Jo Dee Concerts 2002

That's the gift basket that I gave Jo Dee. And oh yeah, that's the hood of my mom's car. LOL it will work as my pre-concert picture since I don't like it enough to put it here. LOL. So yeah...there was construction on the way, and Amber and I were freaking out about it. But, we listened to Jo Dee on the way and chilled out. We got there around 5:45, and it was all good. So, we piled out of my parents's car at Soaring Eagle Casino...I had about a hundred things I'd brought. Cameras, gift basket for Jo Dee, DVD to get signed, cell phone, and it seems like I had other stuff, too. And it was snowing! IN MAY! Yes, rain mixed with snow in May...that's Michigan weather for you! We trudged into the casino and around to the concert hall area, where my parents left us to go enjoy a night of gambling. Too bad I was definitley 2 years too young to gamble, LOL. So, we spotted our friend Sara, and we went and waited for the doors to open. We were first in line pretty much. We peeked in the windows a little and watched them setting up and playing video clips of Jo Dee...'twas neat, except they were having a lot of stage problems. We saw Don walking around in there a lot, and Amber and I are pretty sure we saw Jo Dee come onstage a few times and mess around...but not sure. We bugged Shaun and bought some merchandice.

We asled around everywhere for information about the Meet & Greet, but as always, they were reluctant to tell us anything. We just sorta waited...and waited...and waited for them to fix whatever was wrong with the stage. I met nancyless from the board while I was waiting in line and a few other Jo peeps, and this one girl...uh, sorry I don't know her name, LOL...but she's been to a lot of the same Jo Dee concerts I've been at. So finally they let us in, and we found our seats. They sucked, basically. 4th Row at Soaring Eagle is not cool at all, cuz they're tables, and it's really like 20th row in a normal concert setting. Then we went and got in M&G line, and we were in the middle of it sorta. Nate was punching FC cards, so we bugged him while we were waiting.

So finally, it's time to go in almost. I'm getting real nervous for some reason, dunno why...I mean, it's my 11th Jo Dee concert and I'd met her about that many times, too! Amber and I are standing there and I'm like "I think I'm gonna cry" and she's like "DON'T." So I didn't...but I wanted to. And I really wanted to go in by myself, but Amber wanted us to go in together. She's never met Jo Dee alone, she'd been with me twice and another girl once. (It was her 3rd time meeting her.) In case you ever go see Jo Dee with me, I usually don't like meeting her with other people unless it's a special circumstance or I'm in the mood or something.

And then...we get to go in. The big moment. We walk in, and Don sorta leads me around and we're like "Where in the heck is she?" and she's off hiding in the corner by the staircase with this big mischevious frin on her face. And I go up to her and hand her my baskter and I'm like "This is for you." (DUH!) And so she starts picking through it and goes "Let's see...I got a Slinky and bubbles and silly string and silly putty and Play Doh!" in her baby voice...so cute! And she goes "Awww, look at the stickers, are these from all the times you've seen me?" and I go "No, just the ones since last year. This is my 11th time seeing you since I was 11 years old." And she's looking intensely at these picture stickers mumbling to herself "Aww" or "I remember this" and she laughed and put it on the table and ran back to me and Amber and Don was like "OK let's get pictures." And Jo Dee like tackled me into this big hug-like thing and Don snapped the picture...

Oh, isn't it a lovely picture? You know it's not as cute as you might think it is...LOL. So anyways...she sees that I'm holding my DVD and she's like "Let me sign that and get it out of the way." And she signs it and hands it back to me. I was getting evil looks from Amber, cuz she thought I was "hogging Jo Dee" apparently or something. And then she got her picture taken with Amber and Amber got this picture of her and Jo Dee signed and...oh, my God. It was so funny...Jo Dee looked at it and just burst out laughing. She goes "Oh, my God." and she did this little snort thing and showed Don and he laughed and she ran over into the corner and held it up against the back wall and signed it and goes "I was so fat." and she kept looking at it and laughing.

Really, it wasn't that bad of a picture! It was from June 2000 in Clio, MI and she had her hair sorta thrown up on top of her head and the polka dot shirt from the "Closer" video on. Apparently she didn't want anyone to see her being embarassed about it or something, LOL but she handed it back to Amber and she was like "Don't show that to anyone."

Did you know the old man in the "I'm Alright" video died recently? Yeah, like...Amber supposedly knows Jamie Reed, who was supposedly the guy who picked up Jo Dee and spun her around in the "I'm Alright" video. He used to post on the board or something. So Amber goes "Do you remember Jamie Reed?" and Jo Dee was like, totally drawing a blank. So Amber goes "From the 'I'm Alright' video. He's the guy that picked you up and spun you around." And Jo Dee is still confused. Totally confused. She goes "You mean the old man...?" and Amber was like "Uh, no." and Jo Dee goes "Well, the reason I ask is because the old man in the video just died recently, and I thought maybe that's what you were talking about." and she shrugged and looked at Amber weird and Amber goes "Oh, well, Jamie Reed says hi." and she was really embarrassed, LOL.

So like...Don is all like trying to hurry us out of there and she looks at me real sad like she wants to say something else to me, so she just gives me this little pat on the back and smiles and I told her something real quick and she goes "Awww, OK, see you at Fan Fair!" and Amber was going out the door and Jo Dee sorta grabbed my arm like she was gonna talk to me and this mean Indian dude (We called him Angry Bear, LMAO) and Don were like "OK, wrap it up." and Jo Dee gave them this real mean look and shrugged at me and said "Bye!" and I just sorta left...and that was that.

Amber and I are walking back to our seats and she goes "She's so skinny." and I'm like "I know!" and I'm all like talking and being all hyper jabber mouth and excited and everything, and Amber's not really saying anything. Yeah...I think she was pretty pissed at me for some reason, but I didn't do anything! Did I sense just a slight twinge of jealousy? Yeah, sadly enough, I did. So we just sat there for awhile not really saying much, and we tried calling Mike Marshall, a DJ here, on my cell phone. He wouldn't pick up the phone...so I got mad and hung up, LOL. Finally, the guy got onstage to play a game to win tickets to another show at the casino (Martina McBride) later in the month. After the game, he explained the reason the show had been delayed was because they couldn't get a ladder in to put up part of the set.

Finally, Jo Dee came onstage! It was awesome, I climbed up on a chair and started jumping up and down and waving my glow sticks around and screaming at the top of my lungs, LOL. Then I got up on the table because I couldn't see and I was "table dancing", LMAO! Nobody yelled at me or anything, and there was nobody behind us...so...I just stood on the table and chairs for a few songs. The table was a little wobbly already, LOL and I don't think I did it much good.

A song or two later, I decided we should go down on the floor to take pictures and stuff. I crawled on the floor over to the stage and knelt there for oh, the entire song. Then, I spotted Amber, and she had found 2 empty seats to the side in the 8th row or so. She sat there and I kneeled down, and then I crawled back over to to my picture taking spot. The floor was pulsing because of the huge speakers...it HURT, my knees and legs hurt SO bad. So then we decided to run back to our seats. We stayed there and jumped around and danced for awhile and then ran back down and I crawled on the floor some more...Jo Dee kept looking at me like I was nuts, LOL. I had my infamous purple glowing black light on, and Jo Dee kept looking over at me like she was totally intrigued by it or something. She kept pointing at it, LOL I dunno what her deal was with it.

I think we stayed down there the rest of the show, LOL. During the encore, everyone rushed the stage. Amber and I decided that it would be OK to run up there and kneel on the floor. (The stage was really low, it came up to my chest when I was kneeling...and at least we weren't standing like everyone else.) And we did, and this lady came and looks down at us and she goes "What do you think you're doing?" and we go "Uh...we're just taking some pictures." and she goes "OK, well make it quick." and she stood there and watched us, but she didn't make us move because we were blocked in by then...so we just stayed there. And OMG...this balloon floated up onstage and Jo Dee looked at it real funny and it kept like following her! So, she was standing right by me, and she points at me and whacks this balloon right at me. I grabbed it and screamed, and she laughed.

