Typical Day on the Road

May 2004

<- April 04 - May 04 - June 04 ->

 

May 1

Kentucky Derby day. Dennis, a former horse racing fan, couldn't resist dropping in on one of the casinos to watch the race on a large screen in the "sports book", and picking up his quota of second-hand smoke in the bargain. (His horse came in third.) Somebody (W.C. Fields?) once said, "horse sense is what keeps horses from betting on people."

May 2

Hit a YMCA in Las Vegas to get a workout. It was on our way to Kinko's, where we stayed until about 9:00 p.m. Then we rehearsed in the parking lot, since there was plenty of room.

May 3

A miserably hot day in Las Vegas. We lingered in town until late in the day, so it would be cooler driving toward L.A. (There is a stretch of desert freeway that climbs uphill for some time, and one can't safely run the air conditioner while driving it.) Stopped for the night in Victorville, Ca., which previously was the home of the Roy Rogers Museum. (We're not certain if it still is.)

May 4

Continued to Rancho Cucamonga, Ca. Passed by the stadium of the local minor league baseball team. What we find interesting about this facility is that the entrance boasts a statue not of an athlete, but of comedian Jack Benny,who was a longtime resident of the town. It was at this stadium that Dennis once performed for a haunted house event. (He was dressed as one of the aliens from the "Alien" films, and was in fact wearing a 30-lb. rubber suit molded from the same mold used for the actual movie costumes.) Did laundry and went to the YMCA, then drove on to Anaheim for the night.

May 5

Well, we finally decided we had to give in. Zephyr has it in his head that every time he makes it to either coast, he has to attend a Disney theme park of some type. And he's been saving his own money for months in preparation, so mom took him to Disneyland today. Dad spent the day camped out at Kinko's and taking care of business. There was a special event today at the park, in preparation for its 50th anniversary. Disney CEO Michael Eisner was there--not exactly one of our heroes, but Kimberly couldn't resist snapping a photo of him standing a few feet from Zephyr. Also in attendance was Julie Andrews, who IS someone we admire.

May 6

Drove into Burbank-- our "official" home, though we're rarely there anymore. Stopped by the park where we used to take Zephyr twice a month to play with other home-schooled kids. This was the day they were meeting, and some of his old friends (and ours) were there. How sobering to see kids who are supposed to be waist-high suddenly standing shoulder-to-shoulder with you!

Went by the home of some friends who used to come to Park Day, but weren't there today. The swimming pool in their back yard is finished now, and it's quite impressive. Zephyr (and later Dennis) decided they had to go in for a dip.

May 7

Performed at a school in Manhattan Beach, Ca. Our final performance of "Eureka" ; now, we REALLY focus on getting our new show ready, which premieres three weeks from today. Drove north to Rocklin, just outside Sacramento.

May 8

Pushed on into Reno, where we stopped by our storage unit to pick up some things and drop off some other things, then we went to the home of Kimberly's parents (they're currently in Japan). Spent the afternoon sorting through some of our stuff and deciding what we're going to take on the road and what we're not. Later, we turned on the VCR and watched some old videos we'd retrieved from storage. (Note to TT: Zephyr FINALLY watched "Bruce Almighty"!) One of them was a performance of "Company" in San Francisco that Dennis was in 19 years ago. It was like catching a glimpse of a previous lifetime.

May 9

Mother's Day. Met Kimberly's grandmother for dinner. Back at the house, it was Kimberly's turn to be featured in an ancient video presentation-- her production of "Grease" in the Bay Area, also in 1985. And then we watched a tape of a song and dance revue that she and Dennis did (with 2 other performers) in 1988 on a billboard in downtown San Francisco. That was NOT a typo.

May 10

Made a last trip to storage and to a fabric store to pick up material for the new show. Then we hit the road, headed toward St. Louis.

Dennis was disturbed to learn that singer/songwriter Sarah Harmer is going to be in Reno a couple of days from now. He's been very fond of her since he bought her debut album, "You Were Here", which has become one of his all-time favorites even though it's been out only two years. He'd love to see her perform, and he just missed her!

But we got out of town just in time. We hear there was snow in town later tonight!

Spent the night in Winnemucca.

May 11

Continued driving through Nevada and Utah. Stopped in Elko, Nv. to get our oil changed. Noticed that our thermostat apparently has become stuck open, so the engine is staying cooler than usual. Decided it was not sufficient reason to delay our arrival in St. Louis, and continued our journey, stopping for the night somewhere in Wyoming.

May 12

Dennis and Kimberly's 14th anniversary. They celebrated by driving through Wyoming in the snow-- yes, SNOW! And it wasn't just a little flurry, either.

