My family and I left Calgary on Dec 13 as we have to fly practically the whole day to get to Newark, New Jersey. Unfortunately, there was fog in Newark and the plane wouldn't take off till it got clearance. So there we sat on the tarmac for 1 1/2 hours in Calgary!! Good thing I had my laptop or I'd go bonkers. Finally, we flew. We arrived in Newark and went to claim our luggage and found that the luggage was on a later flight. Oh no! "How long do we have to wait?", we asked the baggage claim person and she said 45 minutes. So we waited and meantime, she gave us 4 $10 food vouchers for waiting. That worked out OK. So we went in search for food. Came back and claimed our luggage with no problems. Got the car and off to our hotel we went. Woke up the next morning and found that we were opposite the BIGGEST outlet mall in Newark. JOY! Let's go shop for an hour. Had to 'cos my mum's luggage handle broke. Found one and we were happy and off we drove to our first concert venue in Greenvale, New York. It took us 2 hours to get to Greenvale.

GREENVALE We checked in at the Roslyn Claremont Hotel and lo and behold, I heard "Zippy!" I turned around and saw the Clayfans from California - CLAYGAL, clayzygrandmother - my dear old friends we had met in our many travels to see Clay. Hugs went around! I love the way Clay brings us all together in one way or another.

That night we found our way to the concert venue and it was tough in the dark. Finally found the University as the theatre was at the U. We arrived at the pre-concert party, hosted by hopelesslydevoted. The party was a hit! She did a great job! There was lots of food and prizes galore. We each had to bring a pair of striped socks and it was to be put in a huge basket for Clay. My sister aka clayheaven and I thought we didn't just want to get socks and then throw them in the basket, so what we did was this. We strung the socks on a colourful Christmas rope and pegged the striped socks on the rope! It was quite the sight to see! I hope Clay had a laugh when he saw them. :o)

It was so good to see all my Clay buddies again. We've met people along the way someway or another. It was so nice to see NYMom4Clay, Claydorkable, justanotherclayfan, LinluvsClay, Shycon, Clayja, PinayRN4Clay, CLAYGAL, clayzygrandmother, clayniac2, codmag, claydict – the list goes on!! As I’ve said before, Clay brings us all together.

The concert began. It was then we found out that Clay was not feeling well. He sat on a stool all night long. He could’ve opted out of singing but still he braved the whole night! I’m so proud of him. I guess he knows that a lot of fans are here to see him sing and the show MUST go on!! Eventhough he was so ill, he managed to banter with the audience and kept us all rolling with laughter in our seats, especially when he did that New York accent thing. Clay was amazing that night and he sang with all his heart and all his soul.

He didn’t come out to the buses that night, which I figured he wouldn’t ‘cos he didn’t look too good. We adjourned to our hotel that night to load up our clack! ;o)

Next morning, we found breakfast in a New York deli. I love the way New Yorkans speak!

Stay tuned for our next venue - West Point. :o)