My entrance into pop music.
*note that there is much more to this story than the following, but this blog is long enough.
The adventure began Saturday morning. Supposely Tim, Mady and her family were leaving much earlier than Roger and I, and we would simply meet up with them at the park in time for sound check. Roger and I hit the road a little after noon listening to the same 7 songs over and over again to make sure they were permenantly entrenched in our minds. This lasted about an hour before we nearly lost our minds and a change in music occured. We both agreed that our lives had temporarily become movies and we debated how the story would resolve itself. I was convinced something completly ridiculous was bound to happen. Some random event from way out in left field would occur and we'd both think to ourselves, "i DID NOT see that coming..." perhaps a tornado or something, i thought. About this time in the drive we entered the worst thunderstorm i ever driven through and we nearly died when the back end of my truck decided it was fed up with always playing second fiddle to the front of my truck and we hydroplaned for a few hundred yards going something like 80 mph. Roger was sleeping at the time, and woke up to my hysterical laughter and the sight of the side of the road through the windshield. I assured him that flipping the truck was not part of the story and we pressed on through the storm.
First off, let me tell you how incredibly insane and creepy Wild Adventures theme park is. After driving down a long and lonesome back road we came upon a small cemetary on our right. About 10 yards passed the grave yard was the entrance to the Park. Roger and I stared for a moment and more hysterical laughter ensued. Some how we managed to beat the rest of our group to the park and we were instructed to enter through the backstage entrance. Well, the back stage entrance turned out to be a small gravel road guarded by the meanest looking middle aged surfer i've ever seen. The gravel road twisted in and out through the parts of a theme park no one should ever have to see. The park's junk yard. The bones of broken down rollercoasters lay all around. Burned out school buses from some long lost tragedy sat upside down and only feet from the huge fence that blocked off the actual park from this very macabre setting. Finally the stage was in front of us. From backstage the area didn't seem all that large....until we walked on stage. The stage was enormous. The only thing larger than the stage was the seating area which was set up to hold a few THOUSAND people. Even more hysterical laughter ensued..mostly by Roger. The rest of the circus showed up around this time and we helped unload the gear all the while being videotaped for this documentary. Then our tour of the backstage. The free food was nice. I only wish I would have been hungry enough to eat, but you have to understand that pure adrenaline was powering me at this point in the adventure. The Disney act Aly and AJ had been there for some time and was still setting up there gear and sound checking which would last about 3 hours. So, we wandered into the park. Keep in mind there is still a camera crew following us around. Most of the rollercoasters looked as if they were put together with sticks and tape, and made sounds that would haunt your dreams, so we were hesitant at first to actually ride anything. But one rollercoaster later it was time to set up and sound check, which turned out to be amazingly simple for me. By this time the crowds had started pouring in and it was clear that this whole place would soon be filled to the brim with thousands of screaming 12 year olds. Roger is still laughing at this point, and i don't seem to worried. And so we played the show. Let me tell you that I was awesome. I don't think i missed a single note. Tim looked like he was about have a heart attack and with good reason, while Roger and I looked surprisingly optimistic about the whole thing. Mady was playing it cool and did quite well. 30 minutes later it was over. The kids loved it and Mady was shuffled off stage and outside to sign autographs and take pictures. Here is where it gets the weirdest. They tell me and Rog, to go outside and meet up with Mady to do the same thing. Seriously. So we signed a bunch of sympathy autographs, and hung out in Mady's coattails for a while. A huge biker dude told me I rocked and thanked me for "keeping it real". Unbeliveable. This went on for about an hour and ended with a very giddy Roger getting to meet the very attractive and very underaged Aly and AJ. They signed his newly aquired copy of Harry Potter and i could tell that Roger's day had been made. Shortly after, we left back to Jacksonville feeling like rockstars.
The adventure began Saturday morning. Supposely Tim, Mady and her family were leaving much earlier than Roger and I, and we would simply meet up with them at the park in time for sound check. Roger and I hit the road a little after noon listening to the same 7 songs over and over again to make sure they were permenantly entrenched in our minds. This lasted about an hour before we nearly lost our minds and a change in music occured. We both agreed that our lives had temporarily become movies and we debated how the story would resolve itself. I was convinced something completly ridiculous was bound to happen. Some random event from way out in left field would occur and we'd both think to ourselves, "i DID NOT see that coming..." perhaps a tornado or something, i thought. About this time in the drive we entered the worst thunderstorm i ever driven through and we nearly died when the back end of my truck decided it was fed up with always playing second fiddle to the front of my truck and we hydroplaned for a few hundred yards going something like 80 mph. Roger was sleeping at the time, and woke up to my hysterical laughter and the sight of the side of the road through the windshield. I assured him that flipping the truck was not part of the story and we pressed on through the storm.
First off, let me tell you how incredibly insane and creepy Wild Adventures theme park is. After driving down a long and lonesome back road we came upon a small cemetary on our right. About 10 yards passed the grave yard was the entrance to the Park. Roger and I stared for a moment and more hysterical laughter ensued. Some how we managed to beat the rest of our group to the park and we were instructed to enter through the backstage entrance. Well, the back stage entrance turned out to be a small gravel road guarded by the meanest looking middle aged surfer i've ever seen. The gravel road twisted in and out through the parts of a theme park no one should ever have to see. The park's junk yard. The bones of broken down rollercoasters lay all around. Burned out school buses from some long lost tragedy sat upside down and only feet from the huge fence that blocked off the actual park from this very macabre setting. Finally the stage was in front of us. From backstage the area didn't seem all that large....until we walked on stage. The stage was enormous. The only thing larger than the stage was the seating area which was set up to hold a few THOUSAND people. Even more hysterical laughter ensued..mostly by Roger. The rest of the circus showed up around this time and we helped unload the gear all the while being videotaped for this documentary. Then our tour of the backstage. The free food was nice. I only wish I would have been hungry enough to eat, but you have to understand that pure adrenaline was powering me at this point in the adventure. The Disney act Aly and AJ had been there for some time and was still setting up there gear and sound checking which would last about 3 hours. So, we wandered into the park. Keep in mind there is still a camera crew following us around. Most of the rollercoasters looked as if they were put together with sticks and tape, and made sounds that would haunt your dreams, so we were hesitant at first to actually ride anything. But one rollercoaster later it was time to set up and sound check, which turned out to be amazingly simple for me. By this time the crowds had started pouring in and it was clear that this whole place would soon be filled to the brim with thousands of screaming 12 year olds. Roger is still laughing at this point, and i don't seem to worried. And so we played the show. Let me tell you that I was awesome. I don't think i missed a single note. Tim looked like he was about have a heart attack and with good reason, while Roger and I looked surprisingly optimistic about the whole thing. Mady was playing it cool and did quite well. 30 minutes later it was over. The kids loved it and Mady was shuffled off stage and outside to sign autographs and take pictures. Here is where it gets the weirdest. They tell me and Rog, to go outside and meet up with Mady to do the same thing. Seriously. So we signed a bunch of sympathy autographs, and hung out in Mady's coattails for a while. A huge biker dude told me I rocked and thanked me for "keeping it real". Unbeliveable. This went on for about an hour and ended with a very giddy Roger getting to meet the very attractive and very underaged Aly and AJ. They signed his newly aquired copy of Harry Potter and i could tell that Roger's day had been made. Shortly after, we left back to Jacksonville feeling like rockstars.