Kansas Cityconcert

...but sadly not for me! I'm still really annoyed that my Kansas City concert was moved to tomorrow night instead of 16th September and I know of several people who feel the same way. It's all very well cancelling a gig when Meat Loaf is ill but to just change the date after the tickets have gone on sale smacks of not caring about his fans. All of my friends who are still attending this concert have lost money (and had to take additional time off work in several cases).

Anyway.....

Now I'm home, I thought I'd add the rest of my photos from my trip to US. Most you can easily guess where they were taken - if any are OTT then it's Graceland, any of beautiful water is the condo in Clearwater and palm trees / large guitars are the Hollywood hotel.

Enjoy.....

NYC and Home

I was due to get up at 6.30am anyway but I woke at 5.00am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I had a shower and Ann drove me to the airport. Orlando Airport is really nice with lots of room and loads of places to eat, even at that time in the morning.

We had a coffee (well I had tea!) and a final chat! Ann was wearing a Meat Loaf T-shirt and two FEMA guys came up and asked us how the concert was last night! They hadn’t attended but they knew about it at least!

I was sitting next to a really nice American couple on my Continental 9.30am flight to Newark. They’d lived in England for 3 years and even knew my little town! We got talking about the hurricanes (another is due in a couple of days) and the lady was obviously very pro-Bush (far more than anyone else I’ve met on this trip) and told me that the problems in New Orleans were all due to the local mayor and that Bush wanted to help out but the mayor wouldn’t let him. Later I’d finished reading my UK newspaper and put it in the seat pocket so she asked if she could read it….I didn’t warn her about how anti Bush it was!

We landed on time at Newark, New Jersey at noon and a friend met me at the gate and drove me into NYC. We had a really lovely afternoon as I haven’t seen her since February and although we speak often on the phone, it was great to catch up in person! It was funny as she’d read this diary so knew all about my trip anyway! We had a gorgeous Chinese meal at Ruby Foos and then wandered through Central Park. It was about 80 degrees and sunny so it was perfect for me. We’d arranged to meet up with another friend and as it was such a lovely day we walked the 35 blocks or so uptown.

We left at about 4.30pm and I was dropped back at Newark by 5.45pm in time for my 6.50pm Continental flight to Gatwick (I’d already checked in and had my seat assignment in Orlando). The flight was quite empty so I had the three seats to myself. Unfortunately there was a problem with the entertainment as it KEPT resetting to the audio in my row so I had to keep switching it back to video and turning up the sound – by “keep” I mean about 80 times! I saw 3 episodes of The Practice (which I’ve never seen before) and then did some work on my Psion. They actually only turned the cabin lights off for about 90 minutes as dinner was served late.

We landed on time at 6.40am but it took an hour for my suitcases to arrive so I caught a train up to London and only just got to work by 9.00am. I felt exhausted! I’ve flown all night and gone straight into work lots of times but I’ve never felt so tired as I did today. I don’t know if it was lack of sleep in general on this holiday (especially in the last few days) or age or what!

I left work an hour early as I really wasn’t being too productive so I came home and slept for a couple of hours as I was meeting up for dinner tonight with a friend.

And that’s it! The end of The Hair Of The Dog Tour for me! I have a few more photos to add which I’ll do later this week though.

Roll on the next time I see Kasim!!!

Orlando

Ann left her alarm clock at a hotel somewhere on our travels so she bought a new one and set it for 7.15 as we wanted an early start to Orlando….unfortunately she accidentally set it for 7.15 this evening so we over-laid! Thankfully it was only by about 15 minutes so we still managed to set off at 9.05am.

Thankfully there wasn’t too much traffic on the I4 (and no accidents) so we got to our hotel by 11.00am. It was a Comfort Suites but certainly wasn’t one I would recommend. There was supposed to be 4 of us there and we were told that we had a suite with 2 bedrooms. In fact the hotel has no such facility and we had 2 double beds (not even Queens) and a sofa which converted into another bed! Also, there was clumps of hair on the bathroom floor, we had to ask 4 times in 2 hours for more loo roll, the coffee maker didn’t work and when we got a replacement one it had a dead spider in it and leaked everywhere!

