, shopping, and decent restaurants! J Only thing that worries me is my sense of direction. Eric saw that in all its glory today. I consistently went the wrong way. Hopefully I can make it down and back with no problem.Been answering emails for over an hour and going to bed now. Chely and Lonestar have to walk over to the airport at 9 am tomorrow morning and I’ll go with them to make sure they don’t have any problems getting checked in. Then I’ll come back, check out and move to the other Radisson. Their workout facility is open. LOL
Jude MONDAY, JULY 6TH – OSLO, NORWAY Got a couple of hours sleep and went downstairs to eat breakfast with some of the guys before their departure. Everyone was on time and ready to go except for one person with Lonestar. I sent everyone over to the terminal to check in and I called his room. He didn’t get his wake-up call and was still dead asleep. He dressed in record time and made it over to the airport in plenty of time to get checked in. No problems with check in and by 10 am, everyone was on their way to the gate. I got money changed and went back to “pack up”. Had to figure out what I could leave in the bag that I was storing in the hotel. Supposedly there was a hotel bus that runs between the Radisson Airport and the downtown Radisson. The desk clerk gave me all the wrong information but I was smart enough to go to the information desk at the airport and get the info. It was a really nice bus and only took about 30 minutes. Dropped me right in front of the train station which is connected to the hotel. So easy. Wish I had been doing this every time I got stuck in Norway. L I got checked in, answered some urgent emails. Big surprise…this hotel does not have air conditioning and my room only has a tiny window that opens about 2 inches. Will have to go buy a fan today. Decided to go work out because as I said, the health club at the airport hotel was “closed”, so I was waiting until I got here to work out. It’s been raining all day, so jogging was not an option. Supposedly, this hotel had an agreement with a great gym right across the street. But, as my luck would have it, they had just opened their own gym on the TOP floor – that’s 36 floors up. You need your hotel key to go anywhere in this hotel and have to use it to access the elevator. There are two sets of elevators – one for floors 1-16 and one for 16-34. Supposedly there is no elevator to floor 36 and you have to get off at 34 and walk up stairs. Okay. So there was a third elevator at the end of my hallway that was supposed to the top of the hotel. I got on only to learn it was “glass” and went up the outside of the building. I HATE that but didn’t have another option, so I got on. The doors opened and I was in a tiny “closet” with a key slot to open a door. My key wouldn’t work! There was a phone but it didn’t have a key pad and there was no dial tone. I hit the button to bring the elevator back but when I put my key in the slot to select floor 15 (my floor), it wouldn’t work! I was basically trapped at the very top of the hotel in a tiny little closet with no phone and no way to reach help. I got on the elevator again and was able to push the lobby level button and the elevator started moving. Only it didn’t stop at the lobby. It dropped me off in another “stairwell” and when I finally got out after opening 3 different doors, I was in a restaurant that was closed! I found some workmen and asked them how in the heck I could get to the hotel lobby. They seemed to be clueless as to how I had gotten in the restaurant in the first place. So was I. Had to go to the lobby, then get on another set of elevators to the top floor. I got off on floor 34 and started following the signs. No lie, I went up and down 6 sets of stairs and through 12 doors before finally finding the health club. Which was a huge disappointment – 3 nautilus machines and the rest was cardio. No free weights, no mats, no balls – nothing. The hotel is “A” shaped at the top and the gym is in a tiny narrow room at the very top of the A. Only there is only one-half of the “A”. So you’re constantly ducking to keep from hitting your head. Plus I hate looking out the windows to the ground 36 floors below. I did what I could to work out and then tried to find the elevator for my floor. Again, in and out of stair wells and at one point, I met a little German couple who were also lost. We kept opening doors and going up and down stairs – many times getting caught in areas where doors wouldn’t open – until we finally got to the elevators. Their opinion of this “health club” was the same as mine. Not happening! I saw a SATS gym across the street which I assume is the one they used prior to opening the one in the hotel. I’ll be paying to use it tomorrow. I went shopping and purchased a fan and a language dictionary. There are several fantastic shopping malls right around the hotel. Also, many of the big tourist attractions for Oslo are within walking distance. Just hope I have time to do something besides answer emails. Showered and started working since the office had opened by that time. At 7:30 pm, I took a break and got a recommendation from the concierge as to a good Indian restaurant that was within walking distance. It was EXCELLENT. Have been working non-stop since I got back and it’s now 4 am. At least I’m “off” tomorrow and don’t have to get up in a couple of hours. J
Jude TUESDAY, JULY 7TH – OSLO, NORWAY: I am definitely getting LAZY. I slept for 6 hours last night. As you know, it doesn’t really get “dark” here but for a few minutes. Have to make sure the drapes are totally closed or I’d never be able to sleep. Went downstairs and had some yogurt then went across the street to the gym. I paid 200 KR to work out. That’s about $34 U.S. but it was worth it not to have to make the “trek” to the top of the building again. Paying that much, I tend to overdo it a little to “get my money’s worth”. I have a feeling just moving around tomorrow is going to be a challenge. But, I’m going back tomorrow morning, too. Took a couple of hours off this afternoon and walked around the shopping centers. I can’t buy anything unless I ship it home because my bags are stuffed as it is. Tomorrow I’m going to go take some photos of some of the “tourist attractions” if the weather is any better. It’s still cold and rainy. The cold works to my advantage since there is no air conditioning. Had dinner tonight at an Italian restaurant recommended by the concierge. He didn’t let me down. It was excellent food. It’s only a little after midnight and I’ll be up for a while working. Hate that I’m spending my time in Oslo sitting in the hotel room. L
Jude
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8TH
– LAST DAY IN DOWNTOWN OSLO:
Got up at 8 am and had
breakfast. In Europe, when there’s no where to sit, people sit at the
table with you. That happened this morning only I was sitting at a
table for two. A man asked if he could join me and of course, I said
okay. Then I ate in record time and let him have the entire table.
