Texarkana Four States Fair and Rodeo

Our setup at the Texarkana Fair

Karaoke singers in Texarkana

The event we were working at in Texarkana was the Four States Fair and Rodeo. The event was on the Arkansas side of the city and our hotel was on the Texas side. We worked in the evenings at the fair so it was nice to have the afternoons off to get things done and relax.


On Friday, Matt's family drove to Texarkana to spend some time with him for his birthday. There were all kinds of birthdays to celebrate that weekend, Matt, Jamie and Matt's mother all had birthdays within just a few days of one another. We were able to go out to dinner after work one evening, which was really nice. It's always good to see family and friends on the road!

That Sunday, Jamie flew out of the tiny Texarkana airport to Nashville. Jamie will be traveling with John to South Carolina for the Sugarland tour! Matt and I had lunch with his family and then began our drive to Fort Smith, Arkansas for our next event.

Dallas, Texas

Matt and Jamie in downtown Dallas

Jamie, me and Matt in Dallas

Matt is loving the huge high definition TV's in downtown Dallas

"Locking" Matt in a phone booth in our hotel

On September 17th, I woke up somewhat early, ran a bunch of errands and then stopped by the office so that John could drop me off at the airport. I flew into Dallas where Jamie and Matt picked me up. We checked into a room at the Fairmont in downtown Dallas and stayed in a suite together. Dallas was pretty dead on a Monday night, but we went out for dinner and then hung out in the hotel.

Tennessee Titans/Indianapolis Colts

John and Hank Williams Jr.

Me and Hank hanging out

Oh Reba!

Writing down e-mail addresses to e-mail fan photos


That's right...4:00AM


Random printouts from the printer at the end of the day


What is going on crazy printer???


John, hard at work



On September 16th, John and I got up before the sun and began our drive back to Nashville at 4:00 in the morning. We pulled into the parking lot at the Titan's stadium just before 8:00 so we had perfect timing. John and I set up the trailer and then realized the printer was being stubborn again. We tried and tried to get the printer to cooperate, but it just wouldn't work. Our resolution tot he problem was to write down everyone's e-mail addresses as they came in to have their picture taken and then we would e-mail the photos to them later.


We had about 125 people come through the trailer and then just after the game started and everyone was finished passing through, the printer began to randomly spit out pictures. It didn't spit them out in the correct order and it printed out about 30 or so pictures just because it felt like it. Bizarre! The game was beginning though, so John and I packed up the trailer and brought it back to Broadmoor.


After a good weekend of work, John and I headed over to Elliston Place and had a big lunch at Logan's Steakhouse. I then checked into my hotel room at our favorite Hampton Inn. Later that night I met some of my Nashville friends at the Cheesecake Factory in Green Hills for dinner. It was great to see them again and it makes me really excited to be back in Nashville!


After dinner, I headed back to the hotel, got my things organized and then began e-mailing photos to everyone that passed throught the trailer that day. It didn't take long, which was good because I was tired!

Darryl Worley Tennessee River Run

John and me at the concert

Jason Michael Carroll

The Charlie Daniel's Band

Darryl Worley

Mason and me taking pictures

View of the stage from our trailer

Me entertaining at the River Run

John's "album cover"

Never done this before

John playing on the train in Iuka
Me in the dunk tank in Iuka

John in the dunk tank outside the Police/Fire Department in Iuka, Mississippi

An abandoned truck that looked like a crime scene

Check out all those boats...

...and our brand new truck:-)

This one's for Jamie..."Taste of Chicago"

On Friday, September 14th, John and I headed from Nashville to Pickwick Dam, TN where we would be working for the Darryl Worley Tennessee River Run. When John and I got there we got everything settled and then went out exploring a bit. We decided to drive to Mississippi since we were so close to the border and ended up in a really small town named Iuka. We got out of the truck for a brief photo op and then headed back to Tennessee:-)

John and I watched the premiere to the show "Nashville" at the hotel and then headed out for dinner. We went to a local place called Jon's Pier. We were such fast eaters, we were out of the restaurant in about 50 minutes and we each ordered a steak. We just chilled out for the rest of the night because load-in the next morning was super early.

