(25) Back to DC

Saturday, November 22nd: We left Brooklyn around 9:00am for our 228 mile(4409 total miles) drive back to Washington, DC. Caroline, Jill and I were in the van and we listened and sang to musicals most of the way home. Once back at the Kennedy Center, we unpacked the truck and took everything to storage. We then went back to the office and had a short post mortem for the first leg. Even though everyone was exhausted, we went back to the hotel and Jill made a fantastic lasagna dinner with some bread and salad and Caroline made some pumpkin bread for dessert. We drank and ate and relaxed and had a great evening to finish up a long day of work.

Sunday, November 23rd: Caroline, Rudy and I woke up really early and left around 7:00am to get in line at the Washington Monument to get tickets. We stood in line for about 45 minutes in the FREEZING cold waiting for the booth to open. We got tickets for the 9:30am tour group and went over to the nearest Starbucks to have some coffee and warm up. Eric also met up with us at Starbucks. We went back down the Monument just before 9:30am and were soon riding the elevator to the top observation deck. It’s pretty awesome to be able to see that far around the entire Washington, DC area. I could have stood there for quite a while just looking if we had had the time. Eric was leaving for the airport early that morning, so we went back to the hotel. Caroline and I went down to the Kennedy Center in the afternoon to take the vehicles back with David Paige. It was some nice closure for this leg of the trip. That afternoon and evening was just some lounging around, watching tv, packing and relaxing.

Monday, November 24th: I checked out of the hotel and took my luggage down to the Kennedy Center. Caroline and I had breakfast with David Kilpatrick and then I went out to do some holiday shopping. I went back to a few places I had already been in DC(where I won’t tell you because you may be getting a present from there!) and went to a few more fun souvenir shops. After a couple hours, I made my way back to the Kennedy Center where I finished up a couple of things and then headed to the airport! My first flight was to Dallas and left around 5:40pm ET. The flight pulled out of the gate and taxied towards the run way before stopping. The pilot came on and said that they were now experiencing some troubles that they didn’t have at the gate and we would be returning to the gate so the ground crew could fix them. Everyone on the plane was a little annoyed but knew there was nothing they could do about it. We got back to the gate, they opened the door to the plane and 2 police officers came on and escorted a gentleman off the plane. Everyone was very calm and nobody paid a lot of attention even though everyone knew what was going on. After that, we taxied back out and took off. Once in the air, the pilot came back on and told us that the gentleman who was escorted off had been arguing with the gate and flight attendants and they had decided that he wasn’t worth dealing with. The plane landed safely in Dallas and my second flight took off without any problems. I landed safely in San Jose just after 11:00pm PT and Michelle was there to pick me up.

FINALLY, I made it back home to San Jose to start my “winter break.” Hopefully everyone has enjoyed this leg of the tour. I fly back to DC on January 1st to start the second leg of the tour and will start writing again once we get back on the road. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is planning a nice Holiday Season and a safe New Years!

(24) The Last Week of the First Leg

Tuesday, November 18th: We woke up and had a little bit of extra time before we left for Flushing, NY, which is in Queens. Jill and I drove the truck 40 miles(4106 total miles) down there and arrived just before the vans. We were supposed to park in this pay to park lot about a block from the hotel. Jill and I drove around the block once just to see what was around and figure out really quickly that there was no other choice. This part of Queens is packed REALLY tight with builds, cars and people. Some of the cast was saying that this area was called “Korea Town.” We ended up at the parking lot trying to find a place to park. The attendant came up to us and I told him we only needed to park for a couple of hours. We would be leaving then to go to load in at the venue. He said that it would be $30 for us to park there for a couple of hours. I said “What? It’s only a couple of hours, what about $15?” He thought about it and said “How long?” I said “We’ll be leaving at 1:30.” He thought about it again before agreeing. Jill and I parked the truck and sat there for a minute. We thought, yah know what, why pay when we could probably just drive over to the venue and leave the truck there! We started to pull back out of the lot when Caroline and Eric came in with the vans, which were also being parked in that lot. The attendant was dealing with them and asked where we were going. I said “Where not gonna pay, we’ll just take the truck over to where we’re going.” He thought for a minute and said “What about $10?” I said “$10 to park for an hour?” He said “Yeah.” I said “Sure, for $10 I guess it’s worth it.” So we parked the truck again and went up to the hotel. It had a small cramped lobby and all of our luggage was packed in the entrance way and the cast was waiting patiently. We left a short time later for load in at the Kupferberg Center. This was our hardest venue that we have worked in so far. We performed in a concert hall with no rigging at all what-so-ever except for the lighting equipment. Not only was there no rigging(which I use to put up most of my scenery) but the venue had a full ceiling, which makes it almost impossible to even mock up something to hold up the scenery. We learned that we would not be able to use most of our scenery which was very upsetting. It made for a long load in and not because there was a lot of work to do. That night, Caroline, Jeffrey and I went to a really great Chinese restaurant that everyone was suggesting called Joe’s Shanghai. It was really fantastic food and reminded me of Chinatown in San Francisco.

Wednesday, November 19th: We had one show today at 10:30am(38). After the show, our strike went faster than ever, mostly because such a small portion of our scenery had been used, and we had a bit of extra time before the cast was called back to grab some food. Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I walked across the street to an AMAZING New York pizza restaurant called Gino’s. It’s was like Sabarro’s but WAY better. We stuffed our food down and went back to the vehicles to make the 29 mile(4135 total miles) drive to South Orange, NJ. We had an hour or so at the hotel and I took the time to Google Map our drive to the venue. My contact in South Orange said that there is one 11’-11” bridge near his venue that we would not fit under. We ended up driving a long way to get around the bridge, but it was a simple route. As we neared the venue, we were very confused because the South Orange Performing Arts Center(SOPAC) also has a movie theatre in it. For a second I thought I had plugged in the incorrect address or found the wrong venue. Luckily, we found out that both the theater and movie theater share the same building. Load in went pretty well and we were back at our hotel by around 10:00pm.

