Lovely Keene

Nelson, NH

Hello Friends!

Things are wonderful in New Hampshire. The leaves are changing and the country side is gorgeous with a smattering of reds, oranges, and browns. Even though we have been rain logged all week with very muggy and un-fall like weather we are still having a great time.

Our week started well as we arrived at our home this week. Located pretty much in the middle of no where, we are staying with a board member from the Colonial Theatre. She has this huge modern house in the middle of the woods. We were greeted by here two wonderful Golden Retrivers and full internet. Yes, this would make for a good week.

Zack and Zoey - LOVE THEM!

Those are our bedrooms above the garage.

A realitive small turnout came to auditions, only 39- they were expecting around 60. Thankfully quality won out over quantity and the kids are on track for a great show tomorrow in the amazingly old and renovated Colonial Theatre. (Better be on my best acting as it is a $19 ticket!).

The stage is perfect for the MCT set and the seats have great accustics in the house!

The always posing Calida Davis

It seats 500 folks!

The restored theatre is gorgeous!

We even got to do workshops in surronding towns. One was a good 45 minute drive away. The drive was very pretty and the kids were extremely excited for us to come since they don't have a lot of arts exposure out in the country of New Hampshire. We offer a make-up workshop and I have to admit I am getting pretty good at the old "quater in hand wound"

Not pictured - 40 children screaming "EWWW!!!"

Next up - we travel back to exactly the same county we were last week - Sayre, PA.

The Adventure Continues - ML

Picturesque Pennsylvania

Nelson, NH

Hello Friends!

Our first week of fall has come to an end. The kids did well and the small town of Troy, PA has treated us well. We stayed with a wonderful family who lives atop of Alba Mountain (think Walton's but with natural gas wells). They own a lot of the property on the hill and Calida and I went trekking around and about. Fall was in the air and the ground was still soaked from Lee. The pictures speak for themselves.

That's our little truck there in the distance next to our home.

This tree was massive!

This picture really doesn't do this vista justice. It was very impressive.

Calida Von Trapp

We are enjoying our time here in Keene, NH. We are working with the Colonial Theatre this week. It is a gorgeous old place (pictures to come). and this whole college town has made us feel quite welcome. There is a good chance for some great daring dinning this week!

The Adventure Continues - ML

The Wrath of Lee

Alba, PA

Hello Everyone!

Fall tour is underway and things are going grand!

After spending a great three and a half week on "working vacation" aka getting our truck from Missoula to Pennslyvian, we have begun our week in Troy, PA. We are staying with a nice couple on their farm property the next town over - Alba, PA.

We have a tiny cast this week of 28 and the kids are doing well. Really good singers and very respectful. The town was hit pretty hard last week as Tropical Storm Lee dumped tons of rain on the town. Their is even a huge chunk of road missing from one of the main drags leading into town.

Speaking of Lee... During his trek up north our truck was parked at Calida's Dad's home in Stewartstown, PA (about 10 miles south of York, PA). It was parked aways from a creek however Lee made the creek flood to biblical proportions. What ensued was very stressful for our truck and Calida. An account with lots of pictures can be found on Calida's Blog.

It is good to be on the road again!

The Adventure Continues - ML

Fall '11 Tour Schedule

Cortland, OH

Hello Friends!

Where has time gone!? After many weeks of no internet and lots of travel it is time (actually very over due) to give a heads up to our whereabouts this fall. Here we go!

9/12 - Troy, PA

9/19 - Keene, NH

9/26 - Sayre, PA

10/3 - Lovingston, VA

10/10 - Lockport, NY

10/17 - Mississauga, ON (That would be Ontario, Canada!)

10/24 - Unbooked

10/31 - Unbooked

11/7 - Old Saybrook, CT

11/14 - Unbooked (Possibly a residency week in Washington D.C.)

11/21 - Thanksgiving Week

11/28 - Menands, NY

12/5 - Sergeantsville, NJ

Then off for the holidays. We are staying on with Secret Garden and are glad about it. The show has really grown on us. We will get our marching orders for the Winter/Spring in November sometime and I can tell you now we will still be on the East Coast as we are not slotted to return to Missoula until the end of this tour in May 2012.

As always if live near by and/or know of places to see and or unique places to eat please leave a message so we can experience it all!

The Adventure Continues - ML

Mums the word in Medford

Medford, OR

Hello Friends!

Our week in McMinnville was a HUGE success. Parents were crying and beaming and loved the show! We are now in Medford and auditions were by far the most organized we have had in quite some time. We are partnered this week with the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theatre and they are wonderful! Had over 90 kids at auditions and it was tough, hopefully this means we will have one of our best shows ever this week (a hard feat after McMinnville...)

Calida and I are staying a gorgeous house in the outskirts of town and internet and cell phone are not our friends this week, but that is OK, we are being feed a kings bounty this week by our gracious home stay. After four weeks of hotels, it is a very welcome reprieve.

I can not wait to upload some photos, alas, it will probably have to wait till next week when we head back to the evergreen state of Washington.

The Adventure Continues - ML

St. Paul Rodeo

McMinnville, OR

Hello Friends,

Calida and I were fortunate enough to spend the Fourth of July at the world famous St. Paul Rodeo. St. Paul is a tiny burg only about 15 miles away from McMinnville and boasts a population of 300 (a fact the rodeo commentators mentioned numerous times). The town explodes over the July holiday to host one of the largest rodeo's in Oregon and the country. Apparently this is one of the biggest purses you can get in Oregon and there is another Rodeo not too far away this coming weekend with another big purse that draws a lot of competitors so they can compete in both due to their close proximity.

