NKOTB 7/9

• Hey people how are you? I'm doing fantastic. I had an absolutely great time at the NKOTB concert on Thursday night and a fun weekend as well. I'm going to blog about the concert, and if it gets too longwinded I'll do a separate blog for the rest of the weekend. So on Thursday morning I picked up the Wheelchair Getaways van in Milbrae, then went home to shower and get ready for my really long day. I arrived in Lodi by noon, and we left a little after 1pm. We got to Concord around 2:30, and had to wait until 3pm before they opened the gates for us. We had great VIP parking in lot A, it just took about 20 minutes to find the right lot. We almost ended up in the crew's parking area, and pretty much cut off the New Kids' bus while I was getting directions. Hahaha. Then we had to wait in line for about an hour before we could get in. I came very close to passing out at one point. It was 85 degrees, I was thirsty and had been up for almost 24 hrs straight. Luckily I kept talking to Kimmie and everyone else around me and stayed awake.
  
• Once we got in we went straight to the souvenir booth. I got myself a t-shirt, which is awesome. Kimmie got stuff for various family members. Later on in the evening she bought me a Joe button, although she didn't have to. Next we got our gift bags and went in the VIP area for BBQ and beverages. We got free underwear (gave mine to Cathy), a towel, lip balm, sun lotion, and I can't remember what else. After mingling for a bit, we didn't have to wait long to see the boys. We were in the 4th group. Once we got to the picture area, we were told to wait for the rest of our group to go, since they wanted a separate pic with just us two. It was awesome. We got to chat with them for about 3 minutes and take a nice picture. I got hugs from them all, and Donnie and I had a brief conversation about Smurfette from the Smurfs, and how she used to be evil. Plus he gave me a high-five. That and Joe gave me a brief shoulder massage. It was lovely. I can't wait to get that picture back, you know I'm hanging an 8 X 10 on the wall. They are all really nice guys. Jordan always seems like he doesn't really like being there, but I've heard other reports of him being rude so it's not just us. Oh well.
  
• So after all that excitement we went to the restroom then went downstairs to find our seats. Now the other two times we've sat in the first ten rows, I have to transfer Kimmie out of her chair and stow it somewhere else. This time security physically moved chairs out of the way, so she didn't have to get out of hers. At first we were in the 7th row, but then some security lady told us we had to move 3 rows back so we weren't in the way. So we did. The seats were still awesome. Kimmie had no problems seeing anything, even with everyone standing up. Security came by quite often to see if she was enjoying the show. I'd say Concord Pavillion has the best wheelchair access and nicest security. At least compared to the HP Pavillion in San Jose and Savemart Center in Fresno.
  
• After the show we were one of the last vehicles out of the parking lot. We stopped for gas down the street, for coffee in Livermore, then back to Lodi. By then I was so exhausted that I felt drunk. Once I got her inside I made a McDonald's run which was interesting, because the manager there looked like a young Christian Slater. All in all, fantastic time. Probably the best NKOTB experience yet. Yay!!