Our Cincinnati Adventure – Going to See Leeland
It all started with a dream. A dream that Faith had to go see Leeland, Brandon Heath, and Francesca Battistelli in concert in Cincinnati. Overall, I was pretty excited about this trip as Cincinnati is only a two-hour drive and the tickets were cheap.
The drive was pretty uneventful, as we had made the trip over a month ago to go see the Cincinnati Zoo. We listened to some good music, Betsy and Faith took cat naps for part of the journey and it looked like we were on schedule.
Betsy’s friend had warned us that we might run into traffic in Cincinnati, as the part of town we had to go through was notorious for crappy traffic, but we totally didn’t expect what was about to happen.
About six miles from our destination, tummies grumbling and needing to go to the bathroom after a two-hour car ride, we came to a standstill on I-275. Now when I say standstill, I don’t mean that traffic slowly inched its way along. No, it was not moving AT ALL.
People started turning their cars off in order to save gas. Jordan and I got out to investigate. It was actually quite humorous, as it reminded me of R.E.M.’s music video for "Everybody Hurts" when, during a traffic jam, everyone gets out of the cars on the interstate and just start walking around and talking to eachother. Sadly, because of the way the median is structured on this stretch of highway, there was no way that we could simply hop on the westbound lane and drive away. There was a "turnaound" about a mile down the road, you know, the kind that you’re not supposed to use, but people do anyway. A few people took that option, but most people opted to stay in traffic, hoping and praying that it would move again.
While sitting on the middle of the interstate, I had visions. I had visions of everyone getting out of their car and having a giant dance party. I opened up all the doors and started blasting "I’ve Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, but sadly, the idea never caught on. So after about 45 minutes of sitting in the middle of the highway and people who almost died of having to pee so bad, we finally got moving.
I read later that there was a four car chain crash that happened at the upcoming off-ramp which caused us to be stuck there so long. Apparently in Cincinnati, when one person crashes, everyone else feels like they have to join in… it must be an Ohio thing. We finally made it to our exit and ran into Wendy’s to grab a quick bite before the concert, I literally finished eating my meal as we walked up to the venue.
Fortunately we only missed an opening song or two, so I was not bummed. The concert venue is actually an old Discovery Zone that the church behind it bought and converted it into a student ministries/concert venue. Aside from people moving around so much (standing room only), I really enjoyed the place.
Leeland, Brandon Heath, and Francesca played great. They intermingled their sets, so that you got to hear everyone and didn’t get tired of one act waiting for the next one to come up. I think the one part of the concert that I really enjoyed was the part that didn’t involve music at all. They talked about a program called "Food For The Hungry" which goes into impoverished areas in the world and actually works with the people to come up with tangible solutions, not dictating what the locals should do, but listening to their ideas and partnering with them.
For example, some money went to buy seeds so that people in Cambodia could plant a field full of cucumbers. There’s really so much to this organization, that I’m actually going to write about it in another post (I’m going to sponsor a child with Food for the Hungry). So I’ll be sure to update all of you on how to get involved.
Anyway, suffice to say, it was a great concert, well worth the two-hour drive. We got stuck in traffic thinking we’d never make it to the concert, but fortunately we did and had a great time. I’ll leave all of you with this music video of Leeland’s "Follow You," with footage of their trip to Cambodia with Food for the Hungry. Enjoy!