A & P went out to hit the outlet malls again (yawn, yawn and yawn – I’m not big on shopping in case you haven’t noticed!) so I just stayed in with the dead spider and did a load of work (one of the pitfalls of owning my own business that I can do from anywhere!).

They got back at about 3.30pm and Ann wanted to have a sleep so P and I went to the tikki bar by the pool for a late lunch. Unfortunately they had totally run out of chicken of any description so I had to have a beef dish but it was nice sitting in the sun enjoying the heat for one of the last times until May next year….I’d love to live in Florida all year round!!

We left at about 6.45pm but the I4 is rather confusing with their exits. Our hotel is off exit 71 in one direction and off exit 72 in the other as in one direction there is a gap from 71 to 68! The exit we wanted for the venue was 82B but going east there were only exits for 82A and 82C! We came off the freeway in downtown and decided to ask for directions. The first guy we asked was a winno who wouldn’t have been able to have directed us across the street but the next guy was more helpful. He didn’t know the exact venue but he told us the approximate direction. We had stopped to talk to him at some traffic lights and we were holding up one line of traffic so the car behind us started beeping. The guy we were asking just gave him the one finger sign, shouted “fuck you” and continued to give us directions! It really reminded me of Meat Loaf in Mercury Blues!

We followed his directions bit still couldn’t find the venue so we asked a guy in a shop and he just told it was up one road to our right but he didn’t know which! Thankfully soon afterwards we saw a police car so P decided to ask them. She really laid on the English part (“I say, officer, we’re frightfully lost. Please could you help us”!) and he lapped it up! He gave us directions and then P hugged him – A & I were in fits of laughter. As we set off the police car followed us and then put on his lights at the next set of traffic lights, pulled up level with us and gave us more directions. I looked behind us and there were about 6 cars stuck there (as we were totally blocking the lights) but not one beeped!

We did eventually find the venue and stood outside with a sign for a while trying to sell the one extra seat we had. We had no takers by 8.10pm so we decided to go into the venue (we’d already decided to skip Johnny Lives tonight). Unfortunately they piped him into the foyer too but thankfully it wasn’t too loud. The funniest thing was a guy in a Meat Loaf T-shirt coming in with his hand clasped to his head saying how dreadful Johnny was! The bar area got quite crowded then too.

We went into the hall when Johnny had finished and we had brilliant seats! We were in the second row right in the middle! The stage was very near the front row too so we were only about 6 foot from the stage. It was nice as we knew some people immediately behind us in the third row too. It was a great concert – probably my favourite of all the 30 or so I’ve seen on this tour! I think I also watched Meat Loaf the least I have all tour too as this’ll probably be the last time I’ll be seeing Kasim on stage for a few months. Kasim was wearing this white singlet thing and I don’t know if it was chilly on stage or what but his nipples were very pronounced tonight (I wasn’t the only person in the second row who noticed this either!). Again, as it was my last show, I decided not to take a load of photos but just to enjoy the concert so I only took 4….all of Kasim!

All too soon for me the concert (and tour) was over but not before the band bow when Kasim waved to me and mouthed “Bye Sue – have a safe flight home”! He also threw me a guitar pic then which landed right by my feet!

We quite easily found the freeway to get back to our hotel but unfortunately there was nowhere around to eat!

I got to sleep at about 2.00am.

Sunset in Clearwater

We woke at 7.15am today and drove out to the same restaurant where we ate yesterday and had breakfast looking at the gulf! A wandered along the shore a bit and got some more shells…she did leave a few left on the beach!

We then went to catch the noon boat trip around the area but there weren’t enough people today so they cancelled it which was disappointing as today was my last chance (until the BOOH3 tour or if Utopia tour down here next year). The girl at the desk said that she really liked Meat Loaf’s music but hadn’t even heard that he was playing concerts here!

A & P wanted to go to an outlet place (yawn!) so I read in the car and we got back to the condo by 2.00pm. They mucked about indoors for a while and then went out for a couple of hours to yet another store or six! As shopping really doesn’t interest me, and I had some work to do I brought my laptop out onto the balcony and sat here in the sun working. I could get used to this lifestyle!

