John’s Blog - Coast To Coast

The main part of my trip to Nashville was centered around Carrie Underwood’s first ever fanclub party. Many of my friends from the fanclub were in attendance including three of my friends from California - Reggie, Katie and Jen. Reggie is actually a mod on the fanclub site so he got to work the event!!! Reggie, myself, Jeff and Don arrived just before noon. Soon thereafter, I met up with my friends Lisa (below with me), Katie and Jen from the fanclub.

The doors opened promptly at 1 pm, and the fanclub members ate and mingled for the next hour. It was a lot of fun to finally put faces to the names and id’s I’ve become so familiar with over the past couple of years…

At 2 pm, they let us in the main hall. Jen, Katie and myself (above) managed to get a 2nd row seat, and I was dead center in front of the stage!!! Carrie performed a five song set of songs for us - there were about 300 or so in attendance. Carrie performed her four number one songs in sequential order, starting with “Jesus, Take The Wheel” and finishing with her latest number one “Wasted.” The fans were given a chance to vote on another song for Carrie to sing… I picked Rascal Flatts’ “Bless the Broken Road,” but the fans ended up picking Heart’s “Alone” - a song which many consider to be the one which made her the one to beat two years ago on American Idol.

After the five song set, Carrie did a Q&A session for about 20 minutes… imagine my joy and surprise when the third question she picked was mine!!! I asked Carrie what performer or entertainer was the one that she was most impressed by after meeting them… Carrie answered Reba McEntire and Vince Gill… she also made mention that Brad Paisley was also a lot of fun to work with, and also a real prankster!!!

Carrie had to leave for about 40 minutes to do a sound check for her performance at the Grand Ol’ Opry later last night… During the intermission, I hung out with Jen and Katie and struck up conversations with many fellow fans… it wasn’t long before the MC, Matt from Tulsa (a friend of Carrie’s) walked up to the three of us and asked if we wanted to be video taped for an interview… of course I said “yes!” They asked us about the fanclub, how we liked the performance and what was best about the fansite… Expect to see a video of this on the Carrie fanclub site VERY soon!!!

We closed the party with photo shots with Carrie in groups of five people… My group was amongst the first photographed… now one thing I do need to point out is when I got there, I did feel quite a bit overdressed… Most of the people at the fanclub were dressed either in their official fanclub shirts and jeans or similar attire… a few of us including myself dressed up in slacks and a nice dress shirt… this turned out to be a real blessing when it came time to my group’s photo with Carrie came to be taken. As it turned out, my clothes very much matched Carrie’s and the other four in our group all had their fanclub shirts on - so it looked like the photo was centered around Carrie and me!!! Just an FYI, Carrie has on four inch heels on in that picture - she really is only 5′4″ tall…

After our pictures were taken, we watched as others got theirs taken and we all hung out and took pictures with each other. My friends Ed (carrie65) and Dave (1carriefaninms) from the fanclub are featured with me in the above shots.

Later that night, all of us went to the legendary Grand Ol’ Opry. Legends of the past including Porter Waggoner, Bill Anderson and Jimmy Pickins performed sets of their hits. Anderson’s set was particularly memorable as it featured a rousing rendition of his song “Give It Away” - George Strait recently took this song to #1 on the Country charts.

After the past legends performed, today’s stars took to the stage. Sugarland, Craig Morgan and Rodney Atkins performed some of their hits. At 8:30 sharp, the headliner of the show, Carrie Underwood took the stage and performed “Wasted,” “Don’t Forget To Remember Me” and “Before He Cheats.” Sugarland, Atkins and Morgan took the stage again before Carrie closed the show with a touching rendition of “Jesus, Take The Wheel.” FYI, the event was being televised live on GAC so there is a chance I may have gotten on TV… GAC does rerun these events fairly often, so I’ll definitely be on the watch for it.

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Just before I traveled off to Nashville on Monday afternoon, I took the Metro down to the Capitol South station and took the DC Ducks tour of the city… 22,000 of the amphibious vehicles were made in 1942 (all by women) to be used in World War II. 20,000 of the Ducks were used in the battle, while 2,000 others never were used for service, such as the one we toured on the Capitol Duck. The 90 minute tour was thoroughly enjoybale and our driver, Frank (below left) made us “quack up” many many times! Frank even let a young boy (below right) take the wheel of the boat for a good 15 minutes while we were on the water!

The historic tour took us all over the historic parts of DC from Capitol Hill to the Potomac into Virginia and back into DC through the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (this is where they make money!) before we headed back to Union Station… Kudos to 2006 Miss DC, Kate Michael for recommending this great tour to me during my last stay in DC in April! If you’re ever in DC, the DC Ducks tour is a MUST DO!!!

After taking the Ducks tour, I grabbed a quick bite of gumbo soup at B.Smith’s - very tasty! - before heading back to my hotel where I checked and sent a few quick emails. I then checked out and grabbed the Metro to Reagan Airport. I also want to give a HUGE “Thank You” to all of the staff at the Best Western in Georgetown. They truly treated me like royalty and were very interested in my daily activities… With all the amenities and the great proximity to everything, I can’t think of a better place to stay while in DC.

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