(50) Bellingham, Drive to Avon

Sunday, March 15^th: This morning I woke up and had plenty of time to relax and watch my morning news shows. We have an early load in later in the week, so I’ve started setting my alarm for earlier and earlier so I can train my body to wake up really early on Friday. We had a load in that morning at the Mount Baker Theater. It was a 1:00pm load in, which is a little earlier than normal. Nothing too exciting happened and we were out of there by 6:00pm and the sun was still out! We were pretty excited to still be in the sunlight.

Monday, March 16^th: We had two shows 9:30am(85) and 12:15pm(86) and the packed up and got back on the road. We drove 168 miles(13,804 total miles) to Cle Elum, Washington. When we left Bellingham, it was sunny and nice out. As we got to the eastern side of Seattle, it had started to rain, but was also sunny. We saw a number of rainbows stretched across the highway. As we started to climb the Cascades Mountain Range, the rain turned to snow and there was snow everywhere at the top of the Snoqualmie Pass. When we made it to Cle Elum it was snowing pretty good. The woman at the front desk told me that there was no where to plug the truck in outside, but we were more than welcome to drop an extension cord out our room window. So Eric and I turned the truck around and dropped a cord out my second story room window for the night! As we were setting this up, we started to play in the snow and made some snow balls the throw at Caroline’s window.

Tuesday, March 17^th: Rudy and I drove 559 miles (14,363 total miles) through Washington, Oregon and Idaho to Twin Falls. It was a pretty simple drive. There is a grove that runs through Twin Falls that is one of the most beautiful views in the world. I had seen it about 3 ½ years ago when I drove back from Seattle with my friend Paige. I made sure that everyone saw it!

Wednesday, March 18^th: We got up and drove 513 miles (14,876 total miles) to Grand Junction, CO. I was in the White Van and was the first one to drive. It was only Jonny, Jill and I which was very nice. We had a small dance party when we first started out on the road. We Finished up Idaho and went into Utah. As we passed Salt Lake City, I wished that we were at a stopping point so we could all go to Temple Square, where the Mormon Temple is located. We ended up stopping in Price, Utah, which is another place I’ve been! When I moved to California, Alex and I stayed in Price, Utah. Later in the afternoon, we stopped at a rest stop with a beautiful view. Dave made me get out of the van to see it. Looking out into the expanse, we wondered what it was like for the explorers riding horses and seeing the mountains and valleys before them; how daunting! We finished up our drive and ended in Grand Junction, Colorado which is where Caroline and Jill went to college, and where Jill grew up. We were staying on Main Street, which is a cute little street with shops and restaurants. I walked down the street and noticed that there was a lot of public art. I got some food at the Rockslide Bar and Grill and took it back to the hotel.

Thursday, March 19^th: I woke up super early in training for our early load in tomorrow morning. I did some work and walked down the street to Main Street Bagels for some lunch. Eric and I then drove the truck 141 miles (15,017 total miles) to Avon, Colorado. It was a short drive up into the Rocky Mountains. In Grand Junction, we were at about 4600 ft elevation. Our hotel in Avon was at around 7400 ft elevation. The venue that we were performing at has a page in their tech packet that talks about how the elevation effects you. The biggest things are that there is 20% less oxygen, causing you to feel a little light headed, and 50% less humidity, causing you to drink more water than normal, and it’s really easy to get sun burned! I felt a little light headed but otherwise it didn’t seem that bad. I had dinner with Dave at a place called Bob’s Place where they were showing the NCAA Basketball Tournament games. After that is was back to the hotel and off to bed!

(49) Hell Week #2

Wednesday, March 11th: We had two shows at 10:00am(81) and 12:15pm(82) and then load out. Load out went much slower than I had hoped but we packed up the truck as fast as possible, grabbed a sandwich at the Subway across the street and took off like a bat out of hell. This was because we had to drive 202 miles (13,310 total miles) to Salem, Oregon and load in that night at the Historic Elsinore Theater. Eric and I decided that we should drive directly to the venue to make sure we weren’t late. I ate milk duds on the way down to keep myself awake and we ended up getting to the venue about an hour before load in. Caroline, Jill and Rudy showed up a little before 8:00pm with pizza for dinner. We burned through load out, although probably not as safely as we should have been and at 10:30pm I took Caroline and Jill back to the hotel to get some sleep. By the time I got back, Eric was finishing up, which was exactly what we needed. By 11:30pm, Eric, Rudy and I were on our way out the door headed for the hotel. Four load ins in four days is a lot of work and extremely exhausting, but we had made it!

