Duran Duran Road Trip 2000

Events leading up to and including the Pre-Charlotte show Pop Trash party on 7/28

Laurel and I had been talking about how we thought sharing a room with SuSaN and two pre-teen boys wasn't something either one of us were comfortable with (me especially since I had been through it once before in Orlando and found it very disconcerting). Unfortunately, SuSaN was upset by this decision, so she ultimately decided to drive up for the party on Friday night, drive home, then drive back on Saturday for the concert. Ghassan ended up not going at all. Earlier the week of 7/28, I was at the Tender Idols board posting that I was going to be going to Charlotte to see DD that coming weekend. Andrea mentioned she planned to go as well. Sheila wrote me asking if there was room for one more on the drive up (there was :). We ended up being invited to stay with Angela and her cousin Cindy in their room. I brought along an air mattress so it wouldn't be too cramped for us. Gosh, the things we do for our love of DD! Anyways, back to that Friday... that afternoon I received the postcard in the mail that I had given to Simon in Orlando. I was in shock at first, then ecstatic! He wrote: "To Cathy, Hi from Si" and drew a sun man picture. Great way to start the weekend off! Laurel was stuck in traffic on her way to my house, so she'd call me periodically with updates. This allowed me to call Sheila and let her know what area to avoid. Still, they went through Friday night Atlanta rush hour hell! Once they both got there we loaded up and zipped back out onto the highway for Charlotte. We had lots of DD CD's, the 3-song Japanese CD of John's, and Sheila's TI 'Step on Over' CD. We had fun chatting, which helped ease the monotony of travel. We found out how Sheila came to be caretaker of Warren's back on the Friends of Mine list. Great story indeed! Once we finally got to Charlotte, we had a little bit of trouble with the directions (I was the navigator and messed us up by 1/2 hour) and it took FOREVER to get to the bar where the party was being held. I think we made it about 1 hour before it was supposed to end. We managed to make it before the hostess, Angie Sievert, though.

I knew some of the people there: Angela Wright and Lori Leopard from the May Pop Trash party, Kirsten (Crash) from Orlando, and SuSaN. I got to meet Angela's cousin, Cindy, for the first time as well as Kirsten's friend, Mistress Carnal. There was a small cluster of folks I recognized from Atlanta including a pretty wedding photographer, Cheryl, who seemed really nice. Oh, also, two ladies that I had seen before: Tracy (whom I saw last year in Charlotte) and Sharon (Pop Trash nails lady) who happened to be good friends of Angie's. Also, once Angie showed up I recognized her from last year's Charlotte show as well. I apologize if I left anyone's name out that I'm supposed to know. SuSaN learned how to hold a cue stick and play some pool from Kirsten.

Now the party started cooking because Angie brought a boombox with her and some DD CD's. Everyone started singing rather loudly in accompaniement LOL. In the meantime we had what looked like a drug deal on the pool table cash and front row tickets. We were able to secure front row tickets for Charlotte on Nick's side due to another friend of ours being unable to go to the show. We were so excited we couldn't see straight! Thank you, thank you, thank you! They were cleaning up the bar and we were in a Pop Trash movie singing at the top of our lungs to Ordinary World and other songs. At long last we got out of there and began the trek across town to get to our hotel, which was near Carowinds where the concert was to be held on 7/29. Boy were we ever glad to get to bed as it was the wee hours and we were going to be up and about early.