March 8, 2006 - 3:54am
We arrive at the hotel in Kuwait. Of course the ride at night restricted the view of town. Could see some buildings. It looks pretty neat. So far everything is normal. Bought a new camera for the trip and have only taken half a dozen pix so far. I am sure things will change dramatically later today. General Frutiger is from Alabama- a good guy, others from Texas and North Carolina. Our first show is this evening. CNN is on in my room- it is 4:00am. Going to try to get some rest. Lobby call is 9:45 am. Goodnight.
Day of March 8
Well so much for the rest. Time to gather stuff and thoughts. Take a shower to motivate me, with the help of an espresso from Starbucks! Can you believe it? Wonder down for breakfast, no one around, so I go back up to the room and watch TV and read a book about Kuwait City and Islam - Muslim religion. Pretty interesting.
Finally talk to Robin and meet him at room and head down for breakfast. Billy, Bo, Frank and Jimma join up. Meet some soldiers while eating.
Finish breakfast and leave to meet Colonel Brickmiller. We get a debriefing of what is happening and what he is in charge of. This camp is one of the last two you see in being prepped before going into Iraq. He looks like he could pass for Tom Hanks' brother.
We have lunch on sight- Arifjan, the largest of all camps here in Kuwait. Bathroom break and then on to Bauhring. This is where we are playing tonight. The briefing is very factual. But bottom line, this is the two-week crunch and then you head to Iraq. We eat a box lunch and head to sound check. While waiting to get started we took pictures with a lot of boys and girls and meet a branch from Kentucky. Sign pix and take more pix.
The concert went fairly good. Started out slow and ended with a bang. The troops loved it. It took the sun going down before they really got loose though. Kuwait is a non-alcoholic country- it is illegal in the country due to religious beliefs. But there is non- alcoholic beer- Coors Cutter. They go down like water, taste good though. The troops finally get rowdy as the show ends.
Drink some more NA beer and do a meet and greet for 100 soldiers – 10 at a time. Finally done, change clothes and head back. I get my stuff loaded on the bus. I can barely hold my head up sleep most of the way back. Return to hotel; grab my gear and head up to the room. Call my baby- eat snickers- had no dinner and crash. Will have no trouble sleeping tonight.