On Saturday we got up early to load the trailer in and then headed to the hotel briefly before coming back for the remainder of the day to work. We had to set the trailer up on a huge slope. It was on such an incline that the ramp wasn't even a ramp, it was more of a plank straight into the trailer. After setting up the trailer, we had printer problems. The printer just didn't want to work for us and then randomly started working. We were lucky it started working because we had a large crowd come through the trailer during the day. We also had a very large crowd for karaoke, probably the biggest crowd I have seen for karaoke thus far.

The performers of the day were Jason Michael Carroll, The Charlie Daniels' Band and of course Darryl Worley. John let me watch Jason's performance and I was so excited because I really like his music. Shortly after his performance we closed down the trailer for the night and then headed up to our seats for the rest of the concert. The show was great, but it got really cold that night so we ended up leaving before it was over. It was probably a good idea to leave early though, because the traffic getting out of the park would have been awful.

John and I were super hungry so we went food hunting in Pickwick Dam and hardly anything was open. There weren't even any fast food places around that were open. Finally we found a little pizza place that was staying open late for the night. The pizza was great! After dinner we headed straight to bed because in order to be back in Nashville on time for the Titan's game on Sunday, we had to leave at 4:00 in the morning.

Nashville

Megan and me at The Stage (and some random guy passing by in the background;)

On September 12th, I flew from Abilene to Nashville and Jamie flew into Abilene from Kansas City. I got into Nashville in the afternoon, John picked me up from the airport and we headed to the office. It was strange to be in the office after being gone for about four months, but exciting! I said hello to everyone and then John and I headed out to Broadmoor (the warehouse for CMT) to get trailer two ready for our upcoming events. I also got to see our brand new truck! It's beautiful and so spacious.

After finishing up at Broadmoor, I checked in at our favorite hotel...the Hampton at Elliston Place. My friend from St. Henry, Megan Henry, met me there. Megan was visiting Nashville for the whole weekend so we got to hang out for two days. Megs and I had dinner at Jacksons...mmmm! After dinner we headed downtown to Tootsie's, The Second Fiddle and then none other then the Stage! We love the Stage! It was a fun night.

The next day, Megs and I did a little apartment hunting and staked out where we might want to live come November. Later that night we went back downtown and to The Stage once again!

It was a lot of fun in Nashville with Megan and I am so excited to move back!

Austin, Texas

Matt and Sarah

Me playing in the street in Austin

Eryn, me and Alex

Matt and I had a few days to kill before we had to be in Abilene, Texas so we decided to drop off the trailer and head to Austin on September 9th to visit Matt's sister and a few of my college friends. When we arrived we met up with Matt's sister, Sarah at her house. It was great to see Sarah again as well as some of her friends. After relaxing for a bit, we decided to grab dinner at the Shady Grove. The Shady Grove is famous for their burgers and it was excellent! After dinner, we were going to go listen to some music, but the guy we went to see had cancelled because he was sick. We then decided to go dancing, but the place we wanted to go was closed because it was Sunday night. Since our two first ideas were shot, we headed to 6th Street and went to a bar down there. We listened to live music there and hung out in downtown Austin.



The following day was hot, hot hot! Matt, Sarah and I decided to brave the heat and went shopping all afternoon in Austin. Later that night we met up with my college friends, Eryn and Alex. We went to the Hula Hut by the water for dinner. The food was great! After dinner, Eryn and Alex invited us back to their place to hang out. I was so excited to see their place and get to spend time with them. After leaving their place, we went to the movie theater to see "Superbad". This wasn't just any ol' movie theater though. At this theater you could order food and drinks. This was definitely the first time I had ever seen that.



Matt and I had to head back to Abilene on September 11th so that I could fly to Nashville to work in Tennessee for the week.

Hick Chick Event

Our setup, outside the Graham Central Station in Odessa

Check out the ghetto signage for the Hick Chick event...ha ha!

On September 8th, Matt and I headed to Graham Central Station in Odessa, Texas for the 2nd and final Hick Chick event. We set up outside the GCS, in hopes that people would stop by on their way into the event. We didn't see a very big crowd at all that night, so Matt and I decided to sing when no one was around. We went through a lot of my CD's and made our own fun. Needless to say, we were happy at the conclusion of the Hick Chick event!

Friday Night Lights!

