A Man, A Jeep, No Real Plan

Amazing Stories and Adventures

Road life

Kansas, more adventures than expected.

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My travels have brought me to Kansas friends. Kansas is not a state that you expect much excitement from, but then again the journey is always interesting if I’m on it.

Salina was our first stop. I won’t lie, I did not do much outside of work, but work did keep me on my toes. Between the Holiday and the blizzard the local was unable to fill our call. What that means is that we had 8 less local hands than what we requested. My crew handled it with all the grace and professionalism that I could hope for. There was the initial “well f#%k” but they quickly adapted and started sharing. Riggers jumped in to help props, Carpenters jumped in to help electricians and we managed to load the show in in 6.5 hours. I know they think I am just saying it because I have to, but I am genuinely proud of this team.

The other different thing I did in this city is that I chose to separate my office from the rest of the road staff in this city. I did it for a lot of reasons. I wanted to be close to the stage because of the labor issue, but honestly I did it for some space as well. I love working with the rest of the staff, but I needed some me time to crank the tunes, knock things off my list without distractions, and to just be me for a few days.

Our next stop was Wichita. We arrived in the wee hours of Thursday morning and checked into the hotel. I was lazy most of the day, but Thursday night I decided to live a little. My partners in crime (the bus drivers) and I found this kick ass bar called Barleycorn’s and had a few beverages and then headed to the main event for the evening.

We went to a Lindsey Stirling concert. None of us realized it was her holiday tour. We all thought she was still touring with Everessence. That being said we were not disappointed. Lindsey is a showman and she knows exactly how to engage an audience. It was an hour and a half long geek out that I will not soon forget. I mean honestly I can remember when she was still doing the comic-con circuit. I have not had the opportunity to see her perform live since the days when she dressed up like a video game character and played the tunes of my beloved video games live.

After the concert I parted ways with the bus drivers and headed back to Barleycorn’s. I was not fully prepared for the adventure that ensued. I ended up meeting a social worker and a property manager who decided that I needed to see all the bars that Wichita had to offer. I can not tell you the names of any of the establishments I visited, but there were more than a few. The conversations included stories from the road, a critique of EDM, and one weird tangent on beanie babies.

Friday I awoke feeling every last ounce of alcohol I had consumed the night before. I spent the daylight hours struggling to be an adult and answering work emails.

So of course I went back to Barleycorn’s that evening. It was Salsa Night and no I didn’t dance, but the energy in the room was palpable. A good time was definitely had by all.

Saturday morning I contemplated quitting drinking for good. I am not a college kid anymore and drinking double digits two nights in a row is not something I should even consider these days… Thank god for V8 juice and aspirin.

After surviving my two day long recovery period we moved to Tulsa, OK. We had a bit of a rough start during load in, the stage was in the wrong location… but we were able to fix it and the rest of the load in went smoothly… That being said I definitely spent the rest of the day watching everything like a hawk.

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Musings from the weight bridge.

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I love when a Broadway style show comes through my home road house. Yes, it makes me nostalgic for road life, but when road people cross paths, it’s a social highlight. I spent the beginning of load in stranded 80 feet above the road crew and I barely spoke to any of them before I headed up. Actually, walking into the day I didn’t think I knew any of them personally on this one, but I always have mutual friends with just about every single roadie.

You see, when roadies cross paths I like to compare it to when fur traders used to cross paths in the wilderness. We share information, we compare notes on who is currently working with who. Who is having a good run of luck and who isn’t. Unfortunately there is almost always a death in the road family that someone hasn’t heard about yet as well. Thankfully there were none of those this time around.

On coffee break during load in I chatted with a carpenter by the name of Zach. He and I were talking about what tours I’ve done, places I’ve worked, hadn’t even started mentioning friends yet, and he looks at me and goes, “You’re Tyler DeLong, aren’t you?”. I’m guilty as charged, so I just look at him and ask, “what stories have you heard?” Apparently he’s really good friends with someone I worked with in Santa Fe a few summers ago. I don’t know which stories he’s heard, but I do know that I plan on finding out.