Just as we were finishing a gorgeous dinner there was the start of an amazing sunset - it was just lovely watching that over the water!

I sorted out my suitcases so that I don’t have to take both into the hotel in Orlando (and we’re going to leave early tomorrow).

I got to sleep at 11.00pm tonight as I won’t be getting much sleep tomorrow night and when I get up on Thursday morning I won’t get to bed until Friday night after work!

The Beach and Kasim

We woke up at 7.30am and had another leisurely breakfast (I swam my 20 lengths first and had the pool to myself!). At about noon we went to St Pete’s Beach which is just across a bridge from the condo. The sea there is part of the Gulf and it was beautifully warm! It was very clear too. We just paddled and A collected a load of shells (the beach is shell based so the sand is very white). We had lunch at a grill there facing the sea - it was very peaceful.

We then came back to the condo and got ready for the concert. It was nice not having to leave until 6.15pm! Outside the venue we met some people we knew so we chatted until it was time to go in.

As I said in my review on KasimInfo.com unfortunately Kasim didn’t open and everybody around me was saying about how dreadful the opening act was! The Meat Loaf concert itself was great (one of my favourites). I was in the 7th row but it’s well steeped so I had a perfect view and my camera has a great zoom so I managed to take lots of photos. Afterwards I bought some merchandise for a friend in UK and we got back to the condo by midnight.

We had supper and fell into bed at 2.00am.

Back to Clearwater (again!)

I woke up at about 8.00am and had breakfast of a doughnut again as there was still no cream cheese! I stayed in my room working until A & P collected me at 11.00am.

Most of the day we spent driving back to Clearwater (it’s a 6 hour drive but we stopped for lunch to break up the journey). We did manage to stop for the Florida sign (which was in existence this time!).

We got back to the condo by 8.00pm and had a lazy evening chatting….not a bad life, eh?!

I got to sleep at 2.00am.

A brilliant Kasim opening set!

A & P picked me up promptly at 3.15pm and we drive to a Chinese for Pat to have some lunch. There was a temperature gauge outside the restaurant and it said 100 degrees - brilliant! We got to the OSP track by 4.00pm and they weren’t very well organised! Will Call wasn’t open yet (it was just a tent!) and they didn’t know a thing about the truck that was supposed to be driving straight to Biloxi after the concert to take things to people there.

The concert was being held in the middle of the racetrack but it was a surprisingly large area so we were hardly conscious of the track. P had arranged with one of the crew to have a seat (as she can’t stand for long) so she went in early and saw the soundcheck! We stood outside listening to it but I didn’t think that Meat Loaf was there as we could only hear the background vocals…apparently he faced the back of the stage to sing. P did say that they were having fun during the soundcheck as Kasim was putting bottles of water on stage for Meat Loaf and he was kicking them over the fence! For the soundcheck they tested their instruments and then played Warrior, Whore, Life Is A Lemon and All Revved Up.

Next Kasim did his soundcheck and as he was sitting at the front of the stage, I could see him which was brilliant! Unfortunately it started to rain a bit so he just sang part of Bully and There Goes My Inspiration.

Next we saw Kasim hand in his bass (the raffle stall was just near the entrance) but apparently he didn’t have a case for it!

They let us into the grounds at 5.30pm and we were about 8th and 9th in line but it was SO civilised! Totally different from European General Admission concerts as everybody calmly walked in and then decided where they wanted to sit (they all had these folding chairs) and it was all a case of "after you", "no after you"! Ann and I opted to be slightly off centre on Kasim’s side but as the stage wasn’t very wide, we ended up in front of Kasim’s microphone. Unfortunately there was a fence that was about 5’10 high about three inches from the stage. It meant that it was hard to take photos if you were close up but it also meant that the band members were actually handing people guitar pics! P brought her chair down and joined us too.

Unfortunately then the heavens opened and it absolutely lashed down. It only lasted for about 15 minutes but even my underwear got wet! There was one guy selling disposable covers there but he soon sold out! It had the effect of lowering the temperature (to about 85!) but it also became very humid so my clothes took ages to dry.

