Jimmy Buffett Concert or “Let’s drive to Gulf Shores, AL today”

For those of you who may not know, we are Jimmy Buffett fans, also known as “Parrotheads”. We go to his concert every year when he comes to Manassas on his annual tour, we buy his CDs/DVDs, follow his web site, read his books, listen to his radio station, buy his stuff and generally get really happy playing his CDs as we sing loudly along. (p.s. the reference to “we” is really “me”. Carl lovingly humors me).

Well, the announcement of Jimmy’s free concert in Gulf Shores, AL was more than I could bear. I had to go. The local community has seen an approximate 50% drop in tourism since the oil spill and the news that the beaches and waters were polluted with oil. Jimmy’s concert was an effort to bring some tourism to Gulf Shores even if just for a weekend. I had to go!

The 35,000 free tickets were offered through Ticketmaster for the 1 July concert. I didn’t even try to get them because I know they go within minutes plus we already had plans for that weekend with the family. Then I read, tickets were gone in minutes… see I told you so. But I was still dreaming about going anyway. Then weather reports came out – Hurricane Alex heading toward the gulf. Jimmy cancels the 1 July show and reschedules for 11 July due to weather concerns as the concert will be held on the beach. Ah new date, family event complete…renewed hope to go to the concert. Oh wait, we don’t have tickets. I just gotta go!!!

I happen to come across a post on the Buffett fan web site that stated the local real estate firms were given 12,000 tickets. In other words, if you rent a condo, you could get free tickets to the show. To make a long story short, after a week of looking for the right condo at the right price, right location within walking distance to the venue, on the beach and with free tickets… we got a fabulous condo on the beach (with a 35% discount) staying three nights and getting four free tickets to the concert!!! We are in!!

We landed this deal on Thursday night, the day BEFORE we had to drive to Gulf Shores. Amazing…we’re going to that concert … !!!! As I say to folks as I re-tell our story, “did you ever wake up one morning and say to your honey, “let’s drive to Gulf Shores, Alabama today and go to a concert”. Kinda the way it happened – just a spur of the moment thing. We could ‘cause we’re retired.
We left on a Friday for the drive to Gulf Shores which is 1,960 miles roundtrip from our house in Suffolk. We stopped one night over night each way.

We knew we would drive through Pensacola, FL. This is where Paul and Dana Crawford live. So we decided to call them to ask if they wanted to go to the JB concert with us. Hey, Paul is retired and they both like JB – spur of the moment worked for them. They would meet us at the condo later on Saturday and go to the concert with us on Sunday…after all we had four FREE tickets and a two bedroom condo.

We arrived in Gulf Shores on Saturday, picked up our condo keys and free concert tickets at the real estate office and headed for the condo. It was just perfect. Paul and Dana joined us later that day. We are settled in.

We walked along the white sandy beach looking for oil and tar balls. People were swimming in the gulf and enjoying the beautiful sun shinny day. We saw one small tar ball and a little oil sheen on the water. But still, folks were in the water. That was the only day we saw any oil. The wind and the tides determine where the oil goes.

By this time, we were ready for a beer and headed to a great place called “The Hangout”. From there we could hear JB doing his sound check at the stage on the beach. We had a few LandSharks, some food, listened and danced to a great band called “The Mulch Brothers”. This is the life. If you are ever in Gulf Shores, go to The Hangout. As you can see from these pictures, we had a blast…

Sunday – concert day. Gotta get going, get in line by 10:30am… wanna get close to the stage. By 10:30am, there was already 200 people in line ahead of us. Oh well, we’re there. Gates open at 3pm. I sent Carl into the souvenir shop for two cheap chairs to use while we wait. Got ‘em…we were sitting for no more than 10 minutes when they opened the gates at 11am. But we can’t take the chairs in. We wanna keep the cheap chairs – Carl rushes to hide one under a porta-potty and the other is left leaning against a post near the porta-potty. Guess they won’t be there when the concert is over. Wow – we’re in. Oh no, wait, we are in but only to the next waiting area. But we are upfront in the line. So when they let us in at 3pm, we’ll be able to see his blue eyes. Waiting in the hot sun for a total of seven hours was torture….only drinking water no beer for me.

Then at 2:45pm, after JB’s final sound check, he says “let ‘em” in. The gates are opened and people are running to the stage. I then realized I should have practiced sprinting before I came to the concert. All the young ones made it to the very front. Our spot was not bad – about 60ft from the stage. We were happy. It was 3pm – only another three hour wait for the show to start. We passed the time in the hot sun with our line buddies, Cathy and John. And making our way through the crowd and back to get to the porta potty was no small effort…. success. Paul and Dana, who had decided to skip the heat and sun and wait until 3 p.m. to join us, seemed to have no problem stumbling on our location (lucky!). Nancy saw them, and after hollering and waiving hands wildly, they saw us and joined us at our location.

