Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, OH MY!

We've been covering these 3 states for what feels like forever...so it must have been about 2 days. After leaving Alto we performed in our 2nd of three high altitude places, Popejoy Theatre in Albuquerque. It was about a mile above sea level but felt completely different than Alto. Here's some pics of the theatre:

Popejoy was probably one of my favorite spaces because the green room was right off of the stage and our dressing rooms were right off the green room. It was just really nice to not have to run a mile underground or upstairs to get to the stage!

Next we went to the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, check it out, it was a great house:

This was a great show for a few reasons, one was that a guy in the cast has a son who goes to the USAF. His son had no idea at all that his dad was even cast in this show, so he really had no idea that his dad would show up at his school. So his dad worked with the commanding officers and his son's fiancee to surprise him at the show. It was great! For me personally my best friend since childhood, Amanda and her husband Ben came to the show, as well as my friend Josh's mom. It was so great to catch up with all of them, and to find out that its normal that I feel as winded as I did. Once again I did not have to use oxygen, but I came close. In Alto I adjusted my show considerably so I wouldn't pass out, not singing as hard, etc. But here I wanted to sing out as much as possible for my friends, marking wasn't an option! Plus I forgot that we were so high up. So it is nice to be done with the high altitude, although I would use oxygen everyday if it meant getting to see cool people!

The above is from my hotel window in Colorado Springs, finally, a nice view!

After Colorado we had just a drive day :-( which are my least favorite because you sit all day and get to a hotel at night only to be so tired you just want to fall asleep. Then you wake up the next day and do it all over again! I'd love to be able to drive through the night to get somewhere and actually have a day to do fun stuff. Here's some drive-by pics of yesterday's trip, that huge shadow is our lovely Mayo Tours Bus:

Alas, we drove through Colorado, Wyoming and part of Montana to get to Billings, which is where I am now. So I write this from my squishy bed in the Dude Rancher, a lovely lovely, very themed (and haunted!) hotel. My favorite! Here's some pictures:

I heard your ears perk at the idea that this place is haunted so let me tell you what I've heard. Apparently there's a little girl who was seen just the other night running and playing in the lobby in the picture above and on the stairs in the other picture. Also, there is a Woman in Grey who guests have seen standing above them and watching them sleep. Creepy! I don't know why I have never seen a ghost, I've experienced them at Seton Hill but I've never actually seen one. The only thing I can guess is that they don't feel the need to show themselves to me because I already believe in them!

So this morning we leave Billings, Montana to go to Spokane, Washington. Another drive day but one for which I'm considerably more excited because it means (hopefully) trees again! I mean, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana are beautiful don't get me wrong, but I'll be happy to see something more than dirt hills and cows. Actually I rather like the cows. And we did usually have the mountains in the distance on yesterdays drive.

Maybe I'll check back in tonight and put up some pictures of today's drive, we'll see how I feel! Have a great day everybody and we'll see you in Washington!

Thin Air, Warm Heart

Good evening. I write to you from the comfort of my Hotel Ruidoso bed, decidedly average, albeit a welcoming seat. I have just survived one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of my life and I must say I worried about it much more than necessary. We just performed at the Spencer Theatre in Alto, NM and it is about 7500 feet above sea level. Its a beautiful theatre, nestled in between 2 mountains and it came complete with home-cooked food and oxygen tanks backstage! That's right. There were oxygen masks for our use during the show. I'm proud to say I did not need it but I kinda wish I had tried it, just to say I did. The food was really amazing though, they made a huge crockpot of Green Chile Cheese soup, which basically tasted like queso dip. I'm all right with it though cuz it had corn in it so I felt healthy. So, BIG thank you for the hospitality of the folks at Spencer, you made us feel welcome!

Also, cool fact about this theatre, the glass artist Dale Chihuly has a couple of pieces in the lobby. Here's pics of the space and the art:

That picture of the landscape is from our drive to Alto today, it is the White Sands Missile Range area, wish we could have stopped! 

Also, about 2 hours from our destination we were pulled over by border patrol and an officer came on the bus and searched for illegal immigrants. Who knew! He asked where were from and where we were going and if there was anyone hiding in our bathroom. Add that to my list of Things that Make Me Scared Even When I'm Completely Innocent.

See you in Albuquerque tomorrow!

PS- Shout out to my parents and Karen Ralston for the great advice of lotsa water and aspirin, you kept me from needing that oxygen! XOXOXO!

California in February!

I wouldn't mind spending the rest of winter in sunny Cali! After Reno we had 2 more shows in California, in Bakersfield and Lancaster. Bakersfield was in an arena, which felt a lot like performing in a Sam's Club, but it was really cool because the trucks and buses could pull right up to the backstage area. The backstage crossover looked like an airplane hangar!

Then the next day we had the shortest drive of the whole tour, only and hour and a half away. And the Hilton we stayed at in Bakersfield the night before was so beautiful we all woke up relaxed and excited for the short trip. Here's some pictures of Lancaster:

Lancaster was a nice venue, the seats were velvet and squishy! And this was about the fifth venue at which I noticed Crystal Gale's autograph on the walls or doors. It makes me wonder if we're just following her.

The drive from Lancaster to Tuscon, AZ today was beautiful. It really is amazing to see this part of the country. The desert is fun to look at for about ten minutes but today I saw a cactus is its natural habitat for the first time! Here's some pictures from the drive to Tucson...

