This past week we delivered a one truck show to a theater in downtown Chicago. It went surprising well thanks to Jorge’s excellent backing ability. We got there in the middle of the night and found the correct alley that would be our home for several hours. Jorge skillfully backed the trailer into the alley where he had very little wiggle room between the corner of a condo building on one side and a fire escape on the other. He’s a professional and I always say I could never do this job without him. I was just thankful that I didn’t have any close contact with any alley rats – either the little furry ones or the human ones- while I was standing behind the trailer guiding him into the spot via the handheld CB radio. I just watch and make sure he’s not going to hit anything.
After we finished unloading at the theater and dropped our trailer off, we had a few days of free time. My daughter Shari and her husband, Andy, live in the heart of Chicago, right across from Soldier Field and they invited us to spend some time with them. Since it was mid-week and they were both working, Jorge and I decided to play the role of Chicago tourists. We walked a couple miles from their condo down to the place where we could catch the boat tour of the city. That was a lot of fun as we first went down the Chicago River past Shari’s law office window and then out to Lake Michigan for a great view of the city. We had so much fun on the boat tour that when it finished, we took the bus tour around the city too. Shari is my musical genius and a member of the Bar Association’s Orchestra. (Who knew they even had one of those?) As it turned out, they were giving a concert the night we were there so we got a chance to watch her play her violin too. It was a treat for us to be able to go.
Our original schedule had us going to St. Louis next but as things often happen… the plan changed. Now they wanted us to go to Madison, Wisconsin and pick up ‘The Lion King’ this past weekend. That gave us a chance to make a quick little surprise visit to my dad in Winona, Minnesota. It had been last summer since we’d been there so we were happy for the opportunity, even if it was a short time. It was short and sweet but we had to get back to Madison to load up the show.
So now we’re on the road taking the show to Costa Mesa, California and will be there Tuesday afternoon. We’re about halfway there now in Liberal, Kansas. Cowtown – we like to call it. It smells like cows and there are plenty of them out here. There were many different routes to choose from between Wisconsin and California – all of them involving a trip over the Rocky Mountains and various weather conditions. We opted for the southern route with the strong winds as opposed to the northern route with steeper mountains and a good chance of snow!
Here are some of the pictures we took this week…