Let's see, it was a beautiful and fairly uneventful 28 hour drive from Austin, TX to Lavallette, NJ. There was one 30 minute delay in Tennessee waiting for an accident to be cleared. The whole DC to Baltimore drive took waaaaaay longer than anticipated and it added 3 hours to our GPS estimated arrival. Of course it was sort of expected because we hit the Washington beltway around 3:30 on a Friday before a major holiday weekend. I think we could have walked the nine miles around the beltway faster than we crawled in the car. Things opened up once we hit 95. I spent most of my non-driving hours on my phone or computer. Thursdays are my very busy conference call days and Friday was unusually phone-y too. We planned our drive so that whoever was not driving could do their calls and work. We finally arrived around 10 p.m, grabbed a pizza and went to Mike's parents' house for the night. Saturday we worked on cleaning the beach house and getting it ready for summer visitors. I didn't discover that the dryer wasn't generating any heat until after I had washed two loads of sheets and towels. Fortunately Mike's Mom allowed me to finish all the drying and other wash at her house just a few blocks away. We managed to get up to the beach for about 5 minutes before it was time to go to the Bruce concert.
We had seats in the lower level at the far side of the arena. There is nothing like a Bruce concert in New Jersey. EVERYONE in the crowd knew all the words and stood the whole time. It was amazing. He played a few really cool covers. Kitty's Back during the encore set was a good 12 minutes long. Check out the set list:
Badlands
Spirit in the Night
Outlaw Pete
Something in the Night
Out in the Street
Working on a Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Good Lovin'
E Street Shuffle
Cover Me
Thunder Road
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Incident on 57th Street
Kingdom of Days
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born to Run
* * *
Hard Times
Kitty's Back
Land of Hope and Dreams
American Land
Glory Days
Mony Mony
Meg came back to the beach with us after the concert. We got back to Mike's parents' house at 1:15 a.m. Better than last year's July concert when we got home at 2:30!
On Sunday we slept in as long as we could and then went back to the beach house to finish up our work. Meg and I made a run to Tar-jay for cleaning supplies, tp, a new kitchen trash can, a new bath mat (the other one really needed to go!) and a new window a/c unit. As soon as we were back at the house we scooted up to the beach to catch a few rays but the weather was not very cooperative. Meg managed to get a little pink - I think it was wind burn. I was freezing the whole time and stayed covered up.
Mike's parents made us a delicous dinner at their home last evening. Afterwards we just had to go to the Crab's Claw for one beer before bed. The place was twice as crowded as any night last summer. In fact, the whole beach community looked busier this weekend than at any time we were here last summer. It was nice seeing so many people biking and walking around the small community.
Mike and I spent the night in our newly cleaned beach house but Meg chickened out and went back to the comfort of her grandparents house. We awoke to a perfect sunny blue sky day today and hit the beach by 11. We were off the beach at 2 though so that Mike could drop Meg and me at the train station and send us on our various journeys - Meg to NYC and me to Baltimore. We made it to the train by the skin of our teeth - about a minute to spare. Then I missed my Amtrak train by about 2 minutes and had to wait an hour. Now I am almost to Baltimore where I will find my way to the rental car place and drive to the eastern shore. Several more hours of travel for me tonight and then bed and a day to see my Mom tomorrow. I forgot my camera battery charger so no more pix unless I can find a place to buy a replacement. It's always something, isn't it.
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