Thursday, November 20th: We had one show at 10:00am(39) at SOPAC and then packed up the show for the third time in three days. We had time to grab some lunch at a local bagel store, which was really, really good. I was concerned about the drive today because we were going into Brooklyn and had not figured out a route that we could take. We were running into the problem of driving on either parkways or on city streets. Caroline had been to the venue and the hotel in Brooklyn with the tour she was on last year. She sent a message to her tech crew asking if anyone remembered how to get to either place. After lunch, I had a chance to call Elif, who was the Props/Costume Supervisor for the show Caroline worked on last year. She said they had taken some side streets that were ok for trucks and ran parallel to the parkways. It was very calming to know that there was a way to get to the hotel. Jill and I started the 46 miles(4181 total miles) drive and made it all the way to Brooklyn without any problems. We then got off the highway and started our city street drive. At this point, we turned on the GPS and hoped that it would help us get to the hotel. As we were driving around, the GPS took us away from the parkway and towards the center of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, this was a bad idea and we ended up running into a subway bridge and having to turn around in the street. We drove down the street parallel to the subway line and stopped at every cross street to see if we could pass under the bridge. Most of the bridges were 12’-6” tall. Finally we made it to 65th Street and crossed under the bridge. We drove on, thinking that we had found the way, when we hit another subway bridge and the game continued. We drove all the way down the parallel street until it dead ended and we had to go around the block. We backtracked to Coney Island Ave which took us over the parkway and closer to our destination. We slowly made our way over to Neptune Street and then back under the Parkway to Voorhies and finally ended up at the hotel! It was quite the journey and very tiring. We had a little over an hour before we went to the venue and I took most of the time to Google Map my directions there. We left at 5:15pm for our 6:00pm load in. The drive to the venue was uneventful, but finding the loading dock was very difficult. We did one lap around Brooklyn College(which was where the theater was located) before we stopped to call and ask. We had driven just past the entrance we wanted so we then had to do another lap around the surrounding streets to make it to the loading dock. We started about 15 minutes late, but no one seemed upset. We had a large crew for this venue and a large stage. It made load in go fairly easily and we were done just after 10:00pm and headed back to the hotel.

Friday, November 21st: We had one show at 10:15am(40). On the way to the venue, we drove through a largely Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. There were a lot of signs in both Hebrew and English. WE also found a Duncan Donuts that was Kosher! Before the show, I went around and said goodbye to the cast because they were driving back to DC right after the show and we would be in the middle of load out. The show went well and load out was pretty easy. The crew went to lunch at the Corn Bread Diner, a little Southern Restaurant near the venue. The food was amazing and we were all stuffed when we headed back to the venue to take the vehicles back to the hotel. Here is where the fun started. I started pulling away from the loading dock and had to make a little bit of a sharp turn past a Public Safety hut. I was being very careful not to hit the yellow pylon next to the hut that I didn’t realize that the roof of the hut extended further over the pylon. I was at the gate when I realized that the truck was rubbing on something. I searched in all my mirrors and realized that I had caught the corner of the Public Safety hut and put a nice big gash in the side of the truck. It was so frustrating knowing that I had driven all the way through the Northeast, through some pretty tight spaces and sharp turns, and on the last time I was going to drive the truck I got in an accident. The Public Safety Officer took my information and another Public Safety Officer told me that I was definitely not the first to do it. Eric and I got in the truck and made our way back to the hotel. That was our third day in a row of morning shows and load outs and LUCKILY we didn’t have to drive anywhere today. That afternoon was given over to resting. That evening, Caroline, Rudy and I went to a really nice Italian Restaurant that also had off track betting(how New York is that!) After dinner, Eric, Rudy and I played a little Wii Golf before going to bed.

(23) SUNY-Purchase

Sunday, November 16th: We woke up early yet again for another 8:00am load in at SUNY-Purchase’s Performing Arts Center. On the way to the venue, we ran into another small problem of the directions being a little confusing. This venue was very large and pretty nice. Load in went smoothly and the cast showed up at 1:30pm for our 3:00pm(35) show. After the show, we went back to the hotel. That afternoon, I wanted to go over to Wal-Mart to get some things for the last week of the trip. A small group of us left around 5:30pm with me driving. We searched for a Wal-Mart on the GPS and started to follow the directions. About 20 minutes later, we found ourselves driving down a two lane road, almost completely lost even though the GPS said we were already there. Kevin, one of the cast members that did not come with us, had already been to Wal-Mart and said it had been hard to find. We found the next closest Wal-Mart and started driving in that direction. Again, we ended up on a residential street with no Wal-Mart in sight. Caroline got on her phone and called the Wal-Mart we were trying to find to get directions. I pulled back onto the main street in the town we were in and started to drive when I noticed a Wal-Mart sign over an entrance to a parking garage. We pulled down that street, but wouldn’t fit in the parking garage so we went further down the street looking for a parking spot. I parallel parked the van and we went over to the Wal-Mart. This was by far the most packed, ghetto, crazy Wal-Mart I have been in. There were people EVERYWHERE and really long lines at the check outs. I also needed to get quarters so I could do my last bit of laundry. I got up to the check out counter and paid for my stuff. I then asked the cashier if she could break $3 into quarters. She said “I don’t even have a dollar in quarters.” And sure enough, when she opened the change drawer, there were only three lonely quarters inside. We made our way back to the hotel without any problems and I had left overs for dinner.

Monday, November 17th: We had two shows this morning at 10:00am(36) and 12:00noon(37). After shows we had an uneventful load out and then headed back to our hotel. That afternoon, Caroline and I decided it would be fun to go jump in the big pile of leaves that was outside the hotel. After that we drove over to Mt. Kisco, the next small town over, and had a really good dinner at a small Mexican Restaurant called the Mango Café. It was a semi-relaxing day knowing that the next four days were going to be very painful.