Before Kasim walked on stage someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was Sue - it was someone that I’ve been e-mailing on and off with for a few months but she didn’t know until just recently that she was going to this concert! It was great to put a face to a name - apparently she recognised me from a photo of me she’d seen!

First of all in a field away from us a bit, they had the Dancing Diggers! These were 4 JCBs that moved around to music! It didn’t help that we could only see the tops of them from where we were but it was certainly different! Lots of the tour crew stood on stage to watch them too.

I bought some tickets for the raffle for Kasim’s guitar. I never win raffles (but it was a good cause) and today was no exception. They also raffled one of Meat Loaf’s guitars but the lady in front of me bought $80 worth of tickets for Kasim’s! The guy got rather confused as it was $2 each or 3 for $5 and he struggled with calculating that! There was a great poster there too about the raffle with a lovely photo of Kasim on it!

Kasim played for about half an hour and it was a brilliant set! He played six songs today (so it was like a mini solo show) and both his voice and guitar playing was faultless! The highlight for me was hearing The One Sure Thing again!

I did realise later that I was the only one in the front row (virtually the only one there!) who wasn’t in a chair but I was okay sitting on the ground, however one lady behind us said that they had a spare chair and very kindly lent it to me!! You wouldn’t get that in UK!

Next we had the raffle for the guitars and I was about 40 tickets out for Kasim’s…so near and yet so far!

Meat Loaf came on stage at about 8.45pm and everybody stood up. People also came from the back but there was none of the pushing and shoving that you get at European (especially Irish) concerts. The only problem we had in my section was some guy who went berserk! He was jumping up and down the whole set, shouting and really shaking the fence! I wasn’t sure if he was high, quite excited or drunk but I (and most people) soon moved away from him as he was kicking his legs backwards when he jumped! The funny thing was that he had a really lovely quiet girlfriend who would occasionally just wipe him down with his shirt that he had soon taken off before he started jumping again! I stood in front of Randy’s microphone and had a perfect view! (There’s a review of both Meat Loaf’s set and Kasim’s set on KI.com.) Apparently Deborah was there and Meat Loaf walked over and kissed her twice during the set (I didn’t see that as I was too far to the left).

The concert finished at about 10.40pm and we walked back to the car. We never did see that truck (and Meat Loaf didn’t read out the company’s name) so I don’t think it was there so we still have the whole of the boot and the spare seat full of clothes!

Thankfully we got out quite quickly (there weren’t really many cars there). A & P wanted to go out for a drink but they found somewhere near my hotel so I just walked back. It was just as well as one of my clients had sent me a small project he wants online in the next 48 hours so I worked on that until 2.00am.

(I was taking a photo of Kasim here when I realised that Meat Loaf was by him so I zoomed back a bit on my camera and it was only when I got back to my room that I realised that Meat Loaf was tweaking Kasim's nose at the time!)

We'll be standing in Savannah

I woke up naturally at 7.30am and had the included breakfast. They had bagels but no cream cheese so I opted for a ring doughnut instead. After a shower I did a load of work for a few hours - thankfully there’s a nice desk in my room. All these advertisement-paid TV shows amaze me as we don't get them in UK! As I was working today I listened to one about windows and doors, then one when celebrities like Puff Daddy and Jessica Simpson were advertising an acne cream, then a weight loss program and finally one about some amamzing make-up!

Ann rang at noon to say that they had telephoned one of the crew and, as I expected, it’s all standing at the concert. They’ve arranged that Pat can have a chair as she can’t stand for too long but Ann and I will try to get near the front so we’re going early. The gates open at 5.30pm so they’ll collect me at 3.15pm because they want to have a late lunch first.

Maybe it’s because I know that Kasim is opening but for some reason I’m REALLY looking forward to this concert!

Off to Savannah!

We woke at about 7.30am and I went for a swim. I did 20 lengths and then sat in the hot pool before drying off on a lounger in the sun as it was already warm by then!

These dogs are available on the merchandise stall - this one is guarding our second row seats in Orlando!

(If anyone is interested in some 5th row seats there, please e-mail me!)


