Last Night I Was An American Idol Survivor

Well, sort of, anyway. How many people can say they hung out with an American Idol and a Survivor in one night, not many.

However, last night I had the pleasure of meeting two very fine people, Kellie Pickler, (American Idol) and Chase Rice, (Survivor).

Let me assure you, all of the performers who were scheduled to go on last night truly felt for Doug Marshall and wanted to go on so bad it wasn't funny. However, they absolutely agreed, it was scary out there last night.

I can tell you this. The sun started coming out at our property in Delmar, (west end of Delmar) at around 5:30. I even took a pic of it and sent it to Doug. He sent a message back saying, lol. He thought I was joking. Ladies & Gentlemen, when they finally called things off I headed directly to the Site and let me assure you, once I got into the heart of Delmar on Rt. 54 I could see why they did.

Look at the following pictures in order. The first is the picture I sent Doug letting him know things were clearing up. The second was about an hour later heading through Delmar and the third is what I saw as soon as I arrived. That side of Delmar had clouds and rain that never stoped last night. Even up to 1:30 AM the rain was steadily coming down in buckets.



So here's what you didn't see last night, (below). The first image shows just how flooded things were. The stage wiring for all of the sound and light systems were completely under water. The second image is one of the tour buses having to be towed through the mud, (backwards) just to get them out and on the road for their next show.



Now, one thing most of you aren't aware of are the 60 volunteers Doug had there and a major life saver, United Rental. If United Rental hadn't been escorted to the scene with their heavy equipment let me assure you, NO ONE was going to get out last night.

Many were even trying to use Golf Carts to get from one end of the property to the other and let me tell you, that was a sight to see and experience. The mud was flying everywhere and many had to get out of the carts and push. Don't think for a second those pushing didn't end up with 30 pounds of mud on them right away.

All in all though, by 1:30 AM we had watched these volunteers assist everyone there and got them on their way. This included the stage people who broke down their equipment and that was a sight to see. Doug had to tow the tractor trailer over the the mobile stage and then back it into position. Once secure he then had to tow the tractor and trailer off the property. Mind you, ALL of the buses and equipment were at the far end of the field and to be honest with you I thought, there's no way they are going to tow all of this stuff out of there. It was unbelievable but they got it done.

At the end of the night we headed off to Applebee's to get something to eat. When we arrived we saw one of the tour buses there and Kellie was inside getting something to eat as well. She was sitting with a man from Kent County and she introduced him to us.

It turns out this man had met Kellie in Baghdad in 2007. He's in the Army, (a pilot) and he had traveled all this way to see this concert. While in Baghdad Kellie was doing a show for the Soldiers and asked if there was any Soldier in the audience who could sing. He said about 40 of his friends pointed to him and she encouraged him on stage. The two did a song together and the rest is history. It was really cool to see the two reunite back here in the United States.

I'll share a little inside information. Doug is working on trying to reschedule Kellie back to Delmar in the next couple of months. Believe it or not, last night the line to get to the concert was backed up from the Bypass all the way to the property on Rt. 54 in Delmar. If the concert could have gone on it would have been one of the biggest turn outs the Eastern Shore has had the pleasure to experience.

I've asked some of the people there last night to send me more pictures with better quality to share with you in the near future. Once I get them I'll show you just how bad it had rained and the conditions these volunteers had to work with. As someone who was there for more than 6 hours, it was unreal. I can tell you there are plans in the works right now to create better storm water management but as we all saw yesterday, storms like that are pretty rare and hard to manage.

More to come...

Here's another image of the storm damage at last night's concert grounds.