OK so the title of this blog gives away the details of our evening, but let's start where the day generally starts: the morning
8:30 AM - After getting home after Midnight from LOVE last night it was nice to sleep in a little.
9:00 AM - Discombobulated Bear sticks her head up for a moment, and doesn't like what she smells. The alarm going off is going to render that irrelevant, though, as we have only an hour or so to get breakfast and hit the road as we have another huge day planned.
11:10 AM - We arrive at Rick and Sue's place, which they have labeled "Del Boca Vista", to pick them up and head out to the Valley of Fire. They have seen this before and highly recommended it, so we decided to take this opportunity to check it out with them. We were expecting to be impressed, but we were absolutely blown away with the scope of the beauty we were witnessing. The rock formations, and the colours....oh, the colours. Breathtaking. As far as the eye could see.
Majestic in it's simplicity.
This was the first time in my life that I really spent any time in the desert.
Yes, I know Las Vegas is in the desert, but I'm talking about an ACTUAL desert. The desert where you are more likely to see this:
than this:
Thankfully, we've encountered neither this trip. And if I have to choose, I'd happily take my chances with the snake.
Oh, and it's hot today.....according to the car temperature, it reached 140 degrees when we were at the bottom of the valley. I'm just a tad skeptical about that, but I'll bet it was 120. There was just a touch of a breeze to make it tolerable, though, as we enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch. Tracey points out that the heat out in the desert is different than the heat in the city, with all the concrete and glass on the buildings to intensify it. That was very astute of her. Please welcome Astute Bear to the family. Definitely never seen HER before.
I'm going to pay for that one.
3:30 PM - Back at Del Boca Vista for one last dip in the spectacular pool before saying goodbye to Rick and Sue and heading back to the resort for dinner and a short bit of relaxation before heading out to tonight's Garth Brooks concert. Neither of us have ever seen him, so this crosses one more off the concert bucket list for both of us.
6:30 PM - We arrive at the brand-spanking-new T-Mobile arena, future home of the Las Vegas NHL team, and it's gorgeous. We didn't have time to explore it completely, but it is reminiscent of the Staples Centre in LA, but a little smaller. Beautiful outdoor space that Staples doesn't have, though. This looks like a real winner.
7:00 PM - I received an Email a few days ago with the timing for the show, indicating that Garth Brooks would be onstage right around the scheduled time....so I guess he'll be out any second now.
7:25 PM - A portly gentlemen comes onto the stage with microphone in hand, and he announces that we are not only at a Garth concert, we are at a Garth TV TAPING!!!!!! You know they are going to pull out all the stops for this one. Very exciting.
7:30 PM - The lights dim, the music hits, and the crowd goes fucking berserk. And I mean abso-fucking-lutely berserk. Like nothing I've ever heard at any concert, ever. They continued the berserk-ness through the first song, which I wasn't familiar with, and the second song, Rodeo. Nobody sat down, nobody stopped hollering, nobody could (I presume) hear a thing. Garth tried talking to us a bit after the second song and I couldn't hear a damn thing he was saying.
There were so many things tonight that I just can't explain.
By the time he got into the third song, The Beaches of Cheyenne, I had tears welling up in my eyes.
I can't explain that.
The fourth song was Two Pina Coladas, which happened to be one more Pina Colada than I've had this entire trip!!
I certainly can't explain THAT.
I spent most of the night on my feet, cheering and hollering, singing along to songs I didn't know that I knew the words to. Somehow, tonight, I knew the words.
I can't explain that either.
I would upload some of the video I took but they are too large, and honestly I doubt they would do it justice.
Tracey and I agreed, this was likely the most fun either of us have ever had at a concert. Brooks makes it seem like the only person in the stadium who is enjoying the show more than you are, is him. His charm, charisma, humbleness and work ethic are absolutely second to none. He barely stopped running around the stage long enough to guzzle some water and catch his breath.
He calls his band his "family", which is hardly unique. But you know what kind of a family they are? The "newcomer" of his group, the guy who has been with him the least amount of time, has been playing with him for TWENTY-TWO YEARS. How do you get that kind of loyalty from a band, especially WHEN YOU RETIRED FOR FOURTEEN YEARS?!! Is it possible that he really is the nicest guy in show business? Seems plausible.
The only time the energy in the arena dipped below "LUDICROUS SPEED" was the 15-or-so minutes that his wife, Trisha Yearwood, took over. No offense meant to her at all, she's had a long and illustrious career in her own right, but she's not Garth. It turned out to be a good thing I think as Garth and the audience needed a couple minutes to recharge for the rest of the show.
Ludicrous speed. Heh.
A really nice moment at the end of Yearwood's set. One of their background singers was the songwriter for one of Yearwood's hits, a nice little tune called Georgia Rain. Yearwood had her come up front and sing the final verse, which was obviously a surprise to her as you could tell she was a little overcome with emotion. It was beautiful, though, and the crowd went nuts for it.
By the time the show got to Friends in Low Places (which the audience sang loud enough to drown Brooks out for the most part) and then the finale, The Dance, I was spent. Two encores later, I could hardly comprehend the performance I had just witnessed, and it seemed as if Brooks and the band could hardly believe it, either. What a show.
Oh, and that was just tonight's FIRST SHOW OF THE EVENING!! There was a second show starting at 10:30, or so it was scheduled. No way they were going to get everyone out of there and the place ready for a show in 25 minutes. I can't imagine how he could perform again tonight. He left it all out there, and then some.
If you've never seen him...if you are even a moderate fan of his.....Hell if you've even HEARD of him..... go see him if you get a chance. I doubt you will regret it. What a performer.
10:05 PM - On the way back to the MGM where we had parked the car we came across a place in NYNY that just happened to be selling frozen Pina Coladas! I was tempted to get two pina coladas, one for each hand....set sail with Captain Morgan, and never leave dry land....
But alas, I just got one, and Tracey partook in a frosty beverage as well for the road. Nothing like driving down the strip in a convertible with both occupants of the car sipping on frozen alcoholic beverages.
11:30 PM - Back at the resort and just time to type up some thoughts for the blog while finishing my tropical goodness and unwinding from what was a truly special day.
We are almost done with the "plans" for this trip; outside of dinner reservations for Wednesday night, and some loose ideas on some other dinners and activities, we are free to do anything we want, which includes not a damn thing, for the rest of the trip. "Not a damn thing" might very well be tomorrow's mantra.
72 hours into a Vegas trip, and while the Pina Colada count has now doubled to 2, I have still yet to wager a single dollar. To say that is unprecedented would be the understatement of the century. Will that change tomorrow? Stay tuned, true believers, and find out.
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