(40) Crystal Lake, Glen Ellyn, IL

Tuesday, February 10^th: Eric and I drove 537 miles (9551 total miles) back toward Chicago. We ended in Crystal Lake, IL which is about an hour north west of Chicago. It was a pretty typical long day drive with no major problems or issues. After driving across the northern half of Illinois twice now, I think it’s the flattest straightest stretch of high way in the entire country. No hills, few lakes, few rivers and just corn and soy bean fields as far as the eyes can see! That night, a big group of people went to the Green Pea Pod for a Thai food dinner. The food was great, but the service was absolutely horrid. Margo almost got up and served us!

Wednesday, February 11^th: We had an 11:00am load in this morning for a 6:30pm(60) show at the Raue Center in Crystal Lake. It was a very nice venue with a very nice crew. Eric, Jill, Rudy and I had dinner around the corner from the theater at a place called Georgio’s which is a Chicago pizza place. I had a calzone with a bunch of vegetables in it. The show went very well, even for a night show, and we were back at the hotel and ready for sleep!

Thursday, February 12^th: We had a 10:00am(61) show, loaded out and then drove to Glen Ellyn, IL which was about 45 miles(9596 total miles.) We had about 2 hours at the hotel, which I used to lay down and take a nap. The tech crew regrouped and headed over to the College of Dupage, McAninch Arts Center. We had a slower load in than normal, but everything was completed and we left the venue. On the way home we stopped at McDonald’s to pick up some food. I was starving because my schedule was thrown off with the awkward Wednesday schedule. I got a chicken salad and ate the whole thing when I got back to the hotel. This was probably not the best idea because that night I couldn’t fall asleep. I fell asleep around 1:30am and was up again around 3:30am. I couldn’t fall back asleep and laid awake with my eyes closed until my alarm went off in the morning.

Friday, February 13^th: We had two shows this morning at 9:30am(62) and 11:30am(63). This was good because I knew that I’d be home early and be able to get back to sleep. I was planning on going into Chicago to see my friend Stephanie but I cancelled because of my lack of sleep. In the afternoon and evening I laid around and took a bit of a nap. I went to do laundry with Caroline, Jill and Jeffrey. Jeffrey and I had a great conversation while Caroline and Jill walked across the street. It was a very relaxing trip to say the least. That night I drove down to the Metra Train station to pick up Carolyn, Jonny, Lindsay and Margo who had gone into Chicago. When we got back to the hotel, Margo got confused about which end of the floor our rooms were. I then told her that we’d been at this hotel for three days. She turned to me and said that we had only been there two days and I realized that the night before was our only night in the hotel! It was one of those moments on the road where you really wonder where you are!

Saturday, February 14^th: I ran some errands this morning which included going to Walgreens to pick up some photos. I walked up to the One Hour Photo counter and without saying a word the woman behind the counter picked up a packet of photos and put them on the counter. I looked down to see my name and said “How did you know those were mine?” She said “You’re in one of the picture.” Boy did that make me feel a little like an idiot! We had one show at 2:00pm(64) and then loaded out. I think this may have been the longest our load out has taken on this leg of the tour. It was kind of frustrating, but we worked through it and headed back to the hotel. That evening, Michelle and I had a really long compy date for Valentine’s Day. We opened up our Valentine’s Day cards and realized that we had bought each other the exact same card! I finished off the night watching the Chicago Blackhawks really destroy the Dallas Stars 6-2.

(39) Joliet, IL & Springfield, MO

Wednesday, February 4th: Even though we’ve had a million days off, we had another one today in Indianapolis. I went on a quick trip to Wal-Mart with Caroline for a new windshield wiper for the truck and other van needs. The rest of the day I spent working in my room sending a bunch of emails and spending a lot of time on the phone.

Thursday, February 5th: We left Indianapolis and drove the 213 miles(8533 total miles) to Joliet, Illinois. After checking in to our hotel, we had a quick venue meeting before leaving for the Rialto Square Theater in downtown Joliet. It was a bunch of very nice older guys who helped us put up the show in the theater. Load in was very simple and smooth.

Friday, February 6th: We had shows at 10:30am(56) and 12:45pm(57) today. The venue provided us with a lunch between meals form a local deli which was very nice and very good. In the second show, Dave, who plays Milo, had some microphone problems. The trick to changing his mic was that he never leaves the stage for more than a few seconds once the show starts. We figured out that there is a song that he doesn’t sing in so we told Carolyn and Lindsay to get him off stage during that number. When he got offstage, Jill and I were ready with the spare mic. Dave didn’t even know at first why he had been told to exit, but knew as soon as Jill and I started stripping him and taking off his mic. It was a very exciting 45 seconds and then he was back onstage with a working mic. We haven’t had excitement like that quite some time so it was a very nice change. Load out went quickly and we were back at the hotel by 3:30pm. That afternoon, I went out to a paint shop, home depot and Walgreens with Caroline to get paint, paint supplies and microphone tape. That night Carolyn, Dave, Eric, Margo and I watched 3 more episodes of “Lost.”

