You have to dig deep to find a Garth Brooks song that Steve and I do not know every word to. His music is the soundtrack to the early stages of "Kim and Steve". I hear his voice and I am immediately taken back to that truck and those roads and that boy.
Garth Brooks had already been retired from touring for some time when Steve and I met - so the thought of seeing him live was a pipe dream. Definitely something we both wanted to do - a bucket list item for sure - but we figured the chances were slim. We settled for listening to our CDs and reminiscing on long car rides.
Last year Mr. Brooks decided to throw a curve ball {he is a former baseball player you know} and announced he would be coming out of retirement - and as if that weren't exciting enough - he would be touring. He released dates a few at a time but Steve and I couldn't find one that worked with our schedule. After a few weeks I forgot about checking and it fell off our radar.
Then, in June, we planned a trip to Tampa. I decided to take a shot in the dark and checked his tour schedule. He was playing the exact same weekend! Tickets were bought, childcare was arranged and I was a happy, happy girl.
Until the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Who would've thought that hockey would leave me crying over a cancelled concert - but that's exactly what happened.
Once it was announced that the Tampa shows had been cancelled my husband's phone rang - it was my mother-in-law - she knew how much we had been looking forward to the show and offered to watch Autumn and Nate if we wanted to try to go to another show in a different city. Yes! Steve and I jumped online and quickly realized that this leg of the tour was coming to a close - we had two shots - Birmingham or New Orleans.
New Orleans it was!
On July 11th Steve and I sat in a PACKED stadium and listened to our soundtrack played live. 15 years later and there we were - from that shiny red pickup truck - to two kids and an SUV.
That's one item checked off the bucket list.
