About 2 hours into the drive beth was getting delusional and turned to me to say "my eyelids won't stay open" We pulled into a rest stop and switched drivers. Since this incident, I have decided that it must be murphys law that if I am driving a vehicle that is not my own in an unfamiliar state, there will be bad weather as soon as I start driving. I am terrified of storms. The second I started driving it started down poring. By the time we pulled into Des Moines we were both delusional and had trouble reading the road signs. We finally found the venue, and pulled into the closest parking ramp at about 6am. There were 2 tents in front of us so we set up all our pillows and blankets right behind them and made a little bed for us under a tiny cloth over hang. It was still raining at that point but we were too tired to care. We passed out on the cement while it was raining and slept through Des Moines morning rush hour. After the girls in front of us emerged from their tents, they numbered us 6 & 7. We were so excited about those numbers. We couldn't believe we were in the single digits! We brought out a package of chocolate chip cookies to make friends and share with the other girls in line,eventually there were 11 of us. The owner of the venue came up to talk to us around 11am. His name was Tom and he spoiled us. He remembered all 11 of us by face and let us use the restroom in the bar whenever we wanted and promised us front row and even roped off a special section that only we could sit in after the walk when they had to move the line inside the building up the 3 flights of stairs. He even gave us his phone number in case we had any issues later with security or the line.
Beth and I decided to make this our first walk. We still didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into but the walk was taking place on a college campus close to the venue. Drake university was the name of it and Beth actually knew a couple people that took classes there and had made plans for them to find us. It was still lightly raining when we got to Drake so we didn't bother changing out of our mismatched sweatpants and sweatshirts because our camp out clothes were already damp and we didn't want to get our concert clothes wet. We were assuming these walks had big turnouts and it's not like we would be able to get close enough to a Hanson brother for them to see us in our scrubby clothes anyway, right?
Wrong. The turnout wasn't as big as we were expecting it to be and the fans that did show up weren't "bombarding" the guys like we had heard about from tales of previous walks.
Zac was meandering by himself next to Demetrius, one of Hanson's back up guitarists. A fan had just finished telling Zac that she was late for class and couldn't finish the walk. He kind of frowned at her as she ran off so I decided that this was as good a time as ever to strike up a conversation with him.
"Well I'm skipping an entire day of myclasses to be here!" Great first words to my favorite boy in the world, show him my "dedication." He acknowledged me and I quickly changed to subject because beth and I had an ulterior motive and we didn't know how much time we would have to chat with him. We started chatting about set lists and we got the point across that we were trying to get him to cover "Oh Darling" that night. He argued with us telling us he had "just sung it the night before" and how that song is a "struggle" for his voice to which beth adequately responded "it's not even a little bit of a struggle!" He told us he'd think about it and then we let him meander off ahead of us. We didn't care that we had apparently failed at our intended goal for the conversation we were too giddy that we had just had a conversation with a Hanson brother.
When we got to the halfway point of the walk, we were somehow in the front group of walkers and Taylor was standing on a bench directing people with his megaphone. Beth and I stood off to the very left side of the group because we just wanted to observe and with this being our first walk we didn't really know why we were stopping in the first place. Isaac appeared on the bench next to Taylor as the last few people trickled into the gathering. I still didn't know where Zac was but Taylor started a speech about the reason behind the walk and how it all started. I was half listening to his speech as I was frantically texting every person in my phone "I JUST TALKED TO A HANSON!" As I was looking down at my phone, I heard beth turn and say something to someone who I assumed was one of her friends from the college finally meeting up with us.
I felt an arm go across my back and a hand grasp onto my shoulder/ neck area and a red flag went off in my head. Beth does not initiate physical touch. She hates cuddling and there would be no reason for her to be touching me like that. Also any friends of hers from this college meeting up with us I had never met before and that would be super awkward for them to be initiating physical touch before even meeting them. I whipped my head up to left to inspect the hand grabbing onto my left shoulder. It was definitely a mans hand... no... WHAT... I whipped my head around to the other side and sure enough there was Zac Hanson. One arm around me, the other around Beth and his beautiful face about 4 inches from mine. I looked at Beth's face. Her eyes were bulging, her mouth was quivering from trying not to laugh and I can only imagine I was doing the same. I embraced the moment and placed my right arm around his back and then he started to sway back and forth with us. Is this real life?! By this point, people had started to notice that Zac was over by us and something was going on so they turned their attention from Taylor's speech to us. I remember an entire section of girls pointing their cameras in our direction. (yet still to this day i haven't been able to find any of these pictures online anywhere) Then all of a sudden along with the swaying came singing... As quietly as he could muster, Zac began to sing the first verse of Oh Darling just loud enough so beth and I could hear. Okay I had to be dreaming now. I somehow remembered that I was holding Beths camera in my left hand and had thought that it was left on the video setting. I pushed the button hoping to record this moment, even from holding it at mid torso level (not wanting to scare him away or know that it was recording) so that I could prove to myself later that this was not a dream and Zac Hanson was actually swaying with me and my best friend and personally serenading us with our favorite song of the moment... However, we were later disappointed to find out the camera was not on record like I had thought and it turned out to just be a picture of the 3 of us up our noses.