Saturday, February 7th: Rudy and I drove the 481 miles(9014 total miles) to Springfield, Missouri. It was a long drive but pretty smooth and we stopped at Steak & Shake for lunch. We had a crew meeting that night and had to find a place to have dinner. The two women at the front desk were extremely helpful and called a bunch of restaurants asking if there was somewhere we could have a meeting and dinner. We ended up at a restaurant called Mille’s which turned out to be really good.

Sunday, February 8th: I watched morning new shows and then went out with a group of people who were going shopping. I stayed at the Barnes & Nobles in the café reading while everyone else went shopping. It was definitely a good idea to get out of my room that morning. We had a load in that night at Missouri State University in their Juanita K. Hammons Hall. It was a very large and very nice theater. The crew was made up of students which is always fun for us because they are so interested in what we do. Most of our students weren’t even Theater majors! Caroline and Jill made friends with our wardrobe girl and took her out for a coffee run. We had more hands than normal which made things go fairly smoothly. I took most of the second half of load in to do paint touch ups.

Monday, February 9th: This morning we had a show at 10:00am(58) where we though about 280 kids were coming. But I guess the word got out how amazing our show was and we had over 800 kids in the audience. The show went very well and we did all our presets for the night show and left for an afternoon off. I did a little bit of work and then went to some local batting cages that were only 25 cents. I should have guessed by the price that they weren’t going to be good and when I got there I was really disappointed. I hit a couple of rounds and then headed back to the hotel. We had a 7:00pm(59) show that went well. The students kept saying that they set records with their load outs, but they missed our record by about 3 minutes with 1 hour and 9 minutes.

(38) Cincinnati, Ohio

Sunday, February 1^st: This morning I had brunch with my Dad, Ava, Grandma and Grandpa at Molly Malone’s, which is a Pub/Restaurant where my brother is a line cook. After that, I went back to my Dad’s house where I did my laundry for the small price of shoveling part of his driveway. I’d say it was close to a fair trade. My mom picked me up and we went down to The Coffee Emporium where I worked when I was in high school. My brother and his girlfriend met up with us and I learned all about how he is going to buy a house in Ecuador and move there and how none of us really knew where Ecuador was. He’s not really moving there, but he is planning to go this summer with his girlfriend’s family. My mom took me back to the hotel where I watched the Super Bowl. Around 7:00pm, I went over Skyline Chili with Dave and Margo, who had never had Skyline Chili. I won’t go into an explanation for those who have never had Skyline Chili cause it would take too long, but it was just as good as I remember! After dinner, we went back to the hotel and had tea and Schnecan, which is a buttery, doughy loaf from Graeter’s that Margo had gotten that day. It was a great dessert and something that I’d never had before.

Monday, February 2^nd: I went down to the University of Cincinnati, where I went to college, today and saw some of my professors and staff. It was a lot of fun talking with them and they were all very interested in how the tour has been going. I sat for almost a hour in Michele Kay(the Stage Management Advisor) office talking to her and Sterling (the Technical Director Advisor). It was so nice to see how proud they were of their students doing so well. I was also surprised at how many students were Freshman when I was a Senior and were just now finishing up their degrees. Eric and Margo picked me up, we grabbed some Jimmie John’s and headed back to the hotel. At 3:00pm, we went down to the Aronoff Center for the Arts for load in. In case I haven’t told you personally yet, the Aronoff is where I had my high school graduation, so it’s a little exciting and interesting to be working here. Load in went well for the most part and Eric and I went to Skyline for a quick meal afterwards.

Tuesday, February 3^rd: We had shows at 9:45am(54) and 12:00noon(55). These were our first shows in 11 days but they went off very well. There weren’t any major mess ups and the shows were definitely better than our first ones back from our winter break. The load out went very well and as we pulled out of the loading dock, a picture perfect snow was falling on Cincinnati. The snow was coming down pretty good as we got onto the highway, but fortunately the truck was barreling through the snow. The snow kept falling and the road started to be covered pretty well and was pretty slick. We got word from the vans that they wanted to stop. We ended up stopping just inside Indiana(near Batesville) at a rest stop. There were reports of a huge car and truck accident on the north east side of Indianapolis and the Indiana State Police said the roads south of Indianapolis were snow covered. We decided not to drive all the way to Joliet, IL, but to stop in Indianapolis, Indiana(125 miles, 8320 total miles.) We stayed at an almost brand new Hampton Inn near the airport. Carolyn, Eric, Jonny, Kevin, Lindsay, Margo and I went to dinner at BARcelona Tapas, where we all got two small plates to share with the table. It was good food and nice service.

