Tomorrow I'm off for my volunteer gig, supporting a bike tour.
I drove the route a couple of weeks ago (HWD went along, it was a nice little getaway). I submitted detailed notes to the tour director about things on the cue sheet that were confusing, misleading, or just plain wrong. She got the updated maps and cue sheets to me last night and turns out she made some pretty significant changes to the routes. Irritating! But I have to acknowledge the new routes are better. The draft version had several instances of looping around onto the same roads that riders had already been on.
Yesterday I went to pick up supplies from the place where we store them. Three big tote boxes, a smaller one, a bunch of signs ("CAUTION BIKES AHEAD" ), metal holders for the signs, magnetic signs for the SAG vehicles, three brooms, three bike pumps, five of those big orange water dispensers, etc etc. The back of my little Subaru is full to the ceiling. Good thing I have a working backup camera. Now I just have to hope nobody's in my blind spot when I change lanes. 😬
Now I'm assembling my personal gear and not feeling motivated (thus the procrastination of posting this). I opted to use the camping service again, where they set up your tent and take it down for you in the morning after you leave. Anything that will save me five or ten minutes in the morning, plus I won't have to fit a tent into my luggage.
The only other thing of note is last week I went to see Cabaret at the Guthrie Theater with a couple of friends. Gosh, it was fantastic. The emcee was played by a very androgynous looking woman - she was great. The woman who played Sally Bowles was excellent as well, great voice and she ripped the ceiling off with "I made my mind up, back in Chelsea - when I die, I'm goin' like Elsie".
The whole production seemed very timely, with various characters reacting to the rise of Nazism by saying, "Don't worry, it'll pass". At the very end, after Sally Bowles' final song, the emcee dropped the floor length coat she was wearing and was revealed to be wearing a concentration camp uniform. Behind her on stage, the set had compartments that previously were used to show characters in their dressing rooms at the KitKat Club. Now, a line of people in silhouette marched through the cubicles. Once the compartments were full, wooden panels slammed shut on them, a train whistle was heard and there were flashing lights like a train crossing. Very chilling. My description doesn't do it justice.
Here is a little rehearsal video that the Guthrie posted online and a couple of photos. The emcee is the singer wearing bright orange.
P.S. Tour director just texted me asking if I could pick up the volunteer t-shirts tomorrow - at a shop that is in the opposite direction of where I will be going. GRRRRRR. I told her my car is full to the brim and I was hoping to get going early tomorrow since I have supplies to give to the registration team.
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Dark themes aside, it was fun to see a bunch of good looking scantily dressed actors.
Sounds like a great show.
Hope all goes smoothly with the bike tour!
Hmmmm I wouldn't exactly call it "smooth" but there were no major disasters and only one person taken to urgent care for stitches.
The bike people need to rent you a bigger vehicle if you have to transport so much equipment and shirts. Goodness knows you earned it.
Be safe and have fun!!
Hugs!!
Last year I was able to rent a Pacifica minivan and that was great . This year for some reason minivans are in short supply at the rental agencies and quotes were almost double last year Plus, our registrations are down this year so I think she’s trying to economize. 🤷â€â™€ï¸
Is it the BAM that you are helping out with? Thanks for being a volunteer. Without you these events would either not happen or not be anywhere near as good as they are. I have done a lot of bike events; mostly century road rides and gravel races 60miles plus. I have my eyes on a few multi day events (Utah and Oregon). So far I have only done single day events.
I feel a little uncomfortable being that specific but I guess anyone who really wanted to figure it out would be able to do so!
I did some multi-day tours in the past but always avoided anything where you have to camp! I figure if I’m riding my bike 60-70 miles I deserve a real bed, and AC if it’s hot.
Now that I’m just sitting in a car much of the day I’m more resigned to the camping experience.
I hope you have an enjoyable tour and i look forward to hearing about your adventures when you return.
Thanks spunky! No doubt there will be something to tell a story about.
What a fun cluster--fuck it sounds like - the bike tour I mean, not the show.
Do you think Cabaret will be coming to the Melania Trump (fka Kennedy) Center soon?
I mean, it wouldn’t have to be a clusterfuck if the tour director was more organized and everything wasn’t last minute. 🙄
It's been years. Liza and Joel were great.
Thanks for sharing that vid. 🤗
Sounds like a lovely and fun-filled adventure.
I hope good weather follows you around like a close friend. ðŸ‘
I was surprised to learn that the movie was actually somewhat different from the stage musical. I didn’t remember it well enough to pick up on what was changed. I kind of want to watch it now, though.
May the weather gods be with us! So far Thursday night is the only chance of rain.
Enjoy your volunteer time. I know you work very hard on this, so I hope it all goes well.
Thank you. No crashes this year, PLEASE.