Shenandoah Almost Carried Away by Mosquitoes in Mississippi

Shenandoah Almost Carried Away by Mosquitoes in Mississippi

Sept 6/08 GREENVILLE, MS Shenandoah at the Delta Balloon Festival Mickey Riley...Shenandoah's bus driver...pointed the "Hillbilly Hotel" in the direction of Greenville, MS after leaving Castlewood, VA the night before.. We arrived at the venue at 2 pm Saturday afternoon..after having a wheel break on the bus around 4 am and getting lost on the way! We got there and that is all that matters. There was a lot of flooding all around us.. those poor folks had been pounded by the rain and wind for the last few days..as a result of Gustav and it had taken it's toll on the four day festival. We were told that most of the vendors had pulled out.. only a few balloons showed up..all the rides taken down and attendance had been basically no one. The night before..all that had shown up was the band and crew...a real shame_  The good thing was..it was a beautiful day Saturday and folks would be able to come out without fear of bad weather...and hear a country music show. The staff and workers there were not very hopeful ..they feared that too many roads were still flooded and folks would stay home again but we were all gonna keep our fingers crossed. We did a soundcheck around three o'clock and it went fairly quick..I like the quick ones...Afterwards..I ran over to where they were selling hotdogs and grabbed me one before we went to the hotel to get cleaned up. We would not be eating till around 7 pm..so I wanted to get something in me to hold me over. Our runner, Lisa.. took Mike Folsom, Jimmy Yeary and myself to the hotel but after we were on our way..we realized that none of us had a clue ..as to which one we were staying in_after several calls we finally got the info we needed and headed to the Comfort Inn... (in what was not the best part of town) but the hotel had beds and showers.. and that's all we needed...although I don't think we had any internet service._ Lisa gave us a brief overview of the town's history on the way..told us about the Delta National Forrest located just 20 miles down the road... B.B. KIng's new ten million dollar museum..also located close to their town...Greenville also has the Kermit the Frog museum...interesting stuff.  Lisa came back and picked up us at 6:30 and when we arrived back at the bus...barbeque, baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw and rolls were unveiled under the VIP tent...all was good but the highlight for me was the potato salad...great stuff! Jimmy Yeary sat across from me while we were eating and stayed on me to go up with him in one of the hot air balloons..he.said.."I needed to Live a Little"... part of me really wanted to do it but another said..maybe that isn't such a great idea..I had heard going up wasn't bad but the landing could be ..well...interesting...anyway.. the powers that be..the folks flying the balloons ..determined that there was too much wind to take em' up that day..so I didn't have to make that decision whether to go up or not...saved by the bell. :) A good friend of Mike McGuire, along with her daughter showed up and hung out with us on the bus before the show... we had met her earlier in the year in Batesville, MS It was good to see them again..we all sat around and watched some college football on the bus tv...that is...till the bus generator went out and we were forced to sit in the dark till show time...Fun...Fun  Shenandoah show time was at 8 pm and when we got off the bus to walk to the stage...we noticed that a good sized crowd had actually turned out ..we were pleased as were the promoters...We played our hearts out but were almost carried off by the swarms of mosquitoes that had converged on us and the audience. I guess all of the water standing around from the flooded fields and roads only made it worse. I remember the darn things were all over my neck during the show.. we were all constantly slapping and scratching..tryin' to keep those blood-suckers off of us..the crowd was going through the same hell as we were. I'm not sure which was worse..tryin' to get the monitor engineer's attention throughout the show or fightin' those hordes of flying, bitin' beasties_ When our set was over...we signed autographs..sold merch and took pics with the crowd and then ran to the bus to get out of the mosquito infested night air.. The bus was filled with the little vampires..as someone had left the driver's side window open.. We did battle all night. All in all..despite the itchy bug bites...it was a pretty good night and I'm confident that another country music adventure had been had by most. I pray that the good people in Mississippi don't have any more devastating weather..anytime soon. Down the Road....Stan Munsey