The elements

June 06, 2008

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!

First day music great!

Debbie Ingram

Now, about last night….

I’ve never been a big Alabama fan. To me, they’ve always been that country band from, well, Alabama. I’ve never seen them perform, never bought any of their music.

Boy, have I been missing out.

Randy Owen is not a performer. The man is an entertainer of the highest quality. And until BamaJam, I was ignorant of just how good he is. This is typical for me ... I discover I like somebody after the band breaks up. But everyone I heard yesterday was very, very good.

Little Big Town performed just before Randy and put on a heck of a show, and a long show too, going over their alloted hour and 15 minutes by about 10 minutes. They may have started late; not sure. Darryl Worley preceded them and I only heard him from afar. It was deadline… I couldn’t help it. Ashton Shepherd and Shawn Hammonds. Also very, very good.

The sound system at the Main Stage is of the best quality I have ever heard at any event or concert. There is no place where the sound is the least bit off. When you choose your seats, it’s loud or louder, but there are distances back where it is easier on the ears. Let the young folks go down front; I’m already hard of hearing.

And the stage, which has to be bigger than a football field, is impressive. There’s a screen to the right for close-up viewing but last night I kept the binoculars to my eyes. (Yeah, the vision is going too.) And the light show was very, very good as well.

Makes me wanna go check out the generators behind the stage…. What kind of machine keeps this baby operating!

The cool thing about Thursday night was hearing those great Alabama songs and looking up at a small quarter moon and a few stars in the sky. The breeze was truly a gift after the scorching temperatures of the day. Honestly, my clothes were wet. That’s how hot it was. We expect more of the same today.

Last night couples danced slow as Randy sang and the crowd really got involved, filling in the lyrics when the entertainer asked them to. One little boy down front on his Daddy’s shoulders (I guess it was Dad’s) suggested “My Home’s in Alabama,“ to the performer, who quipped back, “I’m getting to it!“

It was late—after 11:30 when we got back to the campground, coming straight here after the performance. Forgive me for being too tired to write.

People, this event is a success. A huge one and the music is great. While I estimated—- that means I took a wild guess—there were 6,000 people watching Randy last night, I was told this morning that 25,000 “tickets”—comps and others—have been “processed” at the gate.

ZZ Top pulled in early this morning, Billy Graham told me. (Not the Rev., but Ronnie Gilley right hand guy.) They play at 10 tonight. Also today is Tracy Lawrence, Trace Adkins and Gilley himself will perform with this new band, Houston County at 5:30.

Also today: Keller Williams, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain.

If you are not coming out today, you will REGRET it! This is big, folk

BamaJam: Day 2

Debbie Ingram

I need coffee.

It never seems to fail. When I have to go into the office on a typical work day, I could sleep till noon. (Well, if I had no kids I could sleep till noon.) But let a vacation or weekend come, albeit a working one of sorts, and I am up, sometimes as early as 5. What’s up with that??

The thing about camping is, each time you use your trailer, you learn a little more about it. There’s nothing like having the leaky gas detector siren going off at about 1 a.m. and 1:05 and 1:10. It was actually so pleasant last night the husband and I thought we could just cut off the generator, and the AC, and open the windows. I was fine, mind you. For a while anyway. There is that hormonal thing I mentioned yesterday. The husband was hot, hot.

Anyway, the husband got up and tinkered on something under the refrigerator, where some smart person thought all these controls needed to be—that’s UNDER the refrigerator!—and the problem was solved.

Then he spilt some gasoline this morning while refilling the trailer tank that feeds the generator and “Yee, yeee, yeeee!“ all over again.

Where is that dang coffee?

When we got back to the campsite last night we had new neighbors. Kids in a tent. Haven’t met them yet and they are still asleep. It was pretty quiet last night ... oh, we could hear a little camping noise, and music from the saloon stage after Randy Owen finished up around 11:20ish ... but really, it was pretty quiet.

Sure, there are rowdies here but there are plenty of grandmas too. There are kids of all ages and folks are nice, nice, nice. Vendors, staff, security, everybody. Ronnie Gilley has put on a quality show. And I think that events guy from Nashville, Ted Hacker, knows his stuff!

Evidently, I do need to clarify a comment from my last blog. It is the GUYS with their shirts off who would be better off with them ON! Some, not all.

As Max the photographer said yesterday: “I know I don’t need to take my shirt off. Why don’t they?“

And how do you spell D-O-N’-T C-A-R-E!

When you come out today, another reminder: There will be walking involved. You can take the tram from the parking or camping to the festival grounds, but you could get tired of waiting and wanna take off on foot. DO NOT WEAR SANDALS, LADIES! I took off yesterday, just forgot to change my shoes, and when I got back my feet were black dirty! I remembered to change to sneakers for last night’s show.

