Mak's Portland ME Recap

When my husband, daughter and I arrived in Portland, we noticed a small group had formed by the buses. We parked down the street, bought sandwiches and headed back to the Civic Center just in time to see Bucky come out. His hair was really pretty in the bright sunshine. Someone asked about one of the other Idols, and he politely replied "I don't know. I haven't saw him yet today, but I'll let him know you'd like him to come out." He and Ace spent quite some time out there, posing for pictures and signing autographs. Chris joined them shortly afterwards. All three of them seemed very relaxed and all treated the fans with patience and were very generous with their time, smiles and autographs.

Chris and Bucky came back out at least twice more over the course of the afternoon. Once when Chris was going back inside, a small group broke into applause. He got a big grin on his face and gave that rock-star fist gesture. He told the crowd they all had to go inside to do something but he would be back out later for pictures.

Paris came out and signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans who wanted them. She answered questions quietly and her voice sounded hoarse to me. I didn't notice the hoarseness during the concert though.

Elliott rushed by with his girlfriend, smiling a little at the crowd as he did. My husband could see him hugging and kissing his gf by the bus before Elliott got in the bus and she returned to the building. She is a pretty girl. We left to eat around 5:00. Elliott had taken a bag of food inside the building by then. I don't know if he went out to meet the crowd later or not.

We heard fans begin to holler "Kellie! Kellie!" When she got within sight, I noticed the girl with her was Kat. They were nearly in the building before anyone said Kat's name. I assumed some people didn't recognize her behind the shades, though I did right away. My daughter and I had to convince hubby that it was her because he didn't recognize her. Weird. Kellie smiled a little. I saw no response from Kat, not even a glance. Someone told me Lisa and Mandisa had gone in earlier, not stopping or acknowledging the fans.

This is my favorite part. Two guys came out of the building and walked very quickly past the line of fans to the bus. After a couple steps, I recognized Taylor and sort of accidentally assaulted my poor daughter to get her attention. I am afraid I even pointed at him! I was whispering "It's Taylor! It's Taylor!" What was so much fun to me was that nobody else seemed to notice. His handler was walking between him and us. Taylor was wearing a dark baseball cap and had his head tilted a bit downwards. I walked up to the end of the line near the buses and asked a woman if she could see Taylor from there. She said he hadn't come out yet. I said yes, he had just walked by her. Oh my, the shocked look on her face was priceless! A young girl turned and told us he got on a bus. I was still in line when he came out just before 5 and signed autographs. All I wanted was a picture, but my husband handed me his hat to have autographed. He is a golfer and the hat is from the golf equipment company "Taylor Made". As you can see on the video that was posted today, he moved through that line in less than 3 minutes, quickly signing everything in the first row. He said "Taylor Made" as he signed the hat but was on to the next person before I got the whole "thank you" out. I hollered "Congratulations, Taylor" as he zoomed by, and he said "thank you". Still wanting a picture of his face, I hurried up the rest of the line, stopping to click every time he stopped to sign. I was now a woman on a mission! I did end up getting one good picture for my efforts.

Now for the freakiest moment of the afternoon. At the end of the roped off section, at the front of the first bus, a man moved aside and said I could stand in his place to snap a picture. He spoke as though he were there in an official capacity, although I sensed something was "off" about him. When he moved and I stepped in, it put us just inside the rope and a security guard noticed. The "off" man, who was holding something like a brochure or notebook, said in an authoritative voice "I just have to tell Taylor something." Now I was feeling nervous for Taylor and glad security was right with him. I snapped a quick picture and left. On my way, I heard what the man had to tell Taylor. OMG! "Taylor, Taylor, I have to tell you, after I saw you on that Ford commercial, I bought a Ford car!" I didn't hang around to hear Taylor's quiet response, but I think security got Taylor on the bus immediately.