Georgia On Our Minds

As was obvious from my last post, we flew from Dubuque to Valdosta yesterday.  Dubuque was a cool city to visit.  The downtown area where we stayed and where the theater is located is full of beautiful old architecture.  After dinner and before the show Friday night several of us rode an elevator up the side of a hill that overlooks the city.  The elevator was constructed in the late 1800's by a Dubuque businessman/politician who wanted a quicker way to get to his home on top of the hill from his office downtown.  It became a favorite for others on the hill and now continues as a local tourism stop.

Entrance to the Fenalon Place Elevator

An elevator car coming up the hill

Dubuque at night from the hill

The show in Dubuque went well, although it was kind of a strange one for a couple of reasons.  Connected to the theater building (which dates back to the 1800's, too) is a civic center which includes a hockey arena.  There was a hockey game that night so it was a little odd to be sitting backstage and hear the PA announcer ("Heeeeeeeere Theeeeey Coooooooooome!") blaring just on the other side of the stage left door while Lennie and George are trying to camp for the night amidst California night sounds on stage.  I don't think the audience could hear the game but we could.  Weird.

Dubuque Five Flags Center (you can just make out the edge of  the hockey arena to the right.)

Beautiful theater in Dubuque

The other strange thing about the show was the presence of a pretty good sized bat that was swooping around through the show.  Hardy says it actually circled his head once.  Everybody kept it together and the show progressed as normal without incident, although Sean said that if it landed on him he would scream like a girl while he was trying to swat it away.  Actually I think that would have been worth the price of admission itself but (alas?) it never happened.

Crossing the Mississippi one last time on tour

Driving through northern Illinois farmland

We got up Saturday morning and as I mentioned in my last blog entry we took the bus to Chicago where we boarded a flight to Atlanta.  We had a two-and-a-half hour layover in Atlanta before taking a short flight down to Valdosta.

Sean's char-dog lunch at O'Hare

We had wifi on the plane!

The plane ride was fine but we all think the bus is the way to go.

The Atlanta skyline reflects the setting sun.

Sunset over Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta

We had a fun little party in Valdosta Saturday night.  It was Sean's birthday so we got  him a cake and sang in the dining room (which was actually closed but the folks at the Holiday Inn were very accommodating).  And we also got to meet Robin's wife, Kelly, who had driven down from Atlanta to be able to spend some time with Robin while he was relatively close to home.

Sean, Ashley, Kelly and Robin and what's left of the cake

We have a three o'clock matinee here in Valdosta this afternoon then tomorrow we'll take the long bus ride up to Hazard, Kentucky for a couple of shows.  It's really hard to imagine that just last Monday we were in Longview, Washington and in only two weeks we'll be closing out the tour.  That clock keeps ticking....