But a picture is better than nothing and I'm grateful I even thought to push the button. He finished a few lines of the song and realized all the attention had turned on us instead of Taylor's speech so he let go of us but as he turned and winked at us he said "That's just in case we don't sing it tonight... Just incase..." he ran up to finally join Taylor and Isaac on the bench and beth and I just burst out laughing as silently as we could but it didn't matter the attention was already on us anyway. Did that really just happen? I could not really control myself, I started flailing for my phone and quickly pacing back and forth on the sidewalk that was right next to us wanting to call everyone and anyone to tell them what just happened. Beth tried to to calm me down by informing me "he can see us! He's watching!" so that at least got me standing in one spot just mildly shaking. The rest of the walk is honestly a blur to me. I remember calling either my mom or dad almost in tears and calling my ex boyfriend. I remember Beth's friend Clay finally meeting up with us very shortly after this incident and he was really interested in the walk and what it was about. Beth talked to Isaac about singing "Oh Darling" that night. We had to cover all our bases. Isaac told us he took a mental note that it was "crucial" for them to sing it.
We finally got to the end of the walk and it was raining so they invited us into the lobby of a college classroom building. We gathered around them but we were in the back and couldn't see anything. We found a ledge to stand on by a window that elevated us about 2 feet above everyone's heads and had the perfect direct view once they stood on top of chairs to play a song. They busted out with an acoustic version of "Great Divide" the song that is the anthem of the one mile barefoot walks. As Zac was bobbing his head with the beat and looking around the room his eyes glanced at us, looked away, then darted quickly back to our faces just as the lyrics hit "(they say blood is) thicker than oceans" and his eyes started to light up as he recognized who he was locking eyes with. The side of his lip curled up into a smile that was beginning to take over his whole face and then he jerked his head sideways looking up at the ceiling still smirking. It's a look that makes my stomach hurt and my heart skip a beat. It's his recognition look and from that day on weather we wanted to or not, we'd have to get used to it.
We said goodbye to Clay (he actually admitted that Hanson was not bad!) and made our way back to the venue. When we got there the other girls who had camped were waiting for us and we all went into the little bar & grill to eat. A few of them had witnessed the personal Zac serenade and started asking us questions which we still to this day have no answer to. "What made him do that?" Between the two of us, i think beth and I managed to chow down a half of a burger and six french fries. We were way too excited and nervous to eat. As we walked back to the venue we were greeted by glares from all the girls in line and Tom who led us to our roped off section at the top of the stairs. As soon as we sat down on the cement platform, the tiredness kicked in. Beth sprawled out on the concrete floor and somehow with all the noise and the commotion she passed out. I remember hearing bits of soundcheck and I remember a lady calling names for meet an greets. Meet and greets! How do I get one of those?! "Fan club." Ohhhh I'd have to look into that when we got home...
It was time for the doors to open and things were getting crowded and crazy in that stairwell. They took our tickets from the first 11 of us and let us file into the venue. There were only 6 or so girls already in there but Tom's promise had come through, and all 11 of us were in the front row. Beth and I were as centered as we could be which was between Zac and Isaac. The stage was tiny. It was not even as tall as my waist and the "barricade" was a small grey fence that was smaller than most venues would use for autograph lines and such. There was no room between the "barricade" and the stage either. That meant that we would not have any security blocking our view and we were able to set our waters and cameras on the stage.
The openers were Matt Wertz and Everybody Else. Matt Wertz was great and we had some friends from home who were fans of his so beth took a bunch of video clips of his set. We had seen Everybody Else at the Walk Around The World Tour in Minneapolis and I liked that they played upbeat fun dance type music. However as this was our first time "camping out" we were too exhausted to get into the music or even move at this point. I didn't know if I'd be able to make it through the concert, much less drive home that night. But I soon forgot my tiredness as the roadies came out to swap the instruments to set up for Hanson. Then came the set list. We were so close to the stage that no matter if I wanted to or not, I could read all of the songs on the set list that was being taped down by Isaac's spot. I was skimming down the list until beth clenched my arm and started hyperventilating. I joined her in this reaction half a second later when my eyes hit "Oh Darling" towards the end of the page. There it was. We didn't think it would even be a possibility after the whole personal serenading thing. The event that happened on the walk alone was enough to make us happy for a lifetime.
