Tulsa Recap – Part 1
Katie I am back from my 6th trip to Tulsa to see Hanson! Today’s post will recap Friday and next’s weeks post will recap Saturday and Sunday! (Monday was just a travel day, not too exciting) Sorry for no photos in this post – getting over a cold and the computer hasn’t been cooperating with me either.
Friday I woke up at 3am and drove to the airport. Made it through security with no major problems, got to the gate and realized that my flight was landing and my next flight taking off in 2 completely different terminals so I arranged to get some help with that. The flight to Chicago made it with no problem, I had a wheelchair waiting for me and then we got to ride a cart around which was a lot of fun. It spun all around and reminded me of the teacups at Disney World. I got dropped off and then waited for Maribeth and Amber to meet me as we had coordinated to have the same flight to Tulsa. They arrived and the gate had changed – but we decided to hang out, charge our phones and change our clothes and then I had a mini freakout we totally missed our flight. Turns out, I just am horrible with time zone changes. (Which I pretty much already KNEW…) So I changed my watch time to Central and we were in much better shape 😉
When we landed we decided to give Uber a try because Hanson had teamed up to offer a $25 off your ride for the weekend. It went well and we were excited when it offered me a $10 off code to refer a friend – we figured we could use that on the way back (since the Hanson offer would expire before we left!) We got to the hotel, checked in and headed down to get ready for the Hanson Day activities.
The first step – was to check in. We got down there a little after 1 and waited an hour and a half to check in, which was insane. The line was split by first name which meant Maribeth was in one line and Amber and I were in another. Then Maribeth got through the line and we didn’t. So that was a bit annoying too since one line was moving much faster than the other. Then we headed down to Cain’s Ballroom to get photos with the band. It was scheduled “first come, first serve” from 1-4. Of course somehow we got there at the precise moment the guys decided to take what appeared to be AN HOUR BREAK. So we waited again… the picture was as expected awkward. There were 10 people in it. Amber ended up in the back by Taylor and Isaac and Maribeth and I were awkwardly squatting in the front by Taylor. I’m glad they took the time to do photos but I am never really a fan of how my group ones come out. Hopefully this will be a good one though. (After we took the first one Isaac yelled “I BLINKED!” so they did another without the flash) By the time we got through were starving and while we needed to be back for the lectures at Cain’s we decided to eat instead.
We went to The Hunt Club and got some bar food and tried MMMHops. When we got out, the line for the lectures was still insane so we decided rather than wait in THAT line, we’d wait in the store line instead. That went rather quickly, but unfortunately, most of what we had wanted to buy was already sold out either completely or in our sizes. I didn’t even spend $100 which if you know me, know is rare 😉 Hoping some of it ends up back in the Hanson.net store to buy later. *fingers crossed*
We got in line for the lectures and made it in and got seats. Isaac went first and did his talk on “Underneath Naked” which was him talking about how they recorded the album Underneath 10 years ago and a bit of a behind the scenes look at the “layers” on several of the songs. Interesting but a bit longer than it probably needed to be – although with it being Isaac it was expected. He did give me some nice tidbits to use on my Hanson site for trivia though!
Then they set up for Taylor’s lecture. And then they un-set up for Taylor’s lecture. And then they set up something else. (You read that pretty quickly but it certainly did not happen that quickly) and then Zac came on stage. He was going to write a song based on cards we had filled out. Of course, our cards were never collected. He did a beat but then didn’t like our stomping, he kept messing up singing stuff and re-doing it and then played us each verse, chorus, bridge, etc. The cards basically asked for person/place/thing and he tried to work in as many as he could so it is quite a random song. He had us sing the chorus and then he had his brothers join him to sing the chorus as well. Lots and lots of mess ups later Zac says “Oh I better save this right?” ha. It sounds like the song will be released in a compilation coming soon to Hanson.net.
Zac also let us know that since time went so long, the dinners had been pushed back and they were talking to the movie theater and also that Taylor’s lecture would end up being tomorrow since they went over time so much. (I ended up taking my photo of my dinner menu at 10pm when dinner was supposed to start at 8:30…)
The guys ended up showing up at my dinner which was nice and they chatted a bit with the street team leaders and we took a group photo. I had chicken and waffles which was really good.