After leaving Lowell, we headed to Springfield MA. Once in Springfield we had the evening off and decided to Colin was really excited about the show that night. He let his understudy, Jenn, have a chance to perform as Dodger. Colin hasn't missed a show yet and thought it was the least he could do seeing as Jenn had to learn his part in case he got sick. He figured with 104 shows, it wouldn't kill him to miss one. Plus, he was really excited to actually watch the show! We found our seats and got ready for the show to start. Colin was so excited when the music started. His head was nodding along with the music and the beat of the orphans walking on stage. After that he had a huge grin the whole time while watching the show. He was so excited when it was time for Jenn to enter as Dodger. We both really enjoyed watching her do her version of Dodger. She was absolutely fantastic! We were both so proud of her. It was so wonderful to see her smile onstage. It was obvious that she was having the time of her life! I was so proud of Colin for giving Jenn this chance. During intermission Colin ran down to the dressing room to give Jenn a big hug and congratulate her. He also told his other castmates how great they were. After Mikey even gave Colin a hug (Mikey's not too fond of Colin's hugs, lol!) we headed back to our seats and enjoyed watching the rest of the show.
The next day we headed to Salisbury MD. We arrived just in time to cleanup and change and head right to the theatre. Actually it was another arena. Luckily this arena was much better soundwise than the others. After watching the show the night before, Colin was ready to hop back in to his role. There's not much more to report from Salisbury because we weren't even there a full day! The next morning we got back on the bus and started the long trip to Merrillville, IN. We stopped in Ohio the first night and continued on to Indiana this morning. Tonight we had a nice dinner at Olive Garden with Sue, Mikey, John, and Quentin. After a chilly walk back to the hotel, we got our bathing suits on and enjoyed a relaxing time in the pool and hot tub. It's been a while since we had a pool to hang out by and to actually have enough time to relax! It really felt good and the boys had a lot of fun together. I think we're all realizing that our time together is getting short. As much as we want to get home to our families and real life, we all realize how much we're going to miss the great friendships we have made on tour. It's just so unbelievable that in a little over a week this will all be over. Hopefully we will all be able to stay in touch and remain friends once we get back to our homes.
Tomorrow we have a golden day and are planning to walk over to the mall. We'll do a little shopping, get much needed haircuts, and have dinner. The next show is on Sunday.