(22) New York City

Friday, November 14th: DAY OFF! Caroline, Jeffrey, Jill and I took the train from Newark Penn Station to New York Penn Station for a day of walking around the city. We walked from Penn Station up to Port Authority and then over to Dallas BBQ for lunch. We were meeting up with Cory, who went to college with Caroline and Jill. Lunch was quite an experience to say the least. I got ½ a chicken(way too much food) with yellow rice and a huge chunk of really good cornbread. I also had some vegetable soup with carrot slices that were about as big as a large watch face. We walked over to TKTS, where you can buy cheap/discount tickets to Broadway Shows, because Caroline use to work there and one of her old co-workers had gotten us some tickets to see Pal Joey at Studio 54. Patty told us to go to Studio 54 sometime before 6pm to pick up our tickets. We walked over to Rockefeller Plaza to watch them put up the Christmas Tree and then made our way over to Studio 54. When we got there, the box office told us that we had to come back just after 6pm. At this point we said goodbye to Cory and made our way downtown to 4th Street on the Subway. We got out and started walking back up 6th street. Eventually Jill left us to go see her Sister and Jeffrey left us to meet up with a friend of his. Caroline and I continued to walk up 6th street until we realized that we were almost halfway back to 54th street, where Studio 54 is located. We decided to just keep walking. We walked past the Empire State building, which you couldn’t see the top of because it was too foggy. Up and up we counted the streets until we made it to 54th street. We walked 2 blocks West and found ourselves back at Studio 54. Caroline picked up our general admission tickets. With these tickets, we didn’t have actual seats. We were given cards with numbers on them(we were #1 and #2) and we were told to come back at 7:50. We would then be lined up by number and seated in any open seats left in the theatre. We had an hour and half to spare, so we walked down a couple of blocks to Cosi, a little coffee house/restaurant, to wake ourselves up after all the walking. We came back, got in our line, and were seated just minutes before the show started in the 4th row just right of center. They were AMAZING seats and they were FREE! Unfortunately, the show was only ok. The story and script were not so great(it was rewritten from the original production) which killed the show. All of the designs were fantastic and the choreography was great as well. The orchestrations were good as well. Christopher Hoff(who was in the original Jersey Boys) was ok but didn’t have a good voice for the role. Stockard Channing was also not so good because she really couldn’t sing her role. Overall, it was worth a free ticket. Caroline and I jutted out of Studio 54 after the show and power walked our way back down to New York Penn Station, where we were meeting up with Jill to go back to New Jersey. There was lots of fun confusion about which train to get on and where we were finding Jill, but it all worked out and we made our way back to Newark Penn Station and back to the hotel.

Saturday, November 15th: We started the day off with an 8:00am load in at the Wilkins Theater at Kean(pronounced Kane) University in Union, New Jersey. The drive from the hotel to the venue was a little bit painful. We were following Google maps directions and started down a street that had a 12’ tall bridge for the Subway. Our truck has a 13’ tall vertical clearance. So we took the detour for trucks down another street and still couldn’t figure how to get around the subway bridges. We drove around a bit more and finally found a bridge tall enough for us to drive under. Load in went without any problems. The theater was a little warm during the show and Margo, who plays one of the main characters, felt like she was going to pass out. We spent most of the show trying to get fans pointed on stage and getting water into Margo’s hands. After our 3:00pm(34) show, we loaded out and drove a couple of hours to Purchase, NY. Caroline, Jeffrey, Jill and I had dinner at the Marc Charles Steakhouse, which was attached to the hotel. By the end of dinner, we were all exhausted and ready for bed.

(21) Lebanon, Pittsfield

Tuesday, November 11th: We had a 1:00pm load in at the Lebanon Opera House today. It’s located in the same building as the Lebanon City Hall. The building is set up very interestingly because different parts are used by the City Hall and other parts have been renovated from it former use. The bottom floor of the building use to be the civic gymnasium. In the 40’s and 50’s, when new high schools were being built with gyms, the civic gymnasium became obsolete. Sometime between then and now they renovated those parts of the building to make more offices for City Hall and more storage for the Opera House. They had two loading doors, one at street level and one 11’ or so above the street level. They had a 5’x9’ elevator that most of our scenery and boxes fit into. The larger pieces that we were using had to be lifted into the 11’ door or carried around the front of the building. Their stage also has a 2 degree rake. This is VERY strange for an inside theatre. There was also a lot of concern about our scenic pieces wanting to roll down the rake. Fortunately, it wasn’t that bad and we didn’t have any major issues. Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I went over to a fantastic little Irish pub call the Salt Hill Pub for dinner and live Irish/Celtic music as well. We had a rehearsal for about an hour just to make sure that all of our changes would work and that the scenery was not going to fall off the front of the stage.

Wednesday, November 12th: We had two shows 9:00am(30) and 11:00am(31). They went very well and load out was quick as well. We had a couple of people work for us who had worked on our show when we were in Burlington, Vermont. We also had a woman on our load out who is the Lighting Director for “Blue’s Journey” which is the other tour that the Kennedy Center is doing this year. In addition to this, everyone we had for our local crew in Lebanon was really amazing. This was easily one of the best local crews we have worked with so far. Everyone was extremely helpful, easy to talk to and very smart technicians. After load out, we drove 175 miles(3824 total miles) to Pittsfield, Massachusetts. I want to note again at this point that we have now performed three shows in Massachusetts, two shows in New Hampshire and one show in Vermont in this order: Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. We were actually staying in a very small town called Lenox, MA next to Pittsfield. We got off the high way and had to drive a couple of miles through a small town and out into what felt like the country. As the GPS told us we were nearing the Apple Tree Inn, we started to get nervous because we were out in the middle of nowhere. We took a slight right and saw the sign for the Apple Tree Inn. We took another right and went up a winding, steep drive way to our resort on the hill. We were the only people at the Inn(except for the person who checked us in) and all of our rooms were in the same hallway. It felt like college again with everyone walking around the hallway with their doors open. It was also really creepy and felt kind of like “The Shining” because it was so vacant! The crew dropped off our bags and left for the load in at The Colonial Theatre. Load in turned into a fix it session for me. We had a bolt break at the last load out and then we had a caster fall off during the truck unload at this venue. I spent most of the four hours of load in fixing scenery and was still working on some pieces when we left at 10:00pm.

