Well, my week of tour volunteering has finished. Honestly, I wish I’d just arranged to finish the whole season. I’m feeling for that driving team today…I had back to back drives from Hattiesburg to Nashville, followed by Nashville to Atlanta. THEY had a third night of driving to Winston Salem, and tonight a FOURTH night in a row driving to Ohio. Stay safe guys! I’m not sure I could have done all 4 of those 4 nights in a row!
The Atlanta show was GREAT! While I enjoy a big dome show like the previous shows in the Georgia Dome, there’s something about being right there on the field outdoors with the Corps putting that brass right in your face that is something special.
I thought our young men had their best night of the season last night. High energy, no glitches in the electronics, an “interesting” choice of Super Bowl jokes, and a visual package that gets better every time they step on the field. So proud of the Cavaliers!
Today, I’m sitting here sipping a glass of cold Chardonnay ( it’s 5 o’clock somewhere and my days have been turned to nights and vice versa for the last few days…so no apologies) wishing I was getting ready to drive the Penske to the stadium and walk into yet another great show. And tonight’s lineup ( for a 7-8 corps show ) is powerful!
Yesterday was so wonderfully sweet at our house. We have a group of DCI fans that have been buying block tickets to DCI-South for over 10 years now. And for 7 of those, my son Davis was sitting in the seats next to us. So…in 2015, how cool was it when he earned a roster spot with Atlanta CV, and as they performed in the Dome, the on-field camera caught him in a full face close-up on the Jumbo-tron! Our whole section went wild!
Then, in 2016, he marched with Atlanta CV again, and was the front and back soloist for the “Gabriel’s Oboe” ballad. My 17-year old boy stood on the floor of the Georgia Dome and absolutely rocked both of those solos in front of a huge Georgia Dome crowd…again, our whole block cheered wildly.
You can hear that here by pasting this link…( yea, I’m a proud Dad and make no apologies for that either! ) And remember…there are solos on front and back of this!
So, you can imagine, as parents, Laurie and I were a little bummed when we heard that his first DCI-South show wasn’t going to be in the Georgia Dome with our same crew of 30-40 in our block cheering on the Cavaliers. It just wasn’t possible to transition our 40-person block to that small stadium.
And yet, now I sit here wondering how DCI could reasonably get the Atlanta show back outdoors! So much fun last night not getting a concussion from some of the horn lines due to dome/volume! Perhaps DCI should be talking to Georgia Tech for 2018!
As I sit here this afternoon, I’m really feeling somewhat of a sense of loss! I want to be back out there with the corps walking into that stadium tonight to watch/hear/experience them doing their thing. But…the good news is that it’s only 10 days until Laurie and I head to Indy…I simply can’t wait.
One final note about last night…Davis’ girlfriend Graysen, who hasn’t laid eyes on him since he graduated from high school back on 5/26/2017, was waiting as the corps exited the field. And he had several more friends waiting back at the buses. Never underestimate how important just a few minutes of “home” mean to an 18 year old young man as he finishes the drill with the Cavaliers and prepares to go to college the first day after Final’s weekend!
Until INDY! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CAVALIERS! SPLOOOOOIE!
Rolling With the Cavaliers 