We were up and leaving West Covina fairly early in order to get up to Ventura before noon. Lots of accidents on the I-5 North caused us to slow down and loose some time. We pulled into Willie Kennedy’s place before noon but we were later than I wanted to be.
We got LOTS of stuff done this afternoon – much needed work! And it was a great time for us to visit. Willie is an amazing guy with more knowledge about illusion design than I’ll have in 10 lifetimes. Jim came up as well so we all we able to brainstorm on some things and take a look at some amazing concepts that he is working on.
Once we finished up, David and the guys loaded everything back into Willie’s truck and we took off through the avocado groves toward our rig. Cindy and I decided to walk the path while the others rode in the back.
Visiting with Willie and Kathleen and Jim was the best part of our day. Then it got a bit hectic. Driving up the 101 North toward Arroyo Grande was beautiful but desolate. There weren’t a lot of places along the way and it was even more difficult to find a place where you can pull in a 65 foot truck/trailer!
Once we arrived in Arroyo Grande, we drove over to the hotel only to find that they had no place to park our truck. Now, David covers this very well with everyone involved with our show when we are scheduled to be in an area, INCLUDING calling the hotel prior to our arrival to make sure they can accommodate us. There is nothing more frustrating than to arrive and find that they gave us wrong information. The Holiday Inn Express in Arroyo Grande did just that – so that left me driving around small streets trying to get turned around and searching for a place to park. We called several hotels and no one had availability – VERY frustrating!
The final answer was to take the trailer over to the Clarke Center and leave it at the loading dock. David called ahead to make sure that wasn’t going to be a problem. Keith and I dropped everyone at the hotel and left for the theatre. When we got there, the entire loading dock was full of cars! There was some sort of rehearsal going on inside on the stage. We found someone who could help and they got the cars moved…we pulled in, dropped the trailer and left for the hotel. We’d been in town 2 hours already and neither one of us had been to the hotel room yet. I was getting particularly tired and a bit irritable – still not feeling all that great.
We’re hoping to get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow is a long day. We load into the venue in the morning; full day of set up; show time; tear down and then have to drive 2 hours after the show to get half way to the next date in Yountville. I’m tired just thinking about it.
I’m going to bed now…and, Ryan, thanks for the advice on dealing with my allergies in California! I hope our paths cross someday – would be great to meet you.