Thursday, November 13th: We arrived at 8:00am and I immediately continued my work on the broken pieces of scenery. We had two shows at 9:30am(32) and 12:30pm(33) with a production meeting in between the two. Norton Juster, who wrote the book that this show is based off of, came to see the 9:30am show with Ruth Black, who is widow of Arnold Black the composer of the show. They came backstage before the show and mingled with the cast. After the shows, we loaded up the truck and drove 195 miles(4019 total miles) to Union, New Jersey. This was the most exciting drive to a hotel that we have had so far. Rudy and I were driving along, no problems, until we hit a toll booth, which wasn’t an issue either. We pull up to pay for the toll and the guy working the booth tells us we shouldn’t be driving on that road, the Garden State Parkway. Trucks are generally not suppose to drive on parkways. Rudy and I had just missed the signs that we were driving onto the parkway. The toll booth guy also told us that we could get a $200 ticket for the offense and charged us $.70 for the toll. We immediately got off the parkway and stopped on a side street to figure out how to get to the hotel. After a number of phone calls to Caroline and David Paige, we figured out a route and finally made it to the hotel, after adding an extra hour to the trip.

(20) New Bedford, Massachusetts

Saturday, November 8th: DAY OFF! Today was another day off and I did just about nothing. In the morning I drove a couple of cast members to the train station so they could go into Boston. Then I went back to the hotel and sat in the lobby working on my computer for a couple of hours. I was updating my blog and looking at pictures and looking after my finances. In the afternoon, Caroline, Jill and I went to do laundry. When we came back Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I went to Unos for dinner. Finally, I ended my night with a compy date with Michelle.

Sunday, November 9th: Today we had an 8:00am load in. This was the first time that we loaded in the show on the same day that we had performances. We had a little bit of trouble navigating this small New England city and got lost twice trying to find the venue. The loading door for the venue is a door in the side of the building that faces a street. I had to park the truck so we were completely blocking the street for us to unload. The street was also on a hill so the whole truck was leaning towards the passenger side. After the loading door, they had a steep 3’ ramp that went up to stage level. This was easily one of the more interesting loading docks we have been in. The load in went well and lunch hospitality was fantastic. They had cold cuts, barbeque chicken and pumpkin soup. We normally don’t get lunch, or anything more than snacks, so this was great. The performers showed up at 1:30pm for mic check and we had one show at 3:00pm(28). It was a good show and we were done for the day. That night, Dave, Eric, Jonny, Rudy and I went bowling. We played a couple of pretty serious games with a lot of strikes thrown. I bowled a 168 in the first game and a 191 in the second game. That score was the best I’ve bowled since the summer Quentin and I bowled every Saturday morning at Madison Bowl. I had 2 strikes, 5 spares, 2 more strikes and then a 9 in the 10th frame.

Monday, November 10th: We had one show at 10:00am(29) a load out and then drive a 190 mile (3649 total miles) to Lebanon, New Hampshire. These New England states are very strange. It seems like everywhere we stay is right on the border between two states; Lowell, Massachusetts was next to New Hampshire; Burlington, Vermont was next to Canada; New Bedford, Massachusetts was next to Rhode Island. And this stop is the kicker. Not only are we performing in Lebanon, New Hampshire, which is on the border with Vermont, but we’re actually staying in White River Junction, VERMONT! I don’t think I’ve crossed this many state lines in this short a time ever in my life! When we got to the hotel, I dropped off my bags and took Caroline to the local hospital. She’d been having problem with her right ear and had to get it flushed. It was kind of disgusting to watch but made Caroline feel so much better. We went to Jake’s Deli, which was in a mobile, got a couple of good sandwiches and some Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and went back to the hotel.

(19) Burlington, Concord

Tuesday, November 4th: ELECTION DAY! Besides listening to MSNBC talk all morning about almost nothing important, I tried to do some work for the last few venues that we’ll be going to before our holiday break. We started our load in at 2:00pm. The crew was phenomenal and the load in went extremely fast. I even had time to do some paint touch ups. We were mostly done by 6:00pm and Caroline, Jill, Rudy and I went to Wal-Mart to do some show shopping. Eric stuck around for an extra half hour to work on some lighting cues. We were back at the hotel just after 7:00pm. Caroline and I went to T Bones, the restaurant right next to the hotel, and got some food to take back to hotel. We sat in the lobby at the hotel, eating our dinner and watching the polls close. Jeffrey met up with us in the lobby and when we were done with dinner we all went up to Caroline’s room to watch the rest of the results. I was pretty excited when Ohio and Pennsylvania were projected for Obama. Around 10:30pm, I went back to my own room because I was already falling asleep. I woke up around 11:00pm when they projected California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii for Obama. I fell back asleep and woke up again to hear the beginning of McCain’s concession speech. I fell back asleep again and woke up to hear Obama’s acceptance speech. Finally, I fell back asleep with a new President!

