This Post Is Brought To You By the I-80 Truck Stop

Project NKOTB's Spring Tour, Continued...

The morning after the show in Champaign, we were up and at 'em early again. Shocking. This time it was okay, because we had a long-ish drive to Des Moines. We had to arrive in time for four of the five of us to shower and get ready for the 5 Star festivities, which were starting at 4:30. In a nutshell, we had to hustle.

We stopped for lunch at the I-80 truckstop. A very sweet lady who was unfamiliar with digital cameras took our photo by a big red truck


The gift shop was full of all sorts of things that you never knew you needed. Unicorns! The official magical creature of Project NKOTB!

We spent a good amount of time on the highway between Champaign and Des Moines Twanking people. Another post is needed to fully describe the hilariousness of Twanking.

When we finally arrived in Des Moines, we noticed some people gathered around the back of the arena, which was across the street from our hotel. Some girls who were on their way back from there told us that most of the guys were in their buses. The two of us, plus Lisa and Tiffany, had to get ready for 5 Star, but Becky took this opportunity to finally try to get some Face Time. She headed off towards the buses, and the rest of us got ready for the show.

Our friend Katie arrived shortly after we did, with our friend Peggy in tow! She totally surprised us! Good one, Peg. And good one Katie, for keeping it a secret. It was such a nice surprise!

The five of us (Katie had 5 Star too) on our way to the arena... Aren't we cute?


After walking through a Des Moines windstorm up a mountain to the venue we took our place in line where we ran into some other Minnesota folks. Seriously, with all the traveling that the girls from Minnesota do you think they would honor us with another show! We saw no less then 10 people that we have met in the past from here!

When we made it to the ILAA check in table we found out that instead of assigning group letters as in the past they had numbered the laminates. Luckily it looked like we were all going to be in the same group. As usual the ILAA folks looked less then pleased to be doing their jobs and were less than pleasant. What ever happened to customer service?

I think that Alexis was feeling a bit bitchy. At one point she noticed that one of the security guards was laughing and making fun of the excitment in the room when the boys finally entered and took it upon herself to let him know what she thought of him. "Listen buddy, you are making fun of the boys in the wrong place. There are 150 women in this room who wouldn't hesitate kicking your ass for messing with them." She later approached him to ask him a question and he backed up in fear of her.

After the usual arena appetizer buffet and white wine it was finally our turn to be herded through for our pictures. It was the five of us and two other Minnesota girls in the picture that we had met at the MOA. Holla at Neecee and Dawnie!! Wow, those few minutes fly by! You would think that we would be better prepared but it was still a blur. Highlights: Alexis telling Joe that when she announced her fake engagement to him on Facebook many people (including her parents) kind of believed it. It came out a lot creepier than it actually was. He didn't seem too impressed. Donnie blessed us and hugged us no less than five times after Alexis yelled at him. He said "But we are playing in Minnesota!" and she snapped back "NO YOU ARE NOT!" We told him this was our 10th show and his hands were placed on our heads and we were blessed. It was like Easter came early!



After leaving the festivities, we found our friend Becky, who got her long-awaited Face Time with Donnie. Lucky, lucky girl!

We also ran into Heather and Sadie, so we posed for our ceremonial pre-show photo:


The show was awesome, as usual. We had great seats. 3rd row (technically 6th row, per our tickets) from the center of the stage. We took about a million photos. They are heavy on the Donnie this time around. The entire set is here

A few highlights:








We're wondering if anybody is keeping track of the number of times Jordan gets the velcro on his shirt lined up. As far as we've seen he's 0 for 10.










We got a few video clips this time around too.

The end of Joe's Medley. We could watch this one million times and not be sick of it. [edited to add: this is what has since become known as "Five Brothers And A Million Sisters"


Donnie's rap in the middle of Click Click Click


The first part of the Pose-Off, including three do-overs. Listen for Alexis screaming "ReDo! That Was Horrible!" at 0:11

We both want to learn that move that Jordan does in the second try... and be able to do it without hurting ourselves.

The second part (Kim has an itchy trigger finger... oops), where they attempt to spell out IOWA. It's also got a great version of the "Let's Get This/Jon Song"


Lisa and Tiffany even made it on the big screen during Joe's medley.

This caused a bit of a riff in Alexis and Lisa's relationship. There were some words exchanged later about it

We didn't hang out by the buses after this show. It was cold, INSANELY windy, and we were exhausted. We did have enough energy to meet our friends at the hotel bar for a round... We played an impromptu round of New Kids trivia, organized by some random guy who was at the bar. Little did he know that the teams were both friends, and there was no way anybody would lose. Even in sudden death, and even with the opposite team writing the questions. There was a round of shots, which we recall being gross. They might have been good. It was a long day.

Most people couldn't hang very long (are we getting old?) and headed to bed. Alexis, Katie and Peggy stayed for a little bit longer. As Alexis was paying her tab at the bar she was approached by someone who recognized her from the blog. She would like to apologize if she seemed off but she was pretty dead to the world at that point. We were over 1000 miles and two concerts into our trip and she normally goes to bed at by 9pm. It is always great to meet fans and we would love to hear from you again.



Coming soon... The Bodies Revolt. AKA Des Moines > St. Paul > Green Bay.

Holla!
xoxo,
Kim and Alexis