This Daventure started out with DH dropping me off at the thruway entrance where my sister and her co-worker, a twenty something David Cook and Ryan Star fan who had never been to a show, waited to pick me up. An uneventful 2and1/2 hour drive until we were 15 minutes from our destination and were caught up in a slow moving, to no moving traffic jam. We watched as cars ahead of pulled out of line and turned around. not an option for us as we were following our google map. Finally, I decided to get out and walk up ahead to see what was holding up our date with destiny. Newbie yells from the backseat, what are you gonna do, walk?! Why yes I just might I thought. Just as I reached the 1st car in line everything started moving. Sister caught up with me and we were off again!

Plan A stop at our hotel, check-in then head out to wait in line. Well the best laid plans and all that....... we realized we would pass the venue on the way to the hotel, so we stop to check it out,it's about 4PM. There are a mass of people on the sidewalk waiting, but it's a jumble. We question several people and discover there are three doors and three lines. After interviewing each line leader we choose the shortest line, duh. There 8-10 people in front of us. It's hard to tell because they aren't all there, but they will be we're told. After a few minutes of chatting with our new "friend" we hear music! Not only can we hear it, but looking through the glass door we can see Kyle! He's lit up, and in the shadows a dude playing a white guitar, David!! My first soundcheck! They play Little Lies, then David comes off of the stage to the middle of the bar to listen and to let us get a better look, ha ha. They play somemore and we all take turns watching through the limited space at the door.
Their dinner arrives and soundcheck is over. It's 5PM and no one else has joined our line. My sister thinks we have time to go and check into our hotel, and get back before the line gets too long. I am dubious and newbie is insistant that she will stay and hold our place, thank goodness.

When we return at 5:30 all lines are impressively long and there is our dear newbie holding our place near the front. Missing people in front of us have reappeared to take their places. Everyone waits in happy, giggly anticipation. Two of those who reappeared are teenage girls. One has a rose for David and tried out for Idol herself, and the other has a glow in the dark necklace. Both of these items will make an appearance on stage later this night. Word comes down that they may let us in earlier that 7:00. Venue personal is at our door around 6:45 and tells us we were mistaken, they are not opening this door.
Ha! He is joking! Yeah, it wasn't that funny. They let us in. I have no idea where sister and newbie went, but I scurry down to the stage where I see my tall, beautiful sister who grabs me and puts me in front of her. I look around and realize, I'm in the second row!! Second row,center with not terribly tall people in front of me, sister behind and newbie on my right, and I'm really happy.

Ryan comes out and he is right there, tall dark and handsome. His set was great and I know newbie must be dying. She's been a fan since Rockstar. As much as I'm enjoying Ryan, I'm thinking, in a few minutes David will be as close to me as Ryan is now. Will I survive or will it be spontaneous combustion? At one point Ryan's drummer is not playing but silently laughing and I'm thinking someone is talking to him through his ear moniters. Ryan finishes and they start the setup for David and the Anthemic.
Country, bluegrass or something is playing and we can see the guys fooling around offstage.

The band comes out, David is at the microphone, head down, eyes closed as Heroes starts and I'm thinking, wake up baby it's time to sing....and he does!
I will not go through every song, 'cause hey, that's what You tube is for. I did note what he was wearing, the pants, the shirt, the vest, the scarf he looked amaaaazingly amazing. Seeing him from the perspective of only a few feet away was indescribably delicious. I was video-recording, but consciously not watching the monitor as much as possible, because for gosh sake he's in the flesh right there in front of me!

The only song I will comment on is Kiss on the Neck. As I said I was second row center, where, after some consideration David decided to give himself up to the crowd. As you've seen he did the mooooan, removed his guitar,briefly scanned the crowd and stepped down right in front of us. Actually, it was right in front of newbie, who was on my right. He turned, faced the stage and sang the Hotel California snippet. I turned, with my video camera, then realized I could touch him, and I did! I gently, respectfully petted his shoulder, nice shirt David. Just when I thought, could anything be more amazing? He layed back on the girls directly behind him (newbie!) And there he was laid out eye level right in front of me. David what are you doing??!! Now this part I'm not sure if I saw or imagined.....his eyes were closed and he was smiling. What I know is real is that his arm was there, white and glistening with sweat, and I ran my hand down that arm reverently, gently two, possibly three times. Then he was up with the help of the crowd and back on stage to finish the song.

As they say, the rest is history. Later, newbie told us that she was one of those holding him up, giving him a mini-back rub and giving him a boost to help him back on the stage. My sister during this event was behind me, so while I was experiencing that lovely arm, of armporn fame, she had his lovely head in front of her. Rather than touch him, she thoughtfully took a picture, nice! While David was with us in the audience, I experienced something that I don't remember ever feeling before..... time acually seemed to stand still.It felt like we had our way with him for several minutes, but when I checked the time on youtube, it was only about 42 seconds! Really, 42 seconds to think all those thoughts and feel all those feelings, doesn't seem real.

I've never met David Cook. The thought of actually doing so always makes me nervous. What could I say that could possibly interest him? What comment could I make that he hasn't heard a thousand times before? When we ran into Neal and Andy at Foxwoods I found myself backing away instead of approaching, so that shows me how I'd react to actually meeting David. For me, this close encounter of the fan kind was perfect, intimate yet annonymous. Unless some schedualing miracle puts him in my neck of the woods again this will be my last show of the Declaration Tour.........and I think I'm alright with that.