At the end of the encore, Jo Dee ran around slapping hands and stuff. She came over by us and was grabbing hands and stuff and she grabbed my hand and goes "Rock on, sweetie," and ran over to the other side of the stage. That was another thing that made Amber huffy that wasn't in my control...LOL. So she got offstage soon after that, and Chris came and gave us guitar picks...WAHOO! There was confetti EVERYWHERE, so we went around scooping it up to save a little of it. The cleaning people came out right away and were trying to whisk us out of there, be we sorta hung around.

Up until 2001, my Fan Fair experiences had all been encountered with our posse of Nashville-bound travelers: Me, Mom, my mom's friend Diane, and my Aunt Patti. But this year, my mom and I decided that we would embark on our trip alone. This being my third consecutive Fan Fair, we felt we knew the city well enough. Everyone told us we were crazy, especially because my mom cannot stand driving. And me, just 16 years old, with my temporary drivers license, decided that I was OK with covering the task of driving.

The night before Fan Fair I was going absolutely plum crazy. I was packed completely, but I kept thinking I was forgetting something. My mom was stressed to the max, worried about everything there was to worry about. I wanted to go to sleep early, but I was sitting on the living room floor at 11:00PM going over maps and directions with my parents. I finally drifted into bed around midnight after making sure I was completely ready to go. My alarm was set for 3:45AM...and I wasn't. I tossed and turned all night because I was so hot, and I ended up sleeping on the floor. I fell asleep around 3AM...peachy, almost an all-nighter. But that little bit of sleep did prepare me for what was ahead: Fan Fair 2002, 6 days in Nashville, Tennessee!

Day 1- June 12th, 2002

I'm not quite sure when night ended and the day began, but it started for me at 3:45AM when my alarm went blaring full volume playing "Bye Bye". I got up off the floor where I was sleeping, ungodly hot and sticky, and made a mad rush for the bathroom. I took a shower, got dressed, did my hair up cute, and got ready. My mom got in right after me while I listened to the radio and made sure I had everything packed. While I was hauling my stuff downstairs, my dad came down to get ready to go to work. Carrying a suitcase, travel bag, and a backpack down the stairs at once is NOT easy. So, while I waited for my mom, I watched 'Shrek' on HBO with my dad while he ate and I drank some milk. It was a good stress reliever, especially when my mom came downstairs at 5:00 with a half open suitcase, curling iron cord hanging out, and a can of Coke already in her hand.

We talked to my dad for a little awhile, and watched some more of 'Shrek'. When we were finally ready to get going, I started taking stuff out to the car. I put CDs, directions, glasses and sunglasses, and cell phone in the front seat. I stuffed the cooler, snacks, my backpack, mom's purse, tickets and guide books, and one of my mom's bags in the backseat. Then, up went the trunk and in went my big suitcase and travel bag. It was already looking doubtful that much more stuff would fit in the trunk by time my mom came out of the house, rolling a big black suitcase and carrying another bag. Let's just say, stuffing all that stuff into mom's 'Barbie Car' was not a fun task.

Nicole, a girl my mom works with, is very religious. She gave us this medalion thing with a rubber band you were supposed to put over your sun visor. It said "St. Christopher Will Protect You", and I guess it was supposed to be good luck for taking a trip or something. Well, it was a pretty bad sign probably when it broke when my mom was trying to put it on the visor! LMAO! So, my dad left for work at the same time we left at 5:30AM. I started the car, pulled out of the driveway...and we were off!

