I'll start with the more recent activities and work back.
Will we have a wild winter again?
At the beginning of November in our area, we had almost 10 inches of snow! While yes, there often is some snow in November, it is usually a couple of inches around the middle of the month but around 10 inches for most areas? Even the longtime residents I talked with said that was a lot of snow for so early in the season. The trees too were not expecting the snow as many still had the fall leaves and needles of them.
All the snow was getting many nervous about a repeat of last year's record snow or an even a worse winter this year. A few weeks ago a state weather forecasting department was predicting what Idaho could expect for snow and rainfall for this winter of 2017-2018.
For our neck of the woods and general location, it was predicted an approximate snowfall of 193 inches or about 16 FEET of snow! Of course, that number could be totally wrong and it also is over the span of a full winter, so, hopefully, not all at once like last February's 4 feet of snow overnight!
Safe to say though, it should be a snowy winter season again this year.
That 10 inches of snow? Well, it took a couple of weeks but it did warm up to more "seasonal" temperatures, so much of, but not all, the snow, has melted at the lower elevations. As I'm typing this, today (11/20/17), it has been raining all day after being mostly overcast for over a week with some occasional showers.
The area tire company, a Les Schwab brand dealer, was swamped for two weeks with the sudden snowfall catching so many people off guard and not having their snow tires swapped for their summer tires on their cars and trucks. So they all parked at the tire shop to get their winter tires installed.
With it being so backed up I decided we'd just swap our tires at home for the Prius. We have studded snow tires on their own set of rims so it was just jack up the car and swap the wheels. Our truck is 4 wheel drive and we just use the all season tires on it.
Garth Brooks in concert!
In late September, I think, it was announced that Garth Brooks would be having a few concerts in Spokane, Washington, at the Spokane Arena, November 10, 11, and 12. Tickets would go on sale on Friday, October 6th at 10 am.
Stacy asked me if we could go, and I said it sounded good to me!
So, October 6th at a few minutes before 10 am and Stacy tries the Tickets West number and is put on hold for the "virtual ticket window".
Stacy was on hold for close to an hour waiting, and while she waited for an answer, Friday became sold out, then Saturday night-sold out, then Sunday night too and the listing for available concerts started to grow. The first concert became Thursday night, and it sold out. Then a Tuesday night show was added and it sold out. And finally, two afternoon shows on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday afternoon sold out so when Sunday afternoon opened up for her to buy tickets she got us two tickets for that show.
The afternoon time worked better for us anyway since Spokane is about 2 1/2 hours away so we wouldn't be getting back really late or having to spend the night in a motel in the area due to the late hour.
On November 10th we were reading some area news articles about the concerts and watched some posted phone videos on YouTube from the Thursday night concert as well as a press conference video by area news stations of Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.
Now, Stacy and I have liked Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood since they were on the radios back in the early 1990s. Some really good music!
We had also watched all the concerts he did in that era since most were shown on broadcast TV back then. A few years back we got the DVD boxed set of his concerts and watched them all again, yes they are that good. He did a great show 'back in the day' and the concerts looked like they were great, even if I'm not crazy about the crowds they always had.
November 12th and it is concert day! November 9th Stacy was emailed the tickets she'd gotten on October 6th. So we printed up our tickets and got going to Spokane leaving about 9:00 am.
We got to the Arena about 11:30 am to get good parking, at $15.00 to park in the lot and beat the crowds that would be there for the 3 pm show. And we were still not the first ones there!
When we arrive at the Spokane Arena and while it is chilly there, we get in the line. About noon and the security come out to start setting up the portable metal detectors that due to the Las Vegas shooting everyone has to go through now at this venue.
While we waited the winds started blowing. Not really hard but it brought the temps down, A LOT!!!
I'm sure this was partly because of the two getting longer all the time, lines, the line we were still in was in the shade and we FROZE. We had good jackets on but obviously not good enough for the probably in the twenty-degree range wind chill. We needed our really warm winter jackets which were, of course, over a hundred miles away!
