The end of a jamin’ day

June 06, 2008

Debbie Ingram

Well folks, it’s after midnight here. I am exhausted and back at the camper in the Fig Newtons.

ZZ Top was a fantastic show. We left after both the husband and I heard our favorite ZZ songs—“Cheap Sunglasses” for me and “Legs” for him and just about every other guy out there.

It was a great, great show and a big, big crowd. It actually gave us both goose bumps. We couldn’t help but sit there and believe we were this part of something so momentous. BamaJam’s success just seems to open the door for Country Crossing. If you never believed in it before, if you had your doubts, this crowd of more than 30,000 is a convincer. People love this music and they will come to hear it.

Congratulations Ronnie Gilley!

The husband and I met lots of fun folks today and will be making our rounds tomorrow too. I’ll be sticking my camera in folks’ faces again ... we are putting together a slide show of interesting people pictures. Check it out. You might find somebody you know. The pictures will be posted on this Web site.

OK, that’s it. I be dead from too much jamin’—BamaJamin’ that is.

Peace.

The traffic has arrived

Debbie Ingram

OK, you know all that traffic everybody was worried about?

It’s here. A steady stream of traffic is logjammin’ the roads coming in to BamaJam as Tracy Lawrence just finished up his set – can you say a great performance?! – and we are awaiting, at 8:20 p.m., the start of Trace Adkins, to be followed by ZZ TOP!

ZZ TOP, BABY! YEAH! HELL YEAH!

Sorry … this crowd and the excitement. The adrenaline --- it all has its effect. This is BIG!!!!

Ronnie Gilley took center stage with Pollard and KC from 95.5 a few minutes ago and announced that 50,000 people have come through the gates …. Crowd size is so difficult to judge, but these are folks watching the gates, so …..

Trace: “ I got my game on…. Get me in the ballgame baby, it’s game on anyway….”

OK, the husband and I are arguing about it – the numbers. I am biased from working too many Peanut Parades where somebody would give us figures of 150,000 and we would answer … Ain’t no way. So, the husband and I did some math, three stages all packed, the saloon crowd, OK, we settled on surely 25,000 but being a reporter, I wanna know, it if it is really 35,869 or what.

Trace: “Swing batter batter swing. Swing batter, batter….”

Let’s just say this …..there are lots and lots of people here!  Ronnie Gilley has pulled off the biggest event of the year, bar none. BamaJam 2008 is a huge success!!!!

Once again we have a great breeze! This is great, folks!!!

Trace: “This ain’t no thinkin’ thang….”

What we got here is a failure to communicate

Debbie Ingram

If you’ve ever been around Enterprise, Alabama you know one thing: This ain’t Verizon country.

Luckily the Verizon Air Card is working well so I can keep the information coming, but there is no talking on the cell phone. There’s no taking two steps and a “Can you hear me now?” cause they can’t.

Literally one step away there is a signal. Two steps to the side and there is not. Up the hill? No signal. In the valley? A signal. The husband says the best “spot” is six squares from the end of the canopy on the trailer, if you turn and face due south and hold the phone at an 80-degree angle to the door.

“And do I have to lift up one leg too?”

“Left one,” he says.

If you have people out here you are trying to reach, text them. They can’t get your calls. Between the dropped calls and the grasshoppers, I feel like I am in a third world country where there is a shortage of water and I am dying. There better be overtime for this gig.

Oh, and EVERYBODY is calling. Folks I haven’t heard from in years, today they are calling. Friends I didn’t know I missed, today they are calling. Insurance salesmen, calling. The husband’s office, calling. Some vacation!!!

I finished today’s story so we are headin’ back out in that dang heat to hear some jams. Lotsa folks out and lotsa folks stayin’ in till tonight. It just clouded up out here and looks like a shower --- PLEASE – but radar shows it won’t be here long.

Miss you and wish you were here. (I learned a long time ago those are the two things you should never put on a postcard where space is precious. If you are under 30, let someone tell you what a postcard is.)

What’s that? Thunder I hear? No, it was Harleys. Folks comin’ in for ZZ Top I am sure.