Wednesday, November 5th: We had 2 shows at 9:30am(24) and 12:00noon(25). In between the shows we had a backstage tour for a small group of about 20 kids from Lake Champlain Elementary. They had lots of very good questions and seemed to be interested in our answers. Load out went without any problems and we headed back to the hotel for the afternoon. Caroline had been looking into going over the border to Canada(which is about 45 miles away) because she had never been there. We found out that we couldn’t drive one of the vans over the border because it was being rented by a government organization. So Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I rented a car and started the drive. We got to the border and had a wonderful time explaining to the border agent that we were just going to Montreal for a couple of hours. The road from the Canadian border to Montreal was mostly province routes(like state routes) through small villages (or whatever they call them in Canada.) We made it almost to Montreal before hitting traffic and turning off to find post cards and t-shirts. Luckily, at the exit we got off at, there was a mall which we walked around. We found a hallmark store with post cards and had a good time speed walking around the mall. We got back in the rental car and drove over to a Wal-Mart to look for t-shirts. We found everything we were looking for and took off on the drive back to Burlington, Vermont. We were only in Canada for a couple of hours but it was fun regardless.

Thursday, November 6th: I made a number of phone calls and did a lot of final paperwork this morning for our last couple of venues. We drove 158 miles (3327 total miles) to Concord, New Hampshire. That evening we loaded in at the Capitol Center for the Arts. It was a pretty simple and we were home by 10:00pm after getting dinner.

Friday, November 7th: We had two shows 10:00am(26) and 12:00noon(27). The performers did a talk back after the second show before going to lunch. This meant that we finished load out before they were back, giving us enough time to go get lunch before we left town. This normally doesn’t happen. Usually, as soon as the truck door is closed the vans and trucks immediately leave for the hotel or the next city. This means that the tech crew usually doesn’t eat until we stop on the road somewhere. Unfortunately, we haven’t quite figured out a way around this yet, but I feel like we will on the next leg of the tour. Since today was different, the tech crew went down to a Chinese/Japanese restaurant and had lunch before we drove 132 miles (3459 total miles) to New Bedford, Massachusetts. About an hour after we arrived, the Tech crew left again for a production meeting at The Olive Garden. It was probably the best idea we had had in a really long time. We relaxed and had a nice long dinner while discussing the upcoming venues.

(18) Lowell, Massachusetts

Saturday, November 1st: We woke up and drove 428 miles(2808 miles total) to Milford, CT. It was a long drive because we weren’t on real highways as we drove up the Eastern Shores of Virginia and Maryland and then all the way across Delaware. Once we hit the New Jersey Turnpike things were much better and the ride went well. A group of people went to Uno’s for dinner which was great after the long day.

Sunday, November 2nd. We drove another 163 miles(2971 total miles) to Lowell, Massachusetts. Caroline and I went to the mall in the afternoon. It was humorous because we drove about 10 miles and went to the Pheasant Mall in Nashua, New Hampshire. We hadn’t even crossed the state line of the highway when we turned off into New Hampshire. I walked around a bit to stretch my legs and almost bought a zip up hoodie at target but didn’t. That night we loaded in at UMass Lowell. It was a very interesting venue because it was our first all student crew. They were music students, mostly performance and music business majors. It brought back strong memories of college when I’d get to work with the musical theatre and drama students in the shop. Unfortunately, it made everything take a little bit longer than expected. We started at 7:00pm and most people were cut at 11:00pm. Eric and the Production Manager decided to stay an extra house to finish up some lighting work so I took the rest of the crew home and came back for Eric. We left the theatre just after midnight and were in the hotel by 12:30am. The house for this theatre was not square which was causing Rudy some issues with the mix for the show. So Rudy and I planned on coming back in at 7:00am so that he could listen to the show with no other work going on. That night when I got back to my room, it was very cold. I tried to meet with the thermostat but it wasn’t working. I called the hotel front desk and they said I had to wait about 15 minutes for the radiator to kick on. I turned the thermostat up higher and waited and nothing happened. Finally, I went to the front desk and asked for a new room. After moving all my stuff I kind of fell asleep by around 3:00am.

Monday, November 3rd: I woke up at 6:00am to put my stuff in the vans and head to the venue with Rudy. We had 2 shows at 9:30am and 11:30am and then a load out all of which seemed to take forever. This was mostly because I was tired and was having trouble focusing. Eric and Rudy were drove the truck to Burlington, Vermont, 198 miles(3169 total miles), while I rode in the white van. It gave me a chance to relax, sleep, read and enjoy some time with other people in the company.

(17) Virginia Beach, Virginia

Wednesday, October 29th: We drove 262 miles(2380 miles total) to Virginia Beach, Virginia, the hometown of Wesley H. Pendarvis, my college roommate and best friend. The drive was easy and we arrived with plenty of time before our 5:00pm load in. When we got to the venue, we quickly realized that they had received our most updated paperwork. It turned out ok because everything was very close to correct and they were very accommodating with the changes we wanted to make. The Production Manager for the venue was also extremely nice and helpful.

Thursday, October 30th: We had 2 shows today at 10:30am(20) and 7:30pm(21). They had an ETC Congo lighting board which didn’t quite work with the show files that we had. Eric and the Master Electrician worked through some of the problems before the morning show but didn’t catch them all. Because of that, the lights didn’t always do what they were supposed to and we had quite a light show during some portions of the show. In the afternoon I did some more work and rested a bit. At 6:00pm I took Eric back to the venue to do some more work on the lighting and I jumped over to the Pembrooke Mall, which was across the street. I picked up some presents for people and also postcards. The second show went very well and load out was a piece of cake.

Friday, October, 31st: Today was another day off which I used to do a little bit of work but mostly to try to rest. Things have felt a little strange this week and we’ve seemed to have a lot of time off but it’s not like real time off. Caroline and I went out for coffee and to get touch up paint as well in the early afternoon. I came back read in the lobby for a bit before falling asleep on the couch and napping for an hour or so. That evening a large group of people went out to partake in Halloween festivities but I did not join them. Caroline, Jeffrey, Jill and I ended up going to The Cheesecake Factory for some food and relaxation. We had a hilarious, witty waiter who was bantering with Jeffrey the entire night. We ended with some really good cheesecake and then headed home for bed.

