Re: Seattle 5-26-10
Ah Seattle. I had so many challenges to surmount to get to see them perform there that I figured there had be a reason. First was the original postponement. Then there was the logistics involved in just getting from southern Cal to Washington. The only way was to fly into Medford on Tuesday and then get in my car and head north. So I booked my flight to get me back to Medford by noon which would give me plenty of time to drive half way to Seattle and make for a leisurely drive and early arrival on Wednesday. Uh huh.
So I am at LAX by 6:30 am. Because of bad weather the flight into San Francisco is delayed but we are on the plane by a little after nine and taxiing out to the runway. We then proceed to sit on the tarmac for the next 90 minutes, finally landing in SFO a little before noon. Of course by then my connecting flight is long gone. We landed at the international terminal because the plane was headed to Beijing next so I had to rush as fast as I could to the domestic terminal where I was directed to the customer service desk at gate 82. They had rebooked me on a flight for the next day that would get me back to Medford at 11 am. Not gonna work. So after much begging and pleading the customer service guy gets me on a flight from SFO to Eugene, Eugene to Portland, Portland to Medford that will get me home about 8:30 pm. Okay, I can make that work (my evil plan being to rent a car in Eugene and drive home because I can get there 3 hours sooner). So I run to that gate because the plane is already boarding. I hand the gate rep my boarding pass and he stops me. I don't have the right kind of pass because customer service guy apparently ticketed me as if I had a paper ticket instead of an e-ticket. What the heck??? I have my e-ticket but thats not good enough. I need the right boarding pass. So that made me miss that flight. Now I am really unhappy and I stomp back to gate 82 except this time there is a HUGE line and only one person at the desk. She eventually looks up and says "any United Express customers (me) can go to the desk at gate 73a". Sounds good to me so off I go. I get to gate 73a and there is no line - awesome! I step up to the desk and they guy there says "are you going to St Louis?". No I say. The customer service desk at gate 82 sent me here to be rebooked on my flight to Medford. "So you aren't going to St. Louis?" "No, I need to get home to Medford. Today." Well, if you aren't going to St Louis then I can't help you. You need to go to the desk at gate 79". AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!! Anyone ever been in the United Airlines terminal in San Francisco? Its like a bicycle tire with every one of these gates in a different spoke. So I make a mad dash down to Gate 79 and hop in line. Fortunately for me I found the one truly competent and understanding UA employee on duty that day. She put me on the standby list for every flight left to Medford that day and was able to book me a seat on the the last flight at 10:30 pm. And in First Class to boot. So at least I would make it home. Probably. The weather (or so they told us) had the whole airport backed up and there were cranky, delayed passengers everywhere. Watching the standby list for the flight you were hoping to get on became a game among all of us. I spent the next eight hours all over the UA terminal because every flight was out of a different spoke, spent a small fortune on a green salad, a scoop of sorbet, and a cup of tea, perused magazines and books in almost every shop along the concourse, and texted away with Rhonda (giving her no hit at that point where I was *G*). Finally at 11 pm we boarded the plane. They announced "executive class, business, class, and first class may board now". No one moved except for me. The man at the gate looked me up and down like "what do you think YOU are doing" so I handed him my ticket with the big seat 1A printed on it and said "you called first class?". Yes I know I was wearing jeans and a tee shirt and I was pretty rumpled after 17 hours in airports. But even if I was wearing Armani I wouldn't have looked a lot better. Turned out I was the only person in the front section of the plane. First class to Medford means you get a bag of snack mix, the whole bottle of water, a pillow and you are first on and off the plane. Not bad. Lol. On a side note the pilot pointed out to us what even he thought was most likely the real reason for all the delays. There on the tarmac not far from our runway sat Air Force One. Thanks Mr. President.
We land in Medford at 12:15 am. Now, my luggage made an earlier flight and I have to hope I can get it. Thankfully someone was there to let me in to the storage area. So I grab my suitcase, head to my car, pay the ransom to get it out of long term parking and hit the freeway north. I drove about two hours until I found a Motel 6 (thank you desk guy for the 2:30 am check-in discount) drug myself up to my room and crashed for five hours. The next morning I am up and on the road again (with a quick pit stop at Walmart for shampoo and Zhu Zhu pets for Rhonda's daughter Sarah). I hit Portland about 1 pm and decided to stop at Fry's to see if they carry a memory card for my older camera. An hour later I walk out with a new camera (I really needed one and because the box offices had all messed up on my tickets for San Jose, Ontario and Chula Vista Azoff Music was comping me my tickets for Seattle and Portland {thank you Tina} I could actually afford it). However this little detour has me behind schedule. I zip up the freeway as fast as I dare (75 mph) until I get about 40 miles from Seattle when I hit what is the worst daily traffic bottle neck on all of I-5. I spent the next two hours creeping towards Seattle at 20 miles an hour. I FINALLY get to my exit and its backed up for a couple of miles because of the concert. I am now panicking because its 6 pm and I need to get checked in and be headed to the concert by 7. Fortunately my previous trip to Seattle paid off and I was able to escape the traffic on side streets and get to my hotel. I was changed and walking towards Key Arena by 7:15 pm. Whew. What a trip!