I will come back in a bit and tell ya about Randy Owens. In a word: FABULOUS!!

Now where’s that coffee?

Wasn’t there a country song something like “love grows best in little spaces?“ Well, this camper is really small and the husband is looking for another “very valid reason” to make a trip into Enterprise.

Cya

Good tunes bringing the people out

June 05, 2008

Debbie Ingram

When Shawn Hammonds opened the BamaJam Music Festival on a hot, hot Thursday afternoon, the crowd was sparse. Coulda been the heat. But by the time the guys wrapped it up, there were a few more folks milling around with their lawn chairs and beach umbrellas.

A few more folks came to hear Ashton Shepherd. The crowd grew a little bit larger for the next act, Heartland, and bigger still for Darryl Worley. We are 10 minutes away from Little Big Town’s act and from talking to folks today, the group has lots of local fans.

Today was a trial run for all the equipment, operations, etc., for the BamaJam folks and Billy Graham, Ronnie Gilley’s man on the right, said there had been no major problems.

But the heat!!!! OMG!

Photographer Max and I visited with campers for a story on the life out here on the plains, and we saw some, uh, unusual stuff like mattresses from home in the tailgate of the pickup truck and then there was the air conditioning unit mounted in the passenger side window of an SUV.

Max crawled atop a big motor home for a panoramic type view of everything .... thanks to Charles and Eric and Terry and David and Glenn and Terry from Midland City for the use of it. Eric kept insisting Max sign a release first, but then we kept bringing up the Miss BamaJam Bikini Contest and Eric kinda forgot about it.

We met some folks from North Georgia who drove five hours to get here and saw plenty of Wiregrass car tags.

Food and beverages are reasonably priced, by the way. An ear of corn or a cold Miller Lite is five tickets and a ticket translates into about 62.5 cents. I had the husband do the math. So that’s what… $3.13 for a beer and eight tickets or $5.03 for a mixed drink.

When I took off with Max, my instructions to the husband went this way: Find out about drink prices.

So when I find the husband much later, he says he “just didn’t feel right” asking the price and not buying anything. Turns out various mixed drinks are the same price! Imagine it. And Miller is the same price as Miller Lite. Did I mention the husband is from Newville.

Headin out to hear Little Big Town and Randy Owen.

One other thought: Some people need to keep their shirts on.
Cya

We’re HERE!

Debbie Ingram

We pulled through Gate No. 3 of BamaJam around noon today. I arrived very mad—technological problems with the NEW camera—and soon got Very Hot, which just made me madder. I’m to that age, you know the one I mean, where the hormones are, heck, doing whatever hormones do which affects one’s disposition.

The husband said I seem to want everything my way and I said, “Well, duh!?“ Like that’s a surprise and yeah it ticks me off when the world fails to cooperate. Anyway, Eagle photographer Max O. is coming our way around 3:30ish with more equipment/quick fixes (we hope) in tow.

Sorry. I feel better now. And as a sideline I will add the husband has found a “very valid reason” I am sure, to go into Enterprise. A little distance if you please….

OK, Arriving….

On the campsite side, Ronnie Gilley’s folks have it together. It is a very smooth transition into the campgrounds—with or without campers. Some folks, like us, are already set up and are coming back while others are just arriving. There’s a check-in tent (curbside) and honestly we got our arm bands in about one minute. Nobody likes to wait especially in this heat. Check-in folks said about 500 campers/motor homes came in Wednesday. Easily.

One of the first “sights” to behold was some good ole boy who had his motor home stuck. Spinning in loose dirt. The husband called a friend who’s out here too.

“Whatcha doing?“ the husband asked.

“Watching this fella that’s stuck,“ came the reply. “You should come by. There’s a buncha people over here.“

I wish I knew how hot it is right now so I could really feel bad about it. I mean, if it’s only 92, then shut up. But if I find out later it was 99 degrees at 1:32 p.m. on Thursday, then I’m really mad.

Traffic was not heavy coming out here, but I expect it will dramatically increase as it gets closer to show time. Soon as my shirt is dry, I may head back out ... or I might just wait on Max O. It’s gotta be 96 out here.

Our closest camping buddies are in the back of a plain cargo van. They brought their grill from the backyard. They are skinny guys with their shirts on. I mention that because it is an oddity. Two security gals in a golf cart made the two move. We are against the trees, in some sort of no man’s land and everybody else who comes close to us gets run off. I am not sure why….. Perhaps they are trying to fill in the big field first.

If you are camping and you haven’t left yet, throw in an extra cooler. Put ice in it and let that be your bath tub. You’ll be glad you did. Now where’s that husband of mine…..