Monday I was whisked via BA and in the comfort of World Traveller Plus (premium economy) to Newark where the very lovely Anna Sugden came to meet me. Off we pootled in her little red VW Beetle (the modern one.) Talking, of course, about writing. Which is pretty much what we did as we wandered through the grocery store, I was introduced to the cats and when I met the wonderful Keith… ok we did also talk about ice hockey but I have no knowledge of this so I will gloss over it.
It was a great start to the week and as Tuesday dawned Anna drove me back to the airport to catch my flight to Nashville.
And this is probably where I should have taken the hint about me and domestic air travel in the US this week. The flight was cancelled. Instead of being on the 2pm flight I was now on the 7pm flight *sigh*
So back in the little red beetle… to a lovely Israeli run café in Tenafly. Soup, lemonade, chocolate mousse and a very flirtatious waiter which seemed like a fair deal for a cancelled flight!
And in time I made it on the 7pm flight (which actually took off at 8pm) thinking that I was now over my usual ‘going to Nashville’ travel issues. Every single time my flight to go there is cancelled. How wrong I was… but I didn’t find that out until a few days later.
Once in Nash Vegas I leapt in a cab, stormed the hotel and threw my bags through the door. Racing a few blocks south I entered the Bridge Bar… the heart of the Country Radio Seminar. The bar where deals are made, careers are broken and where lots and lots of people get very very drunk.
(By the way I have never seen this bar empty. Ever. Just wall to wall people. So that is what it looks like…)
I realised how things have changed since last year… here I was walking in alone and knowing a few people as opposed to last year when I hid behind Lee’s coattails and knew no one! Rick ‘RJ’ Jordan of Country Thunder Records grabbed hold of me and whisked me off for drinks. My sophomore CRS experience had begun (and not a naked cowboy in sight!)
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