Where to begin on an action packed few days. We have left the farce that was Pittsburgh behind and the less said about that the better (and the more chance I have of keeping my job!)
So from Pittsburgh to Nashville, a 500 odd mile jaunt South and suddenly we don't have to cover every inch of our bodies for fear of frost bite, or wear eight layers to walk 5 yards. No siree, Nashville is nestled in the +20c region and we like that. En route we felt we needed to immerse ourselves in some more American culture (and Karina was dangerously low on tat) so we followed signs to the birth place of Abraham Lincoln. Born by a sinking spring the place is a nice little piece of greenery with a huge odd temple thing, inside which dwells the ancient wooden cabin that is Abe's place. Except its not Abe's place. Its is "symbolic" birth place, so to me that makes it a hut in a temple. But its a very nice hut.
Having seen the hut that isn't Abraham Lincoln's birthplace we hot footed it the rest of the way to Nashville. Now, first things first. I love this town, the street of bars that tonight we shall frequent til we drop, the place oozes music as every tavern, bar, restaurant, hotel has a guy singing some country and western song about his girl running off with his best man or something similar. Its great. Upon arrival we went for a quick walk, as our hotel is incredibly central, and came across the famous Ryman Auditorium where legend upon legend has played. It doesn't look like much but this place IS music history
After that we had to restrain ourselves, with the prospect of a get in and show today we would leave the painting of the town red to tonight. This morning we came out of our hotel all ready to drive the van the few yards to stage door and begin loading in the set. Now when we arrived it was obvious to us all that the van would not fit in the hotel garage, so the nice hotel had reserved us a parking meter right across the street. We checked with the bell hop who confirmed we could park there, we checked with the reception who confirmed we could park there, so it came as quite a surprise when we exited the hotel today to find NO VAN!
A few frantic enquiries of the rather laid back valet staff confirmed it had been towed and we would have to pay to get it back. With a show in 4 hours we tried to press the point that it was not our fault the van had been towed and surely the hotel should retrieve it and bloody pay for the thing. In the end Cherie our booker from the theatre agreed to pay for the retrieval of the van and take it up with the hotel later. So I accompanied her to the lot and there was our little old van.
The fine paid, we sped back to the theatre, unloaded and as always the show went on. With a lot of time to spare to be honest as we had like a million crew!
So a little excitement but the van, the set, the costumes and more importantly my lip balm, were all retrieved. Now we just gotta work out where to park the thing for the rest of the week.
Tonight, however, belongs to drinking, music and more drinking
See you on the other side
Alan
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