This weekend I was able to visit my family up in New England. While I was ready to see my parents anyway, there were other reasons for my visit too. Approximately 4-6 weeks ago, my great friend Jill (who for my whole life I've referred to as Jilly,) texted me. I've known Jilly her whole life, and she was best friends with my late sister Suzanne. They always went to see Kenny Chesney together, every single year. Zannie was a bridesmaid in her beautiful Western Mass wedding 3 years ago. When I refer to Aunty Soup who has been there for me my whole life, that is Jilly's Mom. We've all always been very close. Jill texted and told me that she had tickets to see country artist Chase Rice at the new MGM concert venue at Fenway Park. She then asked if I could go with her and take Zannie's ticket in her honor. I started balling my eyes out immediately (to be fair, that's a pretty frequent thing for my parents and me these days.) I told her immediately yes, I would absolutely go in my sister Zannie's honor. Around 4 weeks or so ago, Jilly texted me. She said "hey did you see when Red Sox Opening Day is?" I looked on my iPhone at redsox.com quickly, confused because Opening Day for Major League Baseball was the previous week before our concert. Turns out, April 4th ended up being The Boston Red Sox Home Opening Day! YIKES! Ever so always bubbly and optimistic, Jilly said "it's a sign from Zannie! She loved Opening Day and Marathon Monday!" I hate to admit my thought was "oh this is a sign alright. I'm now driving into Fenway Park after not just a normal day game, but Red Sox Home Opening Day, when people party even more, 34,000 people are leaving the tight area as I'm trying to go in. This is going to be intense!"
For the past month, while looking forward to the concert, I was dreading this drive into Fenway Park. I've driven into Fenway Park so many times in my life. I've driven from New Jersey to Boston so many times over these past 11 years. This was a new adventure even for me. Driving from New Jersey to Fenway Park as Red Sox Home Opening Day is ending and everyone is either leaving or still around Fenway partying.
My first ten minutes on the road leaving Jersey were more exciting than expected. Thank goodness in Vernon / Glenwood I was only going 25mph, because a deer came running out across the street and I came within inches of hitting it. I think that's the first time my Jeep Compass has needed to come to an absolute screeching halt. Even people on the other side of the road driving were beeping to me giving me the thumbs up after seeing how close the deer was to hitting me. I called Padre right after saying "Geesh. I knew the last part of my journey today is likely going to be intense, white knuckle and Epic, I wasn't expecting the first ten minutes to be that way too!
I left here in Jersey before 11:30am. I stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings in Danbury to stretch, enjoy some hot wings for lunch before getting back on the road. The ride through Connecticut wasn't bad at all. Massachusetts? Epic!
My ETA originally was 4:30pm. Later it was pushed back to 5:16pm. Long day and drive, but all good. Hey, truck drivers do this kind of driving every single day. That reminds me, I could never be a truck driver! The cops had all my normal streets to Fenway Park parking area lots blocked off. You could only leave, but couldn't get it. This does make sense for safety, I'll give them that, even if it was rather inconvenient. I was able to park at one of Fenway Park's original parking lots, basically across the street from where home plate is, at 6:25pm.
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I was able to finally breathe a sigh of relief. I told everyone for over a month "once I'm parked, I'm totally good!" Fenway is one of the few areas I usually know pretty well, both how to get in and out of the area. I was able to meet up with Jilly immediately. I announced "I'm ready for an ice cold beer!" We look around, if you've never been to Landsdowne Street behind the Green Monster, it's so much fun. Tons of fun sports bars and music places all up and down the street. The problem was that this game ended an hour later than expected, and it was gorgeous weather outside. EVERYONE was out, not that many were leaving. The bars all had lines at least 40 people deep to get in! Fortunately we stumbled upon one of the oldest bars left, Bill's Bar. It had a fun vintage retro vibe and look with good reason. That and Cask N Flagon are the only two old classic bars left on Landsdowne Street! Everything else is within 20 years old.
An opener for Chase Rice is a popular songwriter named Lori McKenna, who great up in Stoughton, Mass! That's only 20-30 minutes away from my hometown of Mansfield! She's written some big country songs, like Parker McCollum's Burn It Down, Little Big Town's Girl Crush, and many more. She did great. It was the only show she's doing on this tour, they must have done her a nice favor letting Lori play in front of the hometown crowd.
MGM at Fenway was beautiful! How they managed to build a brand new, gorgeous 5,000 person venue inside Fenway Park's outside right center field is still beyond me. I kept looking saying "how in the world did they even do this?" Chase Rice was sounding good for sure. A couple even got engaged right during his show on stage! At times I may have felt a slightly arrogant vibe from him, but maybe that's me overthinking. I'm happy he is having great success and put on a terrific show!
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Chase Rice played until 11:30. I still made it home to Mansfield by 12:20. Padre stayed up to greet me, which he didn't have to do at all. It was great to see him. He told me that Madre asked him for me to wake her up when I was home. I told them all along we didn't know how late of a night it would be for me, and didn't want them to stay up all night.
Saturday Madre, Padre and I went to Bog Iron Brewing in Norton, Mass. This month again, Padre had me bring Zannie's UNH pint glass we got for her just a few months before everything bad happened January 25th. It was nice to be with my parents and some of their wonderful friends there at Bog.
We then did dinner bunch with Aunty Soup, Uncle JDawg in downtown Mansfield. We all had a nice time together.
Sunday I was able to get some errands done. I was able to bring over flowers for Aunty Peg, and Grammy. It was great to spend some time with them. I then went to Splitsville in Foxborough at Gillette Stadium. This was my first time going there, where Zannie was terrific at one of her three jobs. Full disclosure to being biased about my sister, and best friend, she was one of the hardest working people I ever knew. It was also the quality of her careers. Everyone you talk to said she was like a Mother Hen to all of them. She was always taking care of and looking out for everyone, especially my parents and me. It was wonderful to see our friend Skye. She came over and bearhugged me immediately. Skye then told me how she was at a wedding the night before, and brought a centerpiece of flowers to the restaurant in my sister's honor. Very sweet.
Then I went home, and had a great time hanging with Madre, Padre and JDawg. I asked for their pizza order saying I was throwing a pizza party just like years ago when I still lived with them. We did a new place in Mansfield called Arman's, that was terrific during our Super Bowl party, and were great again this weekend. We are definitely 2 for 2 with them.
My rode home from Mansfield to Jersey on Monday in the rain? The roads weren't awful. I made it past Hartford fine. Then it became Epic. Total ride home was 4 hours 45 minutes, 45 minutes later. Why? Towards Danbury, there was bumper to bumper traffic. Turns out, they closed 84 down to one lane. They were doing roadwork. In the rain. During afternoon rush hour. Seriously? Connecticut roadwork can be quite the different state!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend!