All of my Christmas shopping and sending was accomplished on Monday and knowing that I had Wednesday off as well I was very unsure what I was going to do with my time. Tuesday night I had decided I was going to be productive and get my house cleaned before we head to Miami for Christmas on Friday. Then at 7:15 Wednesday morning my phone rings and it is work - they need me to help out for part of the day. Being a good person I say yes - and head into work at 8 AM. This was not a great beginning to a day being pulled from sleep to go in and find that most of the patients were disgusting - like had to help with three baths because they had all had parties in their cages. I was only needing to be at work helping until 3 PM when a text message changed my life. My lovely mother sent me a text that read "Kenny Chesney in KW tonight according to facebook he is at Margaritaville" -- I read it twice. Could this actually be happening??!! I mean, my KW bucket list is not that long but some of the things are kinda an extreme long shot- like Kenny Chesney happening to play at a place I am in. Its a Christmas miracle. I immediately get so over the moon excited my brain stops working and my hands are shaking and it can not be 3 PM quick enough. Rick and I now have a major issue.. we only have one car and Rick is working till 5.. according to facebook the show is scheduled to start at 7:30... We are never going to make it. I immediately send Rick a text reading "get sick - you need to get sick right now Kenny Chesney is playing in KW tonight for FREE" - Rick is too good of a person to do this he calmly sends me a text and answers my frantic three phone calls and says "McKenzie I just can not do that- it will work out if its supposed to" Man he is a rock. Anyways I leave work and call my Mom where I cussed - a lot - regarding how I had been called into work and if I had not then I would be in line - and how they had announced it on the radio and there was absolutely no way we were going to make it to Margaritaville in time to get in a decent spot in line. If you know me I am usually a pretty optimistic person but a little disappointment was starting to creep into my head.
After a shower to rinse off the day I came to what I believed to be a good idea. If Rick could be done, even a little early, we could get to Margaritaville before 5 PM and we may have a shot. I also had determined I would drive to Duval and go past Margaritaville just to see what the crowd was looking like. I text Rick the plan - he texts back "well see" and B dog and I head toward Duval street. Approaching the street my co-worker calls and says she is done and we should meet to get in line. I am having moments of selfishness and my thoughts are things like "Rick can get a cab home or walk" these thoughts where swirling in my head and became a defining roar when I drove by Margaritaville and it was not crowded.. I could walk in right meow! I tell my co-worker this and we make plans for me to drive out drop the truck off and she would bring me back where we could get in and snag a spot. As I turned toward the route to Stock Island I get a call - its Rick - he says "I am done, I am walking so I don't get another job last minute come get me" YES!!!!!!!
The drive from Duval to Stock Island is 15 min with traffic - I snag Rick on a corner by a liquor store and we head home. We get to our house at 4:10.. thank god Rick is the states 2nd all time leading rusher (he is going to love that I wrote that) because he gets ready so FAST and we are out the door and speeding toward Duval on our bikes. Parking our bike we turn the corner and those nagging pessimistic thoughts occur - there is a line. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! No, no, just 30 minutes ago I could have walked in and sat right down why why is there a line? We had just hit the line as it was being shuffled from one side of the building to the other - and people were making darn sure Rick and I waited until the end of the line before we could get in. This now makes me laugh and you will find out here shortly. The feistiness of the crowd has me now on edge - and I am Chuck Knox hungry because I had worked through lunch- things are about to go down hill. Instead of getting food we start grabbing frozen Margaritas from Willie T's across the street. By 5 PM we have made friends with those around us.. sort of. I am pretty sure I told the guy in front of me that if his friends show up and Rick and I don't get in by two people I was going to punch him straight in the face.
I say this whilst giggling but I kinda know that somewhere deep down I am serious. He politely laughs at my comment and promises that he will not let them go in front of me. Who knows if he is telling the truth but I, in this moment am choosing to believe him. As the line starts to grow behind us, the rumors start flying around in front of us. Here is our initial picture in line:
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| As you can see the turquoise overhang is Margaritaville. We were approximately "60" at the beginning of this little memory. Also the woman in the red Hawaiian shirt was solo and so was the brunette. The brunette comes into play later because she did something straight awesome. The Hawaiian shirt lady was a little wanderer and I think people were a little unsure of her. I saw her later inside and she was front row.. maybe she had a good tactic. |
I will defend margaritaville, actually no I won't. I am sorry they messed up. They have this great opportunity and they had to know at least a little in advance of what was about to go down - and they were still unorganized on the street. When Kenny Chesney says "first come first serve" you had better have a way to figure out who was really there first. I know that people work - both Rick and I were very lucky to be done early and we were able to get in line.. but this is the line right before they opened the doors.