(16) Baltimore, Maryland

Saturday, October 25th: I wanted to go into downtown Baltimore today, but it was wet and dreary so I cancelled those plans. I dropped Caroline and Jeffrey off at the hair salon, so Jeffrey could get a haircut, and went over to Whole Foods. I was looking around just for granola bars, apples and bananas and also found non-refrigerated milk. Milk is a hard thing to drink when you’re on the road. But cereal is a great snack to have and also nice to have when we stay at hotels that don’t have free breakfasts. But this is ultra-high temperature processed so that it stays fresh at room temperature. All you have to do is chill it before using it, which is pretty easy in the ice box at the hotel. It has a slightly vanilla taste, almost like vanilla soy milk, but has all the same nutritional facts of 2% milk. And on top of all that, it comes in juice box size, for kids to take to school! This may be the best thing I’ve found since being on the road. Because if was wet and kind of gross out, Caroline asked if people were interested in ice skating. I don’t remember the last time I went ice skating, but it was a lot of fun! Caroline, Eric, Rudy and I went to one of the local ice rinks and paid $6, that’s right $6, for admission and skates! It was the cheapest entertainment that we’ve had so far! After ice skating, we went back and Caroline showed us some pictures from the tour that she was on last year and told us more stories from the road.

Sunday, October 26th: Today we went into downtown Baltimore! Eric, Rudy and I caught the light rail from Mt. Washington around 11:30am and took it downtown. We were joined by the hundreds of Baltimore Ravens fans who were on their way to the 1:00pm football game. We were on the light rail all the way down to Camden Yards(which is where the baseball and football stadiums are) and got off the train like we were also going to the game. The Ravens were playing the Oakland Raiders(who are the football team that I root for) and luckily I was wearing my SF Giants hat so I didn’t get any slack from the crowds. We went over to Orioles Park at Camden Yards and I got caught in the ruckus of the football crowds and found myself down closer to the football stadium near the pep band! I finally found Eric and Rudy and we started to walk into Federal Hill when we got a call from Jeffrey(who is from Baltimore) and Caroline. We met up with them and walked into the Inner Harbor and Fells Point. Rudy left to meet up with Janine and they both met us for lunch later. There is a really cute area called the Broadway Market in Fells Point that we looked around before we headed out to Canton. There we had lunch at Nacho Mama’s a fun Mexican restaurant with huge quesadillas and a statue of Elvis out front. After lunch, we walked back towards the Inner Harbor, past the Flag house, where Betsy Ross made the original flag, past the Holocaust Memorial, which is pretty moving, to the Washington Memorial on the top of Mt. Vernon. Jeffrey was a fantastic tour guide and gave us hundreds of fact such as the Washington Memorial has 178 steps to the top of it and was used by ships to guide them into the harbor. He also shows us places he had lived and lots of history of the area. We got back on the train around 4:30pm which was perfect time to catch all the people leaving the Baltimore Ravens game. Unfortunately, they had beaten the Oakland Raiders… who I usually root for, but who generally suck!

Monday, October 27th: The morning was filled with phone calls. The afternoon was filled with a load in at the Lyric Theatre. We got off to a rough start because it was a little difficult to find the loading dock, but everything went well from there. They have a traditional hemp house which means that their rigging system is all hemp rope. Most theatres have steel cables for their rigging systems. It was very neat for me to watch all of this happen because it’s so rare to find an entire hemp house these days.

Tuesday, October 28th: We had one show this morning at 10:15am(19). After the show we loaded out and headed back to the hotel. Caroline, Eric, Jill, Rudy and I went out to Wal-Mart to pick up so stuff, including pumpkin carving kits. That night, Carolyn, who is also from Baltimore, had a bunch of people over for dinner and Halloween fun. We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with asparagus as well. On the way there, Dave, Eric and I tried to pick up some pumpkins to carve and we could only find 2 pumpkins left at the grocery store. It was a little sad, but very exciting to carve tag team on some really cool pumpkin designs! We also picked out all of the pumpkin seeds and oven toasted them with different spices and herbs. And finally, my favorite, we watched “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on Carolyn’s HUGE TV. Carolyn made some great Halloween cookies and also had chex mix in Chinese take out boxes for us to take.

(15) Back to Back to Back...

Wednesday, October 22nd: Today is the first of three REALLY long days! We were up at 8:00am for another 10:00am(16) show and then strike, immediately following, which went pretty well. Then we had a 121 mile(1801 total miles) drive to Wilmington, DE. Eric and I arrived there in the truck around 4:00pm and had just 1 hour until we were suppose to start our load in at The Grand Opera House. We checked into the hotel and then ran out with Rudy to try to find food. I had just enough time to eat ½ of my sandwich before we started unpacking our truck. The load in was very interesting because this was the first venue, since our trial venue, that didn’t have a loading dock. We brought all of the pieces down on the truck’s liftgate and then rolled it onto an 8’x14’ hydraulic lift that went up to stage level. The lift is right at the back of the Opera House which has really tall loading doors. The couple of pieces that were longer than 14’ stuck out onto the side walk as the lift took them up to stage level. Overall the crew was really good and load in went without any problems. Finally around 10:00pm, I was back in my hotel room that I would be checking out of just a few hours later.

