FRIDAY, JULY 6 – JEANIE IS OFF TO SPRINGFIELD AND ON TO TULSA
Here’s my picture album of our trip to Tulsa to our first Clay Concert of Summer 2007.




you can click on any picture to enlarge it.




As you MAY have heard, I am a BIG fan of Mr. Clay Aiken and my friend Nan and I decided to fulfill our teen-aged fantasies and become groupies. And since we’re big girls now and can afford to do whatever we want without asking anyone’s permission, we had a blast.




I drove to Springfield on Friday night and we took off Saturday morning for the three plus hour drive to Tulsa, OK. We arrived at the Crown Plaza Hotel by lunchtime and signed in with the 300 other lucky preregistered dinner/preconcert party guests. Then met up with the other SW MO ShowMe Clay Fan Club members attending the affair.



i'm talking as usual in this one.
here's the rest of the fan club.






I’ve met some wonderful new friends from Springfield and as you can see, we are a varied group. Mainly we enjoy music in addition to participating in fund raising activities for the Bubel/Aiken Foundation to help include kids with disabilities in summer camps….oh and we do appreciate a certain young singerman…….






The biggest hassle of the trip was the long wait in line with several hundred other fans to get our rooms at the hotel. Seems they just didn’t have them ready for us at three as promised…..but we finally got in our rooms and changed for the party.






As you can see the Tulsa fan club put in a lot of work for their guests. The food buffets were marvelous. The decorations were fantastic and they auctioned and raffled literally hundreds of items with all profits going to the Bubel/Aiken Foundation.

Then we were off to the concert at the historic Brady Theater. Well,,,,let me tell you this about Oklahoma. Their definition of historic is not the same as Missouri. Think the beautifully restored Midland and Fox…velvet and gold inlay. In OK, historic just means OLD. Think concrete and frayed carpeting.(This 2500 seating theater is one of the smaller venues this summer. Over 12,000 fans enjoyed his show in Columbus, OH last week and our next concert in Cary, NC is a 7000 capacity outdoor amphitheater. His fans fill every seat.)

The acoustics at the Brady were excellent though, and that’s all we cared about. Our Clay was in fine voice and his fans were as enthusiastic as ever as you can hear from this music captured by one of the many technically talented fans that were there. (and NO that wasn't me hooting when he started singing...i don't think)

My pictures of the concert reflect my quite limited photography skills. Uncounted photos and videos of the concert are shared on line by other generous claymates so those are what i'm showing you here.



he almost always tours with his two backup singers, Quiana and Angela




in the background, you can see some of the symphony orchestra



Most of us met for breakfast the next morning. Here’s Nan and I…I’m showing off my new 2007 concert shirt.





This trip was just our practice run for our REALLY BIG TOUR TRIP in august. We are flying to Raleigh, NC, for a concert in nearby Cary, renting a car to drive to Asheville, NC the next night, driving to Knoxville, TN the next night and flying home the next. Maybe we’re crazy…..but it’s the most fun I’ve had in years, kiddos…….