What we couldn't believe though, were how many people had no jackets at all! I saw a few people, very few but a few, in shorts. Many ladies were wearing their finest going to a show skimpy clothes on, and they had to be as cold as they looked. We were cold and they must have been almost hyperthermic by the time they started letting people in the building at 1:30 pm for the 3:00 pm show. Stacy and I were both shivering when we went through the metal detectors.
Inside the arena, we made our way to our second level seating which for a first time there were pretty good ones in my opinion.
Above and below: While we had a good view I would kinda watch the big screen for the close-up view.
Will we have a wild winter again?
At the beginning of November in our area, we had almost 10 inches of snow! While yes, there often is some snow in November, it is usually a couple of inches around the middle of the month but around 10 inches for most areas? Even the longtime residents I talked with said that was a lot of snow for so early in the season. The trees too were not expecting the snow as many still had the fall leaves and needles of them.
All the snow was getting many nervous about a repeat of last year's record snow or an even a worse winter this year. A few weeks ago a state weather forecasting department was predicting what Idaho could expect for snow and rainfall for this winter of 2017-2018.
For our neck of the woods and general location, it was predicted an approximate snowfall of 193 inches or about 16 FEET of snow! Of course, that number could be totally wrong and it also is over the span of a full winter, so, hopefully, not all at once like last February's 4 feet of snow overnight!
Safe to say though, it should be a snowy winter season again this year.
That 10 inches of snow? Well, it took a couple of weeks but it did warm up to more "seasonal" temperatures, so much of, but not all, the snow, has melted at the lower elevations. As I'm typing this, today (11/20/17), it has been raining all day after being mostly overcast for over a week with some occasional showers.
Above: A little over a week earlier and it was a fall Saturday. The yellow needles still on the Larch trees and the leaves on the Cottonwoods. Then a week later and the following photos!
Above: Taken early morning on November 3rd after snowing during the night, some snow still falling in the photo that morning.
Below: On the way to work and the snowfall is really indicated on our mailbox.
Above: When we got to work Stacy was out clearing the walkway with a shovel. Later that morning we got real snow shovels and de-icer brought to our building for the season.
The area tire company, a Les Schwab brand dealer, was swamped for two weeks with the sudden snowfall catching so many people off guard and not having their snow tires swapped for their summer tires on their cars and trucks. So they all parked at the tire shop to get their winter tires installed.
With it being so backed up I decided we'd just swap our tires at home for the Prius. We have studded snow tires on their own set of rims so it was just jack up the car and swap the wheels. Our truck is 4 wheel drive and we just use the all season tires on it.
Garth Brooks in concert!
In late September, I think, it was announced that Garth Brooks would be having a few concerts in Spokane, Washington, at the Spokane Arena, November 10, 11, and 12. Tickets would go on sale on Friday, October 6th at 10 am.
Stacy asked me if we could go, and I said it sounded good to me!
So, October 6th at a few minutes before 10 am and Stacy tries the Tickets West number and is put on hold for the "virtual ticket window".
Stacy was on hold for close to an hour waiting, and while she waited for an answer, Friday became sold out, then Saturday night-sold out, then Sunday night too and the listing for available concerts started to grow. The first concert became Thursday night, and it sold out. Then a Tuesday night show was added and it sold out. And finally, two afternoon shows on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday afternoon sold out so when Sunday afternoon opened up for her to buy tickets she got us two tickets for that show.
The afternoon time worked better for us anyway since Spokane is about 2 1/2 hours away so we wouldn't be getting back really late or having to spend the night in a motel in the area due to the late hour.
On November 10th we were reading some area news articles about the concerts and watched some posted phone videos on YouTube from the Thursday night concert as well as a press conference video by area news stations of Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.
Now, Stacy and I have liked Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood since they were on the radios back in the early 1990s. Some really good music!
We had also watched all the concerts he did in that era since most were shown on broadcast TV back then. A few years back we got the DVD boxed set of his concerts and watched them all again, yes they are that good. He did a great show 'back in the day' and the concerts looked like they were great, even if I'm not crazy about the crowds they always had.
November 12th and it is concert day! November 9th Stacy was emailed the tickets she'd gotten on October 6th. So we printed up our tickets and got going to Spokane leaving about 9:00 am.