The lights finally dimmed and they came on stage. From where we were standing Zacs face was being blocked by a cymbal most of the time, Isaac was right up close to us, almost too close for comfort and Taylor was off to the side with his back to us most of the night. When the acoustic set came, Zac moved up to front and center with his jambe drum and as soon as they started the first acoustic song he was nonchalantly observing the front row but when his eyes finally found us, his eyes locked with ours then his face lit up in a smile and I'm pretty sure I gave him the biggest smile my face could hold. For the remainder of the acoustic set he kept glancing at us, then to Isaac's set list, then he would tilt his head towards it like he was trying to motion to it. Don't worry Zac, we already knew what was coming. Somewhere between the acoustic set and Oh Darling, we got to witness Zac grabbing an acoustic guitar and sitting in Taylors spot while Taylor hopped up to the drums. What was going on? Since when does Zac play the guitar? And Taylor the drums? We were so confused. When they started to play, I recognized the song but I was later told that we got to hear a rare rendition of "Fire on the Mountain" as for that tour it was usually a Zac solo and not a full band affair.
Then it was time. We had been watching the set list so as soon as the song before oh darling was finished we started screaming like 12 year old girls. Everyone in the front row had witnessed or heard about our story from the walk so everyone around us was excited for us and understood what all the commotion was about. During the guitar solo in the middle of the song, Zac leaned his head away from the microphone and down so he could see us better, then mouthed something to us. It was a whole sentence and I couldn't make out any of it. I mouthed "What?!" back to him but he was out of down time so he laughed, shook his head, and started to sing again. To this day we still have no idea what he said to us. It drives me crazy every time I watch the video clip of it. The song ended and we had planned on mouthing "Thank You!" to him now that he initiated this whole let's talk to Beth and Laurel from stage thing, but they went immediately into the next song- "Running Man" without barely giving Zac a chance to breathe. We were on cloud 9.
The rest of the concert was like any normal Hanson show, with the exception of a few moments. There were a few times when Zac would either duck down or peek over the cymbal to interact with us. One time he was looking so I stuck my tongue out at him. Don't ask me why, I have no idea how my brain thought that would be a cool thing to do... But he laughed and did it back to me. Another time he broke a drumstick and dropped it and he was leaning over to grab a new one he looked at me mouthed "Do you want this?" motioning to the broken drumstick in his hand. Shock hit me like a ton of bricks but I somehow managed to nod yes and then hold up two fingers at him so that both Beth and I could have one. He nodded back and went back to playing. People around me caught on to the whole he's talking to me from stage thing "what are you guys talking about?!" He just asked me if we wanted drumsticks... I suddenly felt awful because the girl literally next to me who we had waited with all day had a poster held up that said she's been trying for 5 years to get drumsticks. Why would he give them to Beth and I when she's right next to us with a big poster? I was feeling guilty.
At the end of the show Zac stepped off the drum set without the drumsticks. Oh no he forgot. As soon as I was starting to panic inside he ran behind and grabbed a handful of sticks. He walked straight to me and handed me three drumsticks. Two were full sized and one was broken. I looked down at them to be sure there were three and made a split second decision. I turned to the girl with the poster and handed her one of the full drumsticks. I will never forget the look on her face as her eyes started to tear up. So that left Beth and I with a full one and a broken one which was fine by me. It's the thought that counts anyway and Beth was a genius and was thinking clearly enough to video record the process of him handing them off to us.
As we made our way out of the venue, it started to rain outside again. We bolted to the car and moved it right across the street from the tour bus. Hunger was finally hitting us like a semi truck and we started shoving anything edible we could find into our mouths. I'm pretty positive we polished off an entire family sized bag of lays cheddar and sour cream potato chips and the carton of chocolate chip cookies from Cubs bakery. After the hunger came the tiredness. There was no way we were going make it home without falling asleep at the wheel, yet we had to get home by the time classes started next morning. How were we going to pull this one off? Clay. Beth's friend from Drake college that had gone on the walk with us earlier that day came to our rescue. He made last minute plans to visit some friends up in Minnesota and in turn was able to drive the 3 of us through the night. I don't remember much about the ride home other than waking up a few times because it was storming pretty bad out, and Clay was voluntarily listening to Hanson the entire way home. Other than that I spent the entire ride passed out sprawled across the backseat with my broken drumstick still clutched in my hand with a smile on my face.
As I write this, currently 50+ Hanson concerts later, I've realized that nothing can ever top this day for me. Yes I've had other rare and special Hanson experiences since that day that would probably rank #1 by someone else's standards, but this will always remain #1 in my heart. This was the day that changed me. Suddenly traveling hours to see Hanson seemed like a rational thing to do. Camping out for front row was normal and completely worth it. Something happened to me that day that I can't express in words. The best I can do is to say: I got it. Actually, they got me.