I am this [ ] close to soaking my feet in the ice chest.

Cold drank anyone?

There’s actually some cool artistic stuff out here and we’re gonna go check them out. I saw some nice pottery.

Cya…

“You might be a redneck if …”

Debbie Ingram

The husband and I were headed out to the concessions area today for a story on “the tickets.” It’s a big aggravation for folks out here—the fact that cash is not accepted. To purchase food or beverages, you gotta buy “tickets.”

Anybody recall that bit by Ron White where he was playing some show and the organizers required “coopons.” Anyway, it was kinda like that.

So, we’re driving through the campground when we pass a sign on a trailer: “Free Mammograms.” I wasn’t due, so we rode on by ....

Found another trailer where a good ole boy named Hightower who is from Jackson, Ga., was sitting under an awning in his recliner. I couldn’t have said it better:

“You might be a red neck if you bring a recliner on a camping trip,” he said.

Uh, might? I’d like to add a pertinent piece of info here: The recliner is white. Kinda.

But who am I to talk.... after we visited with folks from Louisiana, Slapout, Alabama—I swear that’s what he said, Slapout—and Georgia, my shorts and shirt were completely wet.

At this moment I am blogging in my underwear eatin’ Fig Newtons. Hey! I am in the privacy of my own ... uh, trailer.

The husband is asleep in HIS recliner with his feet propped up. It’s so much more conducive to sleeping, he says, since he put that tin foil over the skylight. That’s right. Tin foil. Shinny silver stuff. Reynolds Wrap.

“You might be a redneck if ....”

The elements

Debbie Ingram

If one more grasshopper jumps on my laptop while I am writing --- uhhhhh! What is this place? A farm? Well it’s a dang pest infested hot dry one!!!

As the husband just pointed out, if we were not where we are, in the shade and in the trees, we would be miserable. I am now relieved that I am not. Miserable, that is. Cause the husband told me so, that’s why.

Anyway, we got neighbors. There’s the folks in a tent next to us in a pickup truck that is so rusty and greasy—not dusty mind you, but greasy—so much so that I can’t make out the tag other than they are from Georgia.

There is just something about camping life. Over pork loin and pancakes at breakfast, I saw my first butt crack of the weekend. It was tattooed.

“These pancakes taste funny,” I said to the husband.

Grasshopper!!! Dang it! Geez! I’m fannin’ em over here!

Various thoughts…

On Beer: Why does a stranger that is far, far less than perfect think I want a drink of HIS beer? I mean, what makes someone think that someone they have never seen before will just take that opened half-empty beer that’s passed and take a few swigs? Alcohol = confusion, poor judgement and a “seemed like a good idea at the time” attitude.

State of Mind: There are plenty and plenty of folks out here who are not and do not drink. This is NOT a free for all wild party. Hey, I’m hoping. That’s a joke. Do not be afraid to bring the kids.

On Water: Most folks are being very smart and consuming plenty of water out here. Someone in his 20s just complained about the cost, but $3 bottled water is a lot better than $5 or $6 bottled water. Lucky campers brought their own, but we have gone through half a case in half a day. Lucky for us we caught up with someone from Dothan heading our way to pick us up another case. Thanks, Mark!

Ice, Showers, etc. in the Campgrounds: Ice is another matter. I know folks gotta make money out here but $7 for ice! We bought two bags—for 16 pound sizes, it’s not really that bad. OK showers—$10 a shower. Doesn’t make sense, and I don’t know who will pay for the shower facilities out here unless it is the tent campers. The showers are unisex, not at the same time please. On second thought, these are mobile showers on semi trucks… Hhmmm. Diesel prices must be considered. You know, $10 is probably not that outrageous. And forget getting your facilities pumped out—that cost $50, I was told second-hand. We will empty out the pooper back in Dothan. No charge at Flying J.

&$%!* grasshoppers! Somebody help!

I’m gonna go sit in a tub somewhere.

And to my co-worker Peggy, if you go to Walmart, pick up an extra face fan. You know, those mister things you can put water in. I guess grasshoppers like heat!