Hi all,
I finally made it back home this afternoon from San Diego. It has been a shall I say the most UNFORGETTABLE moment in my life !! I will delve into it later.
Thursday April 15, my friend and I left for San Diego. It was a short flight from Oakland airport. Approximately 1 1/2/ hrs flight. We landed at a busy airport, picked up our economy rental car from BUDGET. Plugged in the GPS, and off we went. Temecula, an Indian Reservation is a little over an hour drive from San Diego airport. A few twists and turns and with the help of GPS, we still got lost. We drove way off the main road and ended up some mountain road with a spectacular view of the valley. A quick phone call to the hotel confirmed that we needed to turn back and stay on the main road. We eventually arrived at the hotel parking lot around 4 PM. Tired and hungry from our travelling. ( we left my house at 9:30 am that same morning), we went to get some nice hot noodles to eat. Knopfling ( aka.Linda) called and I told her I'll join her near the stage door. A little while later, she called back to let me know that MK and the band had just arrived. She was 5 feet from Mark and the band. I finished up my noodles quickly and joined her at the stage door. Glen Wolf appeared at the door. We started a conversation with him and we each had our picture taken with him. Nice and kind and very tall guy. He said he would go look for Mark and see if he could come meet us. We waited a while, having high hope that MK will show up. Instead the security people came and asked us to vacate the premise. We obliged and decided no such LUCKS today.
I parted with Linda at this point. We would meet each other later at the venue. I had time to freshen up and dressed up for tonight's show. The room is absolutely elegant for $100 a night with breakfast. ( Probably the best hotel I've ever stayed at )
We arrived at the venue around 7pm. Isacc, and Jerone were there already. We took a few pictures together of which I yet have to send to him.
We were in row C dead center. Medium size venue. Around 1,800 people capacity.
It was hard to come to grip with myself that tonigt show would be my last show of the 3 I attended. Every show feels fresh and new. Mark looked cheerful and energectic. Yes, same outfit again !!!! He smiled a lot and joked with the audience. Thunderous applause from every song. R & J received the most roars and the longest ovations I could remember compare with the 2 previous shows.
"Cleaning my gun" made it to the list tonight. I was so happy to hear the song played live. It was just awesome !!!
My favorites were again " HFB" "and "speedway" The guitar solo part from Richard was just out of this world. Every band member accompanied each other so flawlessly in their musical talents that you just feel like you were temporarily hypnotized.
Now here is the part that I and many other could never forget for the rest of our lives.
When Mark started to play "piper to the end" , for some unexplained reasons, the fans in the first few rows upfront decided to stand up to listen to " piper" I rushed out from a few rows back , and joined the crowd. The next thing I knew, I was weeping uncontrollably. To see Mark that close , 2-3 feet away was like a dream. I was able to see the expressions on his face, the squinting of his eyes, the shrugging of his shoulders when he strummed on the guitar. It was so emotional and moving to the point that there's nothing I could do but cry !!!
At the end of the song, many hands reached out for Mark. Mark shook 1 , 2 hands. The third and the last hand he shook was mine. I was behind one other person and I did my best to stretch out my hand to him. He saw me reaching up, he took a few steps forward and bent down to give me a hand and smiled. I was more in tears than I was earlier. Even to think about it while I'm writing brings tears in my eyes.
SO, I guess I did get LUCKY on this GL tour. I met Guy the first night at Oakland, Tim at Santa Rosa, Glen at Temecula and most of all I got to shake Mark's loving hand.
What more can I ask for ? Now, I can die happy !!! Truly truly amazing shows and unforgettab days in my life.
I did get a good sound recording of Temecula show. Except at the end when I rushed out to the front for "piper" I'm working on uploading all 3 shows to the tracker, but I'm encountering some problems.
I have tons of photos also,if I only know how to put them up here. Please anyone help!
I also purchased a beautiful grey T-shirt for $40, keychain $12, and pins $10 for keepsakes.
Thanks for reading.
