AN EVENT OF A LIFETIME

I can’t believe that it’s been two weeks since the Jimmy Buffett concert in Gulf Shores, Alabama. To this parrot head, this event ranked even with the BCS Championship game in January. Both were thrilling and I will always treasure the memories.

Jimmy Buffett in concert on the beach with the Coral Reefer band, including my celebrity crush, and all of this happening in one of my favorite places, Gulf Shores; made for a very special long weekend/mini vacation.

All card-carrying/dues paying parrot heads that were in town for the concert had the opportunity to be in a VIP section during the concert. This meant that we didn’t have to get to the concert site hours before, stand in line, and fight for territory. No chairs were allowed, but you could take blankets. From what I understand Governor Riley had a chair and I imagine a few others had chairs also. Having this VIP section for parrot heads subsequently released several thousand free tickets into the area. To get our VIP wristbands, we were asked to give our tickets to those down there that didn’t have them. This included locals who were kind of forgotten about in the ticket distribution and folks that traveled to the gulf coast area without tickets, hoping to get tickets; but would be spending some money to jump start the coast’s sagging economy anyway.

Of course we gave out tickets away. On Saturday night, we went to a party at the Fly Creek Marina In Fairhope. When that was over, we drove back to Gulf Shores to Lulu’s Restaurant on the intercoastal. In case you don’t know, Lulu is Lucy Buffett, Jimmy’s sister. As we were getting out of the car, our club president received a phone call about the VIP wristbands. I stayed with Kay in the car and the other two in our party went in the restaurant. When Kay and I joined up with our friends to tell them about the VIP section, they were talking to these three ladies who were in town for the concert, but didn’t have tickets. They were really bummed out, but planned to watch the concert from Lulu’s the next day and spend some money. Well, you can just imagine their reaction when we pulled out three of our tickets and gave the tickets to them. There was a lot of screaming going on.

The big day came and we decided to go to Lulu’s and ride the shuttles from there to the concert. We also decided that we should get to Lulu’s around 10:00 and get in line for a table as surely the place would be packed. Well, while we were standing in line, Charlotte, the director of conventions for the international parrot head organization, Parrot Heads in Paradise, said that we had a VIP section at Lulu’s with our own servers. It just keeps getting better, doesn’t it? We were under then by the water right next to the stage where bands were playing right up to concert time.

The fact that Jimmy was playing a free concert in Gulf Shores has been on the national news. Because I watch Fox News 90% of the time, I had been seeing some of the coverage. Fox sent Craig Rivera, Geraldo’s brother, to cover the concert for Fox. He was at Lulu’s dressed in dark jeans and a dark shirt and had to be hot. This is not NYC. He, of course, interviewed Lucy and some of us got on the national news by standing behind her. I had my picture made with him and I’m anxiously awaiting for Jane to send me the jpeg. Craig seems like a very nice guy and is much better looking than his brother.

Since everything was falling in place for a perfect day, what else could happen? Maybe I would run into my celebrity crush and he would invite us to an after the concert party. Well that didn’t happen. The concert was just fabulous. Jimmy looked like he was having a great time, as did the rest of the band. Even Jimmy’s bodyguard was smiling and he never smiles.

Also, we were on TV (the concert was broadcast live on CMT). I got two texts during the concert that some of us were on the tube. Two folks said they saw us twice. A couple of others said they saw me a lot. If course some friends blinked and didn’t see us at all. Believe it or not, I have not seen the replay; so really don’t know how many times I was on TV or what I might have looked like after wilting in the hot July sun.

After the concert, we caught the shuttle and made it back to Lulu’s. After getting something to eat, we headed back to the condo in Orange Beach. I HAVE NEVER BEEN AS TIRED IN MY WHOLE LIFE AS I WAS AFTER THE CONCERT. But before I would lay me down to sleep, I had to get in the shower and scrap the sand/sunscreen paste off of my body. I managed to do that, crawled in bed, and slept like a log.

The rest of long weekend went very well as we hung out at the pool as opposed the beach. I did walk down to the water and it was fine. There was a little oil on the beach and it looked like seaweed from a distance. I picked up a little bit and squished it between my fingers. The cleanup crews were on the beach, but I never saw a single one actually working. There were mostly sitting under their tent. I really think my three friends and I could have gotten some scoops and garbage bags and cleaned that oil up in an hour or two. Of course, that was illegal and we would probably have landed in jail.

In addition to hanging out at the pool and going to the concert, we ate out a lot, consumed some adult beverages, and shopped. Hey, it was the beach, it was Gulf Shores, and Jimmy Buffet was doing a concert on the beach, good food and drink, and shopping. Also, Alabama is still number one (I had to get that in here). Life for those few days was good!