Here in their own words are Arlene and Dawn's views of the concert and/or weekend:

Arlene

1. Garthmoment for Arlene and Emily: We're dancing and singing and clapping along to the music, and Emily says to me, "Let's blow him kisses in case he can see us". I agreed, and we did. All of a sudden, he looks me right in the eyes (his are more blue than I had ever realized). He blows me a kiss, then he looks at Emily and blows her one. He waggles his fingers at us in a kind of wave, and then moves to the other side of the stage. We turned to each other, screamed, and then hugged. Our own personal Garthmoment. We now have a new word to add to the Garth Dictionary: BlownGarthKisses or GarthBlownKisses!!

2. Trisha looked at Emily while she was holding Darla's "XXX OOO Trisha" sign, and she smiled. Poor Darla is short, and I guess Trisha couldn't see her when she was holding the sign.

3. Stetson Ouch Twins: Two guys up in the stands wearing straw Stetsons, shirts with the sleeves torn off, BICEPS GALORE! When we went up to get the pics of the trucks and buses, I saw the guys and said "Ouch", Emily paused in climbing the stairs, and so did Jen. I couldn't say anything else, because I was stopped right beside the guy on the aisle. So Emily just kept on going up the stairs, and I asked her if she had seen that. She said that she had, and she had heard me say "ouch". She knew what I meant, but couldn't say anything because the guys were right there. Later, when we were sitting in our seats, I was focusing my camera around the arena and the Twins saw me and waved. I was embarrassed!!

4. Next Door Neighbors: Friday night, I was outside our room. A girl came out of the room next door and asked me to let them know if they were too loud for us. She said just bang on the wall if they disturb us. I said "okay, thanx." Then a guy came out, with a pierced eyebrow ring, nose ring, earrings, and a tongue stud (ball on top of tongue, ball underneath tongue). He said the same thing about letting them know if they got too loud. I told him that they could play their music and we'd blast Garth, and we'd all be happy. He asked me if we had been to the Garth concert that night. I said yes. He asked me how it was. I told him it was awesome. He said (pierced, young, and kind of rough looking, but with pretty eyes and a sweet face), "I'd give just about anything to see Garth live." It takes all kinds to make up the Association, and I was proud at that moment to be a part of it.

5. Are you going to tell about the security guard who thought your camera was a video recorder?

(Shel answers here: Oh yeah, there was this guard that thought my digital camera was a recorder. This is the same guy that said we couldn't put anything on the stage that was in a container, but later let other people in the same section put their bags and boxes on the stage without a problem. Garth never got our food items because of this dork. *sigh*)

Dawn

Here are a few details about my view of the concert. You can add this stuff however you want, I guess. I'll just start off with us parting at the arena. Mom and I went to our seats and kinda scoped things out. The seats Arlene sold to us were very good. We had a very nice view of the right side of the stage, and it was rather close. We saw that John was there with his guest and we said a quick hello after I figured out he was in fact John, and not Rodney. We took our seats and just watched everything for a few minutes. Then I went down to talk to the security dude who was standing at the railing to see about getting my gift to the stage. We chatted a few minutes and he called another security guy from backstage over to take my gift. He took it over and sat it on one of the speakers until Garth came on. (I kept my eye on that box the whole time)

The two security guys and I all had a little chat about me coming down to the railing to take pics, and the guy on the floor said it was no problem even though it wasn't allowed. :) He told me as long as I was really sweet to the younger security dude then he thought it would be ok, but to do it quickly so other fans didnt try it too. I went back to my seat then, happy as can be, and saw that Shel, Arlene, Darla and the others had made it to theirs as well.

We found the smoking section then and had a quick cigarette before Trisha came on. Trisha was great as usual. She didnt play a whole lot to our side but I think I have a few good pictures of her. Mom took a potty break during "How Do I Live" and Rodney showed up not long after that. After Trisha, we took another smoke break along with John's guest. (I can't remember her name). She was really nice and she and mom seemed to get along well.

By that time it was G-minus 5 minutes and the whole place seemed to explode. Everyone stood up then,(they weren't standing for Trisha in Section 12) and I was the lucky soul with an extremely tall person in front of me. It worked out well though because I had an aisle seat and could pretty much stand right in the middle. I love that security dude. :) He wouldn't let anyone do that but me.

Anyway, it was time for Garth. "The Old Stuff" started and there he was, coming out of the piano, then my camera went wild! I had an excellent view and I just know I have some great shots of this. After "The Old Stuff," I saw that my box made it to the side of the stage. Thanks to that security dude on the floor again!! Now, I cant remember the song list (Sorry Shel) but I am pretty sure that Garth had MY BOX in HIS HANDS during "The Beaches of Cheyenne," and he took it over to center stage where all the other gifts piled up.

I was pretty much rockin', dancin', and screaming and just enjoying myself for a while before I decided to venture down to the railing for my close-up shots of Garth. Again, I can't begin to tell you what song he was singing (I was screaming it along with him though), but I went down and amazingly Garth came over to my side of the stage just as I got my little self down there. The nice security dude put his arm around me and whispered for me to hurry so it would look like he was telling me to leave, then I got my pics. I think 4 or 5 of them with Garth looking right in my direction. We never made eye contact, and I dont think he saw me but that was enough for me. He ran to the left side of the stage then, and I thanked my cool security dude with a big hug. It was around this time that Garth picked up the gifts that were stacked on the side of the stage and carried it over to the center. More pics of this. :)

I saw some gift bags there too and I thought they were from you guys but I guess not. BUMMER. Mom got up to use the bathroom right before "Unanswered Prayers," the poor thing always misses the best parts of things! Anyway, I didnt get pics then cuz I was standing right in the middle of the aisle, with my trusty zippo lighter screaming as loud as I possibly could!! The guy in the aisle seat across from me looked at me like I was an alien but I didnt care. I have to say that the crowd in my area wasn't very wild, but eventually they started to sing too. It sounded as if everyone in my section was screaming along with me during the end of "Unanswered Prayers." The woman that was with John let mom borrow her binoculars for a minute, and she had her very own little GarthMoment. She said as soon as she looked at Garth, his face was HUGE and he opened his eyes really big and smiled right at her. I didn't have a GarthMoment, but I had mine in Memphis so I was happy. She deserved it being a "GarthVirgin" and all. :)

The rest of the show was all just a dancing, singing, picture taking party for me. The people in my section started to really get into it, and were screaming too. I Whooohoooooo'd and screamed so much that my voice is still trashed. Sorry i dont have more details here, but i was pretty much just having a good time. Garth came to our side of the stage many times throughout the night and I had no trouble seeing anything. I have great pics and it was a night to remember. During "The Dance, he had my box in his hands again. He carried it with him down under the grating and that was the last I saw of it.

The encores were great, and I LOVED "Piano Man." This was a treat I wasn't expecting at all. I kept hoping he would sing "Shameless," but I was happy with "To Make You Feel My Love." It was so cute when he pointed to you guys and sang it JUST FOR YOU. I'm sure you all had some Garthgasm's right there huh?

Oh, one thing I forgot to add earlier, someone spilled something all over my SweetCheeks sign and I couldn't use it. Maybe if I had the sign I would have had a GarthMoment too.

All in all, it was a great night and it was wonderful to meet everyone. So there it is really. We didnt catch any confetti cuz it was a little too high for us, but we had a great time just watching the G-Man do his thing. I guess I should have taken notes, but I wanted to take it all in. No time to mess with a pen and paper. It was enough just taking pics throughout the night when I wanted to dance and scream.