What a day!
Today involved inner city driving, Walmart, great pizza, ad the craziest rain we've ever seen. But first-
Ever notice how there are things you don't notice when you're tired? We stayed in Janesville, Wisconsin last night. I love crazy things that we see in hotels, and didn't notice this one until this morning:
Today involved inner city driving, Walmart, great pizza, ad the craziest rain we've ever seen. But first-
Ever notice how there are things you don't notice when you're tired? We stayed in Janesville, Wisconsin last night. I love crazy things that we see in hotels, and didn't notice this one until this morning:
There's no space where there once could have been another label with "away", making it "DO NOT THROW AWAY". I guess they're suggesting that the coffee maker won't work as well after we use it for a game of Rugby?
Our drive was short today. These Eastern states are no Montana or Oregon in terms of distance! We had to stop at Walmart for a can of A/C refrigerant. While I was inside, Eli thought he'd give driving a shot:
Our drive was short today. These Eastern states are no Montana or Oregon in terms of distance! We had to stop at Walmart for a can of A/C refrigerant. While I was inside, Eli thought he'd give driving a shot:
Naperville is a suburb of Chicago, so upon arriving, we wanted to try some of that famous Chicago-style pizza. We found a place called "Lou Malnati's". It's good! Being from Cincinnati, it's hard to compete with LaRosa's, but this was sort of an apples-to-oranges thing- Chicago style is so different that it's almost an entirely separate food. If you're in Chicago, definitely check it out.
The time came to head to the show, and off we went. We arrived at Grace Pointe church and met with the two nice ladies who have been working on the event. They showed us our area, which was a stage in a downstairs gymnasium.
Now, the stage wasn't the largest ever, but certainly big enough for what we needed, so no problem there. We found out that we wouldn't be able to get our big road cases into the gym, so we had to unload them outside and carry in everything piece by piece. We've had to do that before, though, so no problem there. We also had a full flight of stairs to navigate with heavy props, but we've done that before as well, so no problem there either.
Here's what made the evening one we'll never forget. Remember when I said that I've always wondered when we'd have to load in during a driving thunderstorm? The rain was heavy in Minnesota but didn't really start until we had everything loaded in. Tonight, however... the rain hit with a serious VENGEANCE right when we began unloading the cases outside. The way it was coming down was such that just running inside, you'd be soaked as though you'd jumped in a pool. We watched for slight breaks in the rain where we could run out and unload just one more prop. Thankfully, it only lasted about 45 minutes. We got everything inside and set up (and were never happier to change into show costumes- they were dry!). The show was awesome and in fact there were so many people tonight, they had to move a barricade to open up more space!
Today we move on to Elkhart, Indiana and then we stay in Monroe, Michigan tonight in preparation for our show in Michigan the next day. Another drive less than 3 hours- woohoo!
Now, the stage wasn't the largest ever, but certainly big enough for what we needed, so no problem there. We found out that we wouldn't be able to get our big road cases into the gym, so we had to unload them outside and carry in everything piece by piece. We've had to do that before, though, so no problem there. We also had a full flight of stairs to navigate with heavy props, but we've done that before as well, so no problem there either.
Here's what made the evening one we'll never forget. Remember when I said that I've always wondered when we'd have to load in during a driving thunderstorm? The rain was heavy in Minnesota but didn't really start until we had everything loaded in. Tonight, however... the rain hit with a serious VENGEANCE right when we began unloading the cases outside. The way it was coming down was such that just running inside, you'd be soaked as though you'd jumped in a pool. We watched for slight breaks in the rain where we could run out and unload just one more prop. Thankfully, it only lasted about 45 minutes. We got everything inside and set up (and were never happier to change into show costumes- they were dry!). The show was awesome and in fact there were so many people tonight, they had to move a barricade to open up more space!
Today we move on to Elkhart, Indiana and then we stay in Monroe, Michigan tonight in preparation for our show in Michigan the next day. Another drive less than 3 hours- woohoo!