Second post and I'm already bored with thinking up titles...

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[I'll post my mailing address as soon as I find it...]



I’m writing in the van on the way to the venue in Palm Desert. We had to be up around sunrise to hit the road this morning. Thankfully we didn’t have to leave before the sun was up, or I never would have gotten to see Lost Hills, California in all its sunlit glory. On the phone last night I described Lost Hills as a motel, gas station, and a few fast food joints. How very wrong I was. The daylight revealed to me that Lost Hills is in fact blessed with two gas stations (one of which only accepts cash) and a vast open field – a lush meadow teeming with weeds, beer cans, and broken glass.

I feel lucky to have visited this beautiful metropolis in Southern California and witnessed the very height of human achievement. Our oversized van and trailer felt right at home in a gas station full of semis.

One of the difficulties of travelling this much is going to be climate change. When we piled into the van this morning it was forty degrees and the air smelled of stale gasoline. When we load the set in this afternoon it will be ninety degrees and we’ll get our first whiff of big-city smog.

O, California and her sundry ecosystems!

The other big difficulty will be eating vegetarian and staying healthy. Luckily Craig - our Technical Wizard who has been on many a tour - is vegan and acts as my personal meatless cuisine guru. Who knew that I could procure a relatively satisfying veggie sandwich from Arby’s of all places (the operative word being “relatively”)!


All sarcasm aside, it looks like I will have a great time on this tour. After dinner last night, the cast had some time to hang out in our motel before bed. We got into PJs, watched some awful reality TV, and generally had a good time talking and joking. Anyone who knows the theatre community knows that actors tend to have the most absurd senses of humor, and I fit right in in that respect. After two days there are already a number of things about home that I miss, but I’m still excited to spend some time as a part of this travelling troupe of troubadours.