At 6pm, the concert started with CMT broadcasting live. It was an awesome

show and we were so glad to be there. After the live broadcast, JB continued the concert for another hour. What a day and what a concert. We were exhausted but happy to have been there and seen it live. It was historic. I told Carl to get me back to the condo ‘cause I am ready for a beer. Paul and Dana had left the concert a little before us. They were waiting at the condo after a swim in the pool and enjoying a cold one. We did the same. Then we all sat on the balcony re-living the day’s events looking out on the gulf and watching the stars twinkle in the clear night sky.

Monday came and we drug ourselves out of bed. One of my other “must see” while in the area was JB’s Margaritaville Beach Hotel on Pensacola Beach which just opened on 1 July. Paul and Dana offered to drive us there and give us a quick day tour of the area. We took them up on it – we sure could use a tour guide today.

We arrived at the Margaritaville Beach Hotel just in time to have lunch. So we got our names on the waiting list (15 minute wait). This gave us time to check out the hotel lobby, gift shop, walk around a little, etc. The hotel is beautiful with tropical decor and lots of pics of JB, of course.

While standing in the lobby just looking around, some guy walked up to Paul and said “you look like Jimmy Buffett”. Can I take a picture of you with my girlfriend? Paul is surprised but says sure. The guy goes to the bar and brings back two tropical drinks, one for Paul and one for the girlfriend for the photo shoot. They walk outside by the front entrance and the guy takes the photo. Jimmy Buffett was with this guys girlfriend… can you believe it?

Meanwhile, onlookers are smiling and glancing at them. Paul comes back inside and joins us. He notices that people are starting to stare. Soon we are seated in the restaurant. Paul says, don’t look but a guy at the registration desk is taking our picture… what Paul meant was the guy was taking his picture. More people are starting to stare. We ordered our lunch and while we were waiting for it to arrive, Paul decides to go to the gift shop to buy a hat. He bought a look alike one he saw in the JB photo on the wall. Now Paul really has “the look”! More heads were turning and folks staring. We finish our lunch all the while feeling very special to be in Paul’s presence.

I told the gang – lets go to the pool bar and get a margarita while we are here. Everyone agrees and we enjoy our drink at the outdoor bar overlooking the gulf. No signs of oil or tar balls. However, we saw a lot of BP people cleaning the beach that day. It’s time to go because we have more things to see in a short amount of time. I decided to go to the bathroom and the guys waited in the lobby for us girls to return. When we did, there was Paul smiling bigger than I had seen him smile all day. As you already know, he was really enjoying the attention he was getting. I said, what is it now, Paul. He said, that guy over there walked up to me, shook my hand and said “how are you doing, sir”! OK, who was the guy – it was the Governor of the State of Florida, Gov. Crist !!!! of all people. I said – no way, Paul. Yep, that’s him over there waiting to get into the elevator. I looked in the direction of the elevator and sure enough there was a group of people, one guy was tall, had a dark suit on and gray hair. It was the Governor. How cool was that !!!

So family, Paul is a celebrity of sorts. He had his day. I must say that after seeing him in the Margaritaville Hotel that day – his likeness to JB is amazing. Paul is tall, thin, bald on top with the hair long on his neck and wears large sunglasses, he has the smile, and the nose too. All he needs to do is wear flip flops and carry a guitar. I told Dana, this should give new meaning to living with Paul !!!

Paul finished our little tour of Pensacola and took us back to our Gulf Shores condo. We were very tired but in a good way. The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the beach and going to Jimmy’s sister’s restaurant “LuLu’s” that night for dinner.

I must say after those two great days, the rest of our trip was fairly uneventful. We got up the next day, Tuesday, to start our drive back home. It was a great time. The concert was awesome, crazy and HOT. Paul, our tour guide turned celebrity, was a great host along with Dana.

In summary, when a spur of the moment idea hits you, why not give it a chance – you just never know who you might meet along the way. Our Gulf Shores adventure will be one of the highlights of our newly retired life…. We just had to go.

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p.s. Oh the cheap chairs, … they were still there after the concert. Mine was still leaning against the post nice and clean. Carl pulled his out from under the porta potty…… well, you really don’t wanna know about it.

Check out lots more pictures of the concert at our picasaweb photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/carlrcraw