(57) Flagstaff, AZ and Albuquerque, NM

Saturday, April 11th: Rudy and I drove 495 miles (17,701 total miles) to Flagstaff, Arizona. It was a pretty hilly drive and we passed through some beautiful parts of California. One of places we passed through was Tahachapi, which is where Michelle’s Brother’s Girlfriend, named Brandy, is from. As we passed in Arizona and started to hit the higher elevations, we caught some falling snow! It was cold enough for it to accumulate on the ground as well. That night Carolyn, Eric, Jamie, Jonny, Scott and I went to a restaurant called Black Bart’s. It’s a steak house where the servers also sing show tunes and standards. They had a small stage with a piano and the servers would randomly hop up and sing a song. Our server and drink girl did a couple of songs including a duet from “Wicked.” The drink girl was looking at going to graduate school for Musical Theater so we talked to her about school we thought were good. We were gawked at a bit when they found out that we were on a national tour with the Kennedy Center. We had some great food and a lot of fun.

Sunday, April 12th: Rudy planned an Easter Egg hunt for everyone in the breakfast area of the hotel. Just after noon, we met downstairs and ran around the breakfast area searching for eggs. Each egg had a quote from someone in the cast and a piece of paper corresponding to a piece of candy. The competition to find the eggs was intense but very fun. The rest of the day I spent relaxing and catching up on pictures and paperwork and things like that. Caroline, Jeffery and I went back to Black Bart’s for dinner, even though it wasn’t as entertaining.

Monday, April 13th: Eric and I drove 332 miles (18,033 total miles) to Albuquerque, NM. I got lunch at the Applebee’s next door and then made some phone calls. We had load in that night at Popejoy Hall on the campus of the University of New Mexico. Load in went very well and Caroline and Jill ended up leaving early. We had a small scare with the light board at the end of the night but it was all worked by the time we left at 10:00pm.

Tuesday, April 14th: We had two shows at 10:30am(109) and 12:15pm(110). They did a short questions and answer session after the second show before we started load out. The load out went well and we were back at the hotel by early afternoon. We had our last tech crew meeting in the lobby. I bought everyone key chain compass/thermometers as an end of tour gift. They let me lead them all over the country for the last 6 months so I gave them something to help guide them when I’m gone! That night, Carolyn, Dave, Eric and I watched a couple of episodes of “Lost.”

(56) Stockton, California

Monday, April 6^th: Rudy and I hopped in the truck and drove 264 miles(16,956 total miles) to Stockton, California. When we got to the hotel, a group of us immediately drove down to the nearest Chipotle and Jamba Juice for some food. We had a load in that night at the Faye Spanos Concert Hall. We already knew this was going to be an interesting load in because this was one of our hardest venues. Load in started fine and we were making due with all the difficulties. A couple hours in, we were bringing in a pipe to hang our drop on when it got caught on another pipe. When it came loose, it fell down and hit the top of my head knocking me over and giving me a very mild concussion. This is what I’ve been told happened, because I don’t remember any of it. Caroline then took me to the hospital where they took X-rays and did some tests. I very vaguely remember riding to the hospital, but I don’t remember what Caroline or I said. I don’t remember going into the hospital, but after being there for a bit, I started to remember where I was and with the help of Caroline remember what had been going on before I was hit on the head. I still don’t remember what happened right before or after I was hit. We spent some time at the hospital and they told me that my head was fine but that the muscles in my neck had been overstressed. They gave me some muscle relaxers and Ibuprofen there and then a prescription for it as well. After we left the hotel, I called Michelle, because she was planning on coming to Stockton the next morning to stay with me. Once I told her what happened, she got in her car and drove out that night to be with me. The doctor said that I needed to be watched for the first 12 hours. When we got back to the hotel, Carolyn, Eric and Rudy came over to hang out with me until Michelle arrived. Michelle got there in record time and I could not have been more happy to see her.

Tuesday, April 7^th-Thursday, April 9^th: The next couple of days blended together. Especially Tuesday and Wednesday. Michelle and I went to get the prescription and then spent the rest of Tuesday relaxing. Wednesday was similar, but I was feeling well enough to go see the show. We went to the grocery store and then headed back to the hotel. By the end of Wednesday I was feeling about 85% ok. Up until then, I had felt a little bit like I was in a daze. That night for dinner we went out to California Pizza Kitchen. Thursday morning, I got dressed and went to work the show. I was very proud of everyone for the work they had done in my absence but we were all happy that I was back working the show. That afternoon, Michelle and I watched the Giants baseball game in the hotel and then went to dinner at Roundtable Pizza. We came back to the hotel and watched the Sharks hockey game and then headed to bed.

