Maryland

Greetings from the home of the Orioles and Ravens!

Today's show was an outdoor event for a community just outside of Baltimore.  The drive was once again short (boy, we're going to miss these states!) so we didn't have to leave ridiculously early.  This meant some actual relaxation time!

It's funny- when you're on the road non-stop, you get creative when a problem has to be solved.  Often the solution is very different from what you would do at home.  For instance, what if you have a container of baby wipes that gets crushed in storage?  At home, you could switch containers, or put the wipes in a plastic bag, or several other options.  On the road, however, you fix things with duct tape:

Off we went toward Baltimore.  It's been since the state of Iowa that our family got to enjoy our favorite thing- Chipotle!  So, for lunch, we set our GPS to take us to the first Chipotle on our route.  As it turns out, it was in a food court at a mall.  In Cincinnati they're all actual buildings.  Here, though, it was part of the coolest food court I've ever seen:

If you look carefully, you can see that there's a McDonald's right next to Chipotle.  Can it POSSIBLY get any better?

Outside, Faith took her daily handstand photo.  She's one incredible competition gymnast.  So far, her goal of a handstand photo in every state is 100%:

We had only a short journey left to Baltimore.  Upon arriving in the city, we stopped for a snack.  I asked Paula about my keys, which I thought she had with her.  She told me that she hadn't grabbed them, which meant...

Remember our blog post from Maine?  Well... Here I was again calling AAA for a case of keys locked in the car.  Thanks again Paula for insisting that we get AAA!  It took them a while to arrive this time but the guy opened the door VERY quickly.  Thankfully we still had plenty of time to prepare for today's show.

This was an outdoor show in Windsor Mill, just outside of Baltimore.  Outdoor shows are interesting- we have to adjust a bit and do some things differently.  The audience today was very receptive- we had a great time!

After the show, we had a good meal at Cracker Barrel (thanks again Sandy & Gerry!).  When I was younger, there were no Cracker Barrel restaurants in our part of the country.  If we ever ate there, it usually meant that we were on a vacation to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Remember those puzzles on the tables with the golf tees?  They're still there, and still just as frustrating:

We went to Walmart for a long-overdue trip to replenish several supplies (seriously, how did we ever survive without Walmart?).  Out on the road, our entire life is stored in a three shelf unit that I built in the front of the trailer just before we left.  We needed a bunch of oddball things like plastic tubs, black markers, an extra floor mat, potatoes (we use a potato in every show), and a zillion other things to make the trip work.

Tonight we're staying in Frederick, Maryland.  At the hotel,  we were all surprised when baby Eli started sitting up on his own for a little while at a time!

He's doing a forward lean thing, but he's staying up on his own!

We have less than an hour to go for tomorrow's show (YES!!!).  Three of us have been to West Virginia and four haven't- we're looking forward to a fun time!