So after being rejected from/not hearing back from more jobs than I would like to admit, I decided that I wanted to take a break from searching Craigslist, from applications, from handing people my social security number and praying they wouldn't lose my application to some identity thief and go on a road trip. It was one of the best adventures of my summer, by far! I had a few applications out so I didn't really plan things out as much as I usually would but every went really well and I don't feel like I missed out on anything other than seeing Anna, which is super sad.
I did a lot so I am going to skim very quickly over a lot of things and hit the high points. My trip started on Thursday the 11th, and I went to Colleen Geddes's and saw her and Lauren Eastman.
Lauren and I worked on a lot of stuff for their production of Hansel and Gretel while Colleen went to Footloose. Unfortunately I was too tired to wait for her to come home and I passed out pretty early.
Friday was by far the longest day of my journey. Lauren woke me up at 8:30 and we started getting stuff ready to go while Colleen showered and ate breakfast. Then I went on to Carthage to meet up with people for rehearsal while they ran a couple errands. I was so excited because I got to see Preston Smith, Alex Campea, Nicole Werner, Derek Nelson, Becky Ryan, Skylar Reinhard, Tommy Novak, Elodie Senetra, Herschel Kruger, Lauren Hansen, and Jess Smith.
After moving some stuff into the Niemann Theatre, Derek had told me that Herschel, Tommy, and Elodie were upstairs so I went to see them and got to talk to Lauren as well. Lauren always makes me feel so calm and welcome so it was perfect for my trip's purpose of relaxation. Then I
sat through rehearsal and we ordered Toppers for lunch. Then I hung around until we got kicked out of the library at 5. Then we moved everything out behind the JAC and continued to work until we got rained out.
Preston, Lauren, Jess, and I moved everything to Preston's house to work in his garage, but when we got there we found that a gallon of paint had spilled in Lauren's trunk!
So we spent like an hour cleaning that up before Jess and I met Derek at Ron's place. I made a point of hitting up my top spots of Keno on this trip as well. When I got back to Preston's I helped Lauren paint and Andrew Spinelli came over with Colleen to help us as well. Preston's brother and a couple of his friends were home too so they kept us entertained for a while too. This was the power-through night for most everyone. I went to bed around 4:15-4:30 and woke up at 7.
Saturday was crazy and chaotic, especially since everyone was sleep deprived and cranky. The morning was taken up with last minute building, painting, and costume fittings and fixes. Derek, Nicole, and I went to Soup Depot for lunch and got stuck there for a bit because of the monsoon and hail that came in but, thankfully, left rather quickly. Slim also showed up to the show, so that was an added bonus. Here are a few pics from their performance that actually came out ok (I didn't get many).
After H&G I met up with Tommy and Megan Sterzinger and we went down to see Hannah Binish, Dan Ermel, and Annie Jo Fisher in Footloose. I love how many people I saw on this trip!
Sunday Tommy and I went to the Ren Faire and saw Duck at work, we saw a bunch of shows, and I got Henna.
Monday is where my road trip really took off. Backstory: I've always wanted to go on a roadtrip where you just get in a car and start driving, follow the car in front of you for 2 turns, switch cars, repeat, and just see where you end up. Or drive down the expressway and actually stop at one of the places on the billboards. So that's exactly what happened. Tommy and I were driving up I-90 and we knew based on when we left that we wouldn't make it to MN until after Simon had gone to work so we were taking our time. That's when I saw the billboard...
Me: You want to go to Circus World Museum?
Tommy: What exit is it?
Me: 106, I don't know where that is but I'm moving into the right lane. It's this one, make a decision.
Tommy: Sure!
BEST. Decision. EVER! It ended up being like 10 miles off the expressway and there was a ton of people there. I described it as the place you would go as a child on a family vacation that you have a ton of pictures of but you don't really remember. It's just a plethora of pictures of you and siblings in front of things with drained looks on your faces. However, going of your own accord at ages 21 and 22 with one of your close friends is a completely different experience. Everything was so interesting. This place has the largest collection of circus wagons, they do restorations and recreations, and the movie Water For Elephants rented a lot of stuff from them! Even more exciting than that is that I got to ride an Elephant! Her name was Tiny and we became fast friends. The woman who owned her was kind of weird, but it was fine. Then at the end of my ride, Tiny and I high-trunked! (like high fived, but she used her trunk, get it? Get it!? I still get really giddy when I think about it.) It was probably the best part of my entire road trip (sorry to everyone I saw, you were all cool too).
There was also this like 25' python by the elephant and it was just sitting on this box. It was in a "cage" but by cage I mean those like barrier gates that don't really offer any protection. I even asked the woman with the elephant "What's preventing that snake from just doing what it wants and coming over here?" She shook her head and said nothing. Fun fact: I'm terrified of snakes.
Then we drove the rest of the way up to Simon Skluzacek and saw him at work (there was also the best road sign at his exit that made me feel like I was home! Shown below).
Then we dropped our stuff off at his house and went to the bar. There were a couple guys in there who had Twins shirts on and it was the night the Tigers had lost to the Twins and they kept playing replays while we were there. I have my Detroit pride and I held strong, my cousin Jennifer would be proud.
Tuesday we took a tour of Lakeville, MN where Simon lives and got to see all the places from his childhood. Then we decided to go to the Mall of America. Anyone who knows me knows I hate malls, but the MOA is so far from being in a mall it didn't even matter. We did walk around a lot, but it wasn't so much like shopping so much as site seeing. We played mini-golf, ate sushi, Simon left for work, met up with Courtney Matula and Eric Sipe, and went to SeaLife. What's SeaLife? Oh, just the aquarium that is the entire basement of the mall! Like I said, this wasn't a mall, this was like an adventure building. We didn't ride anything but there is also a few roller coasters inside and other rides. It's like a mini Universal Studios because it was all Nickelodeon themed.
After we left the mall we went up to St. Paul and saw Stephen Schreiber and his girlfriendJoann. It was so good to see Stephen and catch up with him. We talked a lot about Carthage and theatre and being in the real world. Best of luck to you with your job search, Stephen.Wednesday Simon made us breakfast, we watched How To Train Your Dragon, and Tommy and I started our trek home. To go along with our theme of spontaneity, it started with Tommy saying "Have you ever ridden a duck?" and ended with a detour to the WI Dells. I had no idea what a duck was, but it was really fun. To others who do not know, they are these vehicles that were used during WWII that are driven on land and through water. We also realized when we were driving around the Dells looking for a place to eat that Baraboo, WI where the Circus World Museum is was just around the corner. That explains why there was so many people there.
Thursday was my final day of driving. I stopped in Geneva, IL and had lunch with Peter Haroldson which was exciting since I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to see him.
Overall, the trip was more than I could ever had planned. As a girl who likes details and to know where I am going to go and be at every moment on trip, it was so nice to let loose and not worry. To just know that whatever happened would be in the moment. It is also crazy to look at how the beginning of my trip was than the end of my trip. I would love to take another trip like this someday. Maybe I will actually get to do the two-turn follow the leader next time.
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