Orange Texas

We just pulled in to Conroe Texas which is a stopover on our way to Fort Smith Arkansas. We were in Orange TX Friday and Saturday and had a show each day. The people at the theatre were so wonderful. They fed us dinner Friday and lunch today. All homemade Texan food, yummy!!!!
Last night was Matt's last show. We decided we had to watch both acts so we could see him one last time. Oom pah pah was so funny. All of the girls tried to get in a kiss with Matt! He is such a great guy and we'll miss him so much!! Today, Adam played the role of Mr Brownlow and did a great job! It amazes me how the swings can just step into a role at any minute and pull it off! He'll be performing a few more times until James is ready to take over his role.
At lunch today we all picked our Secret Santas. Most of the cast and crew decided to participate so it should be a lot of fun. I'm thrilled with the person that I am being Santa to, but I can't tell in case he/she is reading this!!
We are starting to decorate the bus for Christmas. I can't wait to see what it looks like by the time we leave for the break! Colin wants to put up lights and make them blink to the transiberian orchestra's xmas carols!
well gotta hit the hay, tomorrow's bus call is 6:30 :(
Goodnight!
Missy

Thanksgiving in Texas

Well yesterday wasn't the most traditional Thanksgiving but we ended up having a great time! Obviously, Colin and I were a little sad that we couldn't spend Thanksgiving home with our family but the day turned out to be much better than we expected thanks to our tour family :)
We started the day by going out for a wonderful Thanksgiving buffet that our tour manager, Clare, planned for the whole cast and crew. We went to a really nice restaurant in the Embassy Suites hotel in McAllen Texas. Everyone dressed nice (we all look a lot different when we're out of our bus clothes!)and enjoyed a buffet of the traditional turkey, stuffing, sweet potates, along with a yummy mahi mahi, delicious salad and fruit, carving stations with turkey and roast beef, and an unbelievable display of desserts. I have never seen Colin eat so much in one sitting as he did yesterday. He would've given his sister Morgan some competition! Ashley got up and gave a beautiful toast. She is such a sweetheart, I had tears in my eyes by the end of the toast. Before she even got to mention Spencer (Clare and Bart's baby who is touring with us) he lit up and decided to give his own toast which consisted mainly of hi ya da da da!lol) During dinner we enjoyed listening to music being played on the piano. Matt and Rhiannon decided to get up and create their own dance floor. Everyone enjoyed watching them dance and have fun. The best part was when I realized why Matt was carrying a backpack. He brought in his box of wine(Yes, BOX! Matt's my kind of guy!!!)and continued to fill up his cup during the dinner. We're going to miss Matt so much when he leaves the tour. Matt is leaving on Sunday to join another tour, The Drowsy Chaperone. He is such a sweet and happy person, he will definitely by missed by all :(
After dinner we all headed to the pool. It was 85 degrees outside, so it couldn't have been more perfect. At 5:30pm the hotel started serving complimentary drinks and that's when things really started to get crazy! We had the pool to ourselves and by the end of the night everyone was thrown in the pool at one point or another. Dan(the stage manager) obviously didn't realize that I have a rule that I never get thrown in the pool. So, before I even realized what was happening, I found myself immersed in water! I had to admit once in the pool that is was very refreshing!!! I'm sure the hotel was ready for us all to check out this morning!
Today we began a long day of travel to Orange TX. On the way we stopped at the airport in Houston to pick up James who will be taking over the part of Mr Brownlow for Matt. We all introduced ourselves to James and welcomed him to the show!

Medieval Times

Last night the Morleys invited us to join them for dinner at Medieval Times. We took them up on the offer not really knowing what to expect, but ended up having a great time! Mikey even said he liked it better than Six Flags!! John and Quentin who are big Cowboy fans, decided to take on a Cowboy game so they couldn't join us.
For those who haven't ever been to a Medieval Times it's a restaurant set in an arena. While you eat your dinner with your hands (They didn't use utensils back in the medieval times) you enjoy a jousting contest. Each group gets assigned a knight to cheer on. Ours was the black and white knight who unfortunately was the first one out of the contest. It still didn't stop us from cheering. The funniest was when the green knight killed off our knight he asked who was next. Sue yelled out "Here I come!!!!" haha! Then when the prince came back at the end she stood up and yelled, "I love you Prince!" Haha all that on one beer, lol! The kids all bought wooden swords and Mikey got a knight's vest while Maria got a princess crown.
This morning Colin had an interview with a Baton Rouge newspaper. We'll be heading there next week. (It's just too bad that Cindy and Gary moved to Tennessee or we'd be able to see them there!) After the interview, the boys had school and I packed everything up. We are so sad to leave Dallas, we had so much fun here. Not to mention the beds and pillows were amazing!! We're leaving shortly for Waco, TX. I'll keep you filled in from there.
Missy

