We left Klamath Falls, OR for the long drive back to Arizona. One of the most frustrating parts of touring is buying fuel permits for states that require them. California is one of those states and the require that you have the permit in your possession before you enter the state. I had scoped out a place on the border to buy one on the drive from Oregon to Arizona. We stopped to buy the permit only to find that they no longer sold them…in spite of the HUGE sign out front of their fuel pumps that said they did! We ended up driving into California without the permits but found them in a small town a few miles past the border…thankfully.
SAFFORD CENTER FOR THE ARTS, AZ
We rolled into Safford and got settled into our hotel. We had a day off – the first in a while – and everyone took advantage of the time. We washed clothes, caught up on email and phone calls, and generally tried to relax.
We did things a little different here. We loaded into the Safford Center the day before the show. This gave us plenty of time to do some maintenance on our equipment. The day of the show, Alan and I worked at the Fort Thomas School with the Hocus Focus project. I think we stopped in 11 classrooms and worked with more than 150 students throughout the day. Afterwards, we were on our way back to the Center to get ready for the evening performance.
Tickets had sold very well in Safford, well enough that they opened some additional seating. We were at near capacity – almost completely sold out! The audience was very excited, enthusiastic, and response to all the illusions we presented. We had a great time working in Safford with Terry and the entire team.
CHANDLER CENTER FOR THE ARTS, AZ
After the Safford performance, we left out early the following morning toward Chandler. There are some big mountains to cross through the desert and I wanted to do them in the cool of the day rather than the heat of the afternoon.
I have never worked with Michelle and TJ at the Chandler Center so this was a show I was looking forward to. We were all expecting a very good crowd and, once we arrived, we were told we had a crowd of over 1200 people already coming to the show. That’s pretty good for a Sunday afternoon matinee! And they were a GREAT crowd too! Lots of “oohs and aahs” throughout the performance. Several area magicians were also in attendance at the show including our very good friends Andre and Kathy Kole.
The day after the show, TJ had made arrangements for us to have a visit at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
She picked us up at the hotel and we started the drive into Phoenix. Traffic wasn’t bad at all so we made great time arriving way too early…so, we decided to stop off at a very unique place to grab something to eat and drink – Two Hippies. The food was great including the Cactus Tacos!
After lunch, we drove the last two blocks to get to the Children’s Hospital. I had invited Andre and Craig to meet us there and they arrived before us. We gathered our stuff, made our way into the building, and started to set up a small show for the patients and their families. As we started to set up, the crowd started to gather. Before we knew it, the entire area was packed with people! The outreach coordinator from the hospital said it had been a long time since they had this many people leave their rooms.
Once the show was over, one of the hospital personnel took me on a stroll through the Intensive Care Unit to visit with some of the patients that couldn’t make it to the show.
All in all, Chandler was a great experience! We are already looking forward to coming back!!