Thursday, March 12th: We had a 10:00am(83) show. We were limited on wing space which made the show backstage almost as humorous as the show onstage. We made it through pretty well though, reset for the night show and went back to the hotel. We had a tech meeting in one of the conference rooms at the hotel. After that it was nap time! Later in the afternoon, Carolyn and I went to the grocery store where I got some dinner, breakfast and snack food. We went back for our 7:00pm(84) show and the loaded out right after which went fairly well. The weather outside was nice and crisp and felt very good. Finally we were finished with our fourth venue in five days and we were all ready for a break. The performers had done 9 shows as well, which is more than we’ve ever done in this short a time period so far. The whole company was wiped out and ready for a break!

Friday, March 13th: DAY OFF! And yet another Friday the 13th! I woke up early and went with Rudy to take the truck in for its regular maintenance. I spent the morning doing work in the hotel. At 1:30pm, Dave, Eric, Rudy and I drove over to the Oregon State Capitol here in Salem. There were no tours that afternoon, so we picked up some guide pamphlets and walked around looking at the art work and displays. We looked in both the Senate and House Chambers. There was a housing bill that had just passed so some group was passing out cake. They had a number of really interesting displays about the geology of the state which I took some time to look through. After that, Rudy and I went over to the truck shop to pick up the truck. Once we got back, Dave, Rudy and I went to the driving range and hit some balls. It was a beautiful day and it felt great hanging out at the range. We walked over to the putting green and worked on our short game for a bit before heading back to the hotel. There was talk of going to play lazer tag at a place across the street from the hotel, but it fell through and we ended up just getting pizza there. Later that night, Dave, Eric, Rudy and I played poker. It was a rough game for me. Very few of my hands were good, and none of my good hands were good enough to win big. I ended up losing everything.

Saturday, March 14th: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!! Jill and I drove the truck 326 miles(13,636 total miles) to Bellingham, WA. It was an easy drive because we’ve crossed most of that highway 3 times in the last 10 days or so. Once we were in Bellingham, a big group of people went out to Mi Mexico for dinner. When we were there, Margo had them that it was Kevin’s Birthday, but when they came out to sing Happy Birthday with the Birthday Sombrero, they stopped that table next to us. There was a group of younger girls sitting there, and we were really confused when they stopped at that table first, but it was a great joke of who gets the sombrero next.

(48) Hell Week

Sunday, March 8^th: SPRING FORWARD! This morning was the time change and a 7:00am load in. I was very concerned about my alarms going off at the right time so I set them all for an hour earlier in case they didn’t change. My phone ended up waking me up at 4:45am because it had sprung forward. I tried to go back to sleep but it didn’t really happen. I was a little on edge that morning and when I didn’t see Eric at 6:00am in the breakfast room I called him thinking that his alarm didn’t go off. He was awake and I later found out that he didn’t know that we could get breakfast that early. We had our load in, which was ok and went pretty quickly. The cast showed up at 12:30pm for mic check and we had a show at 2:00pm(76). I was hoping to have a nice relaxing afternoon and evening but instead I ended up running around even more. I went to Walmart for errands then I went to the grocery with Dave and finally to the Laundromat with Lindsay. It was pretty exhausting and very time consuming.

Monday, March 9^th: We had a 10:00am(77) and 12:00noon(78) show in Everett and then load out. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and because the time change the night before, I was not in the best of moods. We drove 37 miles (13,069 total miles) to Bellevue, WA, had about an hour to spare and then drove over to the Meydenbauer for a load in. I didn’t even take the time to go up to my room. Instead I sat in the lobby and ate my dinner. There was some question as to whether we were using the drop or the truss in this venue and the presenter was pushing me really hard to use the drop. I think this was mostly because it would go faster and she would cut down on her labor costs. She was also talking to my crew about it which was very frustrating because some of them were questioning me about it as well. I’m paid to produce the same show in every venue and it’s not the show that contains the drop. It was very frustrating not to have the support from my crew. I ended up using the drop because of Union questions and push from the presenter. Caroline and Jill were going to run errands during load in so I hopped on and went o Home Depot to pick up some supplies. One of the casters on the bed had come off and I needed to get some wood glue to put it back together. I had some extra time before they were coming back to pick me up from Home Depot so I walked across the parking lot to Best Buy and looked at digital SLR cameras, digital video cameras and cell phones. Load in finished just on time and we headed back to the hotel.

