| Friday
morning saw us up early, despite the late night, excited to be moving on,
but reluctant to leave our lovely hotel in LA. Though we arrived
at LAX two hours before our flight, we were immediately sobered by the
LONG line at Southwest for check-in. We made it thru and then were
STUNNED by the length of the security line which snaked outside the airport
entrance and stretched a block down the street. There was nothing
to do but "wait". And pray! Ours was the only flight that would
get us to Reno in time for the concert. Luck went our way, and we
got to our gate in good time. What a nightmare!
The Hilton in Reno is close to the airport. It's a large hotel/casino and quite a nice place. LOTS of restaurants and very reasonably priced rooms at $69 a night. The venue is quite nice, set up with tables at the front, similar to Lake Tahoe. The tables are a bit further apart and you have more room in Reno! We weren't as well prepared due to someone picking up one of my bags from the luggage carousel and taking it home with them to Tahoe. Of course, it was the bag with my change of clothes for Reno! It appeared at my hotel at around 7, and we changed so as to make a nicer audience for the Band. A better smelling one, too! Water was a necessity, and I got in one of the extremely slow-moving concession lines. To my horror, the concert started without me! I grabbed my water and well...a couple of glasses of champagne, too (lol) and headed back after they were well into Tuesday Afternoon. I was greeted by Mr Thomas, who POINTEDLY (and with much mock reproach) looked at his watch and glared. I bowed my head in truly sincere regret and embarrassment. Next time, we'll just go without! : ) It was a nicely full crowd. Acoustics were great and there was a "large" sounding sound for the concert. The full setlist was performed with no intermission (making the Fashion Report *so* much easier!) Fashion Report: RT - Black on black GE - NEW American Flag shirt and black slacks JL - Long slvd Black shirt, leathers JH White long svld shirt, black jeans, STUDDED BOOTS Concert was great, and uneventful. I particularly noticed the sound this time from Justin's acoustic Olson on FML. It sounded wonderful! What a fabulous guitar. The hall had a distinctive full, large sound - I don't know how else to describe it. Very nice! SueC seems to remember that the Jays made it thru Gemini Dream which has been more often Gemini Nightmare this tour. Way to go Jays! LOL All in all, a great concert. We had a chance to talk with Graeme later that evening, and tell him that we were both quite taken and touched with his new shirt at the Reno concert. The shirt is dark navy and has a waving American flag design on the lower half. He said he was glad to hear that because he was concerned about how American fans would feel about him wearing it. These two American fans thought it was GREAT. We talked at length about 9-11 and he said (and I quote): "It broke my heart". MaggieMay |
