The Band Has Landed!

Greetings from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia!

We all arrived safely and on time at the Saudi airport, got thru customs and security with no problems and were greeted by our hosts "Gunner" and Catherine from the US Embassy. Gunner is short for gunnery sgt and was with the Embassy in Warsaw when we played there in January of 2009. It turns out he was transferred to this Embassy detail (Gunner is a Marine guard) and was instrumental in getting us here. Catherine works for the embassy and is a total gem in putting our whole trip in order. Todd, our third benefactor worked with Gunner and Catherine to get us here as well. He is in charge of managing the embassy employees and is a delight to be around. We couldn't move a meter without them.

From the airport we arrived at our "quarters" - nothing short of the Sheraton Riyadh, an awesome 5 star hotel where we each got individual rooms. A far cry from the cubicles at Camp Bondsteel and the tents in Djibouti.

Here is a pic of Thom and our gracious hosts:



l-r Catherine, Thom, Todd and Gunner

Catherine was also on top of things as she provided Renae with an abaya:



She's even coming over tomorrow morning to take Renae to the Embassy gym as women are not allowed in the workout room here at the hotel.

After a much welcome hot shower, Gunner took us to Riyadh's Embassy compound - a 12 square mile area where virtually all the world's Embassies are located. Arriving at the Embassy we were greeted with a great buffet dinner and a party of over 250 people from all walks of diplomatic life in and around the compound. We met Zoe - a nurse from Scotland, Sheikh Moh'd Iqbal, a hotel manager from India, Karina a Brazilian woman whose husband works here for a cell phone company, Ty from Pakistan who is trying to open a Panera Bread style restaurant (so far his bread bowls haven't worked too well), Holly an Embassy Diplomat from Mississippi (and a former Peace Corps volunteer, and Gordon an electrical engineer from Virginia who just arrived less than 2 weeks ago.

Here's a pic of some of our new international friends:



Of course, we had our acoustic instruments and as the party was moving along, we decided we should break them out and have one of our famous impromptu acoustic shows out by the Marine house swimming pool. A lot of the international guests gathered round and really seemed to have a great time. Here are some pics of that little unscheduled show:













The Ambassador and his wife showed up and got front row center seats and as Sgt Pepper says, "A good time was had by all".

No one seems to be seriously suffering from jet lag and we are all feeling like we're on our second wind now. Tomorrow we leave for Jeddah and have a free sight seeing day before our performance on Saturday.

But for now, its late and I need some sleep.

It is only supposed to get to 104 degrees F tomorrow.

Talk to you soon,
Jerry