Series of Fortunate Events

You never really know what good fortune may come your way. This is a true Cinderella story. I, Ryan, wanted to take Kelly on a surprise date since it had been years since I did anything of the like. So Saturday night we headed off on a drive toward San Bernardino. Ya, there's not much out there. I told Kelly she could wear her cowboy hat and not feel out of place, and with the scenery of San Bernardino she figured we were going to a rodeo. Lo and behold as we drove to the mountains there's this huge pavilion that holds about 65,000 people and we parked. She finally figured out where we were when we walked up to will call and stood behind an old lady wearing a Rascal Flatts t-shirt. Who wears the bands' shirt to their own concert? 1984 what?

So, knowing my cool friend John (of Stars Align) I've personally associated with Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts a few times and he hooked us up with some last minute tickets. Well, there are seats in the pavilion and behind those is the big ol lawn. We got lawn tickets. No complaints though, we were stoked to be there in the first place. After the opening act fortune #1 came our way. Two people mozied our way and asked us if we listened to K-FROG Country. I said "Why yes! its my #1 preset on my radio" and the (K-Frog radio) guy asked us if we wanted to enjoy the show from a closer seat. So we scored tickets to the middle of the seating area which was really cool.

Just then John called as the stage was transforming and said to find him. We did, gave hugs, and he pulls out an envelope with 2 tickets on the 3rd row. Fortune #2. He said that was going to be "home base" cause he pulled out the envelope again and gave us passes to go into the "pit" (the area between the cat-walk and front stage). Fortune #3. The show opened with lights and smoke and FIRE blasts and a whole lotta girlies screaming. We notice that the people up closer away from the lawn had a few more values in life. Anyway, the show rocked! Rascal Flatts was walking around us on three sides all night as we threw hands up for high fives. In fact, one of their encore songs was Life is A Highway and I found this video on You Tube.
It was really cool when Gary brought up a little girl on stage with him, but if you wait till the end, you will see some girl in an orange shirt rocking out on someone's shoulders... that's Kelly. Around 3:40 into it. It even ends on Kelly throwing a double-rocker into the air!! HA!! So funny. But you can see roughly where we were. So we went from the seatless lawn to the spikkity front. How much better could it get?

Fortune #4. The show ended and John grabbed us all by the hand and we cruised back stage. We hung out with the crew waiting for the Rascals to surface, and John, having magical human powers, walked us right past the guards and into the bus zone. These were no buses. These were million dollar homes on wheels. And they were next to the 12 semi trucks loading up the stage and show. We scoped around and ... oh, what's this? Oh, it's just Joe Don's private motorhome/bus that he and his lovely model wife live on while touring. So John, Kelly, and I went aboard. There was pizza there on his table so we helped ourselves. (If you're reading this Joe Don, John took the first piece then Henry gave me one so sorry, but thanks, I was starving). So we're in their tour bus eating their pizza after the show. John had music business to discuss and so Kelly and I took off for home. Fun night. Awesome. Wish I could do it again. Many thanks to Joe Don for the tickets and to John for the advancements.