Friday, April 10^th: It had been a great week with Michelle, but it was time for us to head to our next city. I was very sad to see her go, but I also knew that I’d be back in San Jose in just 17 days. We had two more shows that morning, at 9:30am(107) and 11:30am(108) which capped off the 8 scheduled shows in Stockton. Load out went well and we were on our 250 mile(17,206 total miles) drive to Bakersfield, CA. That night, Carolyn, Dave, Rudy and I watched a couple episodes of “Lost” and then we headed to bed.

(55) Glendora, La Mirada

Saturday, April 4^th: We had a put in rehearsal for Jamie this morning. It went very well especially because she had been at the original rehearsals in September and had a good idea of the flow of the show. It was also fun because I got to run some of the fly cues for the show which was a fun change from the norm. The tech crew went to lunch at Subway where we got stuck behind a couple of people ordering 10 or 12 sandwiches. It was a little ridiculous, but the Subway people were really fast and got them in and out. We were annoyed so we were complaining out loud. The two or three people behind also got 4 or 5 sandwiches each as well! There was a track meet going on at the college which, so they must have been buying food for their teams. We had a 1:30pm(97) and 3:30pm(98) show and then loaded up and drove to La Mirada, CA. We stayed at the same hotel that we were in about 6 days ago when we performed in Cerritos because those two cities are right next to each other. That night, most of the company went out to the Elephant Bar to have dinner with Margo because it was her last night with the company.

Sunday, April 5^th: We had a 6:30am load in at the La Mirada Theater. I woke up just before 4:15am for no reason and soon after, my alarm went off. It had been set for 5:15am but had sprung itself forward(because this was when Daylight Savings use to start!) I reset my clock to the right time and laid back down. At some point I fell asleep and woke up at 5:55am, just 5 minutes before we were suppose to leave the hotel! Apparently, when I reset my clock, I had NOT reset my alarm! I jumped out of bed and immediately sent Eric a text message before frantically packing my stuff and running out the door. Luckily, we had only been in the hotel one night and I hadn’t taken much out of my bags. We drove to the venue and were still a bit early. The venue was very nice and we had a good load in. Eric and I had lunch at a bagel place in the shopping center where the theater was located. We then walked over to Albertsons to buy some cupcakes for our 100^th show that afternoon! We had a 1:30pm(99) and 3:30pm(100) shows. The Director of the Theater gave curtain speeches that were the most exciting we had ever heard. He even announced that it was our 100^th show. Load out went well and we packed into the vans to drive up to Grapevine, CA which is just North of Los Angeles. I rode in the White Van and had a good conversation with Jill about what she should do with her life. It was very exiciting to come down out of the mountains just North of Los Angeles because this is a drive I’ve made so many times before. We made it to the Best Western and I called Michelle to tell her I was on my way to Stockton!

A Message from My Sister

Dear Avid Readers of "On The Road Again,"

I am excited to report that when I visited Brian in Irvine, in addition to seeing my brother I also got to see the famous red van, white van and Ryder truck we have heard so much about! I took a picture of them, since that seems to be where Brian has lived for the past year. I also made him take a picture of the sign below...it may not be his name in lights, but it is a start (although I am pretty sure that Technical Directors' names are never actually in lights).

Carrie Frank Vogel

(54) Cerritos, Irvine, Glendora

Monday, March 30^th: We drove back up to Cerritos, CA and Eric, Jill, Rudy and I went to the Cerritos Center for a partial load in. We got there at 4pm but the venue wasn’t quite ready for us. The theater is convertible into a number of different set ups and they were still finishing up that when we arrived. It meant that we were a late starting, but the size of our crews made up for it. We worked until 6pm and headed back to the hotel. Jill, Rudy and I walked over to In-N-Out Burger for dinner, which really hit the spot.

Tuesday, March 31^st: Caroline, Eric and I headed over to the venue to continue load in at 7:00am. Eric was finishing focus, Caroline was setting spike marks and I was finishing the backstage set up. We had an 11:30am show(94) and then immediately struck the show and drove 25 miles (16,504 total miles) to Irvine, CA. We got in early in the afternoon and we were staying at a Hyatt Regency, which is by far one of the nicest hotels we’ve stayed in. They had a tennis court with a basketball net at one end! I went down to shoot some hoops and Eric, Lindsay and Scott were already there. I had a compy date with Michelle and then we watched a couple episodes of “Lost” and headed to bed.