(37) Memphis Part 3

Thursday, January 29th: In the morning I walked down 3rd Street to the post office. It was a little chilly and on the way back I walked back up Main Street. All of a sudden, I looked down the street and there was the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, which has now become the National Civic Rights Museum. Later that afternoon, Eric, Margo and I walked back to the Museum. On the way there, we stopped at a local deli that had an old blue Ford pickup truck parked out front. Margo though it was the coolest thing in the world and got inside for some pictures. It took us about 2 hours to walk through the National Civic Rights Museum but it could have taken up to 5 hours. There was an unbelievable amount of information written in the displays making it hard to read all of it. The end of the first section, which went from the 1800s up thru the 1970s, puts you on the second level just inside the hotel from the spot that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. We then went across the street to the second half of the museum, which is there they think James Earl Ray shot King from. In that section of the museum, they had more info of the events leading up to King’s assassination as well as some of the evidence used to convict James Earl Ray. By the end of the tour, we were very impressed with all the information and a little burned out from all the reading.
Friday, January 30th: Today we moved into our third hotel in Memphis, the Crowne Plaza. We checked out of the Holiday Inn Select at 11:00am but couldn’t check into the Crowne Plaza until 3:00pm so we were homeless for a couple of hours. Dave, Eric, Margo and I drove out to Germantown to see Slumdog Millionaire, which was amazing and I would suggest that everyone go and see. The sound track was also pretty fantastic and matched the movie very well. Once back at the hotel, I worked out again. I spent the rest of the night in the hotel watching TV and relaxing.
Saturday, January 31st: FINALLY we were leaving Memphis and headed to Cincinnati. I rode in the White Van with Jill and Margo while Eric and Rudy drove the truck. We made the 483 mile(8195 total miles) to Covington, KY, which is just across the river from Cincinnati, in good time even with the time change. Susan and Ross came down and picked me up at the hotel and we went out to dinner at Chez Nora on Mainstrasse. Then we went over to a bar called 701 for some drinks. I had completely forgotten what it was like to drink in a bar where people can smoke. In Ohio you can’t smoke in the bars or restaurants, but in Kentucky you can smoke anywhere. By the time I got home my shirt, pants and jacket all reeked of cigarette smoke and I had to take a shower before going to bed.

(36) Memphis Part 2

Monday, January 26^th: The morning was spent doing work even though this was another full day off. In the afternoon, Jonny, Rudy and I went to Sun Studio where we met up with Carolyn and her Mother. Sun Studio is where a B.B. King, Howlin Wolf, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and a number of other musicians recorded their first albums. There was a guided tour that took us upstairs at Sun Studio where they have old mixing boards and recording equipment that were used when Sam Phillips originally opened Sun Studio in the 50’s. They also have a number of pictures and records from the same time period. Our tour guide took us through the history of Sun Studio including playing original recordings of different artist. We then went downstairs into original studio where those artist made a lot of the most famous recordings of the 50’s and 60’s. Tours only run until 6:00pm because the space is still used as a recording studio today. That night, Caroline, Jill and I went to B.B. King’s Blues Club for dinner. The food was good and the live band was great.

Tuesday, January 27^th: Again the morning was spent doing more work. We had a tech meeting and then went to pick up the truck, which was all fixed up, and then headed to the venue for our load in. We were very excited when we arrived because The Orpheum is a huge and beautiful theater. About 30 minutes into load in the Event Coordinator came up to me and said that there were chances that our show would be cancelled in the morning. It had started to rain and the temperature was dropping quickly but they probably wouldn’t know until around 4am. We continued load in with the assumption that we’d have shows because deep down we were all hoping that we would. Our local crew was amazing and we had a large number of people so my part of load in was done in record time, just over 2 hours. Towards the end of the night, I had a really nice conversation with theater’s Technical Director and we packed up and went home for the night, hoping not to get a show cancelling call.

Wednesday, January 28^th: At just before 7:00am a mass text message went out from Caroline’s phone saying that the show had been cancelled. The plan was to go in at 10:00am to strike the set, so I went down to breakfast around 9:00am. On my way down, I got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. I call was from my contact in Paducah, KY, which is where we were performing next. The ice and snow storm that had closed Memphis schools and cancelled our show had completely destroyed Paducah. The ice had caused a number of power lines and trees to fall. Most of the city didn’t have power and we were told you’d need a chainsaw to cut through the trees to get into the city. I passed the phone call to Caroline, who passed it to David Kilpatrick in DC who decided that we’d make that show up in April on our way back to DC. The next decision was what to do about not driving to or thru Paducah to get to Cincinnati by Saturday night. We got to the venue and quickly loaded out the set. The venue was providing lunch for us, so we had a great chicken parmesan lunch with salad and cookies. It was figured out, between Caroline and David Kilpatrick, that we’d be staying in Memphis until Saturday morning and driving strait to Cincinnati. We also learned that we wouldn’t be able to stay in our current hotel on Friday night. Luckily, Caroline found us another hotel for that last night here. That afternoon, I worked out for the first time in just over two weeks. I’d been feeling a little antsy because of all the driving and days off. The hotel was having a cocktail hour from 5:30-6:30 which ended up being great. They had a sushi platter, cheese platter, vegetable platter, wings and pulled pork along with free drinks, beer and wine. There was enough food to make it dinner! Later that night, the tech crew got together to play poker. I ended up winning $6, Caroline and Rudy won $5 and Eric won $4.