A Diamond in the sky

Marc and I had already had a challenging day.
We had hiked up to Timp Cave and back with an assortment of grandkids and their parents and back and forth from our picnic site a couple of times.
We were looking forward to the Neil Diamond concert that night as a chance to sit down and sit back and just revel in the music. (We're both fans though he likes the rock and roll while I prefer the love songs.)
The concert started at 8 p.m. in the Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy.
Since we live in American Fork, we knew we ought to leave fairly early which we did.
We allowed time to stop at the hardware store to pick up a bolt so Marc could rebuild the bed in the Barbie room. (That's another column.)
We allowed time to zip through the wedding reception for a girl in our neighborhood.
We thought we allowed time to eat and that's where our plan started to break down.
McGrath's had a 20-minute wait and then it took forever to catch the fish we wanted to eat, apparently.

Traveling to see the Traveling man

It was nearly 8 p.m. when we left the restaurant with a herd of other anxious people headed to Neil Diamond.
Now we started to look for parking. A friend of ours had suggested the South Towne Centre parking lot since parking near the stadium costs $25. We turned in but there was a big sign "$15 parking."
We didn't have cash so we turned around and plowed on...and on.. and on. The signs in the businesses and yards got progressively cheaper as we neared the mountains but we still didn't have any cash.
We ended up about 15 blocks away.
Then, when we finally got to the Will Call window to collect our tickets, we were told they were at the window on the OTHER side. (Of course!)
Three floors and a bunch of steps later we were in our seats, exhausted and grumpy.
Fortunately there had been some wind and sound problems so Neil started late, about the same time we arrived around 8:30 p.m.
It was a great concert. We were happy to be there.
But be warned, if you go to an event at Rio Tinto, start jogging in way early.