Six Flags over Texas

We had a blast at Six Flags over Texas! We did so much walking I could barely stand this morning! The temperature was a little cool (50's) but perfect for the park. Especially because it kept some people away, so there were no lines! We got to hit every ride we wanted (for me that would be 2, lol! The teacups did me in!) Colin's favorite ride was Runaway Mountain which was 6 1/2 story rollercoaster inside of a mountain and the best park was it was pitch black. He was a little unsure at first but a few of his castmates talked him into it, and when he came out he was so excited, he absolutely loved it! They all decided that it was so much fun that they would all go ride it again! Colin's least favorite ride was the Pirate Ship! Everyone on the ride said the best part was just watching Colin's face lol!
One of the craziest rides was definitely the Batman ride. Mike went on it 2 times in a row! We went from there to dinner at Johnny Rockets where we got totally ripped off!) This is where we lost Mike for a while too! The rides caught up with him and he got a wee bit queasy! We left him in the booth with his cowboy over his eyes. He looked like a drunken cowboy! From outside the restaurant all we could see was the top of his cowboy hat in the window. Colin wanted to change his watch ahead so he would think he missed the bus, but we thought he went through enough lol! Mikey sure doesn't take after Mike-he went on every rollercoaster possible and absolutely loved it. We can't figure out how he can go on rides that go upside down with no problem, but get motion sickness in the bus, lol! Michelle joined him for about 6 rides on the Titan. The Titan is a 25 1/2 story rollercoaster that goes 85 miles per hour. I think he would have gone back for more if we didn't have to go catch the bus!
We all barely made it back to the bus. Our legs were absolutely killing us! All in all it was a great day and we all had a lot of fun :)
Missy

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Today was a very intersting day. The boys had a fieldtrip to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald was when he shot JFK. Tomorrow is the 45th anniversary of JFK's death. We took the crew's new bus to the museum and were all jealous of how awesome it was! We had to remind ourselves that the crew has to sleep on the bus some nights during the tour and doesn't have the luxury of a hotel room. However, with the flat screen tvs, refrigerator, microwave, bunks with their own tvs, and nice decor, we still wished it was our bus, lol!
The museum had so much information that it took us about 3 hours to go through it. Each of us was given a headset and player which explained all of the exhibits in the museum. We followed along from JFK's inauguration to his death and felt like we were reliving it all. It was all so interesting and after going through all of the facts and the questions that still were unanswered, we all had different feelings of what actually happened that day. There were so many different conspiracies and some really seemed plausible. The one thing we all agreed on was that it was extremely sad and senseless. I read how As the World Turns was interrupted with the first news broadcast of the shooting. I remember my mom telling me how she was 8 months pregnant with me(yes, I know you can now do the math and realize that I'm almost 45, lol!) watching her soap opera when she heard the terrible news. It seemed so strange to be in the same exact building and floor that the shooter was in. We could look out the window and see exactly where the motorcade rode along. Down on the road were two x's. The first showed the location where the first shot hit JFK and the second x showed the spot where JFK was hit with the bullet that killed him.
AFter the museum we all grabbed some lunch and then went outside to Grassy Knoll. We walked right by the spots where JFK was shot, saw the grassy knoll where many witnesses claimed that a second gunman fired at JFK. Supposedly, that was the first spot that policemen ran to to try to catch the gunman. After the investigation, it was stated that there actually wasn't a gunman there afterall. This wasn't accepted by many people. People who were at the site said that there was a puff of smoke and a sound of a gunshot coming from that area as the President's car approached.
I wish we could've gotten all of the answers, but I guess that is something that we may never learn. If you'd like to see more info on the museum you can check out the website at http://www.jfk.org/go/home.
After the fieldtrip Colin and I took a little break at the hotel and then headed to the North Park Mall. We were told that when designers were asked if they could choose one mall to display their items in the majority answered the North Park mall. We ate dinner there and did a little bit of Christmas shopping. It was a great night except for the cost of the taxi to take us there and back :(
Tomorrow we're heading to Six Flags so I better go get some sleep!
Hope all went well with our middle school's production of Annie. Colin and I wish we could've been there to see it!
Missy

The Dallas Zoo

We got into Dallas Texas yesterday after the cast did a student show in Oklahoma. We were all excited to have 4 days off in Dallas. Sue's husband and daughter flew into Dallas to spend the weekend with her and Mikey. They were sweet enough to invite us to dinner with them. We are staying in a beautiful hotel, but there aren't any restaurants within walking distance. Mike rented a van, so they could fit us and the Araujos in if needed. Today the majority of us went to the Dallas Zoo. It was a gorgeous day and perfect weather to explore the zoo. We absolutely loved walking throughout the zoo. We managed to see the majority of exhibits before we had to get back on the bus. My absolute favorite animal was a little duck of some sort. It looked like a cross between a baby duck and a baby platypus. I could have watched him for hours waddling along, he was so cute! I got Clare's approval to bring him on tour with us, but unfortunately the zoo wouldn't cooperate, lol! Colin couldn't point out his favorite animal, but said that the lemurs were one of his favorites. They were hysterical. One adult lemur came out from the building to join the rest and all of a sudden they all started "screaming". Sue said they were having a domestic dispute, haha! The baby lemurs had to even join in, they looked like little wolves howling only in a high pitch.
We had lunch and then Alaggio and Chaz joined us for the rest of the day. Colin mapped out our schedule for the remainder of our time. The first stop was the monorail (sue and I liked the idea of sitting for awhile!) The monorail took us all around the zoo. By the time we got off we had just enough time to check out the gift shop and load the bus. We got back to the hotel and rested a bit before joining the Morleys and Araujos for dinner at an italian restaurant.
We're all looking forward to joining the boys on their fieldtrip to the JFK museum where we will see where his assassination took place. We'll be there the day before the 45th anniversary of his death.
Well that's it for now. I'll write more tomorrow to tell you all about the museum.
Missy