Waited about an hour and then walked across the street to the gym and
paid my 200 Kroners to work out. I was right. I am so sore today, I
can bare move my arms much less work out. Going to work lower body
and see if I can make is as sore tomorrow as the upper body. When I
finished my workout, it was pouring rain outside. Had to wait a few
minutes to cross the street.
I actually got out of
the room for a while today and went sightseeing. I walked for miles
and miles and saw all the “major” tourist attractions. It’s really a
fascinating city. Can’t believe I only have 18 days left until I get
to sneak home for a week! I had originally planned to buy a ticket
for the “Hop on hop off bus” but decided I’d rather walk.
Dinner tonight was at a
Thai Restaurant and it was excellent. My little concierge came
through for me again.
Tomorrow I will check
out and go back to the airport hotel. Going to wait until I get there
to work out and hoping their gym is open again!
Jude
T
Lindsey called a little
after 1:30 am and said she couldn’t do the video hookup because she
was going to her Dad’s for dinner with the twins. I had just gone to
bed but wasn’t asleep. Then my boyfriend gave me my 5:30 am wakeup
call. Much rather talk to him than sleep any way. Actually, I think
he believes he'll get my voice mail and can just leave a message and
get by without actually having to talk to me. :) Went back to bed
until 8 am, then had breakfast and packed for the bus ride back to the
airport hotel (where there is air conditioning). Taking a chance that
their gym is open again by now.
Finding the right bus
and heading towards the airport was so easy. As we drove away, I
looked at downtown Oslo and felt like I had “conquered” it. My
problem is, I am “spoiled” when it comes to visiting foreign
countries. There is always someone picking me up the minute I land and
taking care of me the entire time I’m there. Having to venture out on
my own with my “lack of a sense of direction” is a challenge. I
really feel like I know Oslo now and will be happy to come back again
next year.
My room was ready at the
airport hotel. It has rained off and on all week and was raining a
lot more at the airport. The weather is much cooler here, too. Cold,
in fact! I only have two pair of long pants with me and no long
sleeve shirts but I do have a fleece and a couple of light jackets.
If I can just survive the weather in the North for the next 3 days,
I’ll be fine once I hit Switzerland again next week.
I went to the gym in the
hotel which wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered. Had it not been
raining and cold, I would have just jogged outside. Instead I got in
a fairly good workout on my legs and then ran on the elliptical
trainer for an hour. Walked over to the airport and got a salad
rather than eating the terrible food in the hotel restaurant.
It’s been really hard to
keep up with days of the week and even hard to remember what “date” it
is. I can tell I’ve been gone a while by the number of vitamin pill
packs I have left.
I am so sick of watching
CNN which is the ONLY English speaking channel over here. For two
days solid, they had nothing but the Michael Jackson memorial – over
and over and over again. Did not even show any news although the news
they do show is never accurate. From the news coverage of Michael
Jackson, he obviously single-handedly united the entire world. I feel
sure that the next statement is going to be that he is actually Jesus
Christ who came back to earth as promised in the Bible. I finally
have BBC news at this hotel but it isn’t much better.
Need to get in bed
earlier tonight so I can check out and meet Mark Chesnutt’s group at
the airport. They were flying from several different cities to
Philadelphia and then a direct flight to Oslo. Everyone’s flight left
on time except for the big group flying out of Nashville. Their
flight was delayed but all but one of them was there in time to get on
an earlier flight to Philadelphia – that was also delayed. Now I only
have to worry about one person not making it to Oslo tomorrow.
Jude
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