I was downstairs after lunch, but when I left the bridge we had put a serious dent in the supply of weights…

First thing after lunch I saw Dani. I have not seen her in years. She and I toured Mamma Mia together back in the day. At any rate, I saw her walking across the stage after lunch and I immediately threw my hat at her, ran up, hugged/picked her up and immediately decreed that we were going to have drinks post show.

I’ve tried to explain it before, and I’ll do it again here. Your crew on tour is your family. You spend months working, sleeping, and playing with these people never being more than a few feet away. They know all your secrets, you know all of theirs. You know who is single, you know who isn’t, you know who is cheating on their girl back home, and you know exactly how long it’s been since each person on that bus last got laid. The bonds that are formed through your shared adventures are tested and true. Seeing Dani after all these years… and immediately picking right up like it had only been a few days. That is the kind of friend you make on a tour buss or in a foxhole… Honestly I think Dani and I probably have been done both. Haha

A good portion of the rest of my day was spent catching up with Dani and plotting taking the majority of her company out to the bars post show.

Post show is a bit fuzzy. I caught up with Dani, I put some faces to names I’ve heard over the years, and I had more than a few people look at me and go, “Wait, you’re Tyler DeLong? I know so and so and they told me about the time you <insert story that I will never confirm or deny>!” haha! I also spent a good portion of the evening playing pool with the head electrician… she talked a big game, but after I won 4 games straight… I’m not buying it.

The next morning was not pleasant. I didn’t make it to bed until a quarter to five. My alarm went off a little before 9 and I was still at the climbing gym by 10. Rock climbing while hung over is not pleasant. My muscles were cramping, my fingers weren’t working, and according to the staff I was sweating pure jack n coke.

Post that I dropped some doughnuts off for the road crew on my way to work at Theatre department. After working at the theatre I had a show call at the Auditorium, and now I am right back where I was when I started writing this yesterday. On the weight bridge tossing weights.

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Pittsburgh!

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Pittsburgh has been an adventure!

We arrived on Monday and immediately went out to Primanti Bros. for what I have been told is a tradition in Pittsburgh. All of their sandwiches come with fries and coleslaw on the sandwich. It is weird, weirdly good to be honest. I don’t think I will be attempting it on my own anytime soon, but I will definitely do it again next time I’m in Pittsburgh.

Tuesday a group of us headed down to the Andy Warhol museum. It’s amazing! Here are some photos from it:

Thursday evening I got the beautiful and gracious Heather Olcott to take me on a late night tour of Pittsburgh. I managed to stage some decent photos.

Friday morning the entire company got together to do a secret Santa reveal. This is one of the things I love about touring. We took over the hotel lobby and laid out all of the final gifts. There were tears as people discovered who has been their secret santa. You see secret santa is kinda a sacred thing for touring people. We all are away from our families and getting little gifts randomly throughout the weeks leading up to Christmas is just a great way to feel the love of our adopted family.

Another way we feel the love is a closing night party… it was a blast to get together with everyone last night and have a few drinks. Our tab was a bit impressive.

Today is our final show. There are going to be lots of tears as we run it one last time. There will be tears as we say goodbye to our cast post show (they all have flights home this evening so they can do Christmas with their families tomorrow). There will be tears as we close the trucks and say goodbye to this show. I fully expect my evening to be full saying goodbye to my crew at the hotel. Saying goodbye to a road crew is a bit traumatic. This group of individuals will never again all be in one place. We splinter off and all go our own directions. About half of the crew already knows where they are going next. The other half is going to just go home and be unemployed until they find something. The only thing that is sure is that we will never again all be united at the same time. We’ll all keep in touch, there will be the random reviving of group texts, and Facebook bickering over who actually was responsible for the high heel incidents. But at the end of the day, this tribe, this family that has formed will be gone for good. It’s going to be a rough day.