Wednesday, April 1^st: In the morning, I hung out around the hotel doing work. Rudy and I had planned to shave our beards today as an “April Fool’s” joke, so he came over to take a picture with me. In the late afternoon, Carolyn planned a trip to the Huntington Beach Boardwalk. I went with them and walked around the pier and beach a bit. Right before we left, I saw Rudy in the hallway and he had already shaved his beard, so I ran back into my room and shaved mine in about 10 minutes before leaving for the beach! Everyone was pretty surprised to see us and my face felt SO much lighter! The weather was a little breezy and cool, but felt great because of the sun. I saw this younger guy with headphones who was dancing his heart out in the sun. We headed back to the hotel before our 5:00pm load in. We went over to the Irvine Barclay Theater on the campus of the University of California-Irvine. Load in went well. Caroline, Jill and I went shopping for a bit and then we dropped Caroline off at the hotel. We finished up load in at 9:00pm, an hour early, and went for food. I went to In-N-Out and got a strawberry shake and fries and it was great!

Thursday, April 2^nd: We had a 10:00am(95) show which my sister, Carrie, came to see. After the show we had a tech meeting and then Carrie and I went over to the Whole Foods for lunch. In the afternoon, I went over to a local production rental house to purchase some duvytine fabric and spike tape. People were going over to The District, which is a nice shopping area that I’d been too a couple of time since getting to Irvine, to hang out for a couple of hours so I hopped on trying to waste some daylight hours. I went to a coffee shop and sat and read for a bit. At the table next to me, the woman was talking to one of the barista’s about living the San Francisco Bay Area. They were trying to describe where San Jose was and were doing a bad job, so I jumped in to explain. Later, I started talking to the woman who was in school at UC-Irvine and was a TA grading papers. She had grown up in Sunnyvale and we had a very nice conversation about the great places to live in the South Bay. The group finally left The District and went back to the hotel. Carolyn, Eric and I ordered some Chinese Delivery and watched a couple episodes of “Lost” with Margo and Jamie.

Friday, April 3^rd: We had another 10:00am(96) show and then loaded up and headed to Glendora, CA which was only 52 miles(16,556 total miles.) It was quick drive and we had a couple of hours before leaving for load in. I layed down and took a nap for a bit before grabbing some food and headed to the Haugh Performing Arts Center on the campus of Citrus College for the load in. Load in went well and Jill and I went out shopping for a bit. Eric’s load in went a little slower than normal and we ended up leaving a few minutes late.

(53) Northridge, CA Shows & San Diego Area

Thursday, March 26th: We had two shows at 9:30am(91) and 11:30am(92). They went over very well. The weather was beautiful and I really wanted to go play basketball but unfortunately no one had a ball. Today was also Rudy’s birthday. Caroline and Jill had gotten him a cupcake cake and candles, so at the end of mic check, Eric and I lit up all the candles and took it on stage. Everyone sang happy birthday and Rudy blew out all his candles in one breathe. After the shows and load out, Caroline, Margo and I went over to the local mall and did some shopping. I got a new pair of shorts, since I hadn’t brought any on this leg of the tour. That night, my cousin Hannah, who I had seen in Seattle but actually lives outside LA, picked me up and we went to see “The Watchmen.”

Friday, March 27th: We drove 153 miles(16,380 total miles) down to Poway, CA and had a load in. Everything went pretty well with the load in except for the lighting board. It was a type of light board that we had only used once and we had never tested the computer disc from it. Well, it turned out that disc didn’t work. One of the local guys spent almost all of load in trying to get the files off the disc and then trying to convert other files that we had to match this file type. It was really scary for a while. If none of the files had worked, we would have had to rewrite the entire show. We already have the information to do it, but it takes a good 5-6 hours to write in all the cues. Caroline, Jill and Rudy had left early to pick our new performer, Scott Lupi, and Rudy’s Girlfriend, Janine, from the airport. Eric and I finished up and Jill came back to pick us up.

Saturday, March 28th: I went out for coffee with Kate Olmstead and Pete Thornbury who I had gone to college with. We had coffee and played with Kate’s puppy, a wire haired dachshund, and caught up on life. In the afternoon, we loaded into the vans and headed to the venue for a put-in rehearsal with Scott Lupi. It went well and we all went on break before our show at 7:00pm(93). After the show and load out, almost everyone in the company, and all the significant others in town, went into downtown San Diego for drinks because it was Kevin’s last night with us. We started at a bar called Gaslamp Bar and Grill. Then we headed down an Irish Pub where people drank some more and hung out for a bit. Finally we ended up at a place call Jimmy Love’s which had an 80’s cover band. This was by far the best place we had been. We dance and drank for another 45 minutes or so and then headed back out to the hotel. We were all a little sad that we hadn’t started at the last bar because it was so much fun.