We got to the Arena about 11:30 am to get good parking, at $15.00 to park in the lot and beat the crowds that would be there for the 3 pm show. And we were still not the first ones there!
When we arrive at the Spokane Arena and while it is chilly there, we get in the line. About noon and the security come out to start setting up the portable metal detectors that due to the Las Vegas shooting everyone has to go through now at this venue.
While we waited the winds started blowing. Not really hard but it brought the temps down, A LOT!!!
I'm sure this was partly because of the two getting longer all the time, lines, the line we were still in was in the shade and we FROZE. We had good jackets on but obviously not good enough for the probably in the twenty-degree range wind chill. We needed our really warm winter jackets which were, of course, over a hundred miles away!
What we couldn't believe though, were how many people had no jackets at all! I saw a few people, very few but a few, in shorts. Many ladies were wearing their finest going to a show skimpy clothes on, and they had to be as cold as they looked. We were cold and they must have been almost hyperthermic by the time they started letting people in the building at 1:30 pm for the 3:00 pm show. Stacy and I were both shivering when we went through the metal detectors.
Inside the arena, we made our way to our second level seating which for a first time there were pretty good ones in my opinion.
Above and below: From our seats, we had a pretty good view of the stage. When the show started the large monitors raised up on all sides and the circular framework around the drummer was center stage. Between the Garth "G" logo and various country music songs being played, there were occasional Garth Brooks and Amazon music commercials were shown.
Above: Stacy and I in our then empty seating section. Everybody that would be sitting behind us was waiting in the beer lines apparently.
Above: Just minutes before the show starts, five minutes late by the way, and most of the seats are filled. Supposedly around 10,000 people were in the area.
Above and below: While we had a good view I would kinda watch the big screen for the close-up view.
Above and below: When Garth Brooks started singing his song "The River" it was very cool when many in the audience used the 'flashlight mode' of their phones camera flash as they would have lighters in the 1990s concerts. The blue bar in the photo below was actually an advertising banner on the front of the second-floor seating that showed various narrow scenes and lettering.
So, how was it? First I'm really glad I'd brought and we used our earplugs! The music was so loud it was occasionally distorting the giant arena speakers and even with our earplugs in it was like we weren't wearing them! However, a girl from work had gone Saturday night without any hearing protection and she said her ears were ringing for two days! My tinnitus would have been screaming for a week from the loud sounds and I don't want Stacy to have any hearing issues if they are avoidable like this show was. Just take the earplugs!
Second, IT WAS GREAT!
Over twenty years later and Stacy and I got to see a Garth Brooks show of the same quality as his 1990s shows. We loved it!
The show had the same energy and excitement as those 1990s shows. Garth and his crew were often running all over the place on the stage, Garth would make sure to spend time at each of the areas of the stage to play to that audience as if he was signing just for them. He also worked the entire audience very well. And, as he said, he knows most people want to hear those great 1990s songs of his so with the exception of one of his newer songs from his recent "Gunslinger" album, all the songs were the old songs. I thought it sounded so cool when most of the audience would be signing certain songs. The harmony was very, very cool to hear!
After the shows, we found out that each show, and there were seven in Spokane, made, in ticket sales only, around a million dollars a show. Add in the "Garth Merc" sales, the Amazon Music tie-ins and should this World Tour be the only concerts for a few years and they are still doing very well for themselves!
The show was 2 1/2 hours long, way longer than I thought it would be. Way back in the early 1990s Stacy and I had gone to Las Vegas to see a Tanya Tucker concert at an older casino, a few years before the mega show venues in Las Vegas. It was a crowd of around 150, a small venue.
While she was good, and she sounded like her CD's in her songs, she was on stage for exactly 1 hour and then she was gone.
The last 35 minutes of this show was Garth playing requests and other songs by other artists.
It was a lot of fun!
We got back home around 9:30 that night after finally getting out of the area of the arena and stopping in Coeur d' Alene and having dinner at the Olive Garden that luckily stays open until 10 pm on Sundays even in North Idaho.
Next post when I post it! Tad
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