The RATHSKELLER!!!!!

The Rathskeller is THE BEST BAR in INDIANAPOLIS!!!! If you live anywhere close to Indianapolis and you have never been - YOU NEED TO GO NOW!!! Seriously. RUN! I'll time you :)

The Rathskeller is just so cool. And the food. Oh the food... Don't get me started - I'll get all hungry again. Though I don't know how I'll EVER be hungry again after how well they fed us tonight.

Dan, the owner aka Dan THE Man... of awesomeness.... is one of the coolest guys in the world. It's not often we get to really talk to and hang out with the owner of the clubs we play in. The managers? Yes. The owners? No way! They usually aren't there! But Dan is.

When I walked in today, Dan pointed at me and said, "Tortilla Soup, right???" (Somebody's been reading the blog!!! YEHYAH!!!) I said "Ummm, yes please!!!" He said "I have some you'll LOVE. It's Shrimp Tortilla Soup"
Ok, I've put hamburger and ground turkey in mine - NEVER thought to put shrimp in. MMM. mmm. MMM!! It was so good. REALLY spicy. Just how I like it! Man, I wish I had another bowl right now.

Dan the Man (who you can see in Tour Diary #2 from the first time we played at the Rathskeller)


And then Dan's wife and her 2 best friends came back. This is a really cute story. Leslie and Jackie - the 2 beautiful ladies on the left side - came to our very first show at the Rathskeller. They met for the first time that evening. They have been best friends ever since!!! They even just went to Cabo San Lucas together! Isn't that cool? Peace, Love, Fiddle - bringing people TOGETHER!



Ok. Now for THE BEST SURPRISE I've had in a LOOOOOOONG time. (I LOVE LOVE LOVE surprises) MAMMA and DADDY came!!! They are so sneaky! I had NO idea - not even a hunch they were coming! They drove all the way from Nashville just to surprise us and watch the show. It was so exciting to have them there and share the night with them. We have so much catching up to do ALWAYS. But I won't have to catch them up on THIS show! They got to witness all the craziness firsthand! And Dan. My Goodness. He gave them the star treatment! Every time I looked up they were wisked off to meet more cool people! (And Daddy was VERY happy with eating dinner here!)


We were gonna try to stay at the same hotel, but it ended up taking us a while to get packed up at the end of the night. Plus, we were going in different directions. Plus, good ole Jeeves... trying to take us on state roads even though there was an interstate RIGHT NEXT TO US. We keep ending up having to navigate with our iphones. Dangit Jeeves! Get it together!

Karen and Pat.
Ok. These two are such wonderful people. The last time we played the Rathskeller, they came and brought me a present. Karen had made me Peace, Love, Fiddle earrings!!! How cool is that? This time... they brought a HUGE group of people with them AND they made me another design of Peace, Love, Fiddle earrings!!!! Goodness. I love them.
James was there to document the whole thing!
Me unwrapping the earrings (Did I mention that I also LOVE to unwrap things? Cds... Dvds... wrapped boxes... they don't even have to have anything in them. It is just fun to unwrap!! Seriously.)


Me showing off the earrings:


Me thinking that Karen made them again:


Me finding out that Pat drilled holes in them - so he made them too!!!


And then tonight I took a picture of BOTH pairs of earrings so you could see how adorable they are!!! The first pair is on the left and tonight's is on the right:


And the whole group they brought with them!!! How AWESOME are they!?!?



There were a few celebrities in the room tonight as well :) Along with Karen and Pat's group was their niece, Sarah Fisher - a professional Indy Car Race Driver. She's the on the right.
In 2000, Fisher became the third woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500. She went on to become the first female to earn a pole position and is the fastest woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 with a four-lap average of 229.439 mph. I looked it up! I mean.... I knew that off the top of my head :-)~


And then all of a sudden, all these guys with these gargantuan Super Bowl Rings seemed to appear out of nowhere! I am not sure about all of them, but I know one of the guys said he a Doctor for the team!


I didn't want to be left out, so I stuck my ring in there, too. And I thought MY ring was big.


Happy Birthday Lawana!


Jill's sons were at the venue across the street watching Mudvayne. So she came over to the country concert! She ended up staying the whole night!


The show was really fun. We hadn't played a bar set in a LONG time it felt like. So far on this leg of the trip, it has just been Colleges. We ROCKED IT OUT tonight. Once Pat and Karen took the dance floor - the rest of the crowd followed their lead, and they all stayed out and danced for the rest of the night. It was so fun!!!

Next time we go back to the Rathskeller is July 11. We'll be back out at the Bier Garden in the beautiful warm weather!!! But I will definitely remind everyone when we are going back! Thank you for everything Dan!!

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie