View of our place from the stage
Close-up of our place from our stage
View of our stage in Atlanta from our place
Since Ronn was headed to Hawaii, new Tortuga John (Lucio) joined me for the drive to Florida. We made great time even though we were pulling a trailer for Dexter Tripp and Jayna. We made the cross country journey in about 42 hours. That’s not a record but it’s fairly close. We got John set up in the guest bedroom and prepared for our one weekend performance in Tampa.
Tampa went well. We performed all but one show on the tower stage. It’s one of the nicer ones on the mostly tent site of Tampa. The last show was done on the ship stage so the “R” rated show wouldn’t blow out the end of the day pub sing. John performed exceptionally! Don’t get me wrong there were some rough spots, but we’ve made a living off of the rough spots in our shows for years, so what’s the big deal with a few more. After the weekend, I put John on a plane back to Charlotte where he’ll get a week to prepare for Georgia.
Sharon and I enjoyed some much needed time together with each other and our closest friends over that next week. Then we packed ourselves up and shipped off to Georgia ourselves. We arrived around 5pm, so we had some daylight to get set up before our first night in town.
The first weekend of Georgia was almost great. I say almost because the first day was amazing! It was the best first day in recent memory. The second day however, was almost great. Of course, the universe can’t stand the idea of us having two good days in a row, so we got a forecast of potential bad weather and rain. We only had a few sprinkles throughout the day but the forecast just killed our ability to have any real crowds of any size.
Sara and the puppies snooze on the way to Florida
Sunset pic of Sara and Sharon
Sunset over St. Pete Beach
Amy, Sara, Sharon and me at the Nepa Hut
Jef arrives at the pool with food!
On the way to Fleetwood Mac
Audience at Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac Live!
After the first weekend, we planned a trip home. Not because we missed it. We had just been there after all. We bought tickets to see Fleetwood Mac in Tampa. Our friends Ben, Amanda, and Sara all planned on letting us take them to the beach by our house this week but Ben and Amanda couldn’t make it. So, Sharon, Sara and I headed to Florida on Tuesday morning. We left early enough to make it to the beach for the sunset.
Once we arrived at the house, we did a quick unpacking and headed to the beach. The sunset was brilliant as always. We had our obligatory cocktails and headed back to the house. I was beat. The weekend really tired me out. I crashed at the house and Sharon and Sara headed out to sightsee some more and eventually hit a couple of our favorite little bars downtown.
On Wednesday, we went to the St. Pete Pier. Sharon used to manage a restaurant on the roof so we went for a drink and lunch. The GM is a good friend of ours and bought our lunch. Thanks Charlie! Wednesday night was the Fleetwood Mac concert. Sara was interested but didn’t have a ticket. We told her she should come anyway. We could probably find her a ticket there. If not, there’s a great entertainment complex next door she could hang out at.
Once we got there, I brought us to the box office. I asked the girl if there were any tickets available. She said “Yes”. I asked if any of them were near us. She said “no”, but she could give us tickets together in another section. I didn’t like the section she offered so I asked if she had anything better. She dug through a big stack of tickets and came up with some more. I looked where they were and said I’ll take ‘em! The tickets were actually better than the ones we originally had. She handed me the tickets and I asked what we owed her. She said “Don’t worry about it.” Wow!… Score! She actually handed me four tickets for my two. I guess she thought there was someone with Sara.
The show was great! I would have had some better pictures but my “awesome” new camera has shit itself again. I guess I’ll just get it fixed and sell it off. I usually have great luck with technology but every now and then you get a lemon. But, back to the concert. Everyone was great! I’m amazed at everyone’s ability given their ages. They played for about two and a half hours. I was exhausted just watching. If you can make it to a show on the tour I highly recommend it.
On Thursday, we had a snow crab cookout at my place. Since we’re getting close to our long summer tour, we’re trying to spend as much time with our friends as possible. We’re only gonna make one more trip to Florida before we head to Colorado and Minnesota. Friday we headed back to Georgia. Sara loved Florida! Only one trip back to Florida left.
All we have to do now is make it through the Georgia show in one piece. I hope we can make ends meet. Money just keeps getting tighter and tighter. I know you're all feeling the crunch. Hang in there things will get better. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later. Talk at ya’ next month!
