Chapter 1.... Tennessee Tour
Awoke at 4am on Friday the 15th after only 4 hours of sleep. I had to catch a 7:15am flight to Detroit. I arrived at my local airport at 6:15am. Things have sure changed since the last time I flew. I new nothing about this self check in process. Which I think is da bomb and since I hadn't any luggage to check I was on my way down to the terminal in no time. Flight was scheduled to take off on time, but we were held on the runway for 20 minutes because of delays in Detroit. I guess they had no place to put us if we got there on time. Once in the air the flight was only 25 minutes long. Arrived in Detroit about 30 minutes before my scheduled departure time for Nashville. The walk wasn't that long but it was long enough. It took me 20 minutes to walk from one gate to the next. I arrived just in time for boarding. On board a plane I always have to sit by a window (if available) cause I am very claustrophobic and that way if I start getting a little panicky I can just look out it and see the vast openest. On this flight, I was next to the window, in the back of the plane but when I looked out all I saw was the huge silver engine. It sat only a couple feet from the window. l think I had the 2nd to worst seat on the flight. The one right behind me had no window and was right across from the lavatory. We won't mention the smells that came from there after a few of the men passengers has used it. You can only imagine. Enough about that. The flight was drama free, and thats always a good thing. Arrived in Nashville around 10:45am, and on time. Grabbed my baggage and proceeded to try and find the shuttle to the hotel. There was nothing listed for the Alexis. So I ended up taking a taxi which cost me about $15.00 including a $3 tip for just going a mile or so. It took about 10 minutes to go that mile because all all the major traffic jams from the road construction going on in the area. Once I got to the hotel I had to call lainieb cause for the life of me I couldn't remember her last name but once she told me it was like DUH!!!! How could I forget that last name from the emails regarding the "Spreadsheet of Doom". I couldn't get into the room because it wasn't ready. They said it would be about 30 minutes, which turned into 45 which then turned into an hour. After about an hour and half I walked back up to the counter and asked if my room was ready yet. The older lady that didn't wait on me earlier said I couldn't get in until 3pm cause thats when check in was. I told her that the other gentleman said I could get in as soon as it was ready. It was only 1pm and I wasn't going to sit in their lobby for 2 more hours after I had already been sitting there for more than an hour already. I was getting really tired. Finally at 1:30 I got up to my room and took a nap.
After a short nap I get up and hear someone trying to get their card key to work in the door. I know I had problems with it myself so I thought I give whoever was on the other side of the door a hand. I open the door and itsktc71 It was nice to finally get to meet her. She told me about the happenings at Rod and hollywood68 the night before. I'm sorry I missed all the fun. Not to long after lainieb and no1mspriss arrived.
Everyone started to get ready for the show. They were all doing VIP. I wasn't. I didn't do one single VIP this whole tour. At this point my dates for the evening were stuck in Nashville construction traffic. As they were leaving I got my hug from wshiwralebon who looked just so adorable. I went back into my hotel room to wait for Rod and Tim to arrive. There wasn't much to do in the hotel so I just stayed in the room and channel surfed. For a hotel they sure had a lot of channels. I ended watching the end of "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" I don't get Bravo at home at this time so I never really had a chance to see this show. This one was about the nudist colony or something like that. After that I got stuck watching Bobby Browns reality show. When Tim called me to tell me they were a couple miles away I told him what I was watching and his response was "I'm sorry". That about sums that show up. I couldn't take my eyes off of it though. It was like watching a bad car reck. Finally after they showed up we headed out to dinner. I guess were were suppose to meat up with Bruce (Ohio Duran) but I guess he just went onto the venue. We drove around in the not so hot part of Nashville to find a restaurant. We ended up at a Steak place, I think. I can't remember the name of it. But according to Rod, it had one of the best salad bars he has ever seen. LOL. I had Lynchburg Chicken and Rice. Rod brought me back some strawberries. (LOVE THEM) from the salad bar and they were wonderful but don't taste that well with Miller Light. I needed me some champagne .....*comes back to reality and leaves the champange strawberries, cream and Roger in fantasyland*....... OH... to continue.... If I didn't thank you then Rod and Tim, which I think I did. But let me thank you again for dinner. The food was fantastic and the company was even better. Onto the venue......................... TO BE CONTINUED!!!!