Adventures

This is not going to be a music or concert review although it will figure heavily in the story.

For Mother's Day I bought my wife tickets to see Alan Jackson and Brooks and Dunn in Kansas City. The day arrives and with child-care covered we venture out. Now I know next to nothing about Kansas City on either side of the state-line. We get close to KC much quicker than I expected. But as we try to get even closer, it seems we aren't getting close at all. With the extra time dwindling, I began to worry we might not get there in time. So in very un-guy-like fashion we stop so I can ask someone at a convenience store for directions.

Directions in hand, we set off and pretty quickly find the concert and realize we weren't going anywhere near it before. We also see tons of traffic waiting to get into the parking area. We talk about going someplace to eat but decide we'll simply get in line and wait. So I pull up and stop. Quickly a police officer yells at me to move on. So I move into another line. Ditto. Can't stay there either. So I move out and ask an officer what's up. He says we can't block traffic and gives me some directions I can not understand. So we move on with no idea where we are going except NOT into the parking area. We drive around and end up in a line of waiting cars again. My wife gets out to talk to the people in the car in front of us to see where we are headed and what is going on. They tell her where they are going and we end up following them.

We drive to Legends shopping mall where a KC radio station is throwing a pre-concert party and providing a free shuttle back to Verizon Amphitheater. So we hang out a little, take care of the usual business and end up boarding a school bus for the concert.

With a friendly school bus driver moonlighting as a shuttle driver, we get there with plenty of time to spare. Grab a burger and fries and find our seats.

Once seated we realize that our view is obstructed by a young lady with a cowboy hat AND by some scaffolding near the tower that holds spotlights. We can see most of the stage though and simply accept our lot. But then after a few minutes a Staff person stops to talk to the cowboy hat couple. They get up with him and move. My wife suggests I go find out what's up. So I chase him down and ask if they were moving because of the scaffolding. He says yes and when I ask about us, he agrees to move us too. Within a minute or two we are in new seats, better view, closer to the stage and ironically enough, seated next to the cowboy hat girl.

We enjoy the concert - some Australian girl who had trouble staying on pitch, Jake Owen (not too bad) then Brooks and Dunn (great lively show) and Alan Jackson (good show too but his style is not exactly what I would follow B&D with - if it were me, I'd have AJ open, then close with B&D). During the set change after B&D, it started sprinkling. But fortunately after a few minutes of this, it stops and the skies clear.

We had a great evening and the bus comes into play once more. Never doubt the ability of a school bus driver. He got us out of the parking area ahead of many cars and we probably made it to our car much much quicker that if we had been parked on-site.

Moral of this story - go with the flow. Usually I'd stress big-time about things not going according to plan. But for some reason, I didn't stress, my wife did fine (except for that she hates big city traffic!) and the evening was lots of fun.