If you have a preteen or know of a preteen, I am sure you have heard of Hannah Montana. The tickets went on sale in Knoxville the day we drove over. We thought we could get some when we got here but, Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus' alter ego, was raised in TN. The tickets were gone in a matter of minutes. We got big laughs when we said we were going to get some. Our plan B was to enter contests. I will not tell you the lengths I went to to enter these, just suffice it to say we entered about six contests, winning none.
The concert day came and went, tickets were selling for hundreds even thousands of dollars. I got a tip that the day of the concert they start selling regular seats that are held to sell at that time. I tried it and snagged three great seats for the concert in Charlotte NC. I decided to surprise the girls by showing up to their schools, picking them up and telling them on the way. My plan, like most of my plans, had some snags.
It started out rough; I tripped over something and tried to catch my balance with my other foot. Unfortunatly, my other foot was asleep and I went crashing down to the foot (Mitchell was thrilled). Yes, I sprained my ankle. Undetered, I grabbed my directions, ticket confirmation and ace bandage and off we went.
But certainly I wouldn't be blogging if this was the only problem. Mind you, I am still acclimating to the concept that the ocean is now on the other side and that the states are arranged differently. Through the pain, I didn't realize I had grabbed my "reverse" directions to get home from the concert. Now, I have been out of Knoxville before (sometimes on purpose), but certainly not this far out. Making sure I was following directions correctly, I would set the mileage at each change. At one point I went over the mileage and realized I had made a mistake. I started to panic. I was going in the opposite direction heading towards Virginia! (I think) I grabbed my atlas which I am never without, I realized my mistate; a difference of about 60 miles one way.
Then I uttered the words no mother should tell her children, 'girls, watch for cops'. I realized now that my directions would not take my there and started to call Norm to see if he could look up better directions. After some very confusing directions (Hope's interpretation of Norm's directions), we got there. We had about ten minutes before the will call booth closed, when we left the parking garage. Hope took off her sandals and took off running with Grace and I behind. I started running the best I could (I think I conjured up my lamaze breathing) to the bright lights. Just our luck, those bright lights were the greyhound bus terminal. After standing there in a daze, Hope squealed; she had found it. I hobbled up to the will call window with one minute to spare.
We went in to a stadium filled with twenty thousand screaming preteens and their mothers and I promptly threw up. I think the jog on my ankle got to me. But the girls were thrilled and it was all worth it. Are we done? No. The problem with running from the car like crazy Jonas Brothers fans (yes, that is who we really came to see), is that we had no idea were we had parked the car. For the next hour, we limped our way through downtown Charlotte (lovely town by the way). Once we found it, I decided I could not make it home that night. Much to the girls disappointment, we spent the night and enjoyed the trip home the following day. I am now gratfully lying down with my foot propped up which is the best feeling I have had since the day before.
-Tina