There I was sitting in the airport waiting to board my plane when I see 8 or 9 athletic and attractive young ladies sit down in my section. I play it cool just listening (eavesdropping) to them talking and figure out they are the Michigan State University women’s tennis team. Now I am around sweaty athletes all they time, however they aren’t female and the conversations are totally different. I didn’t understand one tenth of what they said, but they did use the term “random” a lot. Plus they seemed to have no trouble engaging in a perfectly sane conversation with three different people at the same time, all the while typing on a computer, listening to an I-Pod and texting God knows who. Yikes I just had my, “Oh my God I’m old moment!!!”
Whew, glad that’s over! Time to rock out. As soon as I hit the ground in Greensboro I knew it was going to be a great weekend. My bags were waiting for me and I found my rental car right at the curb! Man, I’d rather be lucky than good. I checked in at the hotel and hooked up with the crew. This was our last “official” weekend together as a team and everyone was feeling a twinge of nostalgia. I know our season is only 3 months long, but when you are on the road with the same people week in and week out you become a family. S and Liz were late coming in because of airport delays so Pete, Billy, Mikey, Travis and Steph took me in and let me hang ‘till the wee hours. Friday was a ton of fun and guess what, I met the scout manager for Bon Jovi. They were coming in to do a show a couple of days after us and he needed to check out the venue ahead of time. It was kind of weird for me, because they have become “classic” rock, but it doesn’t seem like that long ago they were the hot new band. Oh well, time just keeps ticking along, like my boy Kid Rock says, “Roll on roller coaster, roll on…”.
When I woke up on Saturday the skies were bright and sunny with temps in the low ’60’s. Now this may not be a big deal to some of you, but back home in Michigan, we have been hovering in the single digits all week, so it felt like a heat wave to me! S finally made it to town and had already headed to the Greensboro Coliseum for sound check, so I just chilled at the hotel and waited for him. He called me about 2 pm to see if I needed anything from “Wally World” (aka Wal-Mart) and I realized we had become like an old married couple. YUCK! Man do I need a vacation. S picked me up and we cruised to the arena. When we got there I quickly found out S was a bit of a local celebrity with the security guards. He had been in and out of the pit area so many times they actually knew him by name. I don’t normally talk a lot about the show, but I do have to give props to Lila, our local marketing lady. Not only is she the nicest most down to Earth person you will ever meet, but she definitely knows how to promote an event. We had a total sell out and I saw a line at the front door waiting for tickets. Great job Lila. We were all ridin’ high after the show and figured, “Why shut ‘er down now?” Of course we didn’t and the entire Toyota AMA Arenacross Team flocked to Daryl’s next to the hotel. We had the bartender running seven ways to Sunday trying to keep up. There was dancing, merriment and carousing. While we were there I talked to Chad Johnson and his Dad Rick and I have a feeling Chad is going to have a big announcement to make soon. I don’t want to jinx it so I won’t even hint what it is, but trust me it will be way kewl.
The Toyota AMA Arenacross Series is headed to Denver, CO next week and our final stop will be in Green Bay, WI on the 14, 15 & 16th of March. As for me I am off to Nashville, TN for the freestyle show at the Sommet Center. I know we are going to have a blast in the Music City. It is great hearing from you and I DO read and respond to all of your e-mails so keep ’em coming. Mxannouncer@hotmail.com David Knisley
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