Musekgan, MI Summer Celebration

This was my 2nd time doing an event here. Last time I was in Muskegan I was on crutches and couldn't enjoy it as much as I would've liked but I did have fun. Last time I saw Heart, Sinbad, and the Beach Boys play so that was really cool. This year they told me Lynard Skinard (sp) and Kool and the Gang was going to play the days I was there so I was pretty amped. Now these aren't the bands i'd normally go see but I really like seeing different shows. I really wanted to see LS play Free bird and Sweet Home Alabama because those were the songs I was really familiar with.

The Muskegan Summer Celebration is pretty huge. It's 11 days long with big named bands playing every night. Along with that they have a big carnival along with tattoo artists, beer tents, tiki bars, rides, fun games, great carni food, ect. It's so much fun. Usually Sean RW Boston sets it up for us but this year was the first year he wasn't going to be there in like 8 years which was kind of sad because Sean's a fun guy to hand with. This year I was doing the event with Kendal and Christena.

Christena and I landed on the same day, which happened to be the day LS was playing. Before going to the concert we went to get some dinner at this place called Flarity's or flanagan's something like that. Not really sure which one was right. Any ways the food was great, the only problem was we took longer eating then I thought and it was 8:30 and we still had to go back to the hotel and then walk to the concert. I knew we were going to only get to see the tail end. As we were walking I heard Sweet Home Alabama echoing towards me. And as we got closer the song ended and Free Bird came on. Finally we got to the concert and we got to hear the end of free bird. I wish I could've saw the band but he sh*t happens and sometimes you don't always get what you want. At least I got to hear them play live and they sounded pretty good, they jammed at the end and totally brought the house down. It was nice. The crowd was huge i'm talking thousands of people. I wanted to see all the mullets. That was my main goal...to see how many mullets I could spot. I wanted to see that guy with a mullet and a budwieser with short short jean shorts on with a really old holey tank top with his socks pulled up to his knees yelling out "Skinard" but to my disappointment I didn't get to see him.

The next day Kendal arrived and we all went to Exotic tan to hang out and sign autographs for 4 hours. Well, there wasn't a line to get an autograph from us but there was a nice steady flow. Couple kids would come in and hang out get autographs, leave, then another set would come in. It was nice because we could actually talk to everyone. The girls that worked there were really nice except one that was kind of bitchy towards me but somehow I think she's like that with every guy she meets. It's the good old defense mechanism, it's all good because I love girls like that because I'll make them really bitchy towards me. It's quite fun getting arise out of them.

After the tanning place we went to go see Kool and the Gang and I must say I was pretty stoked about seeing them. Now some people would ask "Why?" Here's the story, back in the 80's my mom would always take me shopping with her and my mom's a shopaholic so you could say that was everyday after school we'd go to a different mall and I remember her listening to Kool and the Gang's "Celebrate good times" in the good old black cougar. So when I heard they were playing I was kind of interested in how they're performance was. Well let me say they're performance was amazing. They really put on a show of singing and dancing. Kool of the Gang is a group of entertainers and let me say this concert was better than half the concerts I go to today and these guys are all over the hill. When Celebration came on the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up. I was jumping up and down singing like I was a kid again. I love that feeling when nothing matters and you just feel great singing and dancing and don't really care if people are watching because you are so into the band. Do you know what was really cool, after the concert they came offstage and signed autographs, gave kids and girls hugs, it was really cool to see how genuinely nice these guys really were. Kendal, Christena, and I had a great time at the concert.

After the concert we went to the good old Tiki Bar where I had a couple margarita's to go with my 2 beers I just had. Now the reason for my drinking on this special night was that Joe (the guy who puts on this event) told me he could out drink me. I as always say "really?" and he told me today was the day he did it. I'm like okay but you better be ready to drink and have a hangover tomorrow. So here's how the scoring went...since Joe doesn't drink beer, beer's only counted as a half, cocktails counted as 1 and shots counted as 1 and a half. I started with a 5-0 lead on Joe because he had to work. He caught up quick to my surprise so then we started going at it. Shot for shot, drink for drink. I was giving him hell because, well, nobody beats The Miz. At the end we ended up tying, but in reality, he told me that his first drinks were really weak so in other words I kicked his a$$ because nobody and I mean nobody beats The Miz.

The next day we had a beach party with the Exotic tan people. A ton of people showed up. It was a great party there was tattoo painting, drinking, games, hell some dude won a jet ski. How bad a$$ is that? I thought it was pretty cool. Kendal, Christena, and I judged a king and queen of the beach contest which was absolutely hilarious. This one guy got onstage and said he really didn't have a talent and someone said sing a song and the guy said okay. Talk about balls. The cool part was the guy was really good.

I want to thank everyone at The Summer Celebration that helped me along as well as the Exotic tan people. You guys were great. I especially want to thank Joe for really putting forth a hell of an effort to try to beat me. Maybe next year bud. Also thanks to Christena, Kendal, and Sean I had a blast. I hope all is well.