My next show was my last. I returned to the venue that I first saw them at, The Nutter Center on September 13th, 2000. That, in itself, made it a special show for me... And that it'd be my last. But what topped it all off was the presence of a girl... A very special one. My girlfriend, Karen was that girl. And she almost didn't get to the show. I ahd to save up a lot of money to get her here, and her parents didn't give the okay to her to go until about a month away form the concert. The ticket to get her on a plane and here alone was $200. She missed her flight, too! And her flight was on the DAY OF THE CONCERT!!! She was able to get a free reschedule, and she made it here in time. You probably wouldn't believe how stressed out I was when I read the note on the kitchen counter, though! Anyway, getting to later... My brother, two of his friends and Karen and I all got to the Nutter Center all right, and we KNEW we didn't have tickets from the connection.

So my brother and his friends and I all bought tickets from scalpers for $50 a piece and stuff like that. I bought two, of course. We went into the venue and KAren and I went in to see Skid Row play before Ted Nugent. They were VERY good, even without Sebastian Bach. Then we walked around the stage/seating area a bit before Ted went onstage... Neither of us wanted to see him again... She had seen him on this tour twice before, and, like I said, once was enough for me. We went outside where all the smokers were and talked, hugged and kissed and the like. I bought a matching pair of bootlegged t-shirts for $12.50 each so we could both have one. Then after a while, Ted finally got offstage. We went back inside and were about to go back to our seats. I said to Karen, "hey, do ya wanna go see if we can find Tommy Thayer?" She said, "nah. Let's just go back to our seats."  When we turned around to GO TO OUR SEATS (which were directly in line with the stage on the right side of it) we LITERALLY RAN INTO TOMMY THAYER!!!!!!!!! I introduced myself and Karen and I said thank you for all the things he's done for my brother and me. He actually said, "hey, I remember you! Yu're welcome. Where are your seats," and he proceeded to pull out a short little stack of tickets! Karen looked at both he and I in utter amazement! We told him where our seats were, and he gave us NEW SEATS! KAren was ECSTATIC!!!!! And she was even more so where she and I found our new seats!!!!! About 10 yards from the right of the stage and I FRONT of the stage!!!! I now reffer to Tommy Thayer as "Saint Thayer." He played a part in making that KISS concert not only the best KISS concert I've ever been to, but the best concert from ANY band that I've ever been to!!! The band was the tightest I'd ever heard them... The lights were brighter than I could ever remember them being... nothing could've been better... And to top it all off... I had the most beautiful girl in the world by my side the whole time. My Karen. My love. By my side for my last KISS concert... And I by her side for her last KISS concert... It was one of the greatest moments of my life. One I had been dreaming about since the Farewell Tour began. And it happened. And for that i'm happy. Thank you, Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter. Thank you, Saint Thayer. Thank you, Rich. Thank you... For all the great times. Damn... I'm gettin' all teary eyed thinkin' about all this... Oh well... I've seen my heroessix times, and I've even met them once. For that, I am eternally thankful. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you.

Oh, yes... I know the pictures aren't really the most positive ones of the boys, but I thought they were funny... Hoepfully you do, too.

You're goin' home, baby!