As I said before, I had never been to Kentucky before this weekend. I didn't get to see much of the scenery.. well... there was some scenery that I viewed more than I needed to, but I'll get to that in a bit. ;)

I left home around 9:30 pm on Thursday night, missing the season finale of ER until I got home to watch the tape. *grin* My hubby dropped me off at the San Francisco International airport and I checked in and went to my gate.

My plane ended up leaving nearly an hour late, but I knew I would be fine since I had about 2 1/2 hour layover in Chicago. We took off and I attempted to sleep on the plane. I did say *attempted* right? You can't sleep on a plane, unless you are dead tired and couldn't keep your eyes open, or you're in business or first class with comfy reclining seats. Economy passenger's seats just don't cut it for sleeping. :/

I got in to Chicago around 6:10 am, and headed over to the Bagel shop, ordered my favorite, a sesame seed bagel with cream cheese and a milk, and headed over to the gate to wait for my plane to board for Lexington. That was when I first heard her. Fran Drescher was on my plane??? No, this lady was not Fran, but she sounded exactly like her. No offense, but that voice just grates on me.

This lady was traveling with several other women, and was talking to them while I tried to read a book to pass the time. I thought to myself... with my luck, she'll sit right next to me and talk all the way to Lexington. I wasn't too far off. She sat in the row behind me and across the aisle, and yes, she did talk most of the way. *sigh*

My plane stopped in Charleston, West Virginia for about 20 minutes before taking off again for Lexington, finally. Who the heck routed this plane???

I finally landed in Kentucky, and it was such a pleasant sight. After having been in route for the past 10 1/2 hours without much sleep, I was ready to go to my room and sleep!

I got off the plane and found Arlene and we made a quick pit stop to a bathroom and headed for the baggage claim. She told me she had been waiting about 2 hours. She left earlier than she had planned and made a lot better time.

I had to stop to take this picture. I know it's a bit dark, but the wording welcomes you to Lexington, Kentucky. Beyond these doors we went down the stairs to baggage claim, and miracle of miracles, my bag was there waiting for me. Out to the car and off to the hotel.

This is where the fun begins. I look at the Motel 6 map in the book of where the hotel is, and see it's on 60, which I believe is the street we're on. I tell Arlene, just keep going til we almost hit highway 75. We do and where the hotel should be on the left, it's not there. What the heck? There is a Red Roof Inn, and some gas stations, and apartments.

Oh, but I left out the funniest part. Before we got out of mid-downtown, we realized we needed to be on a different street, so Arlene makes a right and goes up the street, pulls into a parking lot of a store on the street and turns around and heads back up the street. The funny thing is, I say to her just as we're about to hit the intersection.. "Wouldn't it be funny if this was a one-way street?" only to see the One-Way sign at the intersection. ACK!!! I never did let Arlene live that down.

After driving around and around, we finally decide to stop and get directions. Arlene stops at the Red Roof Inn and goes in. Of course, me and my trusty camera had to document that as well.

We find out that we need to get on 75 and get off at exit 110. I don't know how come, but for some reason we're at exit 112, so we do this and of course, there is the hotel, just like promised. *grumble* I do know how to read a map, really I do.

The girl at the desk at the Motel 6 takes one look at us both wearing Garth T-shirts, and says, "Oh, are you gonna see Garth Brooks?" We say, "Gee, how did you ever guess?" She says "Do you know anyone that needs tickets for tonight?" We say, "Yes, we do!" She says she has some upper level seats, but only 2 of them, and we're supposed to be meeting Emily and Jen, so we would need four tickets, so we decline.

After settling in our room, Arlene and I take a short drive over to the Waffle House for some lunch. There is a jukebox!! I go over to it and look at the selections. YES!!! There is Garth on the jukebox, so I stick in a quarter and turn it on.

By this time the waitress comes to our booth and looks at us and says "Are you gonna see Garth Brooks?" Is this the question of the day or something? We are still wearing our Garth shirts, and I just played "Shameless" on the jukebox... wonder why she thought that we were here to see Garth? *laugh* We tell her yes, and order our food.