I had seats in the 7th row. Not bad and even better because there is wheelchair spaces 3 rows in front of me and no one sitting there. I looked around at the other concert goers. When I had been here the last time, I had walked over to Key Arena to see what they knew about Tim's illness. And while gawking at all the Eagles semi's behind the arena I had met a couple from Anchorage, Alaska who had come all the way down for the show. Well much to my surprise there they were in the row in front of me! We laughed over that a bit. There was another couple next to me and one of the women leaned over and asked if I had a VIP ticket (I did but only because it was a comp and it didn't come with anything special). She then said that they knew Joe and they were there as his guests but hadn't gotten any swag or anything even though they had VIP tickets. And she said they were supposed to go backstage and that she had been trying to call someone but hadn't gotten through. Brag, brag. All through the show she jumped and down and waved and screamed his name and tried to get Joe's attention (he never acknowledged her that I could see) and I would guess that between the name dropping and the way she was acting she wasn't a close friend but who knows... good on her for whatever reason she was there. I told her about the M&G I was going to in Portland and got the cold shoulder after that anyway lol. Finally when the show started that was when I knew the trip was worth all the trouble getting there. What an awesome show. By far the best one of the six I have been to. The audience was great and the guys were lapping it up and having a great time. It was so much fun. I really would have loved to have had some of you there to share it with.
After 7BR and How Long, Glenn, wearing a plaid shirt and tee with his jeans, started out the show saying "Helloooo Seattle! Weeere back!" (much screaming and cheering ensued). "Welcome to the assisted living tour. We are the Eagles, the band that wouldn't die, celebrating our 97th year". He was in a very jovial mood all night long. All of them were. He made the joke about recording (PEF?) back in "the last century when the Dead Sea was only sick". He also told the story about Dan Tana's (no plaintiff though) before LE and before TITTL he mentioned learning to waltz in Detroit when he was 10. He said that Eagles have always been partial to waltzes and have included at least one on each album. He also dedicated it to his daughter Taylor who was in town with some friends from NYU to "attend the Sasquatch Festival which is basically Coachella with trees and moisture". The he said "my daughter likes to call this the credit card song. Here's Take It To The Limit". His voice was sounding very good this night and much to my shock and happiness he actually did the "yeah yeah yeah" at the end of Heartache Tonight and even the hand drop to his chest. It may not have been as loud as before but the simple fact that he did it made me ecstatic.
One good example of how high the energy level was that night was during Dirty Laundry. I wanted to try to get a picture of them jumping but they were all bouncing all over the place instead of in a really straight line. Glenn was actually jumping in circles. It was pretty funny and I loved it.
When Don's turn to speak came he looked over towards Glenn and Timothy and said "Its your anniversary" Glenn gave him an odd look and pointed to himself and Don said "No, Tim. Two weeks. Swedish Hospital. What a comeback! You sure picked the right place to get sick". That got lots of laughs and much cheering.
Timothy was looking and feeling great this night. Lots of energy and moving around all over as usual. He thanked his "doctor here in Seattle, Dr. Johnson, who's here tonight" for taking such great care of him.
Joe was looking good in his sparkley black tee, jacket and jeans. He and Glenn joked around a lot on stage this night, grinning and making "eyes" at each other. Not sure what the joke was but they were having fun. When they did their guitar duel before Funk 49 they were both really playing it up. They even did knee dips to the point where their butts were almost on the ground which made me wonder if they were going to make it back up.
I hated to see this show come to an end. After it was over I walked around the backside of the arena. There were lots of people milling around, no doubt hoping for a glimpse of the Eagles. The back area of Key Arena is very open and you could see the 6 big buses and 16 or more semi's that belonged to the band. I hung around for a bit just to see what might happen. I talked to a man there who was very well lubricated and telling me all about how he had partied with Don at some bar in a little town nearby when they were there before. Finally I walked slowly back to my hotel room savoring the evening and really looking forward to getting to Portland and finally being able to tell Rhonda about everything face to face!
Here is the link to the pictures I took. Sadly I couldn't use my new camera because the battery wasn't charged. But I got a few pretty decent shots with the old one.
Cami's Seattle Photos
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Originally Posted by Prettymaid
... that about sums it up *G*
