Where do I begin?!
The day started with beautiful weather, 50 and sunny. Most of us congregated at the parade (some came later) and were “treated”, lol, to typical small town parade fare (sorry guys, Grafton is so Midwest small town!). John (our favorite Danny relative visitor) stopped by to say Hi to his Ihearties both before the parade and after- what a sweetheart.
Of course the sight we were all waiting for was at the very end (right before Santa who was upstaged, unfortunately 
)- Daniel J. Gokey sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck! So poetic; all the politicians and newscasters rode in convertibles, etc. and Danny sits on the end of a pickup with his two nieces! Talk about humble and fun-loving! Very brief glance of him with the crowds waving and crowding to look.
Back to my house, where we enjoyed Danny’s fave foods (Mama Mias meatballs/pasta, Teavanna, Kopps Ice Cream) and socialized!
I just have to say Danny fans are the BEST. So friendly, happy and even the non-hardcore guests (Cindy brought her sister and brother in law and Jan brought her daughter and future daughter in law- all lovely, wonderful people as you are already finding out from some of the stories). And all the kids were so well behaved and excited about everything.
Jen, Tonya and Lori took off to get a good spot in line at the High School. By the time the rest of us got there the line was about 100 people already. But it wasn’t too cold and we had fun chatting with other fans until they opened the doors.
After a great opening by the UWMadison 5th Qtr band and a little Small town award ceremony, Danny was on! He had teased us earlier with Stand By Me, but then came back on and sang Best DAys, Its Only and PYT. I have to say that I can’t think of many performers who could sing in a gymnasium with the lights on, with recorded background music and sound as fantastic as he did. His voice filled the whole gym. Unbelievable. And everyone knows by now how he jumped the barricades and invited all the kids to storm him as they all danced to PYT. Simply adorable.
I will leave it to others to tell you how hot he was (he was hawt!).
VIP Auto session:
Well, security was tight (I guess those Grafton cops took their job seriously, lol)- we were a little disappointed that we had to lean across the table from him for pics and take them from behind the barricades; a little confusion there- Latrece did not get a pic. And they weren’t allowing us to go to the back of the table for any physical contact 
New Cindy won’t say, but I think Danny fancied her (and she is a beautiful girl as you will see by her picture) and asked her what her twitter name was , lol.
Well, we couldn’t let Latrece leave without more so we sweet talked the security into letting her go through again!
You will see from the picture the results!
And sweet, sweet Danny must have sensed some disappointment because after the bodyguards said it was time to go, Danny said “Everyone who wants a hug line up”.
Well, he went down the line and gave every single person a hug! And it is no wimpy hug, believe me, it was a tight, body pressing, “I care for You” kind of hug; incredible. I laughed because I heard a 65 yr. old well dressed man say afterward “I really wanted a hug, but I was too embarrassed to get in line”. Awww.
Toni and Latrece came back to my house where my hubbie plied them with strawberry margaritas (sorry guys, he is used to my strong drink preference!) and we watched Toni on WISN news- I had recorded it. Toni went back to her hotel since she had an early flight, but Latrece stayed and we had a great time the next day just relaxing, chatting and of course discussing ALL things Danny! Latrece is an intelligent, soft spoken, very pretty woman and we really had a nice time. I’m so glad she and Toni (who is so sweet; and thank you again for the awesome 8×10 pics of Danny!! She did a great job on the TV interview, although they didn’t show all of it) were brave travelers and made the gamble to come and meet us fellow obssessed Gokeyholics.
Summerfest 2010 anyone??
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- Parade – hand in front of me, but his new white smile is so cute I sent this anyway!
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- Channel 12 news interviewing. You can see Jan, Kristi, VC and Michelle.
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- New Cindy at the concert; beaming at the thought of Danny!
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- Stand By Me
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- Middle school kids presenting Danny a check for SHF. They sold purple hearts for $1 each and raised $750
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- Danny singing
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- Danny meeting and greeting
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- Latrece finally gets her hug! (She got two!)
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- And she can’t take her eyes off him as she leaves
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- Danny decided at the end (despite security) that there were a few kids he just had to get more personal with, including Michelle’s adorable two.
Front row:
Karen’s daughter, Karen (Kay), Michelle’s 2 kids, Jason and son
Middle row:
Cindys sister and husband, Jen, Valerie (VC), VC’s mom, Patti (Gokey Gang), Lori, Jan’s daughter in law (not sure where her daughter was!),
Back row:
Cheri (Twitter, Gokey Gang), Cindy, Tonya (twitter), Christine (twitter, Gokey Gang), Me, Toni (Tonic), Latrece, Kristi (ihrt lurker), Jan (Jannikas), Michelle
I love it! That is the most beautiful recap ever! All of you are gorgeous! I hope to meet all of you one day at a Danny show. And the kids! Their are just too adorable! All of you look so close, like a family reunion picture!
Twitter: tonicny
Pam, great recap of how the day went, had a great time, just an FYI because I was bumped from my flight I was compensated by the airline with one free flight so I will save it for another Danny concert in the future so this was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend. P.S. I love my margaritas just like your husband made them.
Twitter: kiady
Pam thank you so much for the recap and for the gorgeous pics!!!