With the upcoming band hiatus planned for 2012, It was imperative that I see GBS at some point in 2011. I had only seen them once in 2010, and that was last October. With my luck, the only concerts scheduled in the summer were for Colorado, Buffalo, NY and Lowell, MA. In a conversation with my friend Andi in Buffalo, she had described the venue there. I decided not to go due to the fact that I cannot stand for long periods of time anymore and it sounded like I’d have had to. So I bought tickets for Lowell in March and planned for someone to accompany me. I just didn’t know who at the time. That someone turned out to be my niece Courtney, a NICU nurse at CHOP here in Philly.
Courtney had been introduced to the band a couple of years ago at the Keswick in GLenside PA, a recipient of an offer of a front row seat. I knew, of course, that she would enjoy the band and I was not proven wrong. Her next show was the Wolftrap venue in 2010. We also ended up with front row seats due to Lynda’s generosity and gave our 5th row seats to someone farther back, who gave their seats to a lawn dweller. Nice to pass along the good will.
Our ride to Lowell was uneventful, thank God, as we knew the ride home would be a doozy. Hurricane Irene was scheduled to blast thru Philly on Saturday when we’d be trekking home.
Our hotel, the Radisson in Chelmsford, was right off 495, 11 minutes from Boarding House Park in Lowell. There was a 24-hour Dunkin Donuts across the street. Yes!
We were giddy with surprise when we discovered Sleep-Number beds in our room! Although most people like 35 it said, my number was 75. Four pillows provided plenty of comfort no matter what your sleep number. I heartily recommend any hotel with sleep number beds! We spent the hours till bedtime watching the people at the Weather Channel describe Hurricane Irene in ever-increasing-in-intensity synonyms, creating perfect examples of hyperbole I could have used in my classroom. We woke up late the next morning, watched the Weather Channel for a while, and took off for the venue after grabbing breakfast at the Dunkin Donuts.
It was hard to get around in Lowell because the canals broke up the city so much and there are so many one-way streets. We found the historical center and found out that there were no real tickets, we’d just have to show ID and give our name to the door. While I was there, I met a Newfoundland family who had traveled down from New Brunswick to see GBS. The Park Rangers were getting lots of inquiries about the concert so after we made plans for an afternoon boat tour, we hurried off to the Boarding House Park to put down our blanket. It was good to see Fran from Monteal there with Kaesye and Finn. I said hello to Kaesy6e but the poor kid had no idea who I was. With so many photos of her online I felt like I already knew her. And FInn was even cuter in person. One more online-friend-turned-real-life-friend! This venue was General Admission but, by a stroke of pure luck, I was able to place our blanket front row stage Bob, albeit past the stage. I told Courtney she is going to be so disappointed the first time she is not in the first row! LOL!
At 2 PM we joined 15 other people for a tour of the canal by boat. We started our journey on a streetcar, which was conducted by a nice gentleman dressed in old-fashioned conductor’s uniform. The streetcar had a steam whistle that signaled the other cars on the road when we are cross a street. We had the right-of-way. The car stopped at the Swamp Locks Gate. The Park Ranger told us about the development of the area from farmland to industrial city, with the Merrimack and Concord Rivers allowing for the success of the canal system. |
