A Year in the Life: Back and Forth

Hey Readers!

I last blogged when I was in Florida, and since then I have been to 10 cities in 8 different states! What can I say, tour life is crazy... but it can be fun, exciting, painful, exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time. I really enjoyed my time in Augusta, GA. The hotel was very fancy, sort of an "old south" feel to it. The town was sweet and small with surprising hippie flair. The New Moon Cafe was excellent with tons of vegan options and a great soy latte. We celebrated Sabina's birthday at the Mellow Mushroom, which is another hippie joint with amazing pizza, salads and local beers on tap. Columbia, SC was decent, but our hotel was in the middle of nowhere so it was hard to make a fair judgement of the town. I think I may have left there with a bad taste in my mouth because I injured my shoulder/back when I was there, about three weeks ago. Still not positive about what actually started the injury, but I know that it was incredibly painful and I ended up with three severe and ongoing back spasms. But I got my first chance to sit out and watch the show (which we call a "swing out") and it was spectacular. I choose the word spectacular for a reason, the show is so visually stimulating! The cast did such a beautiful job and I admit it... I cried at the end of "Be out Guest." I was so full of pride and gratitude for this job and the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful production. What did I tell you... tour is a roller coaster!

After sometime in the south, I made my way up to Boston, Cambridge and Worcester, Massachusetts. I've never been to Massachusetts before, and I really enjoyed the natural scenery and the cityscape of Boston. Cambridge was very charming and I loved taking a walking historical tour of Harvard University. That weekend we performed in Worcester, a suburb of Boston, and my back flared up again. But thank goodness, we drove to Elmira, NY to visit a fantastic physical therapist, Jill. She was truly a miracle worker and a healer. Elmira was terrible, but the PT was great :)

Then the tour took us back down south again to Lexington, KY and Knoxville, TN. I really enjoyed Knoxville. That was another sweet southern town with a few hippie places and beautiful appalachian scenery. My favorite place was Coolato Gelato, which i visited three days in a row. They had excellent salads, soups and sandwiches... not to mention world class gelato. The couple that owned the place was very sweet and seemed to be happy all the BTB folks kept stopping by. Our show certainly pepped up business for all the places around town. There was also a fabulous crepe place called "The French Market" that I would recommend to anyone! Also, the Tennessee Theatre was beautiful, ornate and the people were very generous and hard working. In short, the south was good to us.

Now, I am at a stop-over hotel in Hershey, PA on my way back up north. We are going to New Haven, CT for the weekend. Sometimes I'm really not sure where we're going after that. All I can think about these days is June 1... week long stays, no more bus and bigger cities. Now that is how tour SHOULD be. Until then... I just take things one day at a time.

Here are some more photos for good measure