GBS in Dewey Beach
I haven't done a three-show GBS roadtrip in a long time and this was the week. What a better way to celebrate the next-to-the-last week of vacation! Lynda had stayed with us last weekend for the Folk Festival and I made sure she had a cheesesteak from Frank's before she got on the bus to Martha's VIneyard.  She was suitably impressed by the cheesesteak as she should have been, since it's the best place in the Philly area to get one. I'll disagree with the tourist bureau that Geno's or Pat's in South Philly or Jim's on South Street are the best places and I'll point everyone to Frank's on Main Street in Darby, PA - spittin' distance from the Philadelphia border.

It was a given that I'd be at the Folk Festival since I've been requesting their presence for years. When I heard GBS would be at Dewey Beach, I immediately ordered a couple tickets. Even though it's a 2 1/2 hour drive, I felt that we could combine it with vacation or something that week. Wishful thinking. Do you know how much they charge for a week's rental down there? Way too much! Nightly hotel prices are ridiculous too. I suppose I should have expected it, being a resort, but man! So, we ended up with one night booked at a hotel an hour away from the beach. Oh well. It was a night away from home. And Lynda was generous enough to give us a couple of tickets to Wolf Trap the day following Dewey Beach. Since we were already in the South, we decided to take her up on her offer. I guess it knocked an hour and much traffic off our trip, leaving from where we were in Delaware. Plus it's a beautiful venue.

One of the most exciting things about driving into Rehoboth was the billboard with GBS's mugs plastered on it. I had never seen a billboard with their faces on it before! I hope someone else got a photo. I was too shocked! And when we entered Dewey Beach, there was a little sign welcoming GBS to Dewey Beach. How cool was that? We had left home later than we had anticipated and got to our hotel in Seaford after
5 PM. We had to eat and stop at the LL Bean outlet in Rehoboth and then finaly made it to the venue right before 7 PM. I thought the doors were at 7 but it turned out they were at 8! So we were not behind the times, after all.

Vic had brought an 8x10 copy of his photo of the Kalmar Nyckel, Delaware's tall ship. It's a reproduction of a Swedish ship that brought settlers to colonize the area in 1638. Vic was able to capture a photo of her in full sail one day when he was patrolling the Delaware River for the Coast Guard. It's beautiful and looks as though it's in the 1630's. He wanted to give it to the b'ys as a thank you for coming to Delaware for the first time. We bought a frame for it in Rehoboth and Vic wrote a little dedication on the back. He was excited about giving it to them and I was happy to see him so. I wasn't sure of when or where to pick up tickets, so we parked in the back in a lot in the only space available - behind the fence from the golden tour bus. The sign in front of us stated that said you had to have a permit, so Vic stayed in the car in case anyone wanted it moved. And I started around the corner to find the little gift shop where the tickets were being held.

As I made my way to the corner, who should I see crossing the street but a very sunburned Bob Hallett. I can recognize that walk from blocks away. He turned his head to look my way and when I waved, he put on his dark glasses. I had a chuckle thinking that if he put them on to hide from me, it wasn't going to work! But I know he has sensitive eyes, so I hope that was the reason as it was extremely sunny out. He had to pass me to get to the bus and I greeted him and thanked him for doing a show here and told him that Vic had this photo for the band. He said it sounded great and thanked me for coming to the show and off he went to the bus. I could not believe my good fortune in having a close encounter of the Bob kind and happily collected my tickets at the shop which had just opened. And the man told me that we didn't need a pass to park where we were. Then it occurred to me that I could have just sent Bob back to the van to collect it from Vic and we wouldn't have had to carry it in. Duh! Fan girl mode still takes over the brain when Bob is a foot from me. You'd think at this point, after 11 years, I'd be over that. Apparently not!

They had a calendar painted right on the wall with the bands listed on the dates they would play. Vic proudly got his photo taken with his photo at GBS's listing.
We were both wearing GBS shirts - mine being the TURN shirt with the arrow on the back and his from the Long Island Maritime Museum show in 2001. That had been the best concert in a beautiful setting with the absolute best GBS swag! I was glad I had that memory since the following day was when my Dad died after a long illness. Bittersweet memories of that summer. In line already were a guy from Kingston, Ontario, who had come down to go to the show with his girlfriend. I'm sure it was a shock how close he'd get tonight. Then behind them were two folks about the same age as Vic and I who had a summer home in Dewey Beach and were thrilled that GBS was there in their backyard so-to-speak. Lynda joined us in line as well as Howard and Cheryl, and Helen from Colorado with her friends DianeC from Jersey and Shannon from Champaign, IL. Many people in line were waxing poetic about the many drunken nights thay had spent at the venue when they were in college. It seems that it was the happenin' place back in the day and still is today with the college crowd. At 8 PM, the big garage door opened and we were ushered in.
It was pretty big inside and we were greeted by this lovely advert. I was able to get a spot Stage Sean/Bob to plop down my cane/chair.  There was no hope of my standing the whole show, much less thru the opener too.  Those days are gone. Next to us was Susan and her hubby, Jim,  who carried with them a photo that had been used for the Walk on the Moon video. It was her daughter in an ice skating rink, doing a routine. She hoped to get the b'ys to sign it tonight. Several people approached Vic, recognizing him from my website. LOL! He met Captain Mark, with whom he had a long conversation about boats and captains. Kim, Annette, Renata and Sheila were there in addition to Nancy and her hubby and several others whose names I forgot to write down. My apologies to those folks. If you'd like to be mentioned, email me with your name and I'll add it. If I don't write stuff down in a reasonable amount of time, it goes right out of my mind these days. Chalk it up to menopause.
Chris Trapper strolled onstage at about 9 PM but took an extraordinary amount of time getting ready. Maybe he kept going backstage for cookies.... But about 9:30 0r so he finally got started. I was beginning to worry because there were only about 150-200 people there when he started. But Vic said there were plenty of people who said outside that they would come back at 10:00 when GBS was scheduled to come on. I was really glad Chris was opening for GBS. I like Chris's music a lot and have been several times to see him on his solo tour.  He knew it would be a hard house to control but he also apparently realized that the GBS cowd likes to sing along. So he opened with one of the songs that aways yields audience paticipation - Keg on My Coffin. Sure enough, the crowd that was there sang along and he seemed pleased. His next song was about his worst job as a cart boy at a supermarket in Buffalo - Millionaire. He also enlisted the audience to be a part of the song by snapping our fingers during the bridge. I am sure it was no surprise at all to him when he sang Everything Shines and we all sang along. I think by that time, he had most of the crowd paying attention.
I Wish I Was Cool