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CHICAGO/ST. LOUIS OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
SHILLELAGH/CLARE'S REPORT
Honestly, I don't even know how to start.
In just over 100 hours, I was in airports 10 times (7 different ones), I saw 2 amazing concerts, I met an un-counted number of Whooligans and I only wasted 16 hours sleeping.
I talked to alot of Whooligans who had friends or relatives that thought they were crazy running off to meet "total?" strangers. And the most amazing aspect of the whole experience was that, after getting to know people for going on 2yrs thru postings, chats, emails and some phone calls...Everyone turned out to be the people I expected and, in fact, some simply blew me away, by being so much more.
I now understand what Burton means..."May You Walk with the Good Spirits"...because for 3 days, that's exactly what I & WE did.
CHICAGO ARRIVAL HIGHLIGHTS:
I've been trying to put my trip into a journal, so far I've written 25 pages and I'm up to St Louis concert start.
- Susan being trapped in the jeep by a faulty seat belt
- Meeting Susan's sister Joanne and watching the family interaction
- Meeting Mark
- Watching Susan convince South West Airlines that they should let a foreigner on a plane without ID
- Mauro Garcia
- Meeting Ruth Ann
- Being frisked by security
- Susan going toe-to-toe with security, draws always go to the home team and the FAA won
ST. LOUIS HIGHLIGHTS:
Remembering that our comfort level learning curve is screaming straight up with each hour
- Mark forgetting the "Guess Who Concert or Bust" sign in the jeep (well we're blaming him)
- Meeting Jim who truly is a Living Legend and his son, Jimmy at the airport
- Searching for Rette and finding and meeting, Donna/Delia. Donna's big old Chevy
- meeting Jim's "SO", Nicky
- at dinner...we met the St Louis Fearless Foursome of
Rette, Dawn (Starbaby), Lori (Burtonfan) and Donna plus Donna's hubby, Roast Beef and Roast Beef Junior. Time here was way to short
- being swarmed by high school girls in ball gowns
- being recognized by Sam as the guy with the broken arm
- sharing the concert with Ruth Ann
- the St Louis crowd was awesome on just a perfect night
- finding out from Dawn about Lori winning backstage passes and her answer to "Who is she taking with her?"
- paying a dollar cover charge for the 5 minutes in the head banging bar
- standing outside the Four Seasons Sheraton, caught like deer in the headlights, as the tour bus drove up at 1:30am
- the amazing stories from Jim (thanks for all the rides)
- Room 234
CHICAGO SUNDAY HIGHLIGHTS:
After the St Louis concert under our belts we are really starting rock
- Ruth Ann and I following Susan and Mark from the airport to the hotel
- the "invasion of the body snatchers" point and meet with Shelley
- Shelley's friend Kathy making it perfectly clear that she was NOT a Whooligan and shouldn't be greeted as one
- meeting Donna (Brampton Bridges)
- being a gang of tourists and having the "El" guy explain to us how to ride
- Navy Pier
- being "Bus Riders" in downtown Chicago
- meeting Bob & Karen and Dan & Joan and the whole McGuires night
- 9 of us in Dan's van, lost in the Chicago suburbs looking for Mark's hosts...and not caring..."Nothing wrong with the road...drivin' round and singin"
- These Eyes will NEVER be the same for me again
- Room 234
CHICAGO MONDAY HIGHLIGHTS:
By now, I'm just too UP to care about sleep depravation and the adrenalin is flowing. In fact everything is flowing and on top of everything else I get to meet Sherry, R-R-R, even though she chose Brett over me for Sunday
- spending breakfast with Dan, Joan, Shell, & Kathy
- going to the Mall
- going to the copier shop...you should have heard what Kathy was going to do with some spare fans
- being in Sherry's room
- now it just starts to get Crazy. There are Whooligans showing up everywhere...it was great
- off to Gino's
- the triumphant arrival of Ray
- Mark's emotional speech
- pre-concert head butting with Dan
- more Whooligan meetings
- Joe Cocker... it was definitely the best that I had seen and enjoyed this one
- Intermission...more Whooligans arriving at the row
- Anchoring the AMERICAN with the final N in our row and
having Randy work towards us and point
- Share the Land
- sitting beside the self-proclaimed, Rose
- Shoeless Joes, which was very emotional
- my Randy/Garry/Bill signed No Klones gift from Mark
- having everyone sign my "Woooo-Hoooo" sign
CHICAGO TUESDAY HIGHLIGHTS:
Idioticly, I thought my flight was at 10:30
- being stupid pays dividends...I get to go to the airport with Sherry,Shelley and Kathy
- airport time with Sherry
- finding the only other Canadian Whooligan, Donna, sitting beside me for the trip home
DEFINING WHOOLIGAN MOMENTS:
Out of all these hilights there are some specials to share:
Chicago Sunday Night
It's a beautiful moonlit night on the shores of Lake Michigan. Two large round tables are pulled together in a separate room in Butch McGuires on Rush street. Around that table...I'm Scared, VoteforDan, Mrs VoteforDan, Maplefudge, Miss Maypole, Brampton Bridges, SAFan, Shillelagh, BCPCFan, Kathy. The jukebox is a constant stream of Guess Who tunes. VoteforDan and BCPCFan are incredible on lead vocals with everyone else just rockin' along. SuzieQ returns from the jukebox and starts to cry because we are all just having a perfect Whooligan moment
- The genesis of Shelley's friend, Kathy, into a Whooligan was a joy to watch and an honour to be part of
- At the Chicago concert, wearing the Maple Leaf, the Stars and Stripes and the Guess Who Beaver, listening to Burton as an ambassador expressing the feelings of so many Canadians, having stood in suburban Chicago where the flag was raised on every home, locked hands during Share the Land...I was so proud to be a Canadian Whooligan standing with amongst all of you
- These Eyes
- Anytime we were in Dan's Van
THANK YOU'S:
I want to thank each and every Whooligan for having made this one of the absolutely best experiences of my life.
And...for Whooliganism, Above and Beyond
- Susan: chauffeur, tour guide, Conor, all the hard work and the infectious enthusiasm
- Sherry: Oh Yes.Yes.Yes The calm guiding force keeping everything on course
- Mark and Ruth Ann: St Louis travelling companions. Ruth Ann for being my concert escort. Mark, roommate and for thinking of me backstage at Chicago
- Dan: for rockin' us all over Chicago and bringing Joan
- Jeff/DukeArnold: for the generous St Louis tickets.
- Shelley: the empassioned descriptions of your community's response to September 11th, made you the perfect choice as envoy to the Red Cross, as per Jeff's request. "Couldn't be a fancy dancing girl..."
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