Day 42 -Wesley Chapel to West Palm Beach, Florida (241 Miles, 8161 Total)

This tour just gets more bizarre as it goes on. Day 42 brought a get in, 2 shows within 30 minutes of each other (reduced to 15 minutes when the first show went up late) and then a 4 hour drive to West Palm Beach- nice. So before we'd even started this day was set to be tough. This was before we'd even set foot in one of the most bizarre venues so far. Part school, part theatre the place was run by a man who seemed unwilling to let us talk directly to the technical crew without him being involved. It was a theatre he called state of the art despite the fact it lacked showers (apart from one in the set workshop that was filled with wood!)

Anyway we dance when asked to and the first show ambled by uneventful. A quick change followed and straight back on for the next show. This show was strange from the outset as the man who ran the theatre gave a speech before the show instructing the children not to talk, move, even breathe during the show. Of course this meant the show was a hoot with not so much as a murmur from terrified school children. The day just went from bizarre to ridiculous at the end of the show. We'd just got to the last few minutes when suddenly a siren went off followed by the words "Attention! An emergency situation has been detected. Please leave the building immediately". At that time we continued, as the usual procedure in these situations is to keep going until a stage manager informs you otherwise. I looked to the wing and the in house technician informed me to keep going and they would sort the alarm. So we attempted to keep going only to be foiled by the ever present manager of the theatre who had got hold of a microphone and was now proclaiming that everyone remain calm and in their seats. So faced with battling against an alarm, a mad theatre manager and an exodus for the doors we left the stage and awaited instruction. "Its Ok" proclaimed the manager to the audience "You only missed the end bit and the curtain call". And that was that, Gruffalo show 43 never officially finished, we packed up our kit and got out of Wesley Chapel as quick as we could.

So here we are now in West Palm Beach, the sun is shining, the hotel is nice and we have a day off. So I'm off to enjoy that whilst I can. Ot transpired afterward that a rogue child had pulled the emergency alarm, maybe the Gruffalo was just too much for them.

Hope everyone is well

Alan

State lines crossed 0 (32 Total)
Time Zones crossed 0 (3 Total)
Oil Changes 0 (2 Total)