Tuesday, March 10^th: We had a 10:00am(79) and 12:00noon(80) shows and then load out immediately following. I slept much better last night so I felt a little better today. After load out, we drove 39 miles (13,108 total miles) down to Tacoma, WA. Today I had enough time to go to my room, eat dinner and relax for about 10 minutes before leaving for the venue. This venue was interesting because they didn’t want to bring in people to unload the truck with us and the local crew wouldn’t get in the truck to help. It was pretty fast to get everything out of the truck, but it was obvious that this crew was not the fastest we’d worked with. The head carpenter was looked familiar and after talking to him a bit, I realized that he had worked on “The Ring Cycle” at Seattle Opera when I did my internship there. We put up the scenery with no problems but were a little slower than normal. Most of the tech crew were pretty exhausted at this point because it was our 3^rd venue in three days. I, on the other hand, was feeling really good about everything and felt like my head was finally clearing from the lack of sleep and overworked week. I could see the end of one of the longest weeks of this tour.

(47) Medford, OR and Seattle Day Off

Wednesday, March 4th: Eric and I drove the truck 464 miles(12,538 total miles) to Medford, Oregon. It was a very easy drive since we are getting so used to these long drive days. Gotta love the west coast! I settled in at the hotel and called Steve Elbe, who is Michelle’s Uncle. He came and picked me up at the hotel and brought me back to his house where I had dinner with him and his wife Mary. It was really nice to have a home cooked meal and a relaxed dinner. They also have a very nice house in a quiet neighborhood in Medford.

Thursday, March 5th: The crew left for the theater at 9:00am for load in. We were staying very close to the theater so we got there very early. The weather was very nice and not too chilly. Load in went very well, it was the first time we used the whole truss and panel pieces since the accident, so there was some extra work that went into setting up the show. At 1:30pm we were all finished and Eric, Rudy and I walked over to Bonsai Teriyaki for some sushi. It was suggested by Steve and boy was it good! Everything was really fresh and very tasty. We went back to the theater and had a 4:00pm(74) show. Something was I the air because the show had numerous problems. During one of the more important scenes, the project got unplugged and left the performers stranded on the stage. They forged through the scene, but it didn’t look pretty. All of the scenes seemed to be just a little bit off. Caroline was calling the show from stage left, which is not where she normally is. After the show, she quickly decided that that would not work for the second show. Backstage during the show, a miner helmet fell off the costume gondola and hit one of the wardrobe assistants in the head. It was just a clumsy show. Between shows, I walked over the an organic restaurant called Grilla Bites and got some soup. The second show went much better and load out happened without any problems. Once we were back at the hotel, I sat down on the chair in my room and wasn’t sure if I could get up to get ready for bed! It was an exhausting 13 hour day in one place. I drank a bunch of water, took a shower and layed down in bed.

Friday, March 6th: We drove 494 miles(13,032 total miles) back up to Everett, Washington, which is about 30 miles Northeast of Seattle. We hit a bunch of traffic on the way back which made the drive much longer than expected. Regardless, I was in the van so I had plenty of time to sleep and relax. We did stop for lunch at a mall with a Merry-Go-Round in it, but other than that it was a pretty ghetto mall in Portland.

Saturday, March 7th: DAY OFF! Carolyn, Eric and I took the commuter bus from Everett into downtown Seattle. We walked down to Pike’s Place Market and looked around a bit, then got some coffee and tea at a local coffee shop near there. After that, we split up a bit, Eric and I went up to Seattle Center and Carolyn went down to Pioneer’s Square. As we were leaving the coffee shop, we saw Margo and her mother, who had stayed at a hotel in Seattle that night. At Seattle Center, Eric went to do the touristy stuff and I went to meet up with my Cousins Josh and Hannah. They picked me up and we drove over to the large troll under the Ballard bridge. We met up with Kurt(Hannah’s fiancé) and two of Kurt’s friends. After playing on the troll for a bit, we drove over to Josh’s apartment which is a pretty nice place. He lives near a store called Archie McPhee’s which is the largest Novelty Store in the country. We walked around the store before going over to Snooze Pizza for some lunch. On the way back to Josh’s apartment, we walked by the Leif Erikson house, which also has a bust of Leif Erikson out front. Josh and Hannah then drove me over to the University District where I met up with one of my college roommates, Michael Minahan. He is getting his Masters degree at the University of Washington and was in the paint shop working on a project. It was just as I always remembered Michael, running around furiously working on something at the last minute. We went across the street to the campus bar to hang out for a bit which was very nice. The day was wearing on, so I picked up the commuter bus back out to Everett.