Originally we were supposed to drive to Biloxi today for the concert. Obviously it’s been cancelled and it was a relief that we didn’t have that long drive. Instead we had *only* a 6 hour drive up to Savannah in Georgia. Both Ann and I said that after that 15 hour drive on Sunday, 6 hours to a concert is nothing!

We had to stop at a store and then we got on the road at 1.00pm. We had one stop for lunch at about 3.00pm and reached Pooler by 8.00pm. (On the way we stopped at the Georgia state sign!) As this was a General Admission concert as soon as it was announced I booked a single room as I didn’t expect that Pat especially would want to go to a GA show. She was sure that it would still be seated (I didn’t think it would) so they booked a hotel for all of us too. As I had a load of website work to do for a couple of clients (and I just don’t seem to get the time at the condo) I opted to keep my single room so that I could just catch up a bit. By coincidence our hotels were opposite each other along the 80W (which is also the road where the venue is). When Ann and Pat checked into their hotel there was a flyer for the concert tomorrow and Kasim gets a mention as the opening act! The same flyer was also at my hotel so someone has done a good job of publicity.

I’m in a Travelodge Suites and it’s adequate. Thankfully there’s a Chinese restaurant next door so I finally got to eat the orange chicken that I love so much in US, that I’ve been unable to find anywhere in UK! In the Chinese there were 2 free newspapers which both mention the concert - Kasim gets a mention too on one but his name is spelt as Kazim Sultan! One of the articles said that ny Wednesday they had only sold 1,000 tickets (this venue holds 10,000) so possibly it won't be too crowded.

I ate in my room, did some work and watched the US TV that I’m fascinated by!

I got to sleep at 2.00am.

Back to Clearwater

We woke at about 8.30am and I was the third person to use the shower. Pat had had some trouble turning it off and said that there was some water on the floor but when I was just finishing maintene0ance knocked on the door as somehow there was water in the hallway outside! Apparently Pat had turned the tap too much which had flooded the system! They put carpet dryers outside but when we left 2 hours later the carpet was still wet!

We went downstairs and had breakfast in a lovely cafe there (for the first time on this trip to US I had my usual bagel and cream cheese). Ann and I went back to our room while Pat waited downstairs. After we’d checked out Pat told us that she’d bumped into the tour manager who she’s very friendly with and gave us the low-down on that!

We left Hollywood at about 11.30pm (after stopping to take some distance photos of the hotel). Unfortunately A & P wanted to stop at an outlet mall (yawn!) so that added another couple of hours onto our journey. I sat in the sun doing some work on my handheld computer but after about half an hour it was getting red-hot so I stopped and read instead.

When they got back to the car with all their purchases we went for a meal at a Perkins but I was disappointed to see that they didn’t have their gorgeous pasta dish that they used to have on the menu a couple of years ago!

We didn’t get back to Clearwater until about 8.00pm so it was just chat-time until bed at 1.00am (A was wiped out and went about an hour earlier).

Hollywood (Florida style!)

Neither A or P work but I typically work 50 - 60 hours a week so I like to catch up on some sleep when I’m on holiday….but not this one! I was woken at 7.15am again and we left at 9.00am for the 4 hour drive to Hollywood.

We went straight down the I75 (which runs down the west coast of Florida) and then used Alligator Alley to cut across to the east coast. We didn’t see any alligators!

Hollywood is north of Miami and the MapQuest directions lead us straight to the hotel. We got to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida at about 1.45pm and it was an amazing place! Even on each floor of the hotel itself there was Rock and Roll Memorabilia! Our room was a good size and had a switch near the door where you could show outside "Privacy" or "Make up the room" rather than using a sign outside. The funniest thing was that I thought we were going to stop before we got to the venue so I could put my contact lenses in but they went straight to valet parking so I just took my glasses off so I could hardly see! (I'm too vain to be seen in public with my glasses!) Ann had to come to the front desk to check-in!

The view from our hotel window - a large expanse of roof!

Every so often a fountain would spurt up but A & P never saw it so here's the proof!

Only at the Hard Rock! This is at valet parking:

After we'd unpacked Pat and I went down to the food court and had lunch. We then sat outside for a while which was wonderful in the heat!