Thursday, October 23rd: We were up at 8:00am and had one show at 10:00am(17) in the beautiful Grand Opera House. It had natural wood floors and a magnificently ornate ceiling that I took a bunch of pictures of. There was a smaller theatre in the venue that was call the Baby Grand, which everyone thought was a really cute name. It was also a really quaint little space. The show went well and strike went pretty quickly as well. I crushed my hand pretty good during the truck pack. Bad enough that I put an ice pack on my hand during the drive, but not bad enough that it bruised or even hurt the next day. We started on our 125 miles drive(1926 total miles) to Staten Island, NY. In each van and the truck we have these books called “The Next Exit.” It has every highway in the country, separated by state, and tells you what is at each exit and on each side. Eric and I wanted to stop for gas, so we got off the New Jersey Turnpike at an exit that had a large Pilot truck stop with a Wendy’s. We got off and started driving and didn’t see anything. The road continued on and then turned into a highway that put us back on the New Jersey Turnpike. We were a little pissed but kept on driving until we got to the next Service Station. In New Jersey, you can’t pump your own gas. So when we pulled up to the diesel pumps, one of the pumpers came over and filled us up. We parked the truck and went inside for some lunch/dinner(since it was already 3:00pm or so.) We arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm and didn’t even have time to go inside. Caroline, Jill and Rudy were in one of the vans ready to leave. We headed over to the venue, which was a pretty slow trip through the hills and streets of Staten Island to our venue, the St. George Theatre. We parked the truck on a pretty steep hill(with the nose of the truck downhill) and got ready to start load in. The inside of the venue was a little run down but had some amazing architecture and paintings. It’s mostly used for rock concerts, so their accommodations for us weren’t great. Caroline suggested that we use the map drop again instead of the truss and grudgingly I agreed. It was a great decision because we didn’t have as many local crew members as we are use to and they only had 1 large ladder to focus, which takes more people than usual to help with the lighting focus. By using the map drop, we freed up people and had the time to complete focus better. By the time we were back at the hotel it was almost 10:30pm and we had completed our second straight 14 hour day. Eric and I were in the elevator on the way up and He hit the 6th floor button. When we got to that floor, we realized it was the wrong one. The elevator started back to the lobby and when we got there, we hit the 7th floor button, which is the floor we were actually staying on. Eric said “I can’t remember what floor we’re on anymore.” I said “We were on the 6th floor last night. There are only two things I do remember, what room number I’m in and what channel MSNBC is on.” Since we had missed dinner, Caroline ordered us some pizza and Eric, Rudy and I went to her room to relax for a bit. It was a long day to say the least.

Friday, October 24th: Another early morning starting at 7:45am. We had to leave the hotel a little earlier than normal because we weren’t sure how Staten Island traffic would be in the morning. We got to the venue with plenty of time before our 10:00am(18) show. The show was ok, but not our best performance, and we only had about 150 students in this rather large venue. We packed up the truck as quickly as possible after the show and got off the Island with lots of speed. We drove a quick 192 miles (2118 total miles) to Baltimore, MD. We have the next two days off in Baltimore, so most of the cast traveled away from the group for the weekend. Caroline, Eric, Jeffrey, Rudy, Rudy’s friend Janine and I had dinner at the Mt. Washington Tavern, which was fantastic. Then we came back to the hotel and played a little Wii in Caroline’s suite. As a side note, Caroline’s the one who checks us in at every hotel and she often is upgraded to a suite because they think she is personally paying for everything! This ended our first 4 days in a row of shows. It was a good start, but we’ve got a few more of these before the end of the first leg of this tour.

(14) Back to Work

Monday, October 20th: I went into work at the Kennedy Center this morning. It was a little funny to be back after only being on the road for 2 weeks but it gave me some good desk time to get work done. I left early in the afternoon and took the metro out to the West Falls Station and then took a taxi to the hotel we were staying at. In McLean, we stayed at a Westin. It was REALLY nice! The vans and truck showed up shortly after I got there. That evening we had a load in at The Alden Theatre. They are a test facility for JR Clancy Rigging, which is one of the largest theatrical rigging companies in the country. This means that they have a lot of high end equipment including automated linesets. Instead of a stagehand pulling a rope to move the flying pieces, each lineset has a motor that runs the flying pieces. The load in went well with only one major bump. We were unable to hang our largest and most exciting piece because we didn’t have enough room in the theatre. We were about ½ way done hanging it when we figured out that the rest of the piece wouldn’t fit. Luckily we have a painted drop(which is much smaller) that we can hang in place of our larger piece. This was also the first time that we had a chance to use our painted drop since we just received it in the mail that day! The stage at The Alden is significantly smaller than at any other theatre that we have been too. Caroline and I talked through a number of changes that would need to happen with the flow of the show because of the difficulty of the space.

Tuesday, October 21st: We had 1 show at 10:00am(15). The Alden Theater is part of the McLean Community Center which is funded by the residents of McLean. McLean is very close to the CIA Langley Headquarters so the people living around there are mostly government employees in high level positions. We had a fantastic hospitality spread and they also gave us sandwiches for lunch after the show was over. It was by far the best hospitality we’ve had on the road. The Tech Crew had a meeting with David Paige and David Kilpatrick who had seen the show that morning. We talked about the good and bad things that had happened on the road. We had the rest of the afternoon off which I used to do more desk work. That night, I went to do my laundry and stopped by a Barnes & Nobles.

(13) Fall Hike Weekend

Saturday, October 18th: I packed up all my stuff and was taken to the airport to fly to Cleveland for my Mom’s family reunion, called Fall Hike. It was a very last minute decision. Today was actually our day off for the week and tomorrow the company is starting the drive back to McLean, VA for our next show. I made plans with my boss to travel away from the company and meet up with them in McLean, which is a suburb of Washington, DC. My flights got me in to Cleveland just after 5:00pm and Carrie, my sister, and Brian, her husband, picked me up from the airport. We went to the hotel to drop off my bags, got some food, and left to go play Whirlyball with a large group of my cousins. Whirlyball is a combination of bumper cars and lacross. You play 5 on 5. Each player drives their own bumper car and has a scoop, like at the top of a lacross stick. You play with 1 large wiffel ball that you have to throw against a backboard that is about 8’ off the ground with a net in the center of it. If you hit the backboard, your team gets 2 points and if you hit the net your team gets 4 points. The games are 15 minutes long and are a whole bunch of fun! I played in two games and was on the losing team both times. The Barcus side of the family ganged up on the Liss side on the family in the last game and totally destroyed them!