Matty and me at the game

Go Mojo!

Matt and I cheering on the Panthers

Odessa Permian Panther football

The scoreboard - with a live feed

Matt cheering on the Panthers

After our event in Las Cruces, Matt and I spent the next day (Friday, September 7th) driving to Odessa, Texas for our second and final Hick Chick event. The event doesn't take place until this evening (the 8th) so we had the night to hang out in Odessa. Because Odessa Permian High School - the school that the movie, Friday Night Lights was based from - was having a home football game that evening, Matt and I decided to go and watch.



As we parked and walked up to the stadium we talked to a nice couple about the meaning behind the school's catch phrase "Mojo" and they told us all about Odessa Permain football as well as the movie, Friday Night Lights.


As Matt and I waited in line to buy tickets, a nice older man walked up to us and just gave us a few extra tickets that he wasn't going to be using, SCORE! The stadium itself was huge (much like the stadium in Canton where Ohio State football tournaments take place). The home side was packed but there weren't many people at all on the visitors side. Fair enough, considering the opposing team traveled all the way from Amarillo - about a five hour drive from Odessa.


Watching the game, it felt a lot like watching a small town high school MAC football team play - aside from the size of the stadium. I would absolutely love to watch St. Henry play Odessa Permian, it would be a great match!


We only stayed until the end of the third quarter, but Odessa was beating Amarillo Tuscosa by a decent margin and ended up winning the game.

Las Cruces, New Mexico

Our dismal setup outside of Graham Central Station

Cowboys and hick chicks dancing inside GCS

After having breakfast in Mexico on September 6th, Matt and I headed out to Las Cruces, New Mexico for our 1 night event there. We were setting up outside of the Graham Central Station in Las Cruces for the Hick Chick event there. The Hick Chick event is Cowboy Troy's tour of Graham Central Stations across the country, where a contest takes place in order to find the "Hickest Chick" in all of the US. The contest consists of strange events like corn bobbing, watermelon seed spitting, and hillbilly horseshoes (throwing toilet seats around plungers like you would while playing horseshoes). As you might imagine, this event brought in a lot of, let's say hillbilly women who weren't afraid to show a little skin.

The event itself was not very "eventful" for us. We didn't have many people come through the trailer and there weren't many people that showed up for the contest either. Overall the event was a bit unsuccessful for us, but we have one more Hick Chick event remaining on the schedule for Odessa, Texas.

Mexico!

In the US

In Mexico

The line of cars waiting to get into America

Matt and I in Mexico

Looking to the bridge to America from Mexico

The walk back to America - this view is from Mexico looking at the US

Matt waiting in line to get into America

The morning of September 6th, Jamie flew out for vacation and Matt and I woke up early for a quick excursion to Mexico! We decided to cross the border and have breakfast before leaving for Las Cruces. We parked the truck in a lot on the US side and walked the bridge over to Mexico. It was only 30 cents to get into Mexico! Once we got there we found a little breakfast place near the border. Thank goodness Matt knows Spanish reasonably well or I would have been so lost...

After breakfast we walked into a few little shops to browse. We didn't have a lot of time to waste because we had to drive an hour to Las Cruces by 1:00 so we decided it would be best to leave Mexico early to ensure that we would get through customs with enough time to spare.

As we passed through security to head back to America it was once again 30 cents to cross. The officer at customs scanned my license and then mumbled something to me and I thought he asked for my social security number so I was prepared to ramble that off, but he said "No, your citizenship." It felt weird to be asked that, extremely appropriate, but odd. I responded to him with a rather weak "American" response and I think that he felt the need to question me a bit further to make sure I was legitate. He proceeded to ask where I was going and what the reason was and then let me through :-) Ahhhh, America!

When we got back to the truck, Matt realized that the alarm system lock had fallen off of his key chain. Because the truck was alarmed, this presented a problem. The alarm continually went off, the truck wouldn't start due to the alarm going off and we had no clue what to do. Good thing for Matt's iPhone. He googled the company that made the alarm and gave them a call. In his words, he "had to McGiver the alarm" and disconnect some wires so that the alarm would stop.

We were now out two car alarm remotes (yes, they were both on the same keychain), but were able to head to New Mexico to load the trailer in for that evening's event.