At about 4.15pm they went off to their meet and greet (which wasn't due to start until 5.00pm) so I spent a couple of hours working in my room as one of my website clients had sent me some work.

I left my room at about 7.45pm and it was so nice to just wander downstairs to a concert! I met up with A & P there and they told me that Kasim wasn't opening and that the concert didn't start until 8.15pm. I collected my ticket from Will Call and went into the venue. It was BITTERLY cold in there - the coldest venue yet! (I am so looking forward to having heat at the speedway track!) My seat was in the 4th row but on Paul’s side of the stage. As it turned out that was fine tonight because Kasim kept coming over to Paul's side a lot! The main problem I had was that there was one family in my row who kept going in and out. The father went out at least 6 times (and back in as many) and the others all did at least twice. There were 2 sets free on ether side of me (plus two next to them on one side as that couple left during You Took The Words) so at one point the father went and collected 4 of his friends from further back in the venue. Not only did they all file past me (and back out again later) but two of them also got on their cell phones!

The concert was good (see my review on KI.com) and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves on stage.

I left as soon as they left the stage and went outside to warm up. P & A soon joined me an we had dinner outside at a small jazz bar nearby. Just as we were finishing our meal, I saw John Micelli, Paul Crook and a few people go into a bar nearby so A & P decided to go in there while I went back to our room.

They were there for 2 hours but had a great time! John, Paul, CC and Deborah were all there and chatted to them. John especially kept hugging them apparently and let them try his new drink! They were also told a few snippets about something special that will be happening on Saturday!

We got to sleep (me on the fold away bed as I lost the toss!) at about 3.00am.

Chatting in Clearwater

I’ve never had a holiday when I’ve had so little sleep! Today I was woken at 7.15am by my UK mobile phone ringing….and it was a wrong number!!

We had a REALLY lazy day today! The morning mainly consisted of us sitting around chatting! We’d heard that the fan club would be handing back unsold tickets for the second Clearwater concert today. The fan club hadn’t offered these for sale so as A & P are both members of the venue they have the option to switch their tickets. However when they went on sale they were only in row J and K and we have better than that anyway!

In the afternoon A & P went out to do some shopping and to sort out the hire car so I had the afternoon to myself. I did a load of work plus a couple of friends rang so (once again!) I chatted a lot!

In the evening there was more chat and we went for a swim just as dusk was falling.

There was some confusion over the accommodation for tomorrow night in Hollywood. A though P had booked it and P thought A had so S (me!) got online and booked one. The first one that popped up was the Hard Rock Seminole (where the concert is being held!) and they had halved their rates from when I looked a few months ago so we booked that.

Tonight I had an early night - 1.00am!

Unwell in Clearwater

Today was not a good day for me!

I hadn’t got to sleep until about 3.00am and I was woken at 7.00am by the sound of someone moving stuff around in my room! As I was once the victim of an attempted burglary while I was in the building I immediately thought it was happening again so I awoke with a real start! Thankfully it was only Ann going through her luggage but that coupled with the lack of sleep over the past few days meant that I had a really bad headache all day which I just could not shift despite taking tablets! (I was even looking forward to the concert finishing at one point as I felt so bad.)

Anyway we had quite a lazy day and had a look around the condo which is amazing! It’s actually in St Pete’s Beach which is to the west of Clearwater and it overlooks some water which leads into the gulf.

The view from the condo balcony
(They call this locally "the singing bridge" as the cars make a singing sound as they drive across the part where the bridge opens)

This hotel is the Don something and is the sister hotel of one in Miami which was used in the making of the film Some Like It Hot

The view from the other direction

The condo swimming pool:

(I love all the palm trees in Florida!)

We went out to a couple of shops in the late morning and had an early lunch as they wanted to leave SO early for the concert - I can’t believe that I was getting ready for a local concert at 3.00pm!! A & P had a Meet and Greet so they had to be there by 5.00pm but they wanted to get there at 4.15pm! In fact we followed the tour buses for the last 5 miles and they arrived just as we did!

I then sat in the car doing some work for nearly 4 hours.

