Billy, Elton, Passporters and new friends: The concert of a lifetime 8/1/2009 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Billy, Elton, Passporters and new friends: The concert of a lifetime 8/1/2009
Another adventure begins.....
When: August 1, 2009
Where: Citizen's Bank Park, Philadelhpia, PA
Who: Steve and Sue and 45,000 other fans!
Why: My Bucket List, of course!
It has been said, and only in a good way, that Steve and I seem to have adventures no matter where we go. The further along I get in my life, the more inclined I am to agree with that. If you are of my generation (read: old), then you remember the Ike and Tina Turner song "Proud Mary". Tina starts the song with "We're gonna take the beginning of this song nice and easy. But we're gonna take the end nice and rough." A modified version of that for us could be "We're gonna start out our days nice and simple. But we're gonna finish them with a new adventure to celebrate!"
Hence, our concert experience. When the Billy Joel/Elton John Face 2 Face Tour was announced, Steve and I decided that we really wanted to go. You see, both Billy and Elton were on my bucket list of performers to see. And the thought of seeing them together...well! That was almost too good to be true. And at first, it seemed that it would stay that way. See, the initial tour schedule was not in this area. Travelling to another venue was not in the cards this year, so we put that thought on the back burner.
Then one day, Steve called me from work. He had heard that the tour was coming to Philly! I logged back on the website, and it hadn't even been anounced yet! I kept checking back, and finally...there it was! And there were tickets available! All kinds, all prices, all locations! Citizen's Bank Park is the Phillie's home field, and the stage was going to be in centerfield. I chose tickets in the field level behind the Phillie's dugout. I paid but, what the heck, it was a once in a lifetime concert after all!
Shortly after purchasing my tickets through the online ticket broker that the venue used, they arrived. However, the driver for the delivery company (and I won't say who) left them on the downstairs table. In the open. IN THE RAIN. Very early in the day. And it poured all day. The tickets in their envelope lay there. Did I mention the rain? I got home from work to find a soggy, sodden mess in a box on my table. I literally peeled the tickets from each other and called both the delivery company and the ticket agency. The ticket people were great. They told me how to dry them out (apparently I was not the first one to have this issue ) and to bring the receipt, also, in case the bar code didn't scan. They also took care of the delivery company for me, but not before I let them have a few choice words of my own.
So the tickets dried, the day approached, the weather cleared, our pinball machine broke down....
Yes, it's related to the story!
We have a 1976 "Spirit of 76" authentic pinball machine that was given to us by some friends. It's worked so-so, not perfect, but we could make it work, and it was always a highlight at parties. Well, about 2 months before the concert, it really stopped working. Steve searched long and hard for a repair center, and found one in Valley Forge, PA. Only problem was getting it there. He talked back and forth to the repairman, and finally we decided to bring it down the same day as the concert. We would be there anyway, right? So that morning, we loaded it in my SUV, programmed Garmin and off we went. We figured this was sort of a dual duty: the pinball machine got delivered, and we would get down to Philly early enough to get some dinner before the show.
The pinball machine got delivered, we took off and arrived in the area of the stadium around 4:30. We drove up Broad Street but nothing really said "Eat here!" to us. We decided with a heavy heart to go park, and suffer through nachos and hot dogs for dinner. We drove past the stadium, headed towards the parking lot and spotted....
McFadden's!
McFadden's is a restaurant attached to Citizen's Bank Park! Having never been to the park, I never even thought to look right there for a place to eat! We were golden! We parked our car, paid our $20 and headed over to McFadden's.
About This Page: 
Travelling to another venue was not in the cards this year, so we put that thought on the back burner.
I kept checking back, and finally...there it was! 
but, what the heck, it was a once in a lifetime concert after all!
I got home from work to find a soggy, sodden mess in a box on my table. I literally peeled the tickets from each other and called both the delivery company and the ticket agency. The ticket people were great. They told me how to dry them out (apparently I was not the first one to have this issue 
) and to bring the receipt, also, in case the bar code didn't scan. They also took care of the delivery company for me, but not before I let them have a few choice words of my own. 
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