My family and I decided to head go to 3/4 of the California dates. We didn't go to San Diego. Our first stop was in Pala. We arrived in LA the night before, got to our hotel and found out that the hotel was sold out, to our dismay! But the manager allayed our fears by saying that there was room at another hotel just 10 mins drive from this hotel and the magic words "Free Night!" Of course, we went and ended up with free breakfast as well!!
We got to Pala and met all the Claymates there. We attended the pre-concert party at Tori Spelling's B&B. That was nice. That night at Pala, I really don't know what happened but my camera wouldn't work. My batteries and my spare batteries all died. Sis (clayheaven) had a spare video camera so that's what I took. We have yet to put those videos up at Clack Unlimited. Clay was truly funny that night. It's the One with Flat Clay. LOL I shall always remember that!
The next stop was at the Greek Theatre in L.A. I've never been to an outdoor venue quite like the Greek. It's nestled amongst tall green trees. Sis and I scored 3rd row Pit seats. We found out that pictures could be taken. It was only when the show started that we found out that videos couldn't be taken. :o( We managed a little anyway. ;o) The best part was when Clay jumped down from the stage and he walked right by me. He turned around and looked at the pit area and he could see all the cameras swinging round. He had a funny quirky smile, standing there, seeing a thousand cameras!
That night at the handshake line was so neat! Clay climbed all the way up the hill at Griffith park and came down the whole line and gave everyone a double handtouch. It was so thrilling!
Next day - Indio. We had an encounter with Jamie. We saw her struggling with her luggage up the stairs from the arena to the hotel. So, I opened the door to let her in and held it for her. She was so thankful. I asked her if she knew where the box office was and she wasn't sure but asked someone at the hotel for us. That was nice of her!
The Indio crowd was a little different. I found that Clay was looking for familiar faces in the crowd. The front section was filled with the high rollers and the tribal members. It was not very full, I must say. We had row I but moved up to row H, dead centre. We could take pics that night. Yay! I guess Clay spotted my camera 'cos it seemed to me that he looked towards my camera quite a bit towards the end. He even made googly eyes at me!! Thud! I have a picture to prove it!!
Flew to North Carolina and got to Cary with no problems. It was so hot and humid there. Phew! I've never perspired so much in my life!
The day of the Cary concert arrived and first off was the Cary pre-concert party. My whole family got to meet Clay's grandmother, Catherine. She's so sweet. We were eating our lunch and she and her friend were walking around. She spotted me and I waved and she came over. I was stunned! We spoke for a bit and we told her how we love Clay, where we were from and travelled everywhere to see him. She told us to be safe in our travels. Later on, we also met Clay's mom, Faye. She's a lovely lady. My mum wanted to meet her and she got her chance!
I shall not forget the temperature that day! 104oF!! Sweltering is all I can think of. Sis and I sat in 6th row Centre, right on the aisle. Not too bad seats. Took many shots of Clay that night - I'd say close to 400 pics! No handshake line that night. Bummer.
Asheville - Drove up to the mountains and arrived at the Biltmore Estates. We stayed at the Inn on Biltmore. This was the highlight of our vaClaytion 'cos of the House and the Blue Ridge Mountains and of course, Clay! The first we took a picture of when we arrived at the House was Clay's bus! LOL "He's here!" That's all we cared about.
We did a whirlwind tour of the 4-storey Biltmore house. I love one of the pictures they have hanging on the wall there. I believe it's called "The Waltz". I love that picture.
We ate at the historic horse barn. It was done up very nicely for us. The buffet was very good. We had to take pictures of the tractors they had in the barns over there. LOL
That night, Clay was so funny and relaxed amidst the birds and bats. LOL It was an amazing feeling to be in Asheville and to hear that soaring voice with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background, with the sun slowly setting in the horizon.
The amazing thing came after the concert - the handshake line. Oh my goodness, you should see this line that formed around the perimeter of this huge football-like lawn in front of the House. Jerome had to pull a line of people into the lawn area right by the fountain in the middle of the lawn. That's where my sis and I were. Clay started to shake hands from the inside end. He didn't speak. I guess we read later that he was counting the no. of people in the lineup! What was also amazing was the shuttle buses that waited for all of us. We didn't budge, the buses didn't budge. All waited for Clay and once he shook our hands, we left in peace. It was complete.
Knoxville was our last stop. We bumped into Jamie and Quiana walking on the way to the theatre in the afternoon. We waved at Jamie and she waved back.
During the show, Clay looked right into my sister's video camera and made a "finger wave". She was moving her finger like she was taking a picture and he did the same back to her. We have it on video! Check out clayheaven's profile at the Clayboard! Clay also looked directly at my camera about the same time. Thud!
That night at the buses, Clay came to shake our hands and thanked us all for coming. We hung around waiting for the bus to leave, then suddenly the bus door opened and out streamed almost the whole bus except for the driver and Clay! It was a dare of some sort and Quiana had to do a hip-hop routine in front of all of us and Clay's entourage would video and take pics of Quiana doing that! Check out the video under zippy888 and clayheaven at Clack Unlimited.
That was the end of the 3rd leg. Stay tuned for the mini-vaclaytion in Orlando! :o)
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