Yes it is blurry but you can see one we have moved up but two the line has quadrupled in width- and there are definitley some different faces from the initial picture- like the guy in the fedora. He for sure was not there to start! Margaritaville attempted early to try to keep the peace and keep an eye out on the crowd. Crystal was one of the employees who was trying to combat peoples fears and hopes. I approached her on one of her many walks down the line and I stated very soberly "how are you ensuring that the people who have cut in line are not going to get in and those of us who where here at the beginning will get in?" She informed me that she knew who those people were. Maybe an hour after this conversation - Crystal finds us and says we are no longer in the "safe zone" and we probably won't make it in. She asks who I am with and I pause a moment because there are multiple people around us -- they are literally ALL LISTENING - so I say well I am here with my husband but these are all our friends (like 10 people total) why? She says she can get me in and that Rick should find a way to cut in line. IF I want to do this I should meet her at the back door at 6:30.. what? I say okay and she leaves. All of our new friends are saying I should do it but I am hesitating. What ensures me that she will get me in? What if Rick doesn't get in? So I make a command decision that i am going to stick it out in line. By the time 6:30 rolls around I am pretty happy shall we say and am currently drinking water. Everyone around us is awesome and come to find out another one of my co-workers brothers is in line with us. He is in the "Fury" shirt in the first picture. The crowd is starting to get antsy.. and small fights are breaking out around us. People are yelling at those cutting in line and telling them to leave and get to the back of the line - I may have been one of them. I myself have gone on at least three scouting missions to count where we are in line - the number is constantly changing. The brunette from the first image comes back and she is so mad. She is telling me how this couple just walked into line and she happened to be there counting the numbers. She said - "you weren't here before" and they said yes we were and she very forcefully said no I just watched you walk up and get in line you are not going to get away with this" By this time a scene has started because there is yelling and the brunette goes you have quite a set of balls to continue standing here like this - to which the woman replied "yeah my husband has brass balls" - and the brunnette goes "oh yeah well lets see what the cops think" She literally called the cops, and they came and escorted the couple out of line - here is their picture
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The cop is in the back ground - and the couple is the guy in the green shirt and the woman in white
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As they left the line, the crowd erupted with "nah nah naahhh nah... nah nah naahhh nah... hey hey hey goodbye" It was pretty awesome. After this episode I walked back to the opening of Margaritaville where I chatted with a "manager?" and I said sir how are you going to keep those people from cutting us off -- here in the story you may be wondering why I am so nervous about getting in - I have not told you yet but the capacity of this restaurant is 179.. you still may be thinking why am I nervous you are roughly 60-80 people you are for sure getting in - well here is the key- they had all the tables still on the floor and these were reserved seating for Margaritaville employees- the mayor- and other who's who of Key West who were privy to the concert. The "manager?" tells me that he has zero control over the street and it is the first x people to the door. Are you kidding me... well shoot. I go inform all my friends this news and the riots start. People are mad and worried they had just wasted three hours of their lives for nothing.
At 7:15 the doors open and they start letting in the general public. As we approached the door we get stopped. Around us there are people trying to cut line and there are little human barricades blocking the way and they are yelling at each other. It was madness. At 7:35 we cross the threshold of Margaritaville - all 10 people around us got in and there was yelling- high fiving- and hugs! Also Crystal had acquired us some of the reserve tables - they were at the back but they were tables which means we had a waiter. My co-worker ordered nachos (thank god) and we got a round of drinks. Our tables were located right next to the windows, which were closed, so we could see all the people not getting in that were hoping to get in. It was hard to sit there.. seeing their sad faces up against the glass. Kenny took the stage at 8 - I think and they played for 2ish hours. Near the end of the set we were up along the back of the stage.
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| Kenny is in the middle in the white shirt |
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| Just feet away |
They were not allowing anyone in front of the stage and everyone who was inside listening to this wonderful acoustic performance were well behaved and followed the rules.
After the concert we stuck around trying to figure out if there was going to be an encore. There wasn't one- but that didn't even matter. Rick, myself and my co-workers brother went around to the back of Margaritaville to see if maybe we might catch him and snag an autograph. We were milling around the back with maybe 15 other people and there was no sign of Kenny. Rick said I should go in the back door and see if he was there - I of course said yes and walked toward the door like I knew what I was doing. Through the screen door, down the ramp and a right turn later I was in the kitchen of Margaritaville. I am probably not supposed to be there - so I keep walking toward the restaurant area. I look into different rooms off the walkway to the restaurant but there is no sign of Mr. Chesney. I decide to not go out into the restaurant and turn to head back. This is about the time a man asks me what I am doing. With my quick thinking I reply "I lost my friend have you seen him? About this high (I put my hand just over my head) wearing a white shirt and baseball hat?" The man said no no haven't seen him but I will help you look. So we start walking back through the kitchen and out the back door where I see Rick with his hands in the air like "what the??" I turn to the gentleman and said oh there he is- thanks for your help. Rick was not wearing a hat nor was he wearing a white shirt.
After we missed out on meeting Kenny we decided to grab just one more drink then we should head to the marina because I am sure his boat is there. Needless to say we walked to Mallory Square and the Galleon before giving up and heading back to our bikes and to home.
Last night was completely amazing. There are not really any other words to describe a free acoustic concert put on by Kenny Chesney and friends. Thank you to Kenny for performing (ya know in case he ever reads this) and also to Rick for being so fast!
Stay safe and warm Iowa... We miss you dearly! Thank you to everyone for the images of the snow.
xoxo
Rick and McKenzie
