Sing ..... Sing a song

Back awhile ago, Les and I kinda had a fight when she didn't know what she wanted to do on one of my days off. I HATE letting one of my 2 days a week go to waste, and I got frustrated that she didn't know what to do. I suggested going to an Owlz baseball game (big surprise huh?) well it wasn't a big surprise to her either.

She got mad and said that we ALWAYS go to thing that I want to go to and that she was sick of going to "baseball crap". I asked her what her "ballgame" was (i.e. the activity that she likes to go to) and she said concerts and plays.

At this point I knew I was in trouble. Les and I are complete opposites (though I think both of us have started creeping toward the middle in our 2 1/2 years of marriage) when it comes to music. In fact, I just barely asked her what her two favorite types of music are ... her answer?

Country ... Public Enemy #1 in my book.

and ...

... LDS church music ... I have to be in the right mood for church music (a mood I've very rarely in).

Well, I knew that I better find a concert that 1) Would be someone she actually would want to see, and 2) wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg to get inside to see.

I started looking where else? GOOGLE. I found a couple for artists that were coming to USANA, but those tix were 50-100 at the cheapest.

That's when I found Wendover, NV. As the slogan goes, "It everything you love about Vegas ... only closer."

There are three main casinos in Wendover and together they have a concert hall where a lot of country artists come to perform. I was looking through the list and saw that Phil Vassar (whoever he was) was coming on Aug. 31. I asked Les if she would like to go see him and she immediately beamed and got really excited.

I was actually pretty excited too, because the cheapest tix were $10 and that was part of the argument that started this whole thing --- we could get the whole family into an Owlz game for $8 total and concerts were just too expensive. So I'm thinking that we're made in the shade. We could have sprung for closer seats, but as long as you hear the music it's a good concert right? .... right?? ... come on! ANSWER ME!

Ok, I guess I was wrong and after looking at seating charts, pictures of the stage and a few other things. Leslie decided that she wanted to get the $50 floor seats because, "this is the only concert she gets to go to all year."

Our seats were on the 5th row almost in the middle of the stage, in fact, they were two seats to the right of center.

Our view from the stage, taken with Phill's camera phone
(they made us take our regular camera back to the car before going inside)

Les' mom was kind enough to watch Kendrick and let him sleep over at her house as we took off on our date.

Wendover is 2 1/2 hours from Provo. You go up I-15 to I-80 and head west until you reach Nevada. We left Les' mom's house at 2:30-3 p.m. and headed north. We both knew we better stop for lunch/dinner since the concert started at 7 and there wouldn't really be much time to eat once we got to Wendover.

There is a place in Salt Lake called Italian Village that makes "pizza benders", which are soft-doughed calzones. They are AWESOME! You can order whatever you want inside, but you might want to ask Les if that's a good idea. (***hint*** it's not) The original comes with ham, pepperoni and sausage inside. We went there and ate and then hit the road to Wendover.

As soon as we hit I-80 it started to rain. It wasn't hard at first, but then it progressively got A LOT worse. There were points on the drive that we were driving through buckets full of water, with 2-3 inches of water on the road itself and visibility down to 30-50 feet. We took it slowly, and as we were about to cross the Utah-Nevada line ... the sun came out.

It was 6:30 when we went inside. The seats that we sat on were nice leather rounded seats with a mini table for cup holders between every other seat. For a better idea click here. When we got in the theatre it was us and about 6 other people. We had a pretty good laugh, thinking that Phil Vassar might actually be able to pick me out for not knowing ANY songs(which it turned out I recognized three).

It eventually filled out and was a nice intimate setting for a concert. Phil even mentioned that it felt like playing in some one's living room.

As for the concert, from someone who doesn't like country, It was actually pretty good. I didn't stand up much, but Les did. She sang her heart out and we smiled and laughed through most of the evening.

They announced that Phil was going to sign t-shirts in the lobby after the show, so Les got really excited to be able to meet him. Apparently, so was everyone else, because there are a huge line when we got out there. But once Phil got there it went pretty fast.

The tour manager said that we could take pictures, so EVERYONE pulled out their cell phones and snapped away. ... ... ... Sorry for the poor quality.

Phil Vassar

Phil signing a T-shirt and poster for a couple from Lehi.
In fact, one of their wedding pictures is in Phil's video for "Love is a Beautiful Thing". If you go to the top of this post and watch the video, their picture is at the 1:18 mark. I was taken in front of the Provo Temple. The poster said, "Thanks for choosing us. 'Love is a Beautiful Thing' " With that picture in the middle. Phil signed the T-shirt and their wedding picture that was on the poster for them .... Cool huh?

Phil signing Les' T-shirt

Phill and Les in line waiting for Phil Vassar to come and sign the T-shirt

Les sportin' her new shirt the next morning at breakfast.