By 6:45, we were over the state line, which really made it 5:45. We kept driving all through Indiana, and then around 7:30AM we hit South Bend. Boy, was traffic heavy. But I made it through it, and it wasn't so bad. We stopped for gas just before Indianapolis. Oh, my lord. I have never seen so many crazy drivers. It was so insane. I thought I was going to spazz out! And I thought my mom was going to have a nervous breakdown. Once we got out of that hour long miserable traffic, we stopped at a rest stop and took a little break. My legs hurt so bad from driving, and there was a lot of construction so we needed a rest.

We got off the expressway somewhere outside of Muncie, IN to get gas again, and once we were filled up, we were on the road again. Around 10:30, we were in Louisville. And the traffic there was so, so horrendous. It was even worse than Indianapolis and South Bend! Imagine being in the center of 6 lanes going 70MPH...NOT FUN! And, to make matters worse, there was big time construction on the bridge. And, we missed our merge, too. So we had to get off, and the only place we could stop was the National Guard Armory! LMAO! So, the nice security guy looks at our directions and goes "Where'd you get these? Yahoo?" LMAO (we didn't) and he helped us get back to where we were going. He said we were about 4 hours outside of Nashville. Oh, was that just fun. (NOT!) But their armory was brand new, and really cool! I thought about FCP and hoped the Nashville one would be just as good.

We were back on the road another hour and a half or so, and in Elizabethtown, Kentucky (About 120 miles outside of Nashville), we decided to stop for lunch. We went to Cracker Barrel and we parker right next to this green Lincon Towncar with Tennessee plates and the license plate "PHIL V" so I was all excited, LOL. My mom goes "Look, it's Phil Vassar!" LOL. Our waiter was really, really nice. (AND CUTE!) But he was the first person we'd talked to during the trip and his accent was SO southern! He goes, "Hey y'all, can I start you off with some sweet tea or root beer?" My mom and I burst out laughing and she goes "Sorry, we like your accent." And he goes "Where y'all from?" and my mom said "Michigan, we're going to Nashville." and he goes "Y'all going to that Fan Fair?" LOL!

After our lovely experience in Elizabethtown, we got back on the expressway and headed towards Nashville. Just outside of town, we stopped at the Nashville rest stop we go to every year. There were lots of Fan Fair people there, stocking up on brochures and coupons and such. That was our final stop, and we were on the last leg of the trip...or so we hoped. Getting into downtown Nashville was horrendous, due to heavy traffic and construction. It was bumper-to-bumper most of the way as a we passed familiar landmarks and places such as Opry Mills Mall with the big Jo Dee billboard. It was 2:45 in the afternoon when we got off at our exit. West End Avenue, one of the main and busiest streets in Nashville was where our hotel was located. We followed directions, but somehow we went the wrong way and ended up down by the Hilton, Gaylord, ect.

We got totally lost- it was miserable. We actually ended up about 10-15 miles outside of downtown Nashville at a Wal Mart. I was just planning on running inside and getting directions. My mom went and asked some guy, and I stood by the door waiting for her. And I was standing there, and I saw...well, a familiar face...I could have SWORN it was Jo Dee. My mom looked and I looked and my mom looked at me and pointed at her. She goes "Is that...?" and I go, "Shhh, I know." I swear, to this day, we both think it was Jo Dee.

We finally arrived at our hotel around 4:30 something- our saving grace came by getting directions from a smelly dude with no teeth on the side of the road. We rested awhile, and I got changed and spiffied up, and we headed off to The Hilton for a Jo Dee fan gathering. We were to watch the CMT Flameworthy Awards to cheer Jo Dee on. I met Lil Tiff for the first time, and met up with old Jo Dee friends like Laura, Buck, Kathy and more. Unfortunately, Jo Dee didn't win a Flameworthy award...but it was a lot of fun!

Yeah...I have a lot of stuff to add! The rest of Fan Fair 2002, plus 2 more Jo Dee concerts from Sept. and Dec. 2002! Bear with me, I'll be updating!