Though we can find lots of music in St Augustine, Mrs Ram was looking to get her country and western fix. She found tickets to the Southern Uprising at the St Augustine Amphitheater. After going to concerts at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA we were prepared for the worst in terms of walking, security and costs.
When we rolled up, we were not surprised that the close parking lots were full. We followed the signs to the overflow parking which we discovered was free, saving us $20. And there was a free shuttle to drive us to the entrance. We enjoyed a beautiful mile long ride through the Anastasia State Park.
There were no lines at security where they checked for large, metal items with their wand metal detector but smaller items like bags of outside food and small, discrete plastic “adult beverage” containers passed through undetected.
Beer prices were another surprise. 24 oz of Bud Light cost a mere $8. Want something actually drinkable? Dukes 24oz cup was only $10. As for traffic, we expected long lines of unmoving cars. Not here. Getting in and out was a breeze.
And those $40 tickets got us real, plastic seats with backs and an excellent view of the stage.
As the sun dropped below the horizon, the temperature quickly followed. Fortunately the wind died down and even though it was in the 50s it was not too cold. If we were at Gillette in March we might likely be covered in snow.
Change over between bands seemed like it took forever as the stage at the Amphitheater was not very large and one group needed to breakdown before the other could set up. There were no large monitors here so what you saw was just the performers – no distractions.
We sat in the sun while enjoying to the first band, The Outlaws. The Marshal Tucker band sounded ok but they might want to consider taking that pension and moving on. Charlie Daniels (not to be confused with his relative Jack) still puts on a great performance, though there were times we thought we might have drifted into a Baptist Revival rather than a music concert. Travis Tritt puts on a good show too but Mrs Ram and I agreed the we like the Outlaws the most.
