Ladysmith - definitely a 5-hour trip

You Look Like You Could Use Someone To Talk To On This 5-Hour Bus Ride

....here's a radio interview with Jimmy Kaplan to listen to if you're on a 5-hour car/truck/actor van ride.

In other news, we're officially in Ladysmith! Please note that, by 5 hours, I actually mean at least 6 once you throw in all those mandatory comfort stops and whatnot. Sigh. But the drive was wonderfully uneventful. Today Bill and Craig had the opportunity to point out to me many sites in Wisconsin that I had not yet seen. Now I'm going to have a moment that will be boring for everyone from Wisconsin, who already know all this. For instance, did you know:

-the Wisconsin Dells are the "Waterpark Capitol of the World"? Waterparks. Yes. They're really big in Wisconsin. Especially, strangely, in hotels.

-there are buffalo in Wisconsin?

-Wisconsin isn't completely flat? Actually, some of the slighty illy tree-filled areas remind me a lot of eastern PA. Then, of course, there are the cool bluffs.

According to Mill Bluff State Park's website, which we passed today, "The park's sandstone buttes were islands in Glacial Lake Wisconsin during the Ice Age, 12,000 and more years ago.
Mill Bluff State Park is one of nine units of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve."

As for the real details of what happened today, well, we arrived with no pull-over incidents, got to the high school, and began load-in. We decided to do 2 hours of it today and 2 hours tomorrow, after relaizing that some of the sound equipment we needed would not be available until tomorrow, so we were done working at 6:30 pm, just in time to have dinner with Kathi and the boys (Lee and Jimmy). We went to the only restaurant that seemed to still be open in town at 7:30 pm, El Rancho; I could tell some stories about that but it's probably better to hear about it in person. Kathi's got at least one picture...

Tomorrow I think we'll eat at McDonald's. Oh yeah, and finish load-in, do a show, and load-out. This is the theater where they originally sold tickest for January 18th by accident, so let's hope some people show up! Next up: Eagle River and Wausau.. Right now, time to go hit that hot tub!

I leave you with a random review from Vital Source Magazine: "Doug Mancheski as Marvin and Steven M. Koehler as Lloyd retain their on-stage camaraderie that feels fresh even after 500 performances... Even the lines about Vanna White and Brett Favre remain current. " (Then there's that line about Mel Gibson...!)