As some of you know, I am a rather large Elvis fan. I am fortunate enough to be very good friends with one of the best Elvis Tribute Artists in the world, Darren Lee. Darren’s brother, Robin Kelly, is the other best tribute artist. He won the title in 2002 at the Collingwood Elvis Festival. Darren and his lovely wife Allison were going to be in Edmonton visiting family. And it worked out that Robin had a show at a casino and that Darren would be performing with him. I thought about whether I should go and see history in the making. Karen said that if I could get a cheap flight I should go. I was able to get a cheap flight with Air Canada (go figure).
A big thank you to Linda (Darren & Robin’s mom), Darren & Allison, Robin and Nora for making my trip to Edmonton awesome.
I leave the house around 5:30am for my trip. I parked at the GTAA Reduced Rate Parking lot. I made my way over to Terminal 1 where Air Canada flies from. Boy is this a nice terminal. I used their self check-in kiosk. I breezed through security and once I got over to the gate where my flight is leaving from, I had 1-1/2 hours to spare. I guess I didn’t need to leave that early. I boarded the plane and realized that I had the entire row to myself. While I’m stretched out having my nap, I’m awakened by the sound of the flight attendant saying that breakfast will be served. Breakfast … I didn’t think I would get any food since I booked the cheapest flight I could find. The choices were either the hot entree (eggs, yuck) or the cold entree (fruit platter, Yipee).
I landed in Edmonton at 10:30am. I picked up my bags and headed over to the Thrifty car rental desk. I had booked a midsized car but they didn’t have any. They asked if I wanted a minivan and I said no. So … instead I got a PT Cruiser. I made my way over to the West Edmonton Mall. This mall is huge. I think there are over 800 stores.
I met up with Nora Cleavely. She is Robin’s fan club president. She decided to make the trip here also. We met at The Old Spaghetti Factory and had a lovely lunch. After lunch, I dropped Nora off to pick up her rental car and I made my way over to my hotel, West Harvest Inn. After unpacking, I decided that I should have a little nap since I’ve been up since 4am. Dinner was in my room served by the Grainfields Family Restaurant which is located at the hotel.
The show was at the Casino Yellowhead. I made my way over there and met up with Nora, Linda and Linda’s mom Geneva. The show started with Thomas Alexander. He formerly performed with the Platters and did a great job. Next up, Robin. He put on a great show even though his back was bothering him. After a short intermission, Thomas came back up and then it was Darren. He put on a fantastic show. It was the first time in almost 5 years since he has performed in Canada. After Darren, Robin came back and then the two of them performed together. This was the first time that they have sung together since Robin started doing the Elvis tribute (about 3 years ago). It was very cool to see that. After the show, we were all invited over to Linda’s house were we sat up until 5am talking and catching up.
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