The hills go on forever and these pictures don't do it justice. There's all these beautiful houses on top of the hills too and we were all wondering how long it takes to get down to the bottom especially if it snows. I would hate to shovel those driveways.

So tomorrow we head to Alto, New Mexico, which should be interesting because it is about 7500 feet above sea level, our highest elevation on tour. Apparently this particular venue has oxygen backstage, so I may have to dip into that during the show! We're all a little nervous but I think we'll be better  for having done it, we'll come back down the mountain with amazing stamina!

I'll be sure to check in with pictures of Alto and more updates. Talk to you soon!

Sisters, Sisters, There Were Never Such Devoted Sisterssss

Reno was wonderful for several reasons. 1: It was a 3-day sit down and we really needed it. 2: There was an amazing grocery store across the road from the hotel. 3: JILL WAS THERE! Jill drove over from San Franny to spend the weekend, and we got a separate room. It was so nice to spend the extra time with her and as a result I also got to see more of Reno than the rest of the group. Reno is basically a city in a bowl with mountains around all sides. We went to different restaurants, gambled a bit, and went outlet shopping! The highlight of the shopping for me was finding a Charming Charlies, a sort of Claire's for grownups. Everything is arranged by color and I found a couple great pieces of jewelry as well as a new bus bag. The bag I got in the city ended up being to big for the overhead compartment so this new little guy is a better fit. Here's some pictures from Reno!

The nicest thing about having my sissy with me? Catching up and starting to talk about wedding stuffs! We chatted about dresses and themes, and we found a great wedding planner book in town. I can't wait to get started now! I especially loved getting pedicures, listening to great music, and finding  awesome local grub. Best sissy ever!

Three. Days. On. A. Bus.

The 3-day trek across the country from Arkansas to Oregon was definitely one that I'm currently trying to forget.  The first day was scheduled to be our longest drive of the 3 days, with 11.5 hours to go. Snow caught up to us in Texas, however, and the first day took 16 hours. That day we went from Alma, AR through all of Oklahoma, the top of Texas, and all of New Mexico to get to Albequerque. Here's some pictures from along the way, as I believe a picture is worth a thousand words:

That last picture is from our dinner stop in Texas, it is a place called the Big Texan and it's famous for its 72 oz steak. Sick! If you eat the whole thing its free, if not...it isn't free :-) The steak itself takes about an hour to cook and is the size of a phone book. In addition to the steak you must eat 2 sides and bread; this is a challenge you could not pay me to try. As we were ordering a guy got his steak and took the challenge, we were all very surprised to see a challenger on our 1 hour dinner break. He ended up getting through 50 ounces of meat before giving up. I actually left and ate my dinner out in the bar area because I was afraid he'd blow chunks up in those garbage cans. With about 5 or 6 more hours left to go on the bus the last thing I wanted to do was try to delete that image from my memory. But the chicken fingers were great!

The drive on the first day especially sucked because there's hardly any rest stops along the way. Either this cast has incredible self control or very little fiber because we only stopped when we could! The drive through New Mexico was so beautiful, on Day 1 that was definitely my favorite state.

Travel Day 2 took us from New Mexico to Nevada, Las Vegas to be exact! :-) We were all very excited to spend the night in a very classy hotel called Hooters. You may have heard of it. The drive was pretty damn boring, after a while there's just not much to look at in the desert! But here's a couple of my favorites from Vegas as well, it was a great stop!

My favorite part of Vegas was seeing the fountains at the Bellagio, they are so huge they probably go up like, 100 feet! They play every 15 minutes so there was always something new to see each time we walked by. And my favorite casino was the Venetian, it had a beautiful Italian decor and moving sidewalks that went up over hills, proving very difficult to ride in heels. :-)

The 3rd and final day of huge travel was mostly worth it for the scenery, we drove past Shasta Mountain! I had never seen snow capped mountains before so this drive was especially beautiful to me, although the change in air pressure was not. Lesson learned for Colorado, we've got to hydrate 2  days ahead of time! Check out the pictures of the drive from Las Vegas to Sacramento:

I've included in there a Googled picture of Donner Pass, which we were worried would be a problem with the snow and ice. Our crew bus drives through the night and they had to pull over on the side of the road and wait a couple hours. But we had no problem driving through the famous dining destination and I thought it was cool so I found a couple other pictures online about the Pass and thought I'd share:

And then we went to Oregon!

I have to say I think Oregon is my favorite state so far. One of the guys on tour said the Pacific Northwest is a great place for foodies and I absolutely agree. Some of the girls and I found a bar called Porter's that was right on the train tracks (and a train went by and everything!) They had a great little bar menu called Get Giddy for 3 Fiddy, and all the menu options were around $3.50. I had a homemade pizza tomato jam, fresh cheese and seasonings as well as homemade hummus and pita bread, delish!!

The theatre there was the Ginger Roger's Theatre, she performed there a lot and eventually the place was named after her.

My friend Darrell wants me to add that in Oregon he left his laptop but, do not worry, he got it mailed to our hotel in Reno for the low low price of $20. This is now documented. :-)

After Oregon we drove back down to Cali for a show in Turlock, which was interesting because both the mens and womens bathroom were in the ladies' dressing room. We got lots of visitors. That was a great space in Turlock, because we had no fly space so the show was very minimal. I love doing those kinds of shows because we have to work a bit harder to get the audience on board.

After Turlock we went to Reno for a 3 day sit-down! And it was even better because my sister Jill came to visit! It was so great I'll give it it's own blog entry as soon as I get back from the show tonight. :-)