Well, I am back home and I am winding down after the massive emotional high I experienced Monday night at the Superdome.

First off: Way To Go New Orleans!!! Big win for the team and an even bigger win for the city!!!

My day started off at 9am when I flew out of DFW. After switching plaes in Houston, I landed in the Cresant City a little after noon. I dropped my bag off at the hotel and headed to the race track at the fairgrounds. I was still a little incredulous about the whole thing. Is ths for real? Had i wasted my day coming all the way to New orleans just to find out that this wouldn’t happen? All of my fears went away when I arrived at the designated spot and found 5 charter buses ready and waiting. About 5 or 6 more buses showed up later. At about 2 o’clock, we loaded the buses and waited (a theme of the day) until 3:30.

At that time, the buses were escorted to the Superdome by some of the sharpest looking Police motorcyclysts I have ever seen. It was awesome. It was almost as if the entire city stopped for us.

We were dropped off at the Arena next door to the Superdome where we had lunch and waited around for about another 3 hours.

There were about 1000 different people there: high school students, college students, Shell employees, hotel chain employees but only about 60-100 involved were individual fans like myself. All of us went through training and information about the event and then we ran through the staging twice.

At about 6:50pm we headed over to the Superdome. That is about the time all of the rehersals went out the window. It got crazy!!!

As we were waiting outside the dome, Harry Connick Jr. walked by. The crowd screamed. Then came the ESPN cameas. More screams. The U2 and Green Day walking by- Insane crazy screams and jumping and pushing. The loading dock to the dome opened up and we all surged forward to the endzone.

The stage was set into place and we were given the “go for launch” signal.

In rehersal we were told to briskly walk toward the stage and to sperad out so that our little crowd of 1000 looked like 10,000.

Yeah right! At the signal everyone took off in a full sprint to the 50 yard line!!!

I took a spot on the right corner of the stage with the bassist for Green Day directly in front of me. The Edge was over on the left and Billy Joe was next to him.

If you’ve seen the video of the concert you cannot grasp how loud the dome was. People were shouting and yelling and chanting. When the brass instruments began their march to the stage the place went gonzo!!! We were dancing, they were dancing, the crowd was dancing. It was awesome.

When the Edge began the opening note of Wake Me Up When September Ends it seemed like everyone just stopped. All eyes were on him.

From where I was I had a great veiw of Adam, bassist for U2, as he was waiting for his cue to go on stage. i was only about 5 feet away from him. What struck me was just how big his smile was as he watched his friend play guitar. He looked as if he was beeming with pride. Monday was the 30th anniversary of these friends begining their journey together. What a way to celebrate by helping others.

Then came Bono. Short on hair but long on bravado. I watched as he climbed onto the stage where he was greeted by thousands of screaming fans.

As the two played The Saints Are Coming everyone was jumping and singing the chorus as loud as they could. Both bands did an excellent job. I was very impressed. There was no lip synching there!!!

After they played Beautiful Day we all stood there in awe. Nobody on the field could believe what we had been privilaged to experience. Stangers wer exchanging high-fives and stories. I saw people hugging and smiling at one another. Then, almost at once, a realization set in.

We only have 30 seconds to get off the field.

With the dome cheering us off the field we moved toward the exit. I knew that this could be the only time 20,000 people would be screaming for me as I crossed into the end zone I did what any of you would do:

I did a tuck and roll over the goal line popping up into the end zone!!!

I wasn’t the only one enjoying the exit. College students were running between the hash marks with their arm extended like airplanes. Buzzing the hashes with percision accuracy. Fans in the stands were reaching down slapping our hands like we had scored the game winning touchdown. We were all high as kite on adrenaline! It was so awesome!!!

Well, that’s about it. The only thing I regret is following the guidelines about not bringing a camera. I was as close to the stage as the camera man who took the above photo. My hands were on the stage. Why, o why did I not bring my camera!!!!

Oh yeah. I was told not to.

Thank you to @U2 for posting the information about the event and thank you to Irene for getting all of us together. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I can’t thank you all enough.

Check out the Music Rising site to see how you can help and check out the performance video on Rhapsody.