When I went into the venue my seat was in the second row on Paul’s side of the stage (I’d bought a Gold package as the best the venue could offer was about 12 rows back). Unfortunately Kasim didn’t come over to Paul’s side much but thankfully the stage wasn’t very wide. It was a good concert (but I didn’t think as good as Robinsonville). The good news was that Kasim opened and he actually played The One Sure Thing which was brilliant to hear again! Unfortunately he played several wrong chords in his set but his voice was excellent! There’s a review at http://www.KasimInfo.com/2005/09/12.html.

When we came out of the concert it was still wonderfully warm which I love about Florida! We got back to the condo at about 11.00pm and had a sandwich and another long chat!

I got to sleep at 2.00am.

15 hours by car

For some reason I thought that Robinsonville to Clearwater, Florida was *only* an 8 hour drive but apparently it’s 15! We wanted an early start so Ann** picked me up at 7.00am. Ann had printed off AAA directions - I’ve always used Yahoo / MapQuest before and I far prefer them. On the whole we were okay but there was one point when it directed us south along a road and we really needed north (thankfully we had some maps too). Later the directions said Route 10 but the AAA map showed Route 78 and it was 78 that we wanted!

We went from Mississippi to Alabama (another first in the state for me!) to Georgia (the whole width) and then into Florida. I wanted to take a photo of those "Welcome to…" state signs but the first two came up on us too quickly. We counted down the exits to Florida and stopped the car to take a photo but the sign had been taken down!! All I took was a photo of the boring green sign.

We had one quick stop at a KFC (their zinger burgers in US are so much better (bigger!) than ours in UK!) and a few stops for petrol - I can see how much it’s gone up as at most places we were paying about $2.97.

Thankfully Ann and I got on really well as we were both dubious about having to spend 15 hours in a car with someone we didn’t really know. We chatted all the way and didn’t even play any music!

We got to Clearwater (where Pat** has a condo) at 10.30pm and were both exhausted! It was still a wonderful 85 degrees at that time of night! Of course Pat wanted to chat so we had a sandwich but mainly just listened to Pat as both Ann and I were all talked out!

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow at 3.00am.

(** - names changed to save my typing!)

Kasim at The Horseshoe Casino!

The concert was really good. I’d forgotten quite how much I do enjoy this tour.

We got to the casino about an hour early - it was just 3 or 4 casinos out in the middle of nowhere. Ann hadn’t been inside a casino before so we wandered around the gaming rooms. How on earth people can sit in front of slot machines for hours at an end is totally beyond me! We then wandered along to another casino so that she had something to compare it with before we returned to the Horseshoe and we put a whole 5 cents in one machine…and promptly lost it!

We went into the venue at about 8.45pm and separated to find our seats. I was in about the 7th row on Kasim’s side of the stage and I had a great view as the seats were near the stage (far nearer than in UK). The show lasted just a shade under 2 hours and there’s a review at http://www.KasimInfo.com/2005/09/10.html.

Ann drove me back to my hotel and I got to sleep by 1.00am.

On to Robinsonville

It’s the first time that I’ve met Ann in person but she’s really nice. She drove me to my hotel in Robinsonville and it was a good ¾ hour drive so I’m glad I didn’t get a taxi! Along part of the route there were cotton fields (something I’ve not seen before). We also entered Mississippi - another new state for me!

I’m staying at another Best Weston hotel and this one is far more a hotel than last nights. It’s only about 6 blocks away from the casino where the concert is being performed but apparently that is about 3 miles away so I won’t be walking there as was my plan! The board outside the hotel says that hurricane evacuees can still here free for 14 nights as it will be paid by the Red Cross.

Ann came in for a coffee and a chat. She left at about 4.30pm and I fancied some lunch but when I went to reception I was told that only one restaurant delivers here and they don’t start until 8.00pm! I must be in the only hotel in US where I can’t get food! (There really is nothing around here.)

When I came back to my room (it’s about 90 degrees outside which is just wonderful!) it was too cool for me so I switched the heat on low. After a few minutes I’d set the fire alarm off as the heat was obviously dusty!

Now I'm going to do some work for a couple of hours before Ann picks me up at 7.30pm - the concert starts at 9.00pm. I hope Kasim opens!!

Cotton fields!