August 26, 2005
The campground I stayed at in Lancaster was hilarious. It was not the typical RV campground - although it did not take tents and was a RV only park, it seemed to have a lot of full timers, no pool, minimum (but clean) facilities. They were also very friendly. Every time I ventured outside to sit at the picnic table I seemed to be open for visitors. There was a lady who was interested in my traveling by myself, she came back a couple of times until I had educated her on how to find singles only caravan camping on the internet. I haven’t been there, but have heard about it!! Then a couple of guys, an older guy just to say hi, a biker type who came to ogle the camper but the winner of the night was the old retired military guy who sat down and proceeded to , by example, tell me what a jerk he was…..he put down his wife and about any other group he could think of. I imagine the look of horror on my face registered as he didn't stay long.

Next morning I almost went to the wrong airport to pick up Barbara. She had arrived the night before in Columbus and was turning her car in to the airport. I glanced down at the map and saw another plane symbol and called her back. “Exactly what airport are you at?” There are two international airports in Columbus? I suspect the other one may be military, or something, but I got straightened around and picked up Barb for the Michigan/Ohio/Indiana leg of the trip.


First, Rochester Hills.

Now I have a navigator. Thank goodness, the route suggested by both Mapquest and my Microsoft Streets and Trips takes us on a very circuitous route around Detroit. A few days later I threw the instructions out the window and took 75 straight through Detroit on our way to Kettering. Geesh.

Checked into the hotel and wandered over to the preparty across the way….Great raffle prizes, great food and great talent contest. We signed up for a car pool to the venue and back and that worked out very well as our driver was able to whiz into the handicap parking, which just so happened to be right by some big old tour buses. LOL, yes, THOSE tour buses. Not that it did us any good, the security guards were insistent everyone leave the area after the concert. Party Poopers.

This was a lovely venue. I especially enjoyed the local people. The lawn people had set up camp and looked very happy. To my left I had two adorable teenage girls who had constructed an electric sign. It was very intricate and I hope they got some kind of school credit for it. To my right was a late 60’ish couple….the man sat by me and kept telling me how wonderful Clay was. After Solitaire, he explained how Clay was thinking about his dad when he sang that song, did I know that? Had I read LTS? I believe I heard him moan at the end of BOTW….I absolutely loved this guy, he kept egging the teenagers to display their sign. These were SOOOO not internet fans.

Oh, and the concert was wonderful. He’s still getting better….how can that be?

Then, Clio.

Which I understand to be Clyo, not Cleo…hmmm. OK….we had met a really nice gal at the preparty and she was in the carpool with us the night before, so we joined forces to carpool to the Clyo…oh heck, let’s just call it Clayo. The preparty was in the school across the street and it was hot in there!! Pretty much the same as the Rochester Hills party…I won a tote bag.. Which I needed for all my stuff.

Wow, my seventh row seats seemed closer than my third row seats in Columbus. At one point Clay literally leaned over (from atop a stool) and shook hands with someone in the audience. What a fantastic concert, I will have to put this one close to the top just because of the intimacy of the venue, the beautiful evening and probably because of the location of my seat in relationship to the speakers, the sound was spectacular.

Pic from Clio, clickable...





ICNMYLM, perfection . Back later with Ohio again. Next time, Clay, just go in a straight line. This zig-zagging is making me crazy.