Rock The Troops 2016
It’s been a bit since we’ve gone out at done something truly epic over the weekend. Since our good friends PCS’d over the summer, we’ve mostly been homebodies. This weekend we finally broke that trend, by attending the Rock The Troops event, hosted by The Rock.
When I first heard about the Rock The Troops event happening here in Hawaii, I marked it down on my calendar. The closer it got to the actual event though, the more reluctant I was to go. EVERYONE seemed to be interested in going, and frankly I didn’t want to deal with crowds, so I told John to forget it.
When Saturday morning rolled around, John still mentioned interest in going, so Rock The Troops was back on my agenda. I still wasn’t overly thrilled about going, so we just casually went about our day. I figured, if we make it, we make it.
We made a plan to leave the house at 2pm. We managed to be in the car and pulling out of the driveway by 2:01. That NEVER happens! Before actually heading to the event however, we made a pit stop at Starbucks, and the ATM. We were officially on the road and headed off base at 2:3o.
Traffic was smooth sailing, until we reached the 1-mile marker to Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam. From there we sat in traffic for about an hour and a half. It wasn’t a huge deal to me, since I needed my phone to charge. The thing that slowed down the traffic, was the ID check at the the JBPHH gate. From there we were off again, and rolling onto the flight line to park at 4:15.
It then took us about 15 minutes to walk from our parking spot to the area where the event was. We could have bused, but with all of the kid stuff we brought along, we determined walking would be easiest.
The first stop upon arriving at the event was the beer line. The line was huge, but moved surprisingly quick. There was no limit on how many beers you could take, so we left the stand double-fisting. From there we easily found an open area near the back and set up camp.
Armed with a picnic blanket and lawn chairs, we claimed our area. V and Adri had their own little chairs too, so everyone was comfy. We weren’t close up, but the screens were large enough that we had no problem seeing what was happening on stage.
It didn’t seem like we were waiting very long before the show started. The concert is being produced as a special on Spike TV around Pearl Harbor Day, so there was a bit of directing from the producers. Clap now, turn on lights, etc.
Each performer seemed to only be on stage for 5-ish minutes, but each set was still extremely entertaining. There were a slew of surprises thrown in there, that I can’t wait to watch again when the special airs!
At the end of the night, I was SO happy that we decided to attend. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to see that many A-list celebrities perform again completely free!
Traffic getting off base was a BREEZE, and we were home about 40 minutes from the time we got in the car.
I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have been able to attend this event! There were many that were turned away at the gate, due to the venue being at full capacity. Luckily, that wasn’t the case for us!