Took a detour through downtown Cheyenne--which we'd never seen before--in search of an Office Depot, which we eventually found.

Noticed a historic building in downtown with a sign in the window that said "Tom Horn was here".

Made it to Nebraska before stopping for the night. Due to time zone crossings, we've now lost two hours.

May 13

More fun driving. Took a detour through downtown Lincoln, which reminded us of downtown Cheyenne. Made it into the outskirts of St. Louis.

May 14

Headed to our hotel, which is near the airport. Noticed that the police had one of the roads blocked off leading to the airport, and wondered if some dignitary was coming to town. Learned later that George W. Bush was appearing nearby at one of his fundraisers.

Checked into our hotel, the InTown Suites in Hazelwood. A reasonably priced, moderate quality inn with a kitchenette and enough room to put up our set, do some work on it, rehearse and otherwise get our new production ready. This is a franchise designed for people who are living somewhere temporarily due to a short-term job assignment, or some such. No frills, but satisfactory accommodations; our biggest objection so far is that (in this location at least) there are no rooms designated as non-smoking. Consequently, our room reeked of tobacco until we aired it out. And people smoke in the halls and in the elevators, and everywhere else. We're not in California anymore, Dorothy.

May 15

Still at our hotel in the St. Louis area, getting our new production ready. A security person came by today and told us that we had to keep our blinds closed at all times. No fooling! (We're on the second floor.) We looked over the list of rules we were given when we checked in, and in addition to several that make sense, they note that the following are prohibited:

"Any police matter involving your room."

"Leaving Door, Window or Blinds Open."

"Feeding Stray Animals."

"Displaying Items Or Clothing Outside of Room or in Windows."

"Sunbathing."

We didn't make these up!

May 16

Still holed up in our hotel room in Missouri, trying to refrain from feeding the stray animals.

May 17

Kimberly and Zephyr stayed in the room while Dennis went shopping and tended to other errands-- he visited 9 places of business altogether!

May 18

Still in our St. Louis area hotel room. Fierce Midwest thunderstorms today and tonight.

May 19

Still readying our new show. As always, this causes us to have nightmares. Tonight, Dennis dreamed that we re-purchased the motor home we toured in when we first hit the road in 1992. Yikes!!!

May 20

Still holed up in our hotel room in Hazelwood, Mo.

May 21

See May 20.

May 22

See May 21. Today is Dennis's birthday. Big deal. At least the local classical station played a great deal of music by Richard Wagner, who was born on this day in 1813. (And he happens to be more or less Dennis's favorite composer.) It's difficult to get adjusted to this time zone--we've been staying up until 2:00 a.m., which could cause some problems Monday when we have a 9:00 a.m. show.

May 23

Still at Intown Suites most of the day. But went to Kinko's to make some new posters to mail to libraries for our summer performances.

May 24

Managed to get ourselves up early and get to our 9:00 a.m. show at a school in Webster Groves, about 25 miles south of where we're staying. Also did some last-minute shopping at a costume shop.

May 25

Still hustling and bustling like Santa's elves on Christmas Eve at our hotel in Hazelwood, Mo.

May 26

A day of violent thunderstorms in the St. Louis area. Dennis took a stroll to Walgreens, about a block from our hotel, and the deluge caught him. He heard the loudest clap of thunder he's ever heard in his life, and apparently the closest-- there was absolutely no delay between lightning and thunder. Perfect Edgar Allen Poe/Frankenstein weather.

May 27

Our last day at the hotel. We spent the entire day packing, putting finishing touches on the set and costumes, and rehearsing. We finally were ready to leave at about 7:00 p.m. (we're paid up until tomorrow), but then we waited about an hour for the tornado warning to pass-- the warning sirens were wailing just as they were last night.

We also discovered that we had underestimated the distance to Yellville, Ark., site of tomorrow morning's show. It's 322 miles instead of 225. So we drove until about 2:00 a.m., passing through the popular tourist town of Branson and finally pulling over for the night in Harrison, Ark.

May 28

Up at 8:00 to finish driving to Yellville, arriving at the library at 9:00--giving us two hours to set up and make any final adjustments (of which there were quite a few). The opening went quite well. As always, we were stressed out about it, but as always, we managed to pull it together.

We noticed that the sets and costumes reeked of tobacco, having been in a smoker's room for two weeks, and we sprayed them with deodorizer rather heavily.

Took off driving to Heber Springs, Ark., to visit Dennis's sister. Stopped along the way in the tiny town of Leslie to buy some excellent bread from a little brick oven bakery that we discovered last year.

May 29

Visiting Dennis's sister in Arkansas.

May 30

See May 29.

May 31

Memorial Day. Still Visiting Dennis's sister in Arkansas.

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