(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.