(46) Bremerton, WA

Saturday, February 28^th: Today we had our longest drive of the entire trip. It was a 575 mile (11,543 total miles) to Mizzoula, MT. I would like to note here real quick that the miles I count are only on the days that we drive long distances. At the end of the tour I’m going to look back through our log books to figure out an actual total mileage for the entire tour. I was in the red van and it was a pretty simple easy drive. There is not much to see in Wyoming or Montana. That night I did my taxes and watched “Star Wars: Episode 3” on TV.

Sunday, March 1^st: Jill and I hopped in the truck around 8:00am and drove the 531 miles (12,074 total miles) to Bremerton, Washington. Bremerton is located just on the other side of the Puget Sound from Seattle. On the way there, we crossed the Cascade Mountain Range which runs through Washington State. On the way up the range, it was raining on and off. When we crested the range it was snowing huge flakes and as we descended the other side it turned back into rain. We arrived before the vans, who got lost about 3 blocks from the hotel and almost drove onto the Ferry that takes you across the Puget Sound! That night, Carolyn, Eric, Jonny and Rudy came over to my room and we watched a couple more episodes of “Lost.”

Monday, March 2^nd: The morning was spent doing work and making phone calls. At noon, I took the white van and drove over to Bay Ford in Port Orchard to pick up a new oil cap for the van. It was good to get out of the hotel because the weather was beautiful. It was perfect spring weather, warm temperatures with a bit of a cool breeze. This is what I remember the temperature being like the whole time I was in Seattle doing my internship with Seattle Opera. That afternoon, we drove the 4 blocks over to the theater. To load the scenery into the venue, I had to pull the truck down a very tight alley next to the theater. The alley way was not flat at all and the loading area was not level with the alley. There was a doorway that we could roll boxes through, but if it was too large to fit through the door, it had to be lifted up onto the loading area. The larger pieces were carried around the front of the building and taken through the house. The venue had almost no wingspace, so we got very creative making everything fit. Unfortunately, we weren’t creative enough and we couldn’t get the movie screen to fit. Luckily, Caroline noticed that the venue had a large rear-projection screen which they let us use for the show. I did some paint touch up on the toy chest and then we were finished for the night. We headed back to the hotel for some sleep!

Tuesday, March 3^rd: We had two shows at 10:00am(72) and 12:30pm(73). Because we were using the venue’s rear-projection screen and we were flying it in, which is very different from what we normally do, we had a small rehearsal with Dave and Margo to decide how it was going to work. After the shows, load out went very quickly and we were back at the hotel by 3:10pm. We had a tech crew meeting to discuss upcoming venues and schedules which seemed to take forever. By the end of the meeting everyone was burned out and ready to end their work day. For dinner I wanted to go across the street to this Teriyaki restaurant, but it was closed by the time I got there so went to Safeway with Lindsay and Dave. That night, Carolyn and Eric came over and we watched two more episodes of “Lost” which were both REALLY exciting! I was very worked up afterwards so I took some time to clean up my room and get packed up for the next day.

(45) Gillette, WY

Thursday, February 26th: This morning was a morning of relaxation. I bundled up and walked over to the Wal-Mart to pick up some lunch and other stuff like that. It was a nice little walk around the corner and I was out of the hotel for a good hour. After I came back, I kept up my relaxing morning by handing out in my room and reading. We had a venue meeting and then headed off to load in at the Cam-Plex Heritage Center. The first thing I try to do at load in is check to see that everything was hung correctly. As I was checking through their hang, I noticed that one of the electrics was hung on the wrong pipe. We held off opening the truck until they had moved the electric to the correct pipe which only put us about 15 minutes behind schedule. The rest of load in went very well and I had plenty of time to sit and read while Eric finished up the lighting focus.