The land of bourbon!

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Hello all,

Well we succeeded in moving the show from Madison, WI to Louisville, KY.

The move was a bit rough….

To be fair the load out in Madison was great, our locals did exactly as we needed, there was space to demolish Whoville offstage while other things happened onstage, and we shaved an hour off our load out time.

Then we got on a sleeper bus. That’s right, instead of doing the normal, hour nap, bus to airport, sleep an hour on the plan, arrive in next city and go straight to work thing…. we got on a sleeper bus and not everyone took advantage, but I slept a solid 9 hours. Ok, so I brought a my bottle of jack into my bunk and watched Star Wars while drinking…. but I was horizontal for 9 hours.

We arrived in Louisville around noon on Monday and had the best surprise ever. Our hotel rooms were ready. That’s right, we not only were able to check into our hotel rooms, but have enough time to shower, take a nap, and find food before our call time.

Atleast that’s what we thought. I took a shower, watched some TV, and headed out with some of the crew for a late lunch before our 3pm load in. At 2:15 we received word that the load in started at 2pm and we were late. By 2:25 I was in the venue and discovered that somehow the advance had been messed up and the locals did not have our lineset schedule (that’s the document that literally dictates where everything goes). So I got them the correct documents and we made things happen.

We knocked off around 11 and that’s when the land of bourbon began to call. Our local department heads invited us to their “private bar” for shots of single barrel Evan Williams. I ended up doing a quick dinner in the hotel bar and then discovering a dueling piano bar where the only thing more out of tune than the pianos were the “singers” operating said pianos. However a lot can be overlooked when the drinks are cheap and the pours are long. I retired to my hotel around 2, like a good little boy. Some of my compatriots however… well let’s just say that I strongly suspect they found an after hours club when the bars closed down around 4am…

Load in day two began at 8am on Tuesday. There were a few people a little worse for wear, but we had a clean opening night here in Louisville and post opening I chose to stumble into the land of bourbon.

I did not have to return to work until 6pm the following day and I began my journey at about 9:30pm. The night is a bit fuzzy, but from what I remember (and what I was reminded of after the fact) I went on a bender that would have made Hunter S Thompson take pause. There were atleast 4 establishments visited, 22 verifiable drinks consumed, one very broken hot mess of a blonde (who even black out me knew to flee from) and the stated goal of drinking all the bourbon in Louisville… I would like to take this moment to thank my dear coworkers for chaperoning and documenting my valiant attempt to drink all the bourbon.

Upon awaking on Wednesday I felt every last drink from the depths of my soul. It took me 6 hours, 3 liters of water, 2 cans of V8, multivitamins, and the best damn chicken noodle soup I’ve ever had, but I recovered from my failed attempt and was perfectly functional by work… another smooth show!

I have not had a drop since and I am unsure if I will be able to venture back into the land of bourbon on this visit. That being said, since my last journey was so epic… I think I am ok for a hot second. 😉

Doughnuts

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In the touring world doughnuts fulfill a special niche. Yes they are contractually required for technicians during load ins, but they also are a form of doing penance.

Every tour has different rules, but generally speaking:

If you blow a cue, you owe doughnuts.

If you’re late to work, you owe doughnuts.

If you break something from another department, you owe doughnuts.

If you do something exceedingly stupid, you owe doughnuts.

If you get laid, you owe doughnuts.

Granted the last one is more of a bragging thing, but in a puritanical based society, you could call it penance. Well ladies and gentlemen, I’m not going to out anyone on here, but the above doughnuts were all required by the last of the doughnut rules. Looks like more than one person has had a little bit too much free time. 😉

That being said, while some were partaking in extracurricular activities, the rest of us have been resting up, it’s going to be a long weekend. We have 3 shows today, 2 tomorrow, followed by a load out and long bus ride to Louisville, KY. Upon arriving in Louisville we will immediately begin the 2 day load in of the show.

On that note, I just heard the 10 minutes call, so It’s time to start this marathon!