Sunday, March 29th: DAY OFF! I slept in quite a bit more than normal because we weren’t home until 2:30am or so. At 10:45am, Carolyn and her boyfriend Michael, were heading into San Diego so I hopped a ride. They went to the Natural History Museum and I met up with one of my oldest friend Alex Jarman. We walked through the Rose Garden and then through the Botanical Gardens. Then we headed over to the San Diego Art Museum where Alex works. He is the Manager for Public Projects which means he works on programs based around what is being displayed in the galleries. These include docent tours and a summer film festival. He gave me a personally tour of the entire museum. We even went down to this office where he and his assistant work. It’s so strange to see how we’ve become these grown up professionals. We got some lunch and went down to the large outdoor organ in the park. They do free concerts there on Sunday afternoons so we ate and listened to some great music and a really sassy British Organist! After that, we walked the 20 minutes or so back to Alex’s apartment where I met some of his neighbors. We hung out for a bit, walked around the neighborhood and then hung out a while longer until he drove me back up to the park where I met up with some of the company who had gone to the zoo. That night, I did my laundry and had a compy date with Michelle before going to bed.

(52) Avon, CO to Northridge, CA

Saturday, March 21^st: DAY OFF!! I sat and layed around all morning while I finished my George Stephanopolous book. When I finished, Dave was taking a van to Dillion, Colorado, which is about 45 minutes away but was the closes major bookstore to Avon. To get there, we drove over the Vail Pass which is about 10,600 ft elevation. When we stopped at the Borders Bookstore, we were about up about 9,000 ft elevation. We hung out at the bookstore for a bit and I found the third book in a series that I’ve been looking for. I took some time to read the last chapter of the second book so I could remember what had happened, and then I bought the third book! We went to the grocery store, which was in the same strip mall, for some food before heading back to Avon. That afternoon I did even more work, had dinner, watched some more NCAA Basketball coverage and went to bed.

Sunday, March 22^nd: This was our hardest day of driving by far. We drove 507 miles (15,524 total miles) to Tuba City, AZ. I drove first and down to Moab, Utah where it was absolutely beautiful weather. Then Eric took over and drove us down into the desert where the weather turned pretty bad. We drove through a wicked dust storm with high winds and red sand. It lasted for about 4 hours of our drive. We were also driving through the desert. There were only a few small towns and we were on a two lane US route the entire time. We stopped in a place called Kayenta, Arizona for gas and we were on the outskirts of the dust storm. The pumps weren’t working at the first gas station that we stopped at so we went across the street to another gas station. The wind was blowing hard and there was a little sand in the air as well. The pumps were barely putting out any gas and we eventually got back in the truck to wait for the pumps to finish. After about 20 minutes of waiting, we got out and decided that we were done(the tanks were almost full.) We got back on the road and continued to our hotel in Tuda City, AZ. Once at the hotel, we had another problem that had nothing to do with the weather. The state of Arizona doesn’t change time zones, but we were staying in the Navajo Nation, which DOES change time zones. Some people’s phones had changed times and other people’s hadn’t. Our weekly schedules said that we were on Mountain Time(Navajo Time) which was a mistake I made(because we were suppose to be on Pacific Time(Arizona Time). There was a large amount of confusion that was slowly cleared through some very serious conversations. We had a tech meeting and then Carolyn, Eric, Rudy and I watched some “Lost” episodes.

Monday, March 23^rd: Tuba City felt very strange and gave me an uneasy feeling. We were so far out into the country that it made me realize how much I enjoyed living in a city. Eric and I left for a 261 miles (15,785 total miles) to Gilbert, Arizona. It was a much nicer drive and the weather was warm and beautiful when we got to our hotel. Finally we were back in warm weather! We had a load in that night and then went back to the hotel.

Tuesday, March 24^th: We had two shows in Gilbert; 9:30am(89) and 12:15pm(90). Between the shows we had another venue meeting. After the shows, we hoped in the vehicles and drove 187 miles(15,972 total miles) to Blythe, California which is on the border of California and Arizona. It was even nicer to be back in California! Carolyn, Eric, Margo, Rudy and I watched a couple of episodes of “Lost” and then it was bed time.

Wednesday, March 25^th: Eric and I drove the van 255 miles (16,227 total miles) to Northridge, California. It had been a goofy drive and I was pretty annoyed. First we stopped at a weight station and they had us pull to the side to be inspected. When we went into the station house, the guy told us he forgot to turn the arrow off and we were free to go. It was a nice waste of 15 minutes. Then, when we stopped for gas, we stopped at what must be the ONLY truck stop in LA. There were huge lines and it took forever for us to get gas. THEN, I walked over to Jack in the Box for lunch and they got my order wrong! It did not bode well for the load in that night. Luckily, load in went very well and we were out a little early!