Friday, February 27th: We had a 9:30am(70) show which went very well, except of the fact that we had the wrong curtain time. Our schedules had said 9:15am but when I talked to my contact a couple of weeks before he had told me it was 9:30am. At 9:15am(our original curtain time), Caroline was giving the 15 minute call and one of the local guys said the show was at 9:45am. Apparently a school had asked them to change the time for some unknown reason. Luckily it was later rather than earlier! After the show we went back to the hotel and I took a van of people to Wal-Mart to get lunch. When I got back to the hotel it was time to get down to more work. I won’t write it all out here, but it was an afternoon of quenching fires. First was issues we were having with our venue in Stockton. They didn’t have all the soft goods we needed for the show, so I took some time to call places in Sacremento, Berkeley, San Francisco and Santa Clara looking for soft goods to rent. These called included calls to a number of people whom I had worked with in the Bay Area. Then I had a call with my contact in Cerritos, California about questions to the light plot that would let us load in the night before the show instead of the morning off(it is scheduled right now as a 5:30am load in!) Then Rudy and I took the vans to get oil changes. We went to Wal-Mart, again, and they told us it would be an hour and a half so we went around the corner to another quick change place. There they told us that we didn’t have an oil cap on one of the vans and they didn’t have one we could purchase. We then went to three different auto parts places, including the Ford Dealership, looking for the part. Finally we headed back to the hotel where I ended up called placed in Bremerton, Washington(our next stop) to find a place to order the piece. After a bit of a struggle with the Ford Dealership there, they finally ordered the part for me to pick up on Monday. And the day wasn’t over. At 5:15pm, we headed back to the Cam-Plex for a 6:30pm(71) show. Before the show, Caroline and I had a long drawn out discussion about the understudy rehearsals we were going to have at the beginning of April. Margo, who plays Tock, will be leaving after the first week in April and her understudy, Jamie, will be joining the tour. We had one hell of a time figuring out where and when the best times for rehearsal would be that week since we have 10 shows in that one week. Load out went very quickly and we were back at the hotel in no time.

(44) Mount Rushmore

Tuesday, February 24^th: Eric and I left in the truck around 8am before most people were even out of their rooms. We had to stop at a weigh station a couple hours into the drive. The State Trooper looked at our log books and had us pull onto a portable scale that weighs each axle. They were very nice and let us go without any further questions. We drove all the way to Wall, South Dakota, which is where Wall Drug is, and stopped for gas. We then drove about an hour further to Rapid City, South Dakota and got off the high way so the vans could catch up with us. Caroline had planned ahead and figured out we could go to Mount Rushmore National Monument, which is about 25 miles off the high way. Some of the company traveled away to go to auditions so there were only 8 of us who piled into the Red van. Dave had gone shopping for us and had a nice deli lunch that we ate when we got to Mount Rushmore. It’s a very interesting monument because it’s not one that people know that much about. We had trouble remembering who’s face was carved in the rock(George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln!) It took 14 years to carve and was complete in 1941 when Gutson Bulgrom, the artist and sculpture, died. It was a very nice trip and everyone learned quite a bit about this National Monument. Eric and I got back on the road and drove into Wyoming. We had to stop at another weigh station and this time had to take our log books into the building. When we got in, she asked us for our registration so Eric had to run back out and get it. She asked me what we were hauling. I said “It’s a set for a theater show.” She said “Oh that’s so nice!” She looked at our registration and sent us on our way. We finished off our 505 mile(10,968 total miles) drive to Gillette without any problems.

Wednesday, February 25^th: DAY OFF! Just in case anyone was planning to vacation to Gillette, Wyoming… there is NOT HING here! I spent the day making phone calls to venues and dealing with all of that fun stuff. It was an entire day of work, from sun up to sun down. I did go out to dinner with Dave, Eric, Jeffrey, and Jonny to a place called Humphrey’s. It was a bar and grill place with a camel as it’s mascot. We had some good food and it was really good to get out of the hotel. Later that night, Dave, Eric, Rudy and I played poker. We were waiting for Dave and watching “Tropic Thunder” when all the lights went out in the hotel and the parking lot. We looked out to the Applebee’s that was near by and realized that their sign had turned off as well. The power came back on, went back off and came back on again! Finally we started poker, while watching “Tropic Thunder” and “Hamlet 2”, and I ended up breaking even on the night.