Last Thursday evening, James, my sister, and I went to see Josh Turner in concert. He was doing a benefit for a nearby city that received a lot of damage from a tornado a few months ago. The high school there got a lot of damage, and the proceeds went to help the band and athletics departments.
The concert was held in at a cattle company…so basically, in a pasture. This isn’t the best idea when there is a 50 percent chance of rain the day of the show! We got there at 5:20pm, and the place was already packed with people. We got a fairly good spot and set up our camping chairs. My sister and I went to get her a T-shirt, and about 15 minutes after we sat down, it started to rain.
It continued to rain for about 3 hours straight. It finally let up, but it continued to mist/sprinkle for another hour. By this time, we are soaked. The wind had picked up during the first 30-45 minutes of the rain, so our umbrellas did nothing to keep us dry. When it got darker, it got a little chilly, so we were wet and cold. To make matters worse, there had been no music during the rain…so we weren’t sure if Josh Turner was even going to get to perform.
About 10:15pm, the stage workers finally started uncovering the instruments and someone got on the microphone to tell us that the show was still going to be done. It was almost 11pm before Josh finally took the stage. 30 minutes and 6 songs later, he was done.
We started to make our way to the car in a very dimly lit area. Because we were in a pasture, there was nothing but mud from the rain of the evening. My sister and I took off our flip flops because you had to practically wade in the mud to walk. In some spots, my foot sunk and there was mud up past my ankles. As we got to the parking lot, we saw so many cars that were stuck…that’s how bad the mud was. The “road” areas were tore up by vehicles that had to spin to get out.
My sister and I made it to the car without slipping in the mud, but I can’t say the same about James. He lost his footing about halfway there. He was able to catch himself before falling on his butt, but his left leg landed in the mud. He was severely aggravated by that point. We finally got to the car, got somewhat cleaned up, and ready to leave. We had to wait until 20 minutes or so to let the cars around us leave so we could stay on the grass that went up to the exit. It was really the only way to get out of the pasture without getting stuck.
As we were about to leave, the Jeep in front of us got stuck. My sister and I rolled our windows down to listen to everyone talking about how not to get stuck. I looked down at my phone for 5 seconds, and the next thing I know, mud is hitting me in the face. Apparently, a few boys came over to help get the Jeep unstuck, and its tires were slinging mud into the car. In the end, I ended up being a lot muddier than James, even though he feel in it and I didn’t!
We finally made it home right at 1am Friday morning. The first thing I did was take a shower to wash all the mud off. The second thing I did was vow to never go to another concert held in a pasture…
