Thank You to Matt's Family!

Here is a shout out to the Gilger/Loehrke/Andrews families for their incredible welcoming hospitality! 

We enjoyed some great food and even better company!

The best couch potato buddy ever!

Windy day above the Falls

From water parks to Niagara Falls to spending time with favorite kids and cats to 7 course dinners to staying in lovely homes to getting to know GREAT people...it's been simply amazing! THANK YOU!!!

Truck vs Creek

After driving our truck (known as Hawk's Son) across the country, I did as good TADs do and parked it for the remainder of our break. A tired MCT 59 settled down for some rest in the parking lot of my Dad's house in Stewartstown, PA. Little did he know that the babbling brook near by would swell over the banks and become a giant raging river! The following photos document parts of the most stressful day in Hawk's Son's life (and mine!). 

 When I first arrived on the scene, it looked like this. Little did I know, it would get much worse! 

For the next four hours waters continued to rise...

And rise...

And RISE!!!

Hawk's Son dug in his tires and stayed put! We couldn't believe that he wasn't swept away!

 

There was a deep trough between the front tires and the back ones that the rushing water had dug out, so there was no moving the truck on our own.

 After five hours the rain finally slowed down, it stopped storming, and the waters receded enough for us to be able to call the tow truck.

There was only a small amount of water in the cab, and some of the carpet in the back got damp, but our valuable cargo wasn't harmed or even a bit wet! 59 was towed to a nearby garage and checked over for water damage, of which he sustained none! This week we are living on a mountain, with no water in sight and Hawk's Son seems smug and happy. Truck 1, Creek 0

Catch up!

Sometimes I feel as though my life moves at such a pace that I can't even catch up with myself! I have had a wonderful summer tour in the Pacific Northwest with one of my favorite people in the world, and it flew by. During our month long break spent traveling from Missoula, MT to Troy, PA we visited family and friends in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. It was a whirlwind few weeks and I am actually excited that things may finally calm down and we are getting back to work.
Our fall tour schedule is as follows:

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 – (Probably) Washington D.C.

11/21 - Thanksgiving Week

11/28 - Menands, NY

12/5 - Sergeantsville, NJ

More soon...

Having left, there are

Things I do NOT miss about Europe:
The hairdryers
The prices
Never knowing what is being said
Not having Pandora or Hulu
The bases
The disconnect from family and friends

And more  that I DO miss:
The coffee
Driving
Never knowing what is being said
How no two ways to flush a toilet are the same
Cobblestone streets
Chocolate
Public Transit
The people
The photo ops
Candles on every table
Kebabs
How ancient everything is
The scarves
Chocolate croissants
Castles

Can't wait to go back.

In Brief...

Have spent three lovely weeks in Germany! Enjoyed the castles, the beer, driving on the autobahn, (those last two NOT at the same time...obviously...) the summery weather, and the people.  We met some really great new friends and have now been offered places to stay in Italy, Greece, three German cities, England, and South Dakota.

Today we had a SMASH HIT of a show. Honestly, performing is quite low on my list of things that I like about this job, but being on stage with this week's cast was not only an honor, it was a blast! I can't remember the last time I had so much fun.

And tomorrow, at 6:30am, we depart for Belgium! Excited for a homestay this coming week, and the chance to see some family! A favorite aunt is hopping on the train and coming from London to see me! Hurrah!!! And glad prospect of seeing many more familiar faces isn't too far away either...

Well, time to catch a few hours sleep!

Corny but True

Tonight, at rehearsal I played a game with the cast called Pass the Squeeze. Its simple really, they hold hands in a circle and pass the "squeeze" around in absolute silence as quickly as possible. We always challenge them to break the "world record"- a very fast fictional time set some other week in another town by a different cast. And of course, when things are posed as a competition, they get very, very serious.  The first time they passed the squeeze, it took 16 seconds to travel around the entire circle. We paused the game when they cut their time by half and asked for ideas why this game would help them have a better show. The first thing they said was teamwork. They also called out focus, ability to stay silent and reaction time. Smart kids. And then they got down to business and managed to pass the squeeze around the circle in just under 4 seconds flat! After the screams of joy died down (I'm not exaggerating when I say they got serious) I told them, in utter seriousness, that they could do anything in the world. This is a group of kids who have struggled to focus all week. But for a few seconds, they were still and listened. And the absolute belief on their faces gave me chills.

We have such responsibility, as adults working with children. They learn so very quickly, and believe so intensely. I am incredibly lucky that I have a job in which I can reach hundreds of children and help them believe in themselves. Every week I have the chance to impress upon them that they can do anything. Because they can!

Seeing the World from the Inside of a Fence

Okay, that title sounds a wee bit over dramatic. Gladly, I'm not some animal, or a convict, who lives inside a cage or a cell, I'm simply a traveling Tour Actor, who happens to be working on US military bases around the world.

But from where I'm sitting right now, on a park bench bordering the soccer field near our base hotel, I can see a high metal fence on two sides of me. And I know the other two sides of the fence are there, hidden behind the typical beige buildings all stamped with their four digit label, the drab living quarters, the requisite Burger King. It is great to travel the world, to get to work with children from Texas to Alaska, Germany to Puerto Rico-but it's bizarre to live in these tiny man made Americas wherever I go. Whether I'm surrounded by four feet of snow, or grassy flower-strewn fields, it still feels unnatural to know that there is a razor wire topped fence all around, and guards with strict rules and guns to enforce them.

Why do we even need to be here? Taking up space and throwing our weight around in countries not our own. I am reminded of the former President of Costa Rica (a country with no permanent standing army) - Jose Ferrer- who said that the military should be like a doctor. You don't keep a doctor around the house all the time, you call one when someone is ill. Why keep an army around all the time? Muster one when the need arises.  Costa Rica, unlike its neighbors, has not endured a civil war since 1948. The budget in Costa Rica previously dedicated to the military is now allocated to security, education, and culture. Liechtenstein abolished its army because it was deemed too expensive. Only in times of war is an army allowed, but this has never occurred. This makes so much sense to me! In my mind, the military seems outdated, like something that should only be found in black and white movies. In many ways the military seems brutish, unthinking, money wasting, life taking - ridiculous.

 Of course the military is made up of individuals, just plain American people, most of whom are pretty darn nice. We meet wonderful kids on every base we go to. And their parents seem to be equally kind, considerate, cool people. Which makes me wonder: why are they a part of something like this? Why are their children sent to the SAS programs for so many hours a day? Why do they live in a place where the only option they have to eat out with their families on their lunch break is Burger King? Why do we have this honored institution that breaks up families for months at a time, that encourages domination of others, not even through intelligent discourse or education, but through brute force? Why do we think it is okay to be trained to kill? ...Are there really answers to these questions?  

Today I discovered that if I go to the far side of the base, there is a beautiful running trail. It winds away from all the matching buildings, and if I closed my eyes and concentrated, the rush of cars on the autobahn on the far side of the fence died away and all I could hear was bird song. When I opened my eyes though, there was the fence, and I couldn't help but wonder if the wide swatch of stinging nettles growing on both sides of the tall barrier was nature's idea of irony, or a more purposeful design.

Hopefully I haven't offended you, reader. Please know that these words are not intended to be judgments passed, but rather thoughts to be pondered.