By the time we're finished eating, it's about 2:30 or so and Emily and Jen have still not arrived. They should have been there by 12:00 like we were. So, we head to the arena without them and figure they'll meet us there.

This is where the Christmas tree comes into the story. What??? A Christmas tree in May? Well, driving around lost like before, we have tried to see if the parking lot is open but miss the driveway a couple times and a street a few more, and so we have gone around the block about 5 times by the time we finally enter the lot. The Christmas tree is in someone's front yard. I called it a Christmas tree. It was a planted blue spruce, which Arlene called a pine, and I called a spruce and we both agreed it was a tree you could use for Christmas. So each time we went around the block we'd point and say "Christmas tree!" I guess you had to be there. 0:)

The arena is part of the Hyatt Regency and a mall complex, so we visit the ticket booth and buy tickets for the night and look around. Being that it's hot, and we're thirsty, we find a food court on the lower floor and we head down there to sit and sip some root beer and wait for the doors to open.

Enter Emily and Jen. They had some problems and had to leave later, so they got checked in, then headed over to the arena. They also bought tickets from a guy outside the arena and are sitting in the nosebleeds.

Here's a pic of Emily, Jen and Arlene taken at the arena before the show on Friday night.

The concert is as I reviewed it in the Concert Review page. After it was over, we followed Emily and Jen back to the hotel, and being exhausted I decide to go to sleep. The show was fantastic, and Arlene kindly won't stop talking. *thwap thwap* We put in our wake up call for 10:00 am, and I try to sleep. ;)

9:25 am, the phone rings and I figure it's the wake up call, only find out it isn't, but it's the maid that wants to know if we want her to do our rooms today. I say we can just use some towels, and we had a 10:00 o'clock wake up call. She apologizes, and that is when I find out that it was really not 10 yet. *groan* I couldn't get back to sleep, so I get up and start to get ready for my shower, and get dressed. Today we're gonna meet Darla and her mom and Dawn and her mom. They're arriving for the Saturday night show.

Everyone is supposed to meet in our room at 1:30, and while I shower, Arlene and Emily and Jen take off in the car to look for a cigarette run. By 12:30 we get a call from Darla who says the hotel doesn't have her room ready, and I tell Arlene I'm not ready yet. Darla and her mom will arrive around 1:30, cuz they have some stuff to do.

Around 1:15, I hear a knock on the door and there are two people there. I figure it must be Darla and her mom. I find out it's not Darla and her mom, but Dawn and her mom, Brenda. We chat for a while and I tell them Arlene, Jen and Emily are out getting cigarettes and stuff and I have no clue when they'll return. Around 1:30 Darla and her mom arrive and Arlene, Jen and Emily are still not back. Darla and her mom, Gloria tell me that their room is still not ready. :/ Shortly after Arlene, Jen and Emily return and we get our little party going.

We have planned to make a tape for Garth, so we all discuss what we think we want to say, and get to taping it. Of course, it's not as organized as all that, and in the process we order a Papa John's pizza, which is delicious, and start making our signs.

Problem... the markers don't seem to be working right. They seem to be sludging up, so we have to head out to the store to get some new ones. Again, Arlene, Jen and Emily volunteer to do this. Darla and Gloria's room is finally ready, and they go back to get ready for the concert and we agree to meet at 4:30 to go to the show. We will just take 2 cars to save on parking.

The parking ended up being free on Fri, but on Sat, we pay $5.00 a car for the same parking lot, and take our signs and head down to the food court. On our way, we see Jimmy walk by, but I couldn't get a picture and didn't want to bug him.

The new pens are working out fine and we all take a pen and start working on our signs, while drinking our large sodas. I wanted to take a picture of us all holding the signs, but we never did get around to it. We head into the show and our seats on the floor! Woo hoo!!

This is where we find out there is no row I, so we are actually in the 9th row. Cool!!!

The show is fantastic, as I stated in the review, and after the show it's back to the room again. We can't really hang out much after the concert since I have a 8:30 am flight the next morning and Arlene has to drive me. The weekend was a blast. I just wish we had more time to visit with our friends.

If you've never went on a roadtrip to see Garth, I'd HIGHLY recommend it. Not only for the fantastic show, but for the great Garth friends you'll make, and keep forever.