Sunday, October 19th: Carrie and I had Panera for breakfast and then Casey and Celeste met us at the hotel. They had brought Celeste’s dogs with them and a crate of Casey’s old t-shirts. I took a couple of his t-shirts(which I then forgot in Carrie’s rental car) and a long sleeve shirt. The temperature outside was FREEZING cold! It was about 30 degrees when I woke up in the morning. I definitely have not seen temperatures anywhere near that since I moved to California, so it was quite a wake up call! We packed up the cars and made our way to Strawberry Lane, which is where we start our hike from. On the way we passed my Great Uncle Sandy and Auntie Evel on the highway. When we got off the highway, we almost turned the wrong way, but saw Uncle Sandy and Auntie Evel and followed them. After getting in behind them, they slowed to a stop in the middle of the street to look as a family of deer who were in the field near the road. Now, up until a year or so ago, everyone who came to the family reunion would meet at my Grandma’s house on Claver Street and caravan(usually 10-15 cars) over to Strawberry Lane with Uncle Sandy and Auntie Evel leading. It was always a stressful and hilarious even trying to follow in the caravan. This episode was a great reminder of why we should never do the caravan again! When we got to Strawberry lane, everyone gathered around to take the family picture. There were 46 people and 3 dogs at the hike as counted in the annual picture. We always end up suckering someone at the park to take pictures with everyone’s camera. We walked across the street to the area where the hiking path starts and Bob Barcus(my Mom’s cousin) gave a quick speech. Then off we went on the hike, and not on the path like most people would, but strait into the woods. We went up a down a couple of really good ravines and about 2 hours later ended up at Squire’s Castle on the other side of the park. The people who hadn’t hiked had set up our typical lunch of corned beef sandwiches, noodle kugel, macaroni and cheese, apple sauce, beans, coconut bars, and Ant Cathy cookies. After lunch, we had a egg toss, which is always a big deal because it give you bragging rights for the whole year. Brian Vogel and I teamed up, which ended up being a great idea! Let me preface this with saying I don’t ever remember coming in higher than 3rd. Brian and I were up against Kenny and Mike(more of my Mom’s cousins) who had won a number of times. It came down to these two teams, who then had to do a double egg toss(where each person gets an egg and you have to throw both at once.) On the first toss, both teams broke one egg. On the next toss, both teams broke the OTHER egg! For the first time in Fall Hike history, there was a tie in the egg toss!

My Mom took me to the airport and I flew back to DC to meet up with the rest of the company who was starting the driving back to McLean, VA. I met up with David Paige, my boss, whose house I was staying at that night. I met him at a metro station and we drove back to the restaurant where he and his wife, Liz, were having a birthday dinner for Liz’s Step-Mom and her friends. It was a little strange because everyone else was really dressed up and I was wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Fortunately everyone was really nice and they invited me to join them for dessert. It was a long weekend, but worth seeing everyone on my mom’s side of the family.

(12) Coral Springs & Jupiter, Florida

Check out the Slide Show! It's New again!

Wednesday, October 15th: We started today with a 177 mile drive(1616 total miles) to our hotel in Coral Springs, Florida. We had a 3:00pm load in, which made it a little difficult getting to the hotel, dropping off our stuff, and having lunch before we had to leave for the venue. When we got to the Coral Springs City Center, we realized that this would be our first problem venue. It was significantly smaller than our show can comfortably fit it and caused us to change how the show flows a bit. This is my favorite part of my job. Caroline and I talked about all the issues we might have and how to fix them so that the show runs as smoothly as possible. We knew that there would need to be a spacing rehearsal before the first show to make sure nobody would be pushed off the front of the stage! Load in finished without too much trouble and on the way home we stopped at a Subway to get dinner. We all walked in and they started making Rudy’s food before telling us that they could only take cash. We were a little pissed they didn’t say something at first, but we turned around and went over to the CVS to get cash. When I got back to the Subway the guy behind the counter obviously didn’t care much about making my pizza. He just piled the toppings on and then pushed them all off when he sliced it into 4 pieces. I was really annoyed! Talk about bad customer service! That night, Dave, Lindsay, Eric and Rudy came over to my room to watch the last presidential debate.

Thursday, October 16th: Today is when all the fun begins! We had a 10:00am(10) and 11:45am(11) shows which both went very well. Just minutes before the second show, we were told that we’d have a person doing American Sign Language for the show. This is one of the questions that I ask when I advance the show and this venue said that we would not have one. The woman who was the signer was very mean about needing a chair and a light on her and ear plugs(since she’s be sitting right in front of the speakers!) Eric and Caroline rushed around getting her accommodated(except for the ear plugs) and had everything ready by the time the show started. After the shows, we loaded out the show and immediately hopped on the road to drive to 64 miles(1680 total miles) to Jupiter, Florida. Eric and I took the truck and drove right to the venue, stopping briefly to pick up some sandwiches. We got to the venue just minutes before load in was suppose to start and had only enough time to eat half of our sandwiches. Luckily, the Technical Director at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre was also the flyman for our shows in Coral Springs! He had driven up as well after the load out at the City Center. It was good to have another person familiar with the show because, again, the theater was a little too small for our show! We loaded the show in and finished around 10:00pm. It was the first of many days where we have shows, a load out, a drive and a load in all in one day. It was a solid 14 hours of work!

Friday, October 17th: We had three shows today: 9:30am(12), 1:00pm(13), and 7:00pm(14). The first show was packed and was a really good audience. We had a tech meeting in between the first and second shows. The second show only had 32 people in the audience because one of the schools pulled out at the last second. It was a little disappointing but everyone put on a good show anyways! After the show, Jill and I stuck around to do some paint touch ups and carpentry fixes. The last show of the day was also really small, around 20 people. After strike, we went back to the hotel and some people got in the hot tub for a bit to relax. It was a good way to end the week.