Worth every mile!

So....last night Loriann and I got into Verona, WI around 12:30 am.

We decided to drive about a month ago when we found out what days we were scheduled for training.

It started because of the Maroon 5 concert and later ended up being because of the CRUG conference that I was asked to attend at the end of this week...in Des Moines.

We had purchased tickets a few months ago, before we knew that we would be expected to go to training.  When we figured out our schedule and confirmed that we were expected to be at training when the concert was happening we were heartbroken.  We attempted to change our class date but were not able to make any progress with that idea.

I considered giving the tickets away or selling them to someone for about 3 minutes.  

I was not missing this concert. 

So, we made the decision, we would plan to drive.

We will get there on Sunday, couldn't leave on the bus anyways because of Hannah's dance recital, and then Monday after class, we would drive back to St Paul.  With our 4 hour drive and class getting out around 5, we should get there around 9 and hopefully with the two opening acts, Maroon 5 wouldn't be on yet.  Leading up to this weekend the big talk was about the HUGE snow storm that was coming.  If you watched the radar you could see that the storm started downtown St Paul and the line of snow was thick- all the way through Wisconsin, stopping in Madison, WI.  We were expecting 6-12 inches.  Oh, is that all??!!

I decided to be an adult and leave the tickets at my moms house.  Just in case Mother Nature hated me and wanted to bring the snow that everyone was talking about.

We talked with our teacher right away in the morning and explained our situation.  We asked if we could work through lunch and breaks and then sneak out of class a little early today to get on the road- as long as the snow wasn't falling.

We watched the radars all day and it appeared as though we would be pretty safe taking a chance so 3:00 came and we were off!

We met Jennie near the Xcel Center and made it into our seats before the 2nd act started.

We missed Owl City which none of us cared about anyways.

Neon Trees were the 2nd act and they were good!  Much better than I had expected and it proved once again that you can not care for a song too much until you see it sung live....then everything changes.  That CD will be the next purchase on my list.

Then, the lights went low, the stage lit up and the sound of a phone ringing filled the Xcel.

EXCITING!

As soon as I saw Adam I reached over and pinched Loriann- oopie- sorry!

 

 The show was awesome!

Hit after hit after hit.

Each song was better than the one before.

They put on a great show- the stage was awesome, the screens were awesome- the stage was in the shape of an 'M'.

My pictures didn't turn out the best but the few that I posted here are a few of my favorite moments.

He sang "Wipe Your Eyes and Love Somebody" which are my FAVORITE songs right now!

The concert was done around 11:15.  We were back to the car around 11:30 and out of the ramp around midnight.  After we dropped off Jennie, Loriann and I hopped back on 94 for our 4+ hour long drive back to Verona.

It had started to snow so the roads were sloppy.  Thankfully there were a few tracks on the freeway that we could follow that would lead us all the way to Eau Claire as we watched the radar every 15 minutes to see what we were heading into.  About 10-15 miles past Eau Claire the snow let up and the roads became more clear....just like the radar said it would.

We could finally go faster than 40 MPH!

The next few hours were pretty rough.  We were tired and the 'Adam high' was starting to wear off.

We opened the windows and turned on the air to keep us awake.  It worked although I am not positive that Loriann's legs made it out of the car without frostbite!  Poor thing was pretty cold.  Awake!  But cold.    Around 4:00 am we both started to get our second winds and Loriann pointed out that the sun was starting to rise.

I pulled up to my hotel around 5:00 am and decided to lay down for an hour before I would need to get up so I could be sure to catch the shuttle to class.

It was a long night but it was worth every mile!