In typical MCT fashion we were invited to the rodeo by a stranger who knew the MCT team was coming to town and had extra tickets he wanted to share since his kids enjoy our program so much. After exchanging a couple of emails we agreed to meet at the beer tent. It was an absolute gorgeous day on the fourth. While St. Paul is a very tiny town finding parking as the masses descended was quite easy. The rodeo began on the 31st of June so the carnival booths and rides were all in full swing by the Fourth and the sights and smells of a good old fashioned fair were abundant as we sought the beer tent.

With a Coors Light in hand we met our wonderful contact and his family. They have been coming to the rodeo since the mid-60's and their seat are kind of legacy seats you hold on to forever, much like a season ticket for college football. And great seats they were! Box seats right on the rail line nearest the chutes. We could literally reach out and touch the horses as they pass.

I should mention now that I have never been to a rodeo so I had no clue what to expect.

The event started with a nice procession of mainly rodeo Queens (think beauty pageant, not drag queens, though that would have been equally entertaining...) all on horse backs representing various other rodeos from around the region. At the end of the procession was a group of vets from various wars including a D-Day vet. It was a pretty touching tribute and nice to see especially on the Fourth. This whole process took a good fifteen minutes and then we got into the rodeo itself.

Over the next FOUR HOURS we took in 12 events ranging from bull riding and calf roping, to barrel racing and junior events. Each event had about 12-18 competitors however that was just for this program. Each event really has around 100 entries that are spread out of the four day event, so we are only seeing a little slice of the competition. We saw some great riding and even a guy who got thrown in the air from a bull (we later found out he broke his shoulder). But by far the most interesting events were the Model T "Pig-N-Ford" Racers and the Wild Horse Race.

In the Pig-N-Ford race you must do the following:

1. Model T-like crank start roadsters are assembled on the track.

2. A box of pigs is lined up next to the roadsters.

3. At the signal the drivers must run to the box and grab a pig (they were cute piglets)

4. With pig in hand they must crank start their roadster.

5. With pig still in hand they must then drive a lap around the arena.

6. Upon completing a lap they must deposit their pig, grab another, and repeat two more times.

I don't know how drunk you have to be to invent this event... Wow. It wasn't until afterward that we learned it was a big promo event as the roadsters had sponsor flags on them and is kind of like cheering for something on a jumbo tron like a boat or the like a sports game. Still these men who drive the cars and pigs DO THIS FOR A LIVING in the rodeo circuit. And they say I have a strange job...

The last event of the day was the Wild Horse Race and this was a real event with a purse attached. It is absolutely crazy and great. What happens is 10 teams of three line up in front of the chutes, at the signal they open and a wild, saddle-less horse comes running out. It does have a rope around it. It is then the job of this team to wrangle it, put a saddle on it, and get it across the line on the far side of the arena first. This all happens at the same time as ten wild horse coming barreling out of the gate and it is absolute pandemonium. I have a great video of it on the phone and I hope to share it soon.

All in all it was an amazing slice of America to experience. For the most part I enjoyed seeing the expertise of the competitors and cow hands that kept the event running smoothly. I should mention that they non-stop banter between the commentators and Gizmo the rodeo clown was down right PAINFUL and actually quite offensive at times. Not all of us think a bull looks and acts like our mothers and wish our wives were as nice as said bulls. Said once was sort of funny, the tenth time was aggravating. I wish they would just shut up and let us enjoy the events.

The night was capped as we took in McMinnville's fireworks and hit the hay to begin another week the following day - and things are going great!

Again, the internet is not so hot right now so no pictures, but as soon as we do I will post a lot!

The Adventure Continues - ML

Trees and Beaches

McMINNVILLE, OR!

Hello Friends!!!

Greetings from the land of my good old college days! Ah finally good-ish internet access again! At the Camp Crystal Lake, I mean, Trees Motel last week we had internet as long as no one else was using it, that got old as you crossed your fingers and hoped that there might be one bar of internet waiting for you.

The scenery was gorgeous! The redwoods are always awe inspiring and never cease to amaze me. Our hotel was right across the street from the Trees of Mystery! It's an impressive little tourist trap with a 70 foot Paul Bunyan who talks to travelers as they come close to the gift shop. Though his constant yabbering could be heard from the hotel... The gift shop itself had a little free museum show casing native tribes art work from around the world.

Right next to Paul and Babe (who was NOT castrated) was the path that lead to said mysterious trees. I am not sure if "mystery" is the word to describe these trees. To me "mystery" implies that we have no idea why or how they are there when actually we do, they are trees, they grow, all around the word. A better term for the tree tour would have been "impressive" because that they were. They had this one tree that was so large that 12 other trees were growing off of their branches! Another was shaped like a lightening bolt, and one had five trees fused together that formed what they called a cathedral tree and folks even get hitched there.

The main draw of the tour was the sky tram which was a little gondola thing that shuttles you above the treeline to a view area 750 feet up. From there you can see the Pacific to one side and nothing but Redwoods off the other. Impressive.

Another perk to our hotel (besides being bed bug free) was that it had this hidden path that lead down to an enclosed beach. The path is marked and legit, but no one goes down! One day Calida and I packed up a dinner and headed seaside and enjoyed having our very own beach to ourselves for FIVE HOURS! It was wonderful and the weather was gorgeous.

My last schedule week in California (for now probably) was a memorable one in many ways and it was a nice way to say "See you later - for now" to the great state of California.

The Adventure Continues - ML

By good-ish internet I mean I get good spurts of access so posting pictures isn't possible now. I promise, I have some great ones!