THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH, 2018 — SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, IL:
I totally forgot to post a “road report” from this trip!
Departed Nashville on SWA at around noon on Thursday en route to Scott AFB, IL where Lucas Hoge will perform tomorrow. My first visit to this base but not my first time working with the Deputy Director of their Support Squadron – Jude. I worked with him for several years when he was at Spangdahlem AFB, Germany. Lindsey met him on a tour with Frankie Ballard but every time I visited his base, he was away. We decided that for this visit, I will be “Judy” to avoid confusion with having two “Jude’s”.
Flight arrived in St. Louis on time and I went to National to pick out my rental car. I like that I can select any vehicle I want as opposed to having a certain one assigned to me by as other agencies do. I was looking for one with a GPS and not having much luck. A nice young man assisted me and I drove away I a Nissan Altima. Since I had an Altima years ago and have driven Nissan for more than a decade, it was easier to figure out the “controls”. I made one quick stop for lunch and then arrived at the base after about a 45 minute drive. Our point of contact is “Sunshine”. She is as delightful as her name suggests. And, we are giving her credit for having such beautiful weather.
Sunshine took me over to meet Jude and also gave me a brief “tour” of the base and show site. Everyone I met who is working with Jude were so nice and seemed to love their jobs and working with him. It’s a beautiful base and unlike so many I have visited, there are not a lot of aircraft landing and taking off. There is a runway, but I only heard planes a couple of times during my entire visit. This will be our 2nd Annual Fall Fest event. Scott AFB is unique in the fact that they have all branches of Service who work, live and play on the installation. It serves as home to more than 14,000 personnel with an even greater military population in the surrounding area.
We are staying on base lodging and it is new and beautiful. Sunshine already had everyone checked in and the room keys available. Since Lucas and his group are driving up from Nashville, they won’t arrive until later tonight. I told Sunshine to go home to her family and I would meet them at the gate and give them their credentials when they arrived. I made a quick run to the food court to get a salad for dinner and then worked until I received a text from Lucas’s manager saying they were about 10 minutes out. I have never worked with Lucas but met him and his wife/manager at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville at the 60th Birthday Celebration of the CMA. Both were super nice and I’m looking forward to working with them. We have lots of mutual friends who have told me about how great Lucas is throughout the past several years. He has toured for the troops overseas for many years with Wrangler.
No issues getting everyone in and settled into their rooms. Have a pretty early call tomorrow to start sound check.
Jude
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28TH – FALL FEST AT SCOTT AFB WITH LUCAS HOGE:
Breakfast was being catered at the venue so I was able to get up and exercise and work for a while before heading over at 9:45 am. I was ready to go to the lobby at 9:30 am but could not find my rental car keys. I looked everywhere in my room, in my bags and in the pocket of the pants I had worn the night before. Then I went outside and walked the parking lot between where I parked and where Lucas’ mini-bus was parked. My car was locked so I knew I had the key when I got out of it last night. I was afraid I dropped the key in the parking lot and someone found it and would drive off in the car. No one had turned in any keys to the hotel reception. I didn’t want to make the group late, so I rode over with Sunshine and Lucas and his group followed in the bus. On the rider over, I went back through the events of the prior evening trying to figure out where my key might be. That’s when I remembered that it was cold last night and I had on a jacket. I had that jacket in my bag and found the key when I checked the pocket!
The sound company was still setting up and everyone ate a great breakfast while they were finishing up. The stage is set up in front of one of their Event Center and their “dressing room/green room” is inside the building. Very convenient and nice set up. A huge area in front of the stage is set up with booths from various vendors for food, etc., and lots of “blow up, bouncy houses” for the children. It’s a very family friendly event.
Sound check went smoothly and the production company the base hired is great. The group decided to go back to lodging and change their clothes and then have lunch which was also being catered into the green room. Several Commanders and Officers came by after lunch to meet Lucas and the group and thank him for performing.
The show started on time and while there were not a lot of people right out in front of the stage, there were a lot of people throughout the grounds listening to the show while their children enjoyed the other festivities. Lucas does have a great show – as my friends predicted – and his love of our military is evident in his comments to those attending. He performed from 3 pm until 4:30 pm and then signed autographs and took photos with everyone until around 5:30 pm. Dinner was catered in and we enjoyed eating with Sunshine and some of the other base personnel. One of the ladies I met is good friends with one of my dear friends at the USO – both named Tracy. A lot of the staff I met today had served in Okinawa many years ago when I was taking tours there on a regular basis.
We had already checked out of lodging earlier in the day so we all gathered our things for departure. Lucas and most of his group were driving back to Nashville but one guy person was flying out of St. Louis later that night and another person was being picked up by another artist to travel to another performance. I agreed to give them a ride to the airport if one of them would do the driving. We stopped at the airport first and then Thomas – who was being picked up later – went to my hotel and “hung out” until his ride arrived. I took the rental car back to the agency so that I could just take the shuttle over the next morning. I was going to drop off the rental car (which is not on-site at the airport) and then take their shuttle to the airport and then take the hotel shuttle back to the Renaissance. However, the really nice guy at National Rental Car insisted on driving me from their location to my hotel. Such great service!
Jude
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH – ST. LOUIS TO NASHVILLE:
Was in the lobby by 8:30 am to take the shuttle to the airport for my flight back to Nashville. Grabbed a “yogurt” at the airport while I was waiting to board my flight. The flight was on time and was pretty full but there were some empty seats. A very large lady decided to sit in the middle seat between me and the window seat passenger. She barely fit into the seat and was complaining that the airlines were making the seats smaller and smaller. She asked the flight attendant for a seat belt extension and then tried to lower her tray table before we took off. The table would only come about half-way down before it landed on her. The flight attendant came by and told her she had to raise it for takeoff. Not sure she had ever flown before. Thankfully, it was a short 55 minute flight.
It was a great visit to Scott AFB. I am blessed to have met the wonderful people at the base and worked with such a terrific artist as Lucas and his musicians/crew.
Jude
