With a late-ish arrival in Michigan, we decided to stay close to our hotel for the evening. Our Red Roof Inn, the only nearby hotel in our price range, overlooked a tapas place, and, eager for something other than heat-lamp warmed burgers in a corporate-ized environment, I quickly pulled together an expedition: David, Courtney and myself. As we crossed the street, however, things turned grim. The mammoth highway sign was not lighting up as the sun went down, and there appeared a rather prominent “FOR RENT” sign on the door. Dismayed, but not disheartened, we headed to a local pancake house/diner as a second choice. They closed at 6pm. Finally, with options dwindling, we headed off to the only remaining place we knew would offer us fresh eats: Applebees.
As we chowed down on spinach-artichoke dip and pasta, our phones started buzzing. It was Kristen. “Was doing pilates,” she texted, “and I just trapped two roaches.” Uh oh. Not great news, particularly for Courtney, who is Kristen’s roommate and is particularly disgusted by cockroaches. We finished dinner and scurried back to the hotel, where the ladies changed rooms, David and I checked our beds and everyone hunkered down for the night.
Our shows the next day came with a dusting of snow. Well, perhaps more than a dusting. In fact, it didn’t stop until we (and our stellar crew at the Mendel Center!) had loaded out the show, and were on the road back to Illinois. Our final shows of the week were back in Wisconsin, but, because of our contractual day length, we were spending the night in Waukegan, IL. Back in the van again, we carefully cruised out of Michigan and the snow as we started our way through Indiana. When traffic stopped. Dead.
After moving only one mile in over an hour, we discovered the cause of our delay: a tractor-trailer had overturned on the freeway, and was blocking all three lanes of traffic. As we crept by the wreckage, we spotted ambulances, skid marks and the charred underbelly of the cab. The company fell silent for the rest of the trip.
We passed into Central Daylight Saving Time, breezed by Chicago, arrived in Waukegan, slept, and then headed to Hartland, WI for our final shows of the week. Our presenters, Lake County Children’s Theater, provided us with a world-class Midwestern spread for lunch, but that wasn’t the best of it. This performance was sponsored by the Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain, and introduced by Dugan the Dragon, LCCT’s storybook-reading mascot, both of whom were present. That required some photos:
After a night in Milwaukee area and the end of Daylight Saving Time, we all managed to returned to the van on time for our last expedition: Toledo, OH. Theatreworks had gotten wind of our wild week, and kindly offered to buy us all a nice dinner (see below). As we swung by Chicago for a fourth time, I mentally reviewed the past seven days: Wisconsin to Illinois to Michigan to Illinois to Wisconsin to Ohio. Six state changes in seven days, with three time changes, and the end of Daylight Saving Time. And dragons, pigs, cockroaches, vocal rest, truck accidents and a few Burger King sandwiches along the way. This is one for the record books, folks! It has been a heck of a week.
Call tomorrow: Nope. It’s a day off. And we deserve it!
Kid Quote of the Day: During a meet-and-greet after the Hartland, WI show, a little girl asked Courtney (Fancy Nancy) with great concern, “Um, when you were crying onstage, were you really crying?”
Adult Quote of the Day: Also in Hartland, WI, one of the LCCT staff members, asked me where I was from. “New York,” I replied, “but I was born in Minnesota.” “Ah,” she said, knowingly. “So you know real cheese.” And I smiled.
No comments:
Post a Comment