The weekend started out on Friday at Hotel Howell. John and his parents played gracious hosts to Katie Beth, Brandon, Bailey, Whitney, and myself. We drank margaritas, practiced our Thriller dance (yes, it got a little weird), and jammed to Alan Jackson in preparation for the big concert. Katie Beth finally pointed out that the sooner we went to sleep, the sooner everyone else would get there in the morning. Wise woman, that one!
We slept hard and before we knew it, the sun was up and John was making omelets. Gatorade was pounded by all and we began the tedious task of packing up. All the girls were in charge of contributing a snack. I made sure to harass Jessica early morning style, because she loves it, and asked her to pick up some bags of ice. Everyone was on time, for once.
Gary V shuttled us out in waves to our boat on his fishing boat. This helped us avoid the long lines people had to wait in at Sinclairs before getting shuttled to their boats on one of the various pontoon shuttle boats.
I didn't really know what to expect, as this was the first time a waterfront concert had been put on at Lake Martin, but it was even better than I could have imagined. There were boats lined up in neat rows, leaving plenty of space for the shuttles to move through, along with all of the swimmers, floats, jet skis, canoes, and kiyaks. You name it, and it was there. There were people everywhere.
One cool feature was the party barge Brittany's Uncle Larry built, The Love Shack. It had a rug, tables, chairs, hammocks, a grill, a bar, a Port-a-Potty, a bubble machine, AND a globe. It was fantastic and I think I swam over there and back at least three times. The water aisles were getting a tab bit congested as the day went on, and one pesky sea doo proceeded to bump into my shoulder during one of my swims. I promptly yelled at him to watch where he was going. You have to sometimes, especially when you are getting ran over.
We spent a large portion of our day coveting air time on CMT. Anytime the camera came our way, we were all over it, hamming it up and doing our best to look cute. Hopefully we'll make the cut for the documentary and video. We shall see. It won't be for lack of effort if we do not.
Finally, Alan came on.
We jammed, fist pumped, sang and danced all the way through it. I was very hoarse after this. We headed out just as the sun went down.
Tuckered out from the day's events, we girls devoured Sho Nuff BBQ and harassed Jackson to sing some hymns. You would think this rowdy crew partied on into the night, but not so much. We aren't as good as we once were, but we are as good once as we ever were! (Yes, that's Toby Keith, not Alan) We crashed around 10pm.
Mrs. Jane said that anyone who spent the night had to attend the Church in the Pines the next morning. We had a crew, and we were a motley crew. But God doesn't care what you look like at Church in the Pines. Good thing, because I went with wet hair (I had to wash out my braid that Hayden had done for me during the day). It was a glorious day. A young college guy sang us some country tuned gospel and we got to leave with a piece of sea glass. You see, people in Maine throw their wine and beer bottles into the ocean, so it shatters and is soon rubbed smooth by the natural wearing down of churning waves and sand. It washes up on the shore like tiny jewels, for children to find. Yes, Jessica had to fight some small children to get us a few pieces out of the bowl. Breathless, she returned with a few pieces to distribute amongst our group, and pointed out how easy it is to forget that kids will aggressively move your hand out of the way to get what they want. They are ruthless, and Jessica had to really fight for our sea glass.
It was a nice way to end the weekend, and I just feel reaffirmed in my love for the lake, my awesome cool friends, and Alan Jackson. It was tough driving to work this morning, and even more so when Alan Jackson's song "Summertime Blues" came on the radio.
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