Wed morning Jan 9 started out crazy. Saying bye to my little girl knowing I wouldnt see her for a few days was terrible.Then trying to figure out how in the world I was going to get all the merchandise and gear down to Miami really sucked!
I met Chris around day break to head to the airport. Do you remember being in college and loading up with your buddies to head out for Spring Break? Thats about the only way I could describe the feeling. We arrived at the air port in plenty of time so we were just laying around at the gate talking about what the day held and met more and more folks that were going on the cruise with us. One person on the same flight was our good friend Francisco Vidal. He joined us and started filling us in on what the boat had in store for us. Dave, Beef, and Derrick drove from Rockmart so when Chis and I got to the hotel in Miami we had a little while before they joined us.
On the night before you set sail Sixthman throws a big Pre-party there in Miami. They put Francisco in charge of the entertainment so he had lined up some great guys and bands to play. That night we played with Fran, Grayson Hill, Brandan Perry , Brian Collins, and Pico. I think we did about 4 songs. The pre-party was packed and being my first time doing something like this I was pretty nervous. But we were very lucky on this whole trip - we had about 15 of our closest friends that were there with us. Lisa., John, Jared, Valerie, Shane, David, Michelle, Jeff, April, Robin, Lacresa, Melissa, Melanie, and Hope all were there supporting us and gave us that Redkneck peace of mind that I definately needed!
After the pre-party everyone went their separate ways - me, Chris and Derrick took a cab back to the hotel. Some how the dang cab driver got lost - I bet we drove around for 2 hours looking for the "right La Quinta". I think he actually took us to 4 before he finally found the "Right one". If you have ever been to Miami then you know that hardly any people there actually speak english. Everyone is Cuban it seems - I dont have a problem with Cubans - I actually met one cab driver named Joe who told me about his childhood back in Cuba. He has been here in the States for about 25 years - illegally of course - but he seemed like a great guy. He got a chance to get out and did - he had lived in fear his whole life and one day decided he didnt want his children to live the way had for years. Talking to Joe made me really appreciate what we have here. I was about to wake up and go play music on a big ass boat with legends I had only dreamed of meeting one day - while there is guys all over the world just hoping to wake up PERIOD. Day one ended with even more anticipation as we